#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Black Texas woman reduced to tears over DEI; Trump’s tariffs destroys economy; Angie Stone salute

Episode Date: March 4, 2025

3.3.2025 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Black Texas woman reduced to tears over DEI; Trump’s tariffs destroys economy; Angie Stone salute #BlackStarNetwork partner: Fanbasehttps://www.startengine.com/offering/fanbase This Reg A+ offering is made available through StartEngine Primary, LLC, member FINRA/SIPC.  This investment is speculative, illiquid, and involves a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment. You should read the Offering Circular (https://bit.ly/3VDPKjD) and Risks (https://bit.ly/3ZQzHl0) related to this offering before investing. Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox  http://www.blackstarnetwork.com The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Today is Monday, March 3rd, 2025. Coming up on Roller Mark Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network, a routine budget hearing in Texas turns into an emotional showdown as a MAGA Republican questions the state's top black water official

who was there to discuss the budget. He decides to go off on DEI and a sister state rep said, nah, we ain't having that. Attorney General Pam Bondi has ordered the Justice Department to step away from cases involving discriminatory hiring practices in local departments. I told y'all they don't care about black people.

We'll talk to an independent black journalist who is in Ukraine, Terrell Starr, he'll explain how the country is reacting to the Oval Office meltdown of dumbass Donald Trump and J.D. Vance. Speaking of those two idiots, Trump comes out today, what, by an hour ago, and announces new tariffs on Canada and Mexico. Guess what happened? Stock market drops by almost 1,000 points.

Also, a month ago, Federal Reserve said that, you know what? We expected 3% increase in American GDP because of the actions of President Trump and Co-President Elon Musk. You know,

the two bosom buddies. They now say we're going to have a negative 2.5% economy. How about them eggs? Plus, we'll pay tribute to Grammy-nominated R&B singer Angie Stone, who died tragically in a vehicle accident on Saturday. She was 63 years old. It is time to bring the funk on Rolling Mark Unfiltered

on the Black Star Network. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the piss, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling. Best belief he's knowing.

Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling. It's Uncle Roro, y'all Yeah, yeah It's Rolling Martin Yeah, yeah Rolling with rolling now

Yeah, yeah He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's Rolling Martin Now She's real the best, you know he's rolling. Martel. Martel. When these Republicans show their asses when it comes to DEI, you cannot just simply allow it to happen. It means fighting back. In Texas, what's supposed to be a routine budget hearing.

Let me say it again. A budget hearing led to more than that when Republican State Rep Brian Harrison, he decided to challenge the state's top water official when it came to issues of her department. Now, guess what? The position is held by a black woman, L'Oreal Stephanie, chair of the Texas Water Development Board. Now, even though she's worked for the state for 33 years, has two engineering degrees, this idiot repeatedly questioned her hiring decisions,

claiming they were race-based. Watch this fool. The executive order from the governor was rather clear. He doesn't want any DEI-based employment decisions being made. Are things like DEI diversity focuses being employed or utilized at your agency when it comes to employment determinations? We are in complete compliance with that.

So it's not happening? No, sir. Okay. I've got your most recent strategic plan in front of me, and I want to read you a couple sentences. It says, you're talking about, it's a whole section on workforce under strategic development, and it says, I'm going to read a couple sentences. Furthermore, as society in general becomes more diverse, the TWDB workforce must mirror this diversity.

That sounds like your strategic plan is contradicting the testimony here. Right. sounds like that sounds like this your strategic plan is contradicting the testimony here right so that strategic plan was developed about a year maybe a year and three months ago leading i think it was adopted last summer for kind of fiscal years 25 through 29 yeah yeah this is your plan for 25 through 29 yes sir and so with more recent executive orders, should those contradict what is in that, again, we're in line with any executive orders or possible legislative changes. L'Oreal defended the Texas Water Development Board's hiring practices. Well, but Harrison, he kept pushing, reading from the agency's strategic plan and suggesting that race was a factor in employment decisions.

Of course, he offered no evidence of that. Well, Democratic state rep Nicole Collier, she said, you know what? I'm tired of this bullshit. Says she was tired of watching black women defend centuries of systematic racism. So 2.25 of the 3 million went to women. There was no race attached to that.

It was just women. That is correct. Okay, thank you. See, here's the thing. I'm tired of having to justify my blackness. And if someone feels inferior to me because I am black, then that is a matter that is something that has to do with them, not me.

And to have to watch two black women have to defend 246 years of systemic racism, to try to defend the need to correct 246 years of systemic racism when we had slavery is offensive. It's offensive to me and it's offensive to all black people. And so I want to thank you so much for doing your job based on your qualifications as a person. And I appreciate you. And I see you. I see you, Ms. Sanchez. So thank you. I appreciate you.

And I said that for not just myself. I said it for all black women. And all women. Because sometimes we all get short end of the stick on that. Thank you. I have no further questions or comments for right now. It's okay.

It's okay. It's okay. Let's all pull it together. It's okay. I'm gonna pull it together. It's okay. It's okay. Thank you. Madam Sheriff, you deserve all the respect. You take all the time you need. I'm ready. Thank you. You merit this position. Who have fought long and hard to be in the positions of authority that you deserve to be in.

And we've reached a goddamn limit already. To the attacks on people's character. On people's qualifications, based only on one single thing, the color of their skin. We are all Americans. We're proud Americans. We're all Americans. We're proud Americans. We're proud Americans. We pledge to the United States of America that flag that belongs to all of us.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The comments, the innuendo, the attacks on people's character has to stop. Many of these public servants have earned the right to be in these positions. This must end. This must end. This must end. I'm proud of all of you that have come to this dais to come testify, whether you're African American, whether you're Hispanic, whether you're Anglo, whether you're Asian. We are proud of each and every one of you that comes before this committee. This committee, I respect everybody on this dais. I give every opportunity for folks to say what they need to say. I'm not trying to control what anybody says. They can say their piece for their clips.

That's fine. But we will not, and I will not tolerate attacks on people's character. These are public servants. They do the best for the state of Texas. They try to do what's best for the state of Texas. And it must end. And I call on my colleagues to quit these attacks. Madam Chair, I like saying that. Madam Chair, you have the floor. I don't usually get emotional, Representative Collier. I