Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay - The Troubled ‘Children of Blood and Bone’ Adaptation, and Usher’s Rejection

Episode Date: July 31, 2026

Van and Rachel discuss tragedy and personas in rap, and updates in the Nolan Wells case before diving into President Trump’s attempts at voter suppression. Then Jonathan Majors speaks, the author of ’Children of Blood and Bone’ distances herself from the film, and Usher’s interaction with a fan sparks debate. (0:00) Intro (7:46) The Madden curse (27:48) Gun violence and 21 Savage (40:37) Update on the Nolan Wells case (54:07) Mail-in voting restrictions (1:07:21) The punishing of Jonathan Majors (1:20:46) The ‘Children of Blood and Bone’ controversy (1:39:01) Usher kicks fan off stage Hosts: Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay Producers: Donnie Beacham Jr. and Jade Whaley Social Producer: Bernard Moore Video Supervision: Jacob Cornett Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yo, yo, yo, thought warriors. What is up? I running is on. Is Ivan Lacey Jr.? And it is me, Rachel and Lindsay. So the Hall of Fame class has been announced. Donnie? Right.

The NFL 2026 Hall of Fame class was announced a little while ago, I think, actually. But the game is coming up soon. So there's some talk about the class. And that class includes Drew Brees, Larry Fitzgerald, Roger Craig, Luke Kikley, and kicker Adam Venetary. Okay, so, Donnie, it might have been announced a little while ago. but it seems as if, you know, I just saw the thing with Sean Payton

and Drew Brees this morning. So, you know, once again, guys, just support. I just want to have a quick conversation about support. Like, just making sure we're factually accurate. I know, but like I said something, and then you right away, you came in and you kick my left nut. And you said, you said, van, it was a while ago.

You fat idiot is how I heard that. That's how I took that, Donnie. Okay. And I'm losing weight. so I don't I'm not I'm not fat no good so you can't say that to me I appreciate you but no Luke Kinkley made it he's 30 he's 35 he's 35 years old um you know what I remember him from what let me tell you something first of all shout to Breeze changed New Orleans then said some things that you know yeah I didn't fuck with hey whatever well how do you feel

about Sean Payton Peyton giving him the award I don't care okay I mean he's controversial too It's controversial, but this is the thing, because of the fucking bounty gain shit? Bounty gain, and there have been some allegations against him. Hey, here's a deal. I said allegations. So this is what I'll say. This is what I'll say. The NFL's a MAGA league.

Your favorite NFL players is MAGA. That's it. They're MAGA. They're MAGA. You rooting for it, MAGA. MAGA, MAGA, MAGA. NFL, it should be NML, National MAGA League. It's MAGA League.

Okay, that's it. If you want to root for a league, that's not MAGA, go watch the delays in the WMPA they are not MAGA at all and they fucking hooping and they fuck it Oh we gotta have Jordan on the podcast by the way She wrote she was in our comment section Talking about if y'all really want to get into

You don't understand the lore of the cheating scandal It goes a lot deeper And there's no better experts to talk about it than Jordan We gotta bring her on Next time we should have had her on from the beginning Love Jordan Liggins Amazing person So talented

Super talented So successful Left tier Just fucking Just above it beyond. Shut up to Jordan. Jordan used to be here. Jordan just.

Yeah. Okay, so we'll have Jordan on. So Luke. Keithly, yes. Luke is amongst the most effective Madden players, players on Madden in the history of the game. I swear to God. So not real life, just Madden.

That is real life. Tell me more. Madden is a real game that you play. Okay. Okay, it's a real game. Okay. He was as far, because we always talk about like Vic, right, with Madden. If you're talking about like the most effective players on Madden, you got Vic, okay, you got, oh.

Still. Well, Vic is not. I'm talking about in all, of all time. Okay. So Vic is one back in the day, LT was crazy, you know, throughout, when I say LT, I mean with Daniel Thomas and not like LT, the other LT. Morris. Morris Taylor. But like there have been just like a lot of players in Madden that were like

OP, like super powerful, like crazy. Vic actually was bullshit. Oh. It was bullshit. Michael Vic was, I think I've told him this before. Michael Vic was bullshit. It was a quarterback at that time with a 94 speed. Niggas had never seen nothing like it before.

Like you send four verse drop back. Either Vic would throw it deep or you have Cronpler league on the cross or Vic would take off of 50 yards after a while. They had to change the game. Okay. It was like it was, that was actually, it was annoying. The Vic thing was annoying. Michael Vic, I love you, but it was annoying.

But Luke, though, on defense, 99, okay, sideline to sideline, you could lock up the whole middle of the field with him because he could also cover. He could cover. You could take him, put him on a tight end. If you was getting crazy and somebody was coming across the middle, you could use him to shadow like a slot receiver. You could also rush him. He, if you had him in the middle of that field on the Madden game, you was locking shit up.

Erlacker was like that too in the game. You could do that same thing with Erlacher. But when he retired, I was thinking to myself, because I would always do a season and then trade for him. You have to trade a lot. When he retired, I was thinking to myself, you know, I can't fuck with the Panthers no more. Because now my entire defensive scheme when I'm using the Panthers is crazy. So I look at these players, Breeze as well. Bree's dot and shit

all over the field Bing, ping, ping, zip zap, zip zap, zip zap, zip zap. If you guys can't tell them on mushrooms, zip zap, zip zap, zip zap. So, like, I look at these guys as what they did on the game and for the game of Madden, and I appreciate them. I appreciate what they did, I appreciate how they showed up in Madden.

And so shout out to all of them, congratulations to them. They'll probably vote for President Trump at some point. Okay, we don't need to put all that on. But I've interviewed Luke Keekely and Adam Venetary, both really nice, humble guys. I remember when Luke announced his retirement, it was so young. He's like 28. And it just felt like it came out of nowhere.

Like, I know he had concussions, but still, he just seemed to still be, have so much more life, football life to play. But, you know, he stepped out. Now he's, I mean, out of the league. And now he's. Does advocacy on CTE? Yeah. So I think he made the.

did what a lot of players have done. Well, not a lot of players, but some. No, a lot. It's, I think it's a hard decision for players to be able to do, especially when you still feel like you can play, to make the decision of thinking about life after football rather than when you're in it. Because you've dedicated majority of your life to the sport,

to this game, to this profession, and to make that decision before your time is technically up. That's commendable. You don't see that often. So he played seven years. And if you guys aren't into sports, that's fine. He played seven years, right?

2012 to 2019. That's good. Defensive player of the year, rookie the year, five-time first-team all-pro. Second-team, all-pro twice. Basically on the all-pro team,

basically every year. Seven-time Pro Bowl, that doesn't really matter that much. Like, three-time Buckets Award winner just filled up the in the whole fucking legacy panel, which is what I call this on Wikipedia, filled up the whole legacy panel,

then got out, 35 years old, about to go to the Hall of Fame. The only thing he's missing is that Super Bowl ring. And it didn't seem to be that important to him being that, you know, he was able to still make the Hall of Fame first team. It's a first, first ballot. Luke, good for him. One of the most OPEC.

I'm going to do a list of the most O.P. Madden characters because I'm trying to think of it off the top of my head. If you're talking about Tecmo Bowl, obviously people are going to talk about Bo Jackson. It's a joke. It's a joke. Were any of these guys on the cover? Any of the guys that you talk about who were top-notch, were they ever on the cover, ever on the cover of Madden since there's a curse? Vic was.

Yeah, Vic was. I have thoughts about the Madden curse. You don't believe it exists. Well, it does, but I think a lot of these curses don't exist for the reasons that people think they exist. So the Madden curse normally comes at the apex of your professional career. NFL professional careers are short. and are plagued by circumstances that take you out of the league suddenly. When you think a lot of these guys, right, they're out of the least,

and the falloffs a lot of times in the NFL happen right away. The Madden curse is actually not a curse related to being on the cover of Madden. The Madden curse is actually us peeking into the fragility of an NFL career because most of the guys don't have these long, long careers like you think they do. they have three great seasons of double-digit sacks and then all of a sudden it's like what happened to that guy right that happens all the time the Madden curse only sort of illuminates that

so you see guys that get on the cover of Madden and they don't go on to play like seven or eight more years or they get injured more than yeah I'm looking at this list like they continue to play but they get injured or they're never like at the production goes out but that happens so often in the NFL and we don't pay attention to it

until we have the lens of the the Madden curse to look at it through. True, true, sure, sure. You ever play Madden? I'm not, I can't get into games like that. Like, I'm a very simple gamer. I'm talking Mario Carts. Okay, it's very special.

You know, back in the day, Donkey Kong. Oh. My dad used to love to do the WC... Don't Kong Crunchy? No, I don't think it was that. Maybe it was. I don't remember. It was not in 64. This is how way back I go.

My dad used to love playing like 007 and WCW. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He used to make me... He used to make me invite my guy friends over to play the game. game with them. Yeah, but I loved these kind of games. Stop. He used to do what?

I didn't like bring my, like my guy friends would come over and play the game with him. Man, I tell you what, man. Because we weren't playing. That judge is my guy. You know what? Like, ask the judge. Like, let me tell you something. Ask the judge right now, because I don't want to ask him

because I'm scared of him. So like, well, like, ask the judge, like, ask the judge right now if, Like, we're going to do, because I'm not, you know, my dad's gone, but I still have male father figure, mentor types that I keep in my life to keep me honest. My uncle Craig, a lot of people in my life. But the judge has to be more involved in my life. Okay. What do you want me to call him and ask him?

Well, call him and ask him, say, hey, Van just wants every now and again for you to text him and go, hey, Van, you're doing a great job. I mean, or that never goes on vacation. Man, you need to do better or something like that. Just get me a line. I'm going to tell you exactly what he's going to bring up. What? No, no, no, don't call him right now. It's too late.

I'm scared. Oh, no. Great. Hi, Daddy. You're on the podcast. Daddy? You can't put me on the podcast without morning. This is okay.

It's nothing like that. Van said that he would like for you, you know, to reach out to him every now and then and just check on him and see if he's okay. Well, that's fine. You know, last time I reached out the van, he never responded. I told you he was going to bring it up. I told you he was going to bring it up. No, but I would be glad to do that. Yes, he.

I told him you would. Okay, I would really appreciate that, Mr. Lindsay. I think you're a man to be reckoned with and a good role model. Well, thank you. Thank you. That's real kind of you. I don't know. I would really be happy to do that. I was just teasing you about that first comment.

That's okay. That's okay. But that's another reason why I need to be kept in line. I don't want to, in my life now, not have any authority or somebody to, like, keep me on the straight and narrow. Oh, he'd be happy to. No, that's true. That's true. Rachel knows I tease these people sometimes. I won't say sarcastic, but don't.

Yeah, yeah, you are. Yeah, you can be. You can be. All right, well, that's all we wanted. Okay, sounds good. I'll talk to you all later. Have a good vacation, sir. Bye.

All right. All right. They're Martha's Vineyard. First time. Oh, shit. And see, they got money, too. I was supposed to go there. So, but no, it's funny, what I like about him is, it's funny that he was able to, under the guise of playing video games,

bring these young men over to intimidate them. They weren't anybody I was dating. But can I just say, despite as tough as my dad was, I was never afraid to bring guys home. I actually loved it because I took joy in making my parents uncomfortable. I loved being, like doing what I was supposed to, but then not doing what I was supposed to. And then I could be like, well, I mean, I got straight A's.

I mean, you know, I went to law school. So it's like, what are you going to say? What are you going to do? I love pushing the boundaries with that. But my dad, that's part of the reason he's still on the bench, is because it's not, he's not a Clyburn. Okay, it's not that. Judge is different though.

It's different. He's not an elected official, but also he's always like, I'm the only now black, for a long time the only black judge in that district, but now black male judge. And he's like, who's going to bring these interns, these legal interns that are diverse of color, black, all of that. Like, who's going to bring them in, mentor them in that way?

And so my dad feels such a responsibility, I think, to continue to mentor. He does it in, I met a girl the other day who actually told me, she was like, oh my gosh, your dad is a part of J.L. Turner, which is like black lawyers. It's named after a prominent black lawyer who's passed away, but in the Dallas area, but it's full of black lawyers. And it's an organization that's been around for, I don't even know how long I was in it when I practiced law in Dallas, too. And she was like, yeah, your dad still lets us use his courtroom to come do stuff. Your dad always comes and speaks to us. Like, he's very involved in the community and mentorship in that way.

So that's why I'm like, oh, he will love that. Yeah, this is going to be, this is very important. It's very, like, it's very important that, because even my dad, when he was still around, he would say that. He'll be like, you know, don't ever, he's like, even if it's not me, you need somebody you can call. You need to be outside of yourself. He used to look at me. He used to say, you know what the problem is with you, boy? I'd be like, what?

He'd be like, your hero is Darth Vader. I mean, like, what are you talking about? Is it? My dad used to say stuff like that. He'd be like, you know, son, you know, Superman not going to talk back to you. And I'd be like, shut up, dad. Like, you know, there's lots of lessons in the comic book. He was like, no, what you need to do is you always,

like I'm not going to know how to, there's a lot of stuff you're going to ask me. And I'm not going to really know how to deal with it. But you always need people that you can talk to that can give you wisdom. Not advice. My advice is like advice is somebody. else's opinion is what my father would say. He's like, wisdom is somebody else's experience.

And so he was like, you always going to need wisdom. You'd be like, nobody is wise as your daddy. But you need to go out and find it somewhere else. So I always try to draw wisdom from people. Speaking of that, you know what I was thinking about with dad is, you know, my dad wasn't the most evolved guy in the world. But Ebony's friends in high school were these amazing people. Why didn't we're gay?

Okay. This is why I think that a lot of the hangups that a lot of brothers have, I don't really have them. Because my sister had this amazing group of friends. I'm telling you like one of these guys, I get emotionally even think about him. He was like legitimately like the best guy. Right. And my father never really, you would think that a guy as conservative as of what he was and Ebny talked about how the fact that she didn't always feel accepted. You'd think that he would get out of here with that. Never.

You never would really like that. Because your dad sees the humanity in people. And just as you say, you get emotional talking about this person, he could see how good of a person this is. He was an awesome, awesome guy. We lost him not too long ago. I don't want to trigger Ebony to, so by bringing up his name. But he was an amazing, amazing guy.

But she had all kinds of friends. And they also used to put me on such different stuff that other people didn't know about. Yeah. And so, I don't know. It's like my sister's group of friends at that time were very meaningful to me. They were worldly and had experiences. I don't hear that.

I really want to meet Ebony, by the way. I don't give her compliments. Yes, that's why I'm like, this is really sweet. She doesn't, that's not what it's about. Okay. I'm the younger brother. Can you explain what your shirt is? Oh, so this is magic wheelchair.

Okay, so there's this organization that I saw at Comic Con. Okay. So I'm walking by, I'm walking by the booth at Comic Con, and I see Battlecat. And that is. Battlecat is the tiger. the talking mythical beast it's not a tiger

green tiger cringer and battle cat so battle cat is the cat that he man rides on he's a cat but he's got a I've seen this cat then right yes

and he's got a red saddle a red armor on he man rides on him in the the show he's cringer and then he man hits him with the power sword and he becomes the battle cat

in the movie he's kind of cringer and battle cat same time kind of whatever Okay. To inside baseball. And I saw Battlecat like as a thing that you could ride on.

And it turned out it wasn't Battle Cat. It was Battle Cat, but it was Battle Cat as a powered wheelchair. Oh. And this company for disabled kids and disabled people, but mostly kids, for them to ride around the floor in Comic Con, they take, they like have like Professor Xavier's wheelchair or Battle Cat or,

or something else, they make it into something that's awesome so these kids can experience Comic-Con and ride around Comic-Con as one of their favorite characters. And I was so moved by it that I talked to the guy, a big fat donation. I'm donating now. And then they gave me a shirt and I wanted to advocate for them because I think that's awesome. The floor at Comic-Con can be a very chaotic place. everybody's normally well-tempered. I mean, sometimes if sometimes they're not,

but like that's an awesome thing to do and let the kids continue to live in their imaginations at a place that I think has the most imagination of any place in the world. That's beautiful. Shout to magic wheelchair.org, you guys. Check it out. Yeah.

It's really cool. It's amazing. Okay. Look, it's time to get into the show. Donnie, before we get into the show, do you have anything that you just want to say at all? No. Okay. I wanted to know overall.

I appreciate you taking the time to think about it, though, but for two seconds. No. Jade is back. Jade is back. And that's a very important for the yard. Jane, how was your time off? It was great. Had a great time.

Good. Can't complain. But she's giving us no details. Nothing. I went to Dallas. I went to Dallas. No detail. When they just, when they just don't talk about where they went, it makes me think that they're selling dope.

I can't see Jay would have jumped. Okay. I can't. You're so dope. Ever? Not even a little bit. You ever dated a D-Boy? Like who?

You ever dated a D-Boy? You have. I saw something online that said, I said someone online that said, has every millennial, now you're not a millennial, but has every millennial woman dated a D-Boy? And I was like, yeah.

Can I say something about that real quick before we get into the show? There's a difference between dating somebody. I want us to do something that we haven't been able to do. I want this for a lot of the brothers out there too. There's a difference between, a dope dealer and somebody who sold drugs.

It's a lot of brothers out there that was like, man, I was in the game and shit like that. Sure, sure. When really what you was doing was selling a little something after school for somebody else who had you out there taking some chances. Guys that are actual drug dealers and actual, now these are guys that like pull up in something new and you're like, God damn, they got enough money to go buy a car.

I mean, you could be a like a cornerboard, whatever. I was on a nine-year stint came out. Nine years. That nigga was in it. And then something happened and went back again for some more. Right. And by the way. I was in law school, of all things.

You one of those. It was in Milwaukee when I lived in Milwaukee. You like that shit. Well, I mean, it's Milwaukee. What's the allure of a D-boy to tell me? Why? The money? The money?

There was money. So it wasn't. And I was very, I won't say naive. Like I knew he had come out, but I was like, oh, you know, he's turned his life around. And then very quickly, I was like, maybe not. But I asked questions. I was ignorant. But be honest, though.

There's, and something like an aphrodisiac when, because I give you two scenarios, you tell me what, and Jay, you do this as well. I give you two scenarios. You tell me which one was more attractive to the young you. you call a guy and he says man I can't talk tonight you know I'm studying for hard for the L-sat and blah blah blah blah blah call you back tomorrow you call you call you back tomorrow you call the guy he goes you I can't talk right now I'm moving a pack across town with my dogs I got something in the trunk I don't know what's happening like they wouldn't say that like they wouldn't say

they wouldn't say anything like that they would just be like I'm busy to I got something to do And you would know they're not going to give you all the details. When I did get, I was put in some stuff, I was like, it might be time. It might be time. I want to be ignorant. I want to let you guys know something. I'm from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I've known dozens of drug dealers.

I don't know if they talk to you different. Yeah, they talk to us different. But I'm like, I'm not going to name this person. I could name them. But I'm not going to name this person. Have I ever told you about the ill-fated trip to New Orleans? Have I told you about this? I feel like you did.

I might be thinking of somebody else's story. The trip to New Orleans where somebody asked me, hey, bro, you want to go to New Orleans? I'm like, nah, I ain't got no money to go to New Orleans. He's like, blah, blah, blah. He said, don't worry, I got it. I was like, hey, man, I'm not trying to owe you no bread. He's like, no, no, no, no. I'm not trying to go down there by myself.

I come get you, whatever we go to New Orleans. Come peat me up, go to New Orleans. And then forget this. It's like before we go, we got to make a stop. We make the stop. goes into the glove compartment. Crack. No.

Crack cocaine is in the glove compartment. Now, this person knows me so well. They know that I was paralyzed with fear. Okay. Crack cocaine is in the glove compartment. When I say crack, I mean, you could grab the crack like this and bring it out of the glove compartment. You know who you are.

I bet you laughing right now, you idiot. Then goes into the house, hands off the crack cocaine inside of the home, then comes back out laughing. I'm sitting in there. Just walked with it, just like in their hands? Put it in the bag, whatever. Like I'm looking around.

I'm like, yo man, what the fuck is going on? As you should. It gets back in, I'm like, take me home. I feel like a girl that's been violated on a date. I'm like, take me home. take me home. And then he basically acted like I was a girl that had been violated other day.

He goes, take you home. You know he ain't trying to go home. I'm like, I would like to go home right now. What you did was so fucked up. It's like, so you ain't trying to go to New Orleans? Look, look what I got. That's what I, you wanted to go to New Orleans. I'm going to take you to New Orleans.

You ain't tried to go to New Orleans. I'm like, I guess we can go. But don't do that again. I didn't consent to that, okay? Don't do that again. It's like, yeah, man, you say, how about this? A little something for you right there.

That's good, look good. You're going to spend that. Look at you. Look at you. Man, these holes ain't going to know where hit them. Man, let's go down here and have something from, bro. I'm like, there's nothing else in this car, is it? That was the right question I asked.

Yeah. Because, you know? No, that I'd never experienced anything like that. Anything like that at all. I was kept in. And so when you ask what was attractive, obviously, I was like a law student. I didn't know any, I didn't really know anybody in Milwaukee when I moved out there. And so I liked that I could be taken care of.

I like in an odd way, despite it being dangerous, I felt protected. I think that's a lot. I think I've heard a lot of ladies say that. I felt very protected in a city I didn't know where there's a lot going on in Milwaukee and I was clearly didn't know a lot about it. I felt protected by knowing I was with somebody. in the city like that. Do you know what was,

do you know what the funny thing about that is? This is why feelings matter. You felt protected because a lot of times it was to be honest with you. Like, when I hear, I talked about this on Vic Minster's podcast, when I hear like the beginning of the 50 cent record, like the one that get rich or die trying

stays out with like, they say I walk around like I got an S on my chest. No, that says, send me auto and the vest on my chest. Like, you feel like he's being threatened. in that situation, but when I hear that with my older ears, what I hear is someone like talking about safety. Like, I'm so big and bad that I'm safe. And the way to project safety is to protect not feeling safe or comfortability, but it's to protect danger.

Being dangerous, like you would say, hey, man, stay safe. And they'd be like, nah, stay dangerous. Because staying dangerous makes you safe, right? So I hear that when I hear those records now. And when you're around those people, because they are dangerous. sometimes you feel safe because you know nobody's going to fuck with them because of consequence

the interesting thing about it is is you are almost never in more danger I know. That's what I said. Then you are with them danger from the police, danger from niggins that money, danger from just getting robbed. Like it is inherently dangerous but it doesn't matter because it feels safer.

Yeah, it felt safe. Imagine I would get dropped off in law school. And boy, he would be on the phone like hey like they'd be like hey man there is where you at shit nigga I just dropped my shit off at Marquette bro she in law school dog that's kind of like you ain't even know but her father a judge nigga like I actually don't think he ever knew that nigga I get knocked I'm right out dog he like you know what I never knew that bro like I'm her daddy I never said that and you know what you don't know is that the fact that you

are I've been in these rooms the fact that you were a pretty lawyer with a he used to be like when he was sitting around talking to the rest of his niggas, be like, yo, man, where you're a girl? Where your girl work at? Oh, okay, cool. She cool. Yeah, mine in law school.

That's how I'm rolling, nigga. 720 else at school. You don't know nothing about that. That's on rolling, nigga. Oh, your girl, what's your girl? She danced over at strawberries? Yeah, mine would never. It didn't last long.

It did. You still think about them. No, I don't. No, I don't. You do. No, I don't. All right, reset real quick because we got some serious topics on the other side of this. It gave you a little bit more pleasure just than normal.

All right, Donnie. All right, yeah. 21 Savage is mourning the loss of his 14-year-old nephew, Seven Shirley, who died after a tragic incident at the family's home in Stockbridge, Georgia. According to the family seven accidentally shot his 12-year-old sister Lyric in the neck before taking his own life. Lyric survives and has undergone multiple surgeries and remains hospitalized. This is very sad news. Very sad news. Also, it should be said that in this, 21 Savage has, I guess the family has come out and talked about the scourge of gun violence in Georgia, in society and all of that.

This is an insanely, insanely sad story. The question is, and I'll just be completely forthright with the audience, is how do you discuss this story and also discuss the debilitating and almost grotesque irony of 21 Savage's persona? Is that fair? So we talked about remember when I can't remember something happened and 21 Savage came out and was like we have to do better, we have to put the guns down and people were pushing back and they were kind of like

well your own you have violent lyrics that have to do with gun violence and then he came out and he was like a song is for entertainment it's not an instruction manual on how to live life And he said, stop trying to make me one dimensional. And then he argued that his music reflects what he's lived through and witnessed. It's not an endorsement.

And he says, I've never promoted violence. So, like, that was his response to people being critical. I think it was after King Vaughn. Okay. I'm pretty sure that that's what we were talking about. And I think, don't hold me to that. And we even discussed it a little bit of, like, well, you know, you're saying this, but you do have these lyrics.

Well, his response was, you have to separate the two. I don't promote violence. I just talk about what I saw. How do you take that? Like, how do you reconcile him saying that? Is that fair enough? Is that fair? Can kids separate it?

And I think that's the question. Can kids separate it? Now, I will say in this particular incident, it's devastating because obviously we know gun violence, like him having access to gun violence. That's like the most consistent document. a predictor of adolescent suicide by firearm is like firearm access, not necessarily legal, but just like the fact that they have the access to it. But in this situation in particular,

it's so devastating because his nephew had seen a close friend die to gun violence. Then his cousin died to gun violence. Then it was reported that he was scared and got access to a gun. He purchased for $200. Scared got access. And then in someone, accidentally shot his sister and what the fear the overwhelming I guess like what would happen of the of his sister what would happen to her of what would happen to him he felt he had no way out but to turn the gun on himself and use it and it just it's devastating for the how many people lost their lives how he felt he had no way out how he was almost desensitized to some of just like gun violence there's just so much here so I know we

have to talk about, because I think it's worth the conversation of 21 Savage and what his persona is and what he represents, but also just the devastating circumstances that surround this particular tragedy. And I think that is like where we're landing. This particular

tragedy is a tragedy and should be discussed as such. It is a young 14 year old. Didn't even get a chance to really start living. Like snuffed out by a very familiar scourge

an American society the cause of death for kids the leading cause of death for kids is gun violence right we try to have conversations about that you know try to put that in context make sure that people are aware of that is that you know it's not any of the other things that you would think that they

that kids are fighting gun violence is number one cause of death for kids for kids and young adults okay so that and what you're you describe different situation. The call for an end to gun violence by 21 Savage, you also have to discuss. And I'll tell you why.

Like, there's a cost. The only thing that somebody like myself could do, someone who just hates in any way in his body being judgmental, just hate being judgmental. Love 21 Savage's music. Can't help myself but love it, right? talked about some of the other really violent and problematic songs that I hate and also sometimes come on this podcast and evangelize. So I'm not out of this.

But we must deal with the fact we're being honest that there's a cost. There is. There's a cost. There are people out there that try to remind us sometimes when we don't want to hear it that there's a cost. D1 is always trying to remind people, always trying to say that there's a cost that what we're, talking about ingesting and really a lot of times, like I say, evangelizing, there's a cost of that. And the cost of that is mainstreaming and normalizing aspects of death culture.

Guns or death machines. They can be machines that protect you, right? But even in protecting you, they're deadly weapons. They're death machines. And kind of normalizing those death machines in a way. that even glorifies them, there's cost. Yeah. It's going to make the barrier to having a gun and using a gun.

It's going to lower that barrier. At least it's going to lower it from a mental and spiritual place. And because of that, you're going to see stuff that happens. That doesn't mean that anybody's art should be censored. It doesn't mean that anybody's expression should be curtailed. but it does mean that when we're having this conversation that we remind ourselves that for your good time, for your music,

for your riches, for your art, that somebody is going to pay for it, that there is a cost. That's with everything. Like when you go out and you eat all the food that you love, you overindulged, there's a cost.

That's what being an adult is. Having an adult conversation is saying, yeah, your freedom is important, your expression is important, all of that stuff is important, but that doesn't mean that there's not a bill to be paid. Yeah.

What happened in this situation and what happens with gun violence across America is not the fault of 21 Savage. No. It's not the fault of anybody making any rap records. There are deep, deep, deep systemic dysfunctions that lead to these outcomes. The music is a result of those dysfunction. That is a fact. However, there is a point that we get to where, particularly when you're successful and you've made a lot of money and you are rich and you've told all your stories, you didn't have to ask

yourself, how much more do you need? How much more that type of talk is worth it? I'm not going ever like point my, like wag my finger. No, you can't. Yeah. You can't. But it is so like 21 Savage, I guess after, you know, people had pushed back on, you know, him making the statement and then bringing up his lyrics, he went on club Shay-Shay, and he talked more about it, but it was more of like, he said that I don't think that the killing will ever stop. People have been killing forever. So like a little bit of like, I guess like a kind of like a darker take. And I guess I would say to that is it speaks to everything that you're saying. And it speaks to the tragedy of this that one, like he knew where to get a gun. He could access a gun at 14 years old. Like all of that just like being able to get a gun so quickly in such in an illegal way knowing how to do it.

It just speaks to, okay, this isn't a blaming 21 Savage by any means, but it's okay, when things strike closer to home, that's usually when you see people act. And 21 Savage is very involved in the community and he has like a back to school drive that helps out so many different families. And so maybe the time is, okay, in addition to that, we need to talk about an anti-gun violence program. We need to talk about not just, okay, nobody's telling you to change your art. Nobody's saying that, but children, similar to the conversation we had with NDRI and the song of the summer. We can process things in our 40s differently than children can. You hear things over and over again. You become desensitized to it.

It doesn't hit you in the same way. You may not realize the seriousness or the weight of the subject matter or the consequences of it. So maybe the anti-gun violence, maybe that's something that he could start in the community where it is not just bringing awareness, but talking about access to guns, talking about separating the lyrics from the reality of the situation. Maybe this is like a call to action. and it comes from the worst, from the worst possible circumstances, but usually when it's something that hits home is when you see people.

So the push pull here, and we'll move on from this, the push pull here is this. Once again, there is no rap records, no rappers, no acting right, that's going to stop these issues that are systemic

and symptoms of white supremacy and capital. from plaguing these neighborhoods. This is by design, right? It's by design that these type of outcomes happen. It's by design that there's violence, drug abuse, addiction, all of this stuff in these communities. That's how it's supposed to go, right? It's not the fish, it's the lake. I get that. However, there is a part of this to where I would just like for there to be situation where we understand the weight and the impact of what we choose to do for fun and money. That is not to me an unrealistic goal to have.

It's not up to any of these people making any music to change things or change systems in their community in their art. It is up to all of us to understand consciously to me that these citizens, systems do exist and they've been socio-engineered in a way that leads us to bad outcomes. It's incumbent upon us to understand the ins and outs of the system. I'm not saying necessarily that your music has to be something that's always uplifting and always whatever I'm not saying that. But I am saying guns are bad.

drug dealing is bad some of the language in the music that we love and all of that stuff it's bad there's no argument that it's good and there's no argument that it is positive in any way and we just have to live with the fact that we like some of it and if we wanted to change

we would have to do a little bit more and go a little bit further to realistically wrestle with what it is that we're putting in our brains and how much of it we're putting in there. And that's the responsibility of the artists, of the listener. You're certainly not going to get it from the corporations who make a ton of money, not just off this music, but off the deaths of these rappers.

You're not going to get it from them. But I'm too old right now to look at this and say, even with all of the sort of historical and cultural context I can put it in, that there's no responsibility on our part for what we're performing and what we're listening to. Yeah. That's just not true. Yeah. No, I agree. I agree. All right. Another sad story.

New police records revealed that the search for 18-year-old Nolan Wells began early on July 5th, after his parents and football coach joined authorities looking for him when he failed to return home from a 4th of July trip to Mississippi's Horn Island. That same report also highlights conflicting accounts of Wales's final hours. Friends told investigators he stayed behind on the island with a young woman after drinking, while his parents dispute that version of events, saying it was out of character for him to separate from his group or leave without his phone.

There was also a 911 audio released from the night that he disappeared, which raises more questions about the timeline and the initial response as investigators continue working to piece together his final moments. The Nolan Wells case is becoming increasingly obvious that there's some there there. nothing seems to be adding up we're back in the shit again here's the thing about what's going on

and I know people do this and I know we live in this day and age but the goal at this point because we can't get his life back is to get answers for the family and I just feel like I am seeing too much of people rush to their platforms to report things that haven't been flushed out that are jumping on evidence that or alleged evidence that hasn't been flushed out.

And I just think we're losing the goal, which is to get answers. And also to respect the families, feelings, emotions, everything they're going through in the process. And too much is being litigated. And the more you look into it, you realize, to your point, we really don't know much of anything. And what you do know is that he was on this island and there were so many people around. Yet nobody, like we're not getting anything that is just concrete. That doesn't make any sense. You're on a crowded island of people and nobody can really tell you anything. And I just think,

I'm not, I want his name to not get lost in the media frenzy of things. But what I do want is people to respect the fact that there is a family with who lost someone and that is real. And I think people are talking about it and some people are talking about it in such an insensitive way that we're, that they're more so trying to rush to report or rush to have new information than they are to consider everything else. And I just feel like it's getting muddy. You know, I don't care that this guy is whatever, one of these friends is suing or whatever he's doing. Like I could care less about him saying he's being falsely accused. The issue is Nolan Wells and finding what little bit of justice that you can for him. And I just, you know, I know the mom is now, the mom

has filed subpoenas for his phone records, the apps, some of the apps, the social media apps, like that's real reporting, hope that they comply and she's able to get some information to find out to get the answers that are needed. But I get more frustrated. It's turning into, like the more it's talked about in this way, it almost doesn't feel real. Because it's becoming desensitized. I feel like we're talking about this person as if they weren't a person. We're talking about it as if a family still isn't subjected to all this coverage on social media and within traditional media. We're forgetting that a person lost their life.

It feels like that. The more this talking about it and it just is becoming a story. And I only really wanted to talk about it just to. highlight that. It's not just a story. It's more than that. Insangely well said. Do you feel like we do a disservice, when I say we, I mean us, the black concerned community at large, do we do a disservice to families in cases like Nolan Wells and Carmelo Anthony when we use them as sort of cultural and political wrestling matches rather than the criminal cases that they are.

Like, if I'm listening to you and I'm trying to, like, extract the lesson, the lesson would be investigate this, like, where it sits, how it stands, and maybe pull your own feelings out of it so that you can get to answers. Yeah, I think you have to do it responsibly, like people who are reporting the information because I've seen people be a little irresponsible with you. talk about Carmelo Anthony, obviously there are race is an issue in certain ways in how his case was handled and not having maybe a specific attorney in the way that they chose the attorney now that they have a whole new team that's uncovering things that were problematic that were done

in the original trial and the handling of the case. Like that's a thing. But I, I don't necessarily know. I mean, obviously this is a black, Nolan Wells being a black boy with white. friends is a thing. It's I'm not I'm not acting like it's not I'm not saying you can't talk about that. You can't obviously you talk about the history of when it's a just a black person involved with all white people. You talk about the history of these cases dealing with police, black men and police departments in Mississippi. You talk about murders with black men in Mississippi. You talk about the distrust that's there. You talk about the history that's there. Those are real. things. I don't think that that's a problem to talk about. It's why the family has decided to do

their own separate investigation. That's important. It's why Ben Crump is involved with it because of the historical nature of dealing with the police in Mississippi, of Mississippi in itself, with black people, and just the fact that he was a black boy and there are a lot of all white people at this point from what we can tell involved. That's important. But just focusing on that maybe isn't the thing into getting answers. But it's a point to discuss if that makes sense. I guess, yeah, it does make sense. So it's almost impossible for us to divorce ourselves from just the knee jerk that we feel

in looking at cases like this and Carmelo, Anthony. Yeah. I guess what I'm saying is that like is a part of us coping with these deep tragedies that definitely have some racial implications. I've ever told you a story about like, I never forget this. A friend of mine was up in North Baton Rouge and he was murdered.

And like they found him on Aliqua Street, shot through his back, the car was still running, right? So apparently he was trying to get away. And I remember when I was, it was late, late, late at night when they found him. and I was telling somebody about this. I remember his response was, yeah, man, damn.

What was he doing out there, though? That always stuck with me. It stuck with me because, you know, when something terrible happens, we search for a reason that it happened. Of course. Like, when you hear somebody that passed away, the guys that got blown up in the submarine

a couple of years ago, it was like, well, they were thrill seekers doing some shit they had no business doing. They died in this horrific way. But look at the stupid chance that they took, right? That sometimes even subconsciously helps us like sort of weave our way through something that's tragic. And I wonder, I mean, I'm not saying that that's happening in the case of Nolan Wells or in Carmelo Anthony because I do think that there are racial implications in both cases. Of course. Where does our care around that kind of stop and our need to have a villain in it or have

something that we can blame in it begin? How do you even, how you check that or deal with that or understand when you're doing too much? Well, I think when it happened, that is what we talked about. This is one black boy with all the pictures show. He was the only black. person, all the videos show so far, he's the only black person with these white people. Immediately you have one of the parents who's a judge giving a statement. It just felt like,

wait, we need to do our due diligence and do our own investigation, which is why I'm happy Ben Crump and his team are there. That is being taken care of. They're doing their own investigation outside of it, which is necessary whenever you have this type of scenario because of the racial implications, because of the historical names. of being black in the South and dealing with police departments. Like that is necessary. I just, I guess what I'm just saying is, and it's why I've been hesitant to talk about it.

And the only reason I want to talk about too, this, for this reason, but people are like, are y'all not going to talk about Nolan Wells? Well, there's not as much to talk about because not, the sad thing is, it feels murkier and murkier, the more information that comes out. It feels like something is being covered up. It doesn't make sense why so many people were around. but yet we're not getting any answers. There does seem to be conflicting information with audio versus video and the timing of it all.

And even the autopsy report isn't conclusive, but it does raise some questions. You know, there were things, like there were parts of his neck that were missing. Like, these are the questions that we have, but I just think rushing and constantly talking about it is being insensitive to the family who is involved. and I do think that it allows people to get carried away with it and talk about it as if it is not the reality. That's my fear. I don't want to talk about him like he's just another story. I'll say more.

I'll say more. I had nearly 10 years of using some of the worst moments of people's lives for strictly content purposes. Right? Sometimes journalistic purposes, but strictly content purposes, right? I'm not interested in that. Like when this is a profound tragedy

and this entire thing, if there is a way for our podcast or anything that I'm involved with to look at this and point out greater, grander, more direct lessons about the inefficiency of investigative tactics when a young black man is involved,

a young black person is involved. or sort of age-old mistrusts that we have. Like when we talked about the Nolan Well situation, we tried to have a conversation about whether or not you would let your kid. Like if there's any way to extract something from this that is broader, then I'm all for that. But to use this death as a content piece, I don't want to do that. Exactly.

And I don't want to just talk about it if there's not a well- for us to look at this and expose something that's meaningful and long-lasting to the audience. That does not mean that we're ignoring the story. It just means that he's dead. And there's a lot of people that is a new story. There's a lot of people that is going to be Nolan Wells, Nolan Wells, Nolan Wells, Nolan Wells, Nolan Wells, Nolan Wells, Nolan Wells, and keep you updated in the know and all of that stuff. and I would say support those people and don't give them a side eye at all.

But with this particular deal, while I look at this and I think there's almost no possible way with the racial dynamics at play, with some of the incompetence at play that can sometimes exist in these smaller jurisdictions in terms of what their police forces can do,

think that you could probably extract lessons about policing, period here. When we talk about how much policing there is and whether or not they're effective and what it is that they're doing. We're going to have to get further down in the road and get to some type of answers before we can have those conversations

in a much more effective way. But just being on the Nolan Wells beat when like the tragedy is so profound, it feels very cynical to me. That's not me in any way saying that other people shouldn't be doing that because I know that it's a story that people want up-to-the-minute stuff on it.

But here we don't even have the investigative arm and the bandwidth to be able to give you those things because we're not on it every day like that. So when we talk about Nolan Wells, it's going to have to be something that we can expose and give you guys a larger conversation on.

Other than that, we're essentially using this death for content. Agreed. And I'm sorry. I'm not interested in that at all. Same. Yeah. The Trump administration has asked the U.S. Supreme Court

to allow enforcement of a controversial executive order that would impose new federal restrictions on mail-in voting ahead of the 26th election, mid-term elections. The order would require federal agencies to verify voter eligibility, create a federal list of eligible voters, and limit the delivery of certain mail ballots. The administration says the measures are designed to strengthen election integrity. Now, California and more than 20 Democratic-led states sued to block the order, arguing the Constitution gives states and Congress not the president primary authority over how elections are run.

So we're just waiting on the Supreme Court to give their judgment on this. I mean, they are trying every single way, right? Congress won't pass the SAVE Act. His executive order is being challenged. He's trying any kind of way or he did an executive order thinking he could, you know, have control over election laws, which the Constitution completely prohibits, doesn't give him the power to do it, has to go through Congress. He can't find it either one of those ways.

California's suing him. So he goes to the Supreme Court who usually decides to vote in his favor. The reason I think that this is worth noting is because, one, this is going to be on their shadow docket, which, you know, we always pay attention to the summer cases that pop off. It's these are the cases that are more like the emergency motions that kind of happen in the dark. They make the decisions very quickly. And most people don't even really hear about them. The thing that's scary about this is even though I just said, and we know, he doesn't

have the power to do the things that he wants to do in his executive order. What's scary is the argument that his attorneys are making to the Supreme Court is, well, this, a ruling would be premature because we haven't implemented the policies yet. You don't, you can't say that this would cause harm when actually nobody has been injured by these policies because we haven't been able to execute them yet. You've got to put, we've got to put these policies out there and maybe we don't do everything the executive order lays out. Maybe we do. But until somebody is actually harmed, then there's nothing for you to make a decision on. And the reason, and that's not a bad argument. That's a plausible argument. And the scary thing is, is if the Supreme Court says you're right,

well, then what happens? We're in July. So now they will execute these things with the list and then possibly punishing a list of eligible voters, which they already admit would be an incomplete list. And then there's a threat to punish elected officials within this executive order. And then there's also mail-in voting. They want to change. Obviously, we know they want to get rid of it. But that's within there too. I don't have it in front of me.

So I don't have each of the sections of the executive order. But the thing is, because it hasn't been implemented, there's actually a real argument for that. So point is, it's July. Midterms coming up. If the court says you're right, we got to see if someone's injured and how they're injured, and then you have to bring the case in front of us,

what if that happens after the midterms? The point is that they might be able to, if the court does decide in Trump's favor, they might be able to then implement it and it might be too late until afterwards for the Supreme Court to make a decision. That's the point. What happens in that?

What happens in that case? In what case? So if they, when you, if it happens after the midterms, what was that me? Well, then Trump would get what he wants. Because what, let me. It happens after the midterms, but the midterms would already be decided, right? I think I'm lost. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, the point is that they're trying to, all of this we know is a tactic because they feel like they're going to lose in the midterms. Right. So they're trying to have the power that they can, which is why he has the executive order, which is why he's trying to pass the Save Act, in order to manipulate the system. in their favor. So with mail-in voting, they know, you know, Democrats majority do the mail-in voting. So you're trying to take, get rid of that. With the list that they're trying to do where they're trying to have the federal government monitor, which we know the power is in the states, which they're trying to have

the federal government have this list of eligible voters. One of the reasons, so this, you know, obviously went to the court, the judge knocked it down. This is why, in the district level, this is why it's going up to the Supreme Court. She wrote in her opinion that one major reason why the federal government cannot compile an accurate list of eligible voters, which is what they want DHS to do, is because the federal government's records do not necessarily track name changes. So they would have an incomplete list. So let's just say that someone is married, they change their name, and it's reported that women are more likely to vote for Democrats than men.

So women are going to be more affected by this. and then women are the ones who are either like not getting a melon ballot or women are the ones who aren't on this list and then they can't vote. Do you see what I'm saying? Of course. An incomplete list. So if they're able to do that, that would affect the midterms and it would more so affect Democrats. Mellon voting. Name changes for women.

They already are admitting it would be an incomplete list. They're not going to have a full list of complete eligible voters. so if an official can be prosecuted for allowing a voter to vote who's not on the list. Like, it's just so complicated in it. So if the Supreme Court says, okay, you're right, we don't know anybody who's been harmed yet. We're not going to do it. And then they don't decide it to after the midterms. This is more in Republicans' favor than it is in Democrats.

And this is another tactic for them to manipulate voting in their favor. And it's an argument that could possibly win. I think I understood up to 13% of that. I probably did a bad job of explaining it. I don't think I think you did a great job. I think there are smart people that are listening that really got it. I think for me, I'm at an all-time high of understanding potentially, potentially 14.7% of what she just said. But you know what I do understand?

I understand how someone fights when the fight is existential. I'm going to keep going back to this. This fight for Trump is the existence of MAGA. He's fighting for his political viability and his legacy. And he is pulling out all the stops. The fight that I see the center of the Democratic Party having against the left of the Democratic Party and the DSA, I see the energy. I could feel it. They mad.

They hate it. They pulling out all the stops. They got. they fucking bots working. They got their emissaries working. They got their surrogates working. They have sharpened knives, a quiverful of arrows, like all types of shit.

They go into the mattresses. Yeah. I'm letting people know I see proof of concept of how you fight when you feel like this fight is about your existence. Mm-hmm. And it seems different than fights of the, I've seen in the past. Yeah.

Seems like those fights in the past have been very polite, very passive, very, you know, I guess, I don't know, very toothless. But when I look at them, they are going to the if, to the if, to the if degree to get what they feel like is an extension on their lease on America. Yeah. And they are not fucking playing. And I just want, in case there is a power switch this fall, for people to know that we've seen it. Not only from MAGA and Trump and all the different legalese and the way, what can we use, what can we do, what's not codified in the Constitution, what's murky, what questions are unanswered, how can we ask new ones, all of that stuff.

I've seen it. They don't give a fuck if it's affecting the mid-level swing voter in Southern. Idaho, if it's going to turn off the goddamn suburban Virginia they don't care about none of that. No. Not at all. So, in turn, when there are issues

and things that are existential to us, I really hope that people are watching and then they will pick up the same type of playbook and acting that same way. Yeah, I mean, like it's, to me it's very simple. You should be

asking yourself why. You should be asking yourself, why are they fighting so hard? Like, voting should be a right. You should be able to vote. If you're a citizen, that surely should be it. Like, it's been come out time and time again. There is not this mass voter fraud that allegedly exist.

You're going to have fraud in any kind of institution. Like, you're not going to be 100%. Like, it's not a zero-proof thing. Why glasses alone just texting me, like telling me that I'm stupid for thinking that that was a 70-year-old man? Glass is said you know damn well that wasn't no goddamn. I thought we've now determined he's 70 something.

No. I thought, Bernard, I thought y'all said he's 73. He was 42. It's 42. I know, we said that then, but I thought when I came in today, y'all said he really is 70-something, no? Okay, okay. No, he lied.

Okay. Well, Glasses is right. Glasses, thank you for always, you know. Holding you accountable. Holding me accountable. I guess I wanted to believe. Okay. I wanted to believe that when I'm 75,

I can still be out there doing the, uh, uh, you know what I'm saying, the whole thing. But once again, the internet is a lie. I've been tricked. And I now think that, you know,

handsome Malcolm is going crazy and I'm happy for him. I'm happy for anyone that finds success. I want handsome Malcolm to know something right now. There's a lot of people that believed in you. A lot of people, I was legitimately, you know what happened? I looked at that,

then I went and read that blue zone shit again. Like, you know what the blue zones are where people live to like 100? Yes, yes, yes, there's one in California There's one, Loma Linda is a blue zone Because it's a seven-day of Venice community And they eat vegetarian

You go to Loma Linda You can't even like buy meat In some of the supermarkets Because the seven-day of Venice community And you're going there I'm thinking, you know, maybe this guy is like a Maybe he's from Loma Linda I don't know what's going on

He's like I wanted to believe I wanted to believe in that Because now where I'm at my life I see older guys doing stuff I see like a 51 year old guy on Instagram going, I'm on my fifth mile. Age is nothing. I watch that shit because I'm almost there.

So I want to ask Malcolm to know that the grift, there was a cost. Believed in you. Believed in your gray-bearded dance moves. It just doesn't hit the same. I know. I get it now that I know. Is his hair really gray?

Does he go on and, is it gray? Is he painting it for social media? I think everything could be a lot. I want them on the podcast. No, I don't. Because I also saw him hooping. I'm sorry. This nigga look crazy.

Like, hey, put this. Hey, I also saw him hooping. When I saw the him hooping video, when I saw the him hooping video, I felt like my heart had been ripped out. Show it to me beating. Because this nigga had moves. This nigga was going left, right. He legit. He was like, and like.

Was it him? We don't know. Could have been AI. Everything is being questioned out. That's where he's left us. Could have been his face on Joe Johnson's buying. I could tell that he actually had an old man game because he was doing all that shit on the floor

but when it came time for that layup I'll tell you what, them hands didn't get near the rim he probably looked like he could bang if he'd really, really try. I'm looking at this shit and I'm like, yo man, handsome Malcolm, we need you on higher learning, bro because we gotta know you don't want them. Okay, no, you're off, you're off, you're off, you're off. No, what are we going to say?

I want to know why he gave people hope then snatch that hope away like he snatches that goddamn cologne. Now, I need a new, older person to look up to. And none of these Hollywood people count because they all on HGH. Not one person that you see in how... We've moved over to pet tides. Peptide. Peptide.

Peptide. That's the new thing. Whatever. Everybody's on some kind of pet tithe. I don't even know what that means. I don't either. I'm not on it. But I just know everybody, it's the peptides.

But everybody, so that don't even matter. And they're not the same. They did. I thought that this was a guy from fucking Houston or, you know, goddamn Columbus. that just have figured out he walks a lot and he eats vegetables yeah he probably live in North Hollywood bro this is all a production

I don't know what's going on handsome Malcolm you disappointed me I'm still happy that you're doing good though I'm gonna continue to support because I like to see I like to see a new person I still like the Cologne bending shit fuck that that you should make you you should do it you should do it I think I'm gonna do one that shit hard

but I'm gonna do like I'm gonna like have somebody sprinkle Doritos and I'm gonna grab the Doritos out of this guy No you've come so far I know but I still like come so far. It's a good chip. In an interview with Rolling Stone Africa, Jonathan Majors and his wife,

Megan Good, discussed their life and given back through a mentorship initiative from emerging African filmmakers. I think Majors said, quote, I walked through fire publicly. I won't pretend otherwise. What the season taught me is that a man

is not what the headline say he is. A man is what he does when the lights go out and it's just him and God. Adversity stripped me of everything I thought was mine and gave me back only what was real. My faith, my wife, my craft, and my purpose. He also said that good is with me.

Every hospital hallway, every hard afternoon, every quiet drive home, calling her the steady hand on my back when the room gets heavy. He's got the Daily Wires upcoming movie, Run, I'd Fight, Infidels on the way. All right. How do you feel about this? I don't know how you could feel anything but good. Not the movie. Making good.

Yeah, that's how he's feeling. Making good. I mean, I've read the article, and it is beautiful in the sense that, you know, they're going throughout Africa and they're giving back. They're not just being like tourists. They are investing in the community, in film and entertainment, in the art.

They're investing in emerging, as Donnie said, African filmmakers. And they're doing it together. And, you know, then they're talking about their love for Africa, their love for culture, their love for the industry, their love for each other. And I think it's really beautiful. I think a lot of people question them, and rightfully so, the timing of their relationship, everything that he was dealing with legally from the past, from his past relationship and all of that. And they stood through it, got married. I've seen it in real life.

I mean, these two have a deep love for each other. And despite him having to lose so much professionally, and I'm not here to litigate whether that should or shouldn't have happened, what I think is beautiful is that he seems, you know, from this article, very grounded in love and faith and partnership. He still is dedicated to the industry, despite the industry taking so much away from him. Again, not here to litigate that. And I think one of the things in the things in the way, he's not here to litigate that. And I think one of the things in life that most people want, whether they admit it or not, it might not be marriage, but it's definitely a partnership. And it seems like he and Megan really have that. And it's nice to see that they support each other in so many different ways, and they're there for each other. I will litigate what the industry is doing.

I'll tell you why I'll litigate what the industry is doing. I tell you why. I'm so old. Jonathan Majors, I think there's a belief from a lot of people that Jonathan Majors is being held accountable by the industry. That's actually not what's happening. Jonathan Majors is being punished by the industry. And those are two different things. So being held accountable by the industry or by people is something that matters.

Like we're all seemingly a part of the same community and we should be able to set standards for who we're going to support and all of that stuff like that. And then you decide, I was talking to somebody a couple of days ago, we were talking about something that went, something that went on and happened and whatever.

And I was saying, I was on a podcast. Actually, it was on the 154 Africa podcast. Oh, you did that? I did. That was Godfrey and Akbar was phenomenal. And like what I said during that is like, you know, you do something wrong. Obviously, there are levels of wrong here, guys.

There are some wrongs that can be fixed with an apology, with changed behaviors, and we should just be honest, there's some wrongs that live forever. Sometimes the only thing that you can actually hope for is that yourself gets better, that you get better because you can never make it right with the person, right? So there's some wrong, there are levels of wrong here, right? And some wrongs have to be litigated with you in the community. Some wrongs are only between you and God. and God might be the only person that forgives you,

and you have to be okay with that, okay? But there is something that I truly believe now that is once I have, we were talking about Tyler, once I have legitimately given you a full-throated, open, honest apology. And followed that apology up with some sort of self-reflection. After that, go fuck yourself. Now, I can't speak to whether or not

Jonathan Majors has done that or not, right? If you continue to offend and doing all of that stuff like that, I'm reading all of this, it seems like their relationship because I'm not saying that about necessarily Jonathan Majors because I'm not inside Jonathan Majors's heart, brain, or soul, right?

But after I do all of that, I'm talking, this is for anyone. After you've apologized, you've made a good faith effort to apologize, you've shown up in the ways that you show up. After that, go fuck yourself. Fuck you after I've done that.

My mistake does not give you a psychic hold over me for my entire life. That is not the way that is supposed to work. You cannot do that. Because then your human frailty will allow someone to exert control over you in perpetuity. You just can't do that.

Yeah. Right? So what I'm saying about Jonathan Majors is he's not being held accountable by the industry. The industry is punishing him and I'll tell you why. Once again, I did I tell you why then. Jonathan Majors was set to be Kane to Conqueror. And the fact that Jonathan Majors is not Kane to Conqueror costs a lot of money. So Jonathan Majors is not Kane to Conquer which means that Marvel had to scrap parts.

Disney, this is Disney. This is the biggest show in town. had to scrap parts of movies that were already shot, changed things up. They then had to go get Robert Downey Jr., which cost them upwards of $100 million just for that one movie. So the decision to completely change from the saga that they were going into,

partly spurmed on by Jonathan Majors' legal problems and his falling status in society, means that they had to literally commit hundreds of millions of dollars to a new plan. What happens when something like that goes on is that the town decides because of the bean counters in the town that they're going to punish the person

that levied that tax on them. So it's not just going to be Jonathan Majors trying to be a better man and then being re-accepted back into this industry that he put so much into. That's not going to happen. What he's going to have to do is pay a penalty

to the people whose money he fucked up. that's the way they look at it. Yeah. So some of this, it has nothing to do with whether or not what Jonathan Majors did was as drastic and terrible as what they said it was. Some of this doesn't have anything to do with whether or not Jonathan Majors has found peace, has seen the error of his ways and wants to go on and be a fantastic man, a fantastic creative, and a person that makes opportunities for other people in this industry. Part of this is simply the people that had money riding on him, mad, that that money didn't go the way that it was supposed to go. And the people that also want to work with those people in rooms and places where people talk that we're not in. In rooms and places where people make decisions that we're not in.

That group of people deciding this guy made a mistake that is too significant. We're not fucking with him. And however long that lasts is the penalty, the punishment that he will have to pay. I'm sorry. I'm going to ask the question. The question is, do they punish their people like that? The answer is they don't. I'm not doing the whole what aboutism thing right now,

but I'm saying do they level that same amount of punishment at their people? The person that they replace Jonathan Majors with, in this movie is Robert Donnie Jr. Robert Donny Jr. had an entire career, an entire career's worth of failing in a very drastic, dramatic way. Public way. Public way, right? And his recovery story, his return, his comeback, if you will, is one of the most

beautiful, amazing, fantastic Hollywood stories that you have ever seen. I want you to ask yourself this question. How many of those have you seen with a black guy? In Hollywood. They give it to athletes. You out there accuse of all kinds of shit. You come back, dunk that bitch, knock somebody out. They like, oh, you good.

But in this situation here where there's this cult, how many times have you seen? that like a legitimate chance at coming back from something where you got knocked down are you going to see that for some of these guys where we don't even still know what the fuck they did and there are a lot of people that are going to be this is not but I'm telling you right now what's happening to him right now is an accountability is past that what's happening to him right now is punishment I do not think saying all of this that he should have done that daily wire movie I think I think it only added fuel to the fire for people who want to believe that there's no standard

to Jonathan majors or anything like that. But the reality was that it wasn't going to be nobody else that put him in something. You know, I never thought about it. Even when you said punishment, I'm agreeing with you, and I still agree with you. But I was thinking punishment for what he did and black people not getting the same grace

and understanding that others do. But I never thought of it of all the money. that was lost. Oh, yeah. I just, I just, I was, I'm so, and you're right, I'm not even here to disagree with you. I'm just saying, I'm so focused on, I mean, obviously both are true, but what you said just really hit me because it's like, you're right. They lost all that money because of him. That almost is deeper, deeper. It almost would feel different if, if it wasn't that, like, that hadn't been announced. It was a thought had been casted, but it hadn't been public yet. And they decided to not announce it or give it to somebody else because of what had happened,

I think that the path would have been, I think maybe we would see him now in it. Yeah, I mean. But when you said the money, I'm like, you're so right. I just never thought of it just about the money part of it too. So they had Marvel, they had Avengers King Dynasty. That was the first movie. They changed the movie.

They changed the story. They have to bring on new screenwriters. They have to hire Robert Donnie Jr. as Doom, right? They have to change certain stuff that they had already shot. They had to pay new people that. They had to completely overhaul all of this. And they had to pay out everything for it. He was signed on for like nine films.

So part of this is strictly just punishment. Yeah. For really fucking up the money. And that, look, while that's a cautionary tale for everyone, that something that comes along with opportunities like that is also the opportunity for immense like failure or immense consequence in that

situation. I just want people to know that a lot of this has absolutely nothing to do with what people think is good or appropriate or moral that this is straight up about bread. It's straight up about like dollars

and they're making an example out of them. And like to me when I look at that I can't help but name it because I'm sorry, man. I'm not going to do it and throw other people's names in it, but I could name 15 motherfuckers. I could name, off the top of my head, I could name 15 fucking white boys.

Some of them which have been to jail for some of this stuff. And it's just not the fucking same. And if we're talking about equality, consequence is part of that. Consequence is part of the, like, You don't just want to have the same opportunities. Equality, culturally, is also having the same punishment. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, you know, hold on for a second. You know, children of blood and bone controversy. We haven't talked about it. We haven't talked about it because there's also not, well, I didn't read the books. Yeah. Did you? No. But in that, I don't think that that's important to have this discussion.

But the reason that I was like, we haven't. talked about it is because we know that the author, the creator, has pulled out. We know and publicly distanced herself. We know that maybe there's an issue with casting, but we don't know the why, even the video, and we'll play it that, or maybe we won't play it. I don't know. It's kind of long. The video that recently came out that has everyone talking about it again and what continues to make it a part of the conversation, we still don't know details. We just know. She's very upset, emotional about it, and has distanced herself. And you, just like you gave this insight about the money that was lost in regards to Jonathan Majors in the MCU,

I'm just wondering, I would imagine that when an author sells their rights, you know, to whoever, to adapt their book into something, that there is always some creative differences. But to my knowledge, and obviously I'm not as well versed of you, I've never seen something like, this and this is something that I know like so I asked somebody about it they're like it's like black Harry Potter and everyone was anticipating this and now there just seems to be such a dark cloud over it because the creator does not want racial cloud does not want is she byracial Amanda oh Amanda oh is that part of the casting controversy so I there just seems to be such a dark cloud over the fact that this was something that was so highly anticipated and now the person

who started it all wants nothing to do with it, but we still don't know full details. And that's why I haven't wanted to talk about it. Well, the full details thing... So I'm asking for your insight. The full details thing might be tough being that there's probably like contractual stuff and all different types of shit.

Agreed. But don't you think that she's already said a lot that is very disparaging to the movie? That's the conflict. I agree with you. If it was just she's removing herself and that was it, But she has spoken such a way without details that we know she wants something that is her work. She was nothing to do with it.

That says a lot. That is a bit of publicly disparaging this project. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you might as well go all the way. So, okay, this is as I understand it, what's going on. the book is obviously African said West Africa and when this casting was first announced there were a lot of people that were like hey

why don't you have Nigerian West African actors like in that particular role and it seems as if the author of the book at first stuck behind some of these casting decisions and was basically telling people that you know he's going to do a great job all of that she was involved in the production of the film. At some point, it feels like her relationship with the lead went bad.

And either there are parts of this adaption, adaption adaptation, there are parts of this that she doesn't want to fuck with. She doesn't like it. So before the movie comes out, she wants to distance herself from that and get away from it. what I don't know is whether or not the division here or the hang up here is cultural or from a story perspective. Because what you have here sometimes in these adaptations is somebody going, hey, they took my, what I did. And this is not, they changed too much.

They changed too much. It doesn't capture the spirit of what it was that I wrote. And what's out there. They made this character this. They made this character that. They made this character this. They changed the ending. They changed the middle.

They renamed this. It's only actually inspired by what I put on the page and not the story that I was trying to tell. Then you have stuff that's deeper than this. The issues with this movie seem to be issues that we're running into over and over and over again. When we're talking about black stuff, this being black and African, right? because we're all black, but we're black and we're Canadian, we're black and we're West Indian, we're black and we're African, we're black and we're South American, we're black and we're Central American,

we're black and we're Native American. You know what I mean? So like there's all of these different types of black, and sometimes those things are in traction. And in this one, I can't tell if the hang up here is from a story perspective or a cultural perspective or both. What I do know is something that a lot of people, were excited about is now being having cold water thrown on it.

It has much less excitement from at least one group of people and will be mired in controversy making the movie more likely to struggle. Well, that's what I was going to say. Because of some cultural glitches. It seems like cultural glitches. Do we support it? I mean, can we hear from her? Let's hear from her.

Yeah. Let's hear from Tommy. From Tommy. I'm going to post this so ideally I won't have to talk. talk about this anymore. Beautiful. And what I'm about to share is not a secret to the people involved. It's a reality that I've had to live with for about a year and a half.

And everyone involved, at least at the highest level, has been made aware of this reality. And they haven't done anything to make it better. If anything, they've only antagonized me. and I accept that, but I also accept if I don't say something, I think it's just going to be worse. I'm not going to speak on what I endured to make it through the Young Adult Trilogy, and I'm not going to speak about everything that I also suffered through or endured to make the adaptation of reality. I'm actually only going to speak about what happened after I left that set of my own film adaptation, hyperventilating and sobbing.

And there are many witnesses. So it's not really a secret. I came back to America and suffered such severe somatic pain and so many panic attacks. And I knew it was so bad. that I would never ever be able to watch this film, and I made peace with that, but as it is being marketed, and as I am still being antagonized,

behind the scenes, which is where I hoped all of this would stay, it's become apparent to me that that reality needs to at least be made known so that you guys can understand how this film, which I worked on to make it A little better for us to be alive is also the worst thing I've ever had to live through.

And I don't wish to speak on it anymore. I don't know if that's possible. I understand that I have a public presence and that this is a global project. It's probably useless posting a video. I really don't know. I don't do things like this. but I also understand that being silent about it is making the pain a lot worse

and even though it feels awful to share this it's better to share it and have it known and understood before I see a bunch of you for this new book so please understand I never want to hear about this project again I don't have anything to say about the people who made it I do not care anymore I'm trying to move on this video might make it worse

but I don't know how it can be any worse. So I'm just going to share that and let it live. Okay. So it seems like there was some sort of incident that happened. Incidents. Yeah. Yeah. Like she says it in that video.

She did another video before that earlier in the month. But she keeps saying that she's been hurt and attacked behind the scenes. That's a quote from the first video. And then now it's to the point where. she doesn't, it's something with the people involved is what she keeps saying. So it doesn't feel like it's casting, it doesn't even feel like it's creative. It feels like I don't use the word, but it just, it seems deeper than that.

Well, there was, she did post correspondence between her and Amandaela where like in that correspondence she told her don't use my name in anything, any interviews, nothing, don't ever say my name, don't speak on me. It's like what the brothers out here on the West Coast say I ever told you about that story that time I was hooping and I was like man that nigga can't guard

and the dude looked at me he's like yo man don't speak on me I laughed you know what I mean I was like don't speak on me it's funny don't speak on me sometimes like a Game of Thrones and do not speak on me don't speak on me says house Targaryen

this is funny so that's what she said I guess she said you know don't speak on me that's what you're telling man with Sondberg But like, I don't know, people are very excited for the movie. I mean, this wouldn't stop me from going to see the movie because I don't know what's happening. Yeah. Like, I don't know what's going on. You know, I don't like it's.

But it's, it feels disturbing to me. What's what you what? I mean, that video is troubling. She's talking about panic attacks. She's talking about, you know, she never wants to speak on it. You know, she doesn't want, she doesn't want this to make it worse, but it probably will. She's made peace with not being a part of it. she doesn't want anything to do with it

I mean like she talks about I mean like she's emotional there she could barely get her words together like it's panic attack like that it just sounds so deep I'm almost like I feel disturbed even wanting to go see it

it feels all feels very sincere I guess I personally would say if there was going to be like a boycott of a film or like a like a don't see this campaign, you just probably need more.

I don't know who's gonna be able to talk or whatever. I can't imagine them doing media and promoting this and not being asked about this. They have to. So, I mean, obviously it'll be a PR answer. Maybe these media outlets, they can't do that with print, but like you can with like an entertainment magazine

of saying, don't ask me that question and they'll honor it, but you can't do that necessarily with print. So I don't, it'll be, they're going to have to do a sit down with some publication and address this before they even go out. Not saying that it happens all the time because it doesn't happen all the time.

But is it slightly frustrating that movies that deal sometimes directly and this is black culture and stuff like that, that there always seems to be, not always, but frequently, not infrequently, just too much, these massive cultural discourses that come around these movies

before we've even gotten the opportunity to see them like when was the last time maybe Michael and even that had it right because that movie wasn't very good when was the last time we got to be excited by something

and got to go something that's black and got to go to it sinners sinners sinners like we got to go to it feeling completely cool with everything

all the culture was cool, all the casting was cool, all the stuff was cool. We just got to just go in there and not think about anything other than the artist on the screen. Not thinking about whether or not we're trash for watching it, not thinking about whether or not we're trash for not watching it, not thinking about the difference and colorism and all of these issues are really important issues, super important issues. And I'm never going to say that we need to shy away from talking about them.

But man, I feel like the audience and the consumer and the people that into this that we're excited about this book they got a lot on their plate now before going to see this movie and it's just it's interesting and it would be like super awesome if there could be almost devastating transparency about what's going on so people can make a decision in good faith about what it is or is not that they're going to support you know I'm saying I know I was trying to I was trying to see who all is behind it where where it all is but this is big news though NBC news has it the cut has a variety has it

people has it the guardian has it like this is big news the Times has it Times has the you know so once it's it's big I mean Gina and her are on they did the screenplay Gina's directing it it's been

Paramount Pictures has it I just I just I hope well one I hope she's okay let me just say that because that's just really troubling for this to be you know I don't want to call her life's work, but just like the biggest thing, one of the biggest things that she's done.

And like I can only imagine as an author. It's a dream for somebody to want to adapt and bring your story to life, how exciting that is. And for it to end this way for her is devastating. So I really do hope that she is okay. She talks about finding peace. I hope that she continues to find that because it is a long road ahead. Now that this comes out at the top of January, there'll be so much media around it. People will be litigating what she said.

The cast will start talking. production will start talking and it's just it's going to be a lot it's going to be a lot so yeah yeah okay I don't even know this usher story what is this what happened I don't know I don't even want to do it play it I'm okay they like it they give it to Gen Zayette what you guys what happened here usher did what now he he's responding to this uh moment that went viral at a Nashville concert recently where he ended an on stage serenade after this lady looked uncomfortable oh show you Show me the video. I didn't see this. Okay. And so then Usher and then play the video. Usher says what now?

Well, before that, so she's like gone on TMZ to explain her side of the story. What did she say? She basically is like out of nowhere they get to the concert. She and her mother were upgraded to VIP. They didn't know why. They were selected for the segment. She didn't know that she'd be participating in it with Usher. And she's kind of like, who would turn down being asked to be on?

on stage. She said she wasn't trying to be disrespectful. And so she was like, of course, I wish everyone would stop attacking me. But then she was like, then she said,

then she said, no, people were like on her. Why? They were like, why would you go up on stage and why would you not? Like, if you're going to go up, you know what's going to happen. And then she goes on to say

that if it had been Chris Brown, it would have been different. She was like, I, you know, she came, I guess, to the show more for Chris than for Usher. And that's what people had suspected. And then she makes a comment

where she's like, oh, well, you know, we got upgraded because of pretty privilege. So then, like, that had people talking too. So it was kind of like, oh, you think you're too good and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like, I just, and, yeah, so play the next video. Play the next video. Let's see.

Before we get started, don't bring your ass up here if you don't want to be here. You're going to be here. Hmm. This was, I'm shocked you hadn't seen this video. This had a lot of people talking about it because it was a second before she actually came out and said, told her side of the story.

But, you know, it's, I don't know if we've ever seen that. Usually when you, at that point, it was during, I don't know how they do this concert. I don't know if it's like a back and forth thing or if it's just Usher and just Chris Brown. Chris Brown, do you know, Jay? So I don't know how it is, but the moment she was on stage,

maybe it is a back and forth. I don't know. Maybe she thought Chris was going to come out. Maybe she didn't know that's what Usher did on stage, but like, I mean... You feel like she's fucked up for that? No, but I think that you subject yourself to people having an opinion about it.

So many people will want to get on that stage. You, like you said, who would turn down being asked to be upgrade... You want to be upgraded to VIP? Great. She's like backstage, taking pictures with Usher's wife. Oh, you want to go on stage? Yeah, who would say no to that? She didn't know what was going to happen to her.

But people think that she was intentionally trying to embarrass Usher. They thought that she was like acting like she was too good. Some people thought she had a man. It's like, if you have a man, why would you go up there? But again, like, who would say no to going on stage? I see in one of her pictures on her Instagram that she just graduated as a nurse. Good for her.

So, you know, maybe she's like, you know, I'm a nurse. I don't need this shit. I know how to put a catheter in people. I'm not going through all of this. Oh, she defended saying she got upgraded because of pretty privileged. Sorry, she didn't say. Sorry, that's a big, that's a big tip. She didn't say, of course.

Like they looked at the audience, they look and see, and then they put somebody up there. So my mistake, she didn't say she got upgraded because of it. She was defending people saying that about her. So I guess this is why I can see. So if you go on stage, then you're participating in the show. And the thing is, when you go up on the stage, at this point, the way usher and Chris Brown and other people, I guess, are looking at it is like you almost have a responsibility to entertain as well if you go up on the stage.

I mean, because in that moment, I'm like, well, what would she do? What did he want her to do? Like, does he dance on it? Because she was leaning back. It looked like he was going in. Stiff as the board. He wasn't going to kiss her. But I would imagine him.

I've never seen a Shapo-a-girl on stage. Chris Brown dances on you. So I would imagine that he was going to dance on her. Maybe he was expecting her to put her arms around him, at least smile. She didn't even smile. She looked like, please don't drip that sweat on me. my hair is freshly pressed. Like that's what it looked like.

So is it possible that she was like startled? Man, what the fuck? No, she wasn't startled. You're really defending her. I'm just saying, I don't, I don't know. To me, I look at this as like, you know, yeah, it would be great if things went swimmingly. We got to have Brian Michael Cox on coming up. We got to have B Cox on the podcast.

Talk about this. It's like, it's great if things were swimmingly, but like, you know, she wouldn't fucking with his raps. But it'd be different. She wouldn't fuck with a little rap. She didn't like his wraps. It'd be different if he was walking through the audience like he does and then all of a sudden just came up on her

and it's like, whoa, I didn't ask for that. But like you went on stage. He's going to, at the very least, serenate. No, but she said smile. I said smile. Smiles, yeah, that's a lot of difference. She could have smiled. Yeah.

She could have acted shy. She could have been like, oh my God, no. She could have screamed. But she said she wanted, she's not fucking with his raps. She said if it had been Chris Brown would have been. Chris Ryan would have been different. I don't think she had to go up there. Like, if she got upgraded, let's say they say, oh, you have to go up on stage if you get upgraded.

She could have said no. Or even when she got upgraded, she could have been like, I'm sorry. Like, I don't feel comfortable going to say no. I'm just going to be honest with y'all. You would say no? I'm not going up there. This is where the rubber meets. This is where the rubber meets the road sometimes with all of these conversations.

We have these larger conversations about consent. and what you owe and all of that stuff. Because just because she went on stage don't mean she got to be fucking with his raps. 99% of the women in the world, 93, 94, 92, a fuck with Usher's raps. They just found on this tour the one light-skinned tattooed girl

that's not fucking with his raps like that. Everybody's fucking with Usher's raps. We've been fucking with his raps since 94. I remember being in school and the, can you get with that? is like that. The whole ninth grade was fucking with these raps. Then he came back. He dropped nice and slow.

Crazy. You make me want to? No raps have ever been fucked with more than Usher's raps. 98 through 2004. And for some reason, I don't know, she looked like she might have been born in 2004. So she might not. She just wasn't feeling usher like that.

That's what she said. But of course, people are going. and it'd be like, damn, that was a waste. Why do you go up there if you weren't going to enjoy it? That's just what people are saying. And I get it, but it's like, it's kind of. She looks miserable. She looks disgusting.

Hey, man, y'all, okay, you know what? She looked disgusting. Hey, man, put this jacket on me right now because I hate to be the feminist in the room. Like, I am so much. But y'all seem like, to me, y'all asking women to smile. If I can't ask you to smile at the gas station, then why can't I ask you to smile if I buy you,

so if I go to the gas station. Have you ever been brought up? That's because she consented to going on stage. Oh, y'all so toxic, bro. So how far she got to go? Well, wait. Have you ever been brought up on stage?

No. Okay, so when you do get brought up on stage. Oh, nigger, you've been brought up on stage before? Oh, my Lord of God. Shocker. Oh, sexual feelings. Usually. Different chocolate assortments.

They're going to, they, and I can't imagine that, especially with what Chris does on stage, They tell you that you're going to suck his nipples. No, they tell you they're going to dance on you or they're going to, are you okay with this? Like they tell you these things before you go on. Like when Janet Jackson would bring a guy up and she would strap you to the table. She's crawling on you. She's riding you.

They tell you that before. So it's hard for me to believe that she just thought she was going to sit on stage and nothing. If they're going to touch you, they're going to. to tell you you're going to be touched. My mom and my grandmother fucks with the way Usher spit. Usher has had a life-long hold over women. You sound like you're taking joy in the fact that he no longer has it. Not at all.

Usher is not a person at this point. Usher is a sexual entity. That's Usher fucking Raymond. No one can put smut on his name. There's been a whole generation of women that that was the deal. We're playing trivial pursuit. It was me, Candace, Angelica, a couple of other people's friends. We all sitting around in my room on the bed.

We're playing Trivial Pursuit. We answering questions. I'm dominating these motherfuckers in Trivial Pursuit. They don't know. Shit, I'm going crazy. It's my moment. My moment is going nuts. This is me.

Fat, smart. This is my home game. I'm going crazy and Trivial Pursuit. Okay. Man, bro, burn came on. That shit was over. Like, I swear that. God, it's almost like

Candice Stein, who was my girlfriend at the time, she sensed the video before it came on. Because it wasn't even on yet. They're asking me a question. They're like, yo, name the entire I'm like, boom, boom, boom. All I heard was she went legitimately, Candace went.

And then the video started. I remember, I was like, did you feel Usher at that point? She turned around, she looked at it. They literally threw cars in the air. Fucked the game. Like if they turned it around and they all started looking at it.

Usher's letting it burn. He's sliding around and shit like this. And I legitimately said, man, man. Man, everybody started laughing. Because they're going crazy over Usher. Okay? So that's, I mean, just one time somebody not fucking with his rap, that's not that big of a deal.

It's not that big of a deal. But we're talking about it because people really were had a lot to say about this. Yeah. People were really mad at her. Also, I feel like people, once again, I'll just be honest, you know, I feel like people feel like if you're going to go up on the stage, you need to get the people a show too. Like, get a people a show.

Yeah, that's why when Kayla Nicole did it with Chris Brown, everyone was, everyone was applauding her because they were like, finally somebody gave it back to him rather than just sitting there. Like they went on there and entertained. Yeah, like they were like, that's what, that's what how it should be. It's quality content. So, so it is like in this situation, I just think, you know, subsequent women, when you go up there, you know, fucking go crazy. Like turn around, stand on your head, bust that thing open.

You know what I'm saying? Like, do whatever you got to do because if you don't go up there and legitimately put an electronic nipple clamp on Usher, people going to act like. It's too far. But yeah, so look, this is interesting. It's interesting to me that if this is interesting, because we talk about pretty privilege, but not usher privilege, because what? Usher privilege.

Usher has earned his, this is me saying, shout out to Usherer. Shout out to Usher has earned this. But I'm telling you, it's so funny, if somebody, once again, we look at the gas station and you pump the woman's gas or you offer to pay for her gas, and she goes, he turned around and told me to smile

because I paid for his gas. Man, there would be a whole internet of women going crazy saying, nigger, you made the decision to pay for the gas. You don't get a smile or anything like that because of that. But this woman is expected to eat Usher's asshole on the stage. Oh, my God. Because she gets brought up there. And if not, she's criticized.

It don't, it don't, it, it, it, I'm just saying. It's a consent thing. That's where I think the divide is. She consented to being on stage. Jade, I hate to, Jade, I hate to educate you on this from, shout out to Toronto, Burk, my mentor on this. Consent is alive. That means it can, it's born, and then it can die at any time.

So, hold on. Consent is not a concept. It's an organism, Jade. So that means that you can consent all the way up, and then it can die. and go into the nether regions of things that you don't want to do and exist there forever. I'm glad that I've been able to educate you on the importance of consent and the intricacies of that as a man to a woman. Thank you, Van. I am the Me Too movement.

Do we have a video of Usher on stage with another woman so we can see how that looks? Yes, put it on stage. I know what Chris Brown does. I want to see what the normal response is. Okay. This is the same one in Birmingham. after he said, don't come up here if you don't want. Well, she's going to show out.

Yeah, that's what she's. Look at it. Oh, she's going for the bell buckle. Oh, turn around. God damn, look at it. That's how she came to the concert. Oh, shit. This is quality content, man.

Nobody was expecting all of this, but. What you mean? That is what you're all expected. Don't turn the face now? Was she from an audience or was she one of the dancers on the show? Don't turn the page now. That is what you expected. Look, Birmingham Night 2,

Earl with a gush, she did not come to pay She did not come to pay. She did not come to play. I'm saying right now she probably knew what was going on. Yeah, she's going crazy. This is good. She put on the show. Usher, you know what? This is.

This is Usher taking this crown back. This is Usher saying, okay, this is Usher. Usher goes, yeah, okay. You found a one woman in the world that's not fucking with the way I rap, right? And that's an anomaly. I'm fucking Usher. and I've been Usher since 1994. It's been 22 years

of me being the man. It's not going to change because of one night. No. How old is this nigga? This nigga looks like he's fucking 27 years old. He can't be in his 50s. He is in his 50s. Usher's definitely over 50.

He can't be. I bet you five grand and I expect to be paid. I sure is 47. Thank you. Like there's no he can't be in this. I'm going to swear, in my head I saw his 50s. 50th birthday and everything.

You were at the 50th birthday party talking to him, ruining the trivia pursuit game. I was like, oh, he's 50, yeah. Yeah. But no, ageless. Can we just appreciate that for a second? This guy, Usher should be my handsome Malcolm. Usher looks legitimately like he's 27 years old. That is not, there's not one bit of hyperbole there.

Yeah. So look, got it. So, I mean, I guess, okay, I mean, all right. Well, we learned. I was able to talk to Jade about consent. I was able to talk to you. So you're down with her is what you're saying. Let's end on a high note.

Okay. Donnie? Okay. Louisiana has been ranked the worst state in the U.S. in the last U.S. News and World Report best states rankings, finishing 50th overall for another year. The rankings devalued all 50 states across eight categories, including this sucks.

Healthcare, education, economy. economy, infrastructure, public safety, fiscal stability, natural environment, and opportunity. Utah is number one. Thanks, Zaddy. All right. What you guys want? This is sad. I saw the headline and I immediately thought, ah, Van, I'm sure Texas isn't far off, to be

very honest. Nah, it's got too much money. It's probably way high. It's a rich state. It's usually a mid. It's like mid. But it's not funny when you start naming all the ways that makes them the worst. I was hoping it was more of like, you know, fun stuff, like things to do in Louisiana, food maybe, entertainment, stuff like that.

But when you start putting off the list, it's actually quite depressing. Well, I mean, look, this is what I'll say. I love Louisiana. Love Louisiana. I love Baton Rouge. But if you go to Baton Rouge, you're probably not going to love it. Okay? Like, I love Louisiana.

I love Baden Rouge. When I say love, I love Perkins Road. I love the Bluffs with Southernette. I love Highland Road. I love Gardier. I love North Baton Rouge. I love Gus Young.

I love Nigaville. I love Zion City. I've come to love Glen Oaks. Used to hate him. I love Baker, Zachary Central. I love Hooper Road. O'Neill Lane.

I love Baton. And you should. It's where you're from. I love it. I love Sherwood. I love Sherwood. I love Sherwood above Florida, below Florida. I love Baton Rouge.

If you go to Baton Rouge, you know, it might be a challenge for you. If you might be a challenge for you. Like, if you go to Baton Rouge, I take you in that motherfucking bottom across them tracks. You might go, hey, this is the most beautiful place that I've ever seen. And there's no Bourbon Street or anything like that to offset the sheer humanity that you're going to see in Louisiana. But I'll tell people to remember this. Louisiana is one of the states with the highest black percentage of people

in the entire union. So when you're looking at a reason why places like Louisiana and Mississippi might be so-called failing states, you might ask yourself if America wants places that are that black to actually succeed. If Louisiana,

which is a place that has had his natural resource, resources, its natural resources, harvested and taken from them. If it's not actually closer to Africa, then it is to like a place in America. When you look at places in Mississippi, Louisiana, places along the Delta, the Louisiana had some of the most amount of plantations in any place like that. We look at the history of Louisiana. There's a lot of beauty, but you got to go through a lot of American carnage to get there. So I'm proud of my motherfucking state, even though we are typically last in everything.

we are the fattest. Sometimes they say that we are the dumbest. Sometimes that they say that it's like when my dad passed away, I looked up the average life expectancy of a black man in Louisiana. That shit is like 67 years old. I'm talking about in the dirt. Last thing I say about this before I leave is

I forget about all of this carnage. I forget about what it was like to grow up in Baton Rouge. Like, brough, like, everybody got these stories of like, where they're from, but you growing up in Baton Rouge and you just get to a point and they just start dropping like flies. I got out to L.A. when I was in TMZ

and I'd be like, none of y'all family members in jail? They're like, no. Y'all have family members that suffer from drug addiction? They're like, no. I'm like, I remember one point we were having a conversation and they were talking about

Angola. And they're like, Van, have you ever been to the prison? I'm like, yeah, many times. many times. As a matter of fact, I haven't just been to Angola. I've been to all the prisons. I've been to Angola. I've been to Hunts.

Been to prisons all up. And I've been to the parish. I've visited people in all of the prisons that are around, except for maybe the fair ones. It's just, it's hard living. But I'll tell you what, we love our state. We love our state. We love our state.

We love each other. What's the percentage of black people? people in Texas. Did you look at it? I don't know, but I thought it was, I thought it was, they had the highest. 33 people in Texas, I see. Highest, black. Texas is number 26. Percentage. California's number 35. Number one, 35 of what? Of the best states, best tour states. Now, I will say this. And they have, it's number 50. But see, but see, that is that, that, that right. there, Louisiana, we got like

7 million people in the whole state or something like that. Legitimately, it's almost as many people in the valley than it is in our entire state. There's more people in Los Angeles County than there is in Louisiana. So some of the goddamn, so here it is, it goes

top states by percentage of black people, Mississippi, 37%, Louisiana, 33%, Georgia, shout out to Georgia, 32% Maryland, Alabama, you know, places in the south. For California, to be as down in the dumps as it is, that's inexcusable. 50 million people out here,

GDP through the roof, it's actually a small country. For our poor little piece of American culture, you guys are welcome for jazz. You guys are welcome for so many innovations that we have. You guys are, well, we thank you. You guys appreciate you guys. All this stuff that Louisiana has produced,

no limit records, cash money, bling, bling, some ways you talk, some of your dance, some of the food, all those influences. Thank you very much. But California, really, y'all in the dirt at 26. That's the dirt. Where's Texas at? Where's Texas at? 26.

Dirt. Like that's the dirt. Way to flip it. That's the dirt. Like all the people, all that oil money, y'all better take some of that oil money and give it to them kids. It was listed as number one for the economy. Yeah, Texas, I'm very much. This is, I don't know about this list.

You keep doing this Texas thing. I fuck with Texas. I like Texas. It's where my people are from. You know, like, yeah, I like Texas. I like Texas. But like, don't get me started, man. I love my motherfucking state.

Oh, the Virgin Islands. The Virgin Islands are up there. 41 points, that doesn't count. No, that doesn't count. That doesn't count. The Niger Islands. The Niga Islands. Let's go.

I'm just saying, man. Everybody love Usher. I think she love them. They should bring her back up. If I was Chris, so check this out. If I was Chris, because Chris got a lot of love, show a lot of respect for Usher, right? If I was Chris, this is the type of shit I would do. This is why I got to get rid of this putrid, TMZ-infected brain that I have.

Like, if I was Chris, I would wait like a couple of cities, and then I would do the call up and it would be her. and then she would come up on stage with Chris and go crazy for his raps. I'm talking about light skin or light skin debauchery. I'm talking about beige booty. I'm talking about sweat and tattoos rubbing up against each other and just make Usher watch. Cook Usher on stage with the what I would do that.

Then then it would go crazy. What would be better is if... If they run a two man on her? Oh my gosh, what is wrong with you today? You've said some outrageous sexual things today. But it's not a real too, man. Okay, what I was going to say is it would be better if wait a couple of cities, bring her out into the show, bring her out, everybody thinks the show's over,

comes back on Khorre. I got one more surprise. She's there sitting on stage. Everybody's going crazy. They know who it is. And then he goes, nah, I'm just kidding. Shows over. And just leaves her sitting on the stage by herself.

That would be funny. But see, see, feminists, I win the feminists of the Day Award. Both of y'all are crazy. I win the feminists of the Day Award. Every, like, I would like, you know what I would like to know? I would like to know, particularly on threads after this is I win the feminist of the Day Award. You know, these are I, I will. If you have to say it.

Nigger, this is the only time I'm ever going. Okay? Like, as a matter of fact, I've won misogynist of the Day Award, like 600 podcasts in a So, all right, fun topic to end with, Jesus Christ. Now I got to go to the show. You got to go see the show? You know what? Because I want my mama to go on stage.

That would be, that would be amazing. And she would show out. My mama would go crazy up there. More so for Usher. Because my mom has already had an Usher thing. You know how you know when an older black lady like somebody, because they go, hmm. Like you'll see Usher and you'll just see.

my mom got my mom had a thing for usher my mom had a thing for nelly i told the nelly story my mom was singing you can find me and say it louis and my dad just would go crazy he's like you hear your mother over there talking about smoking and fucking all that oh it's fucking Jesus Christ they were crazy all right take the thing caps off do not stop learning i'm van lathen junior shout out usher I'm rachel and lizzie bye guys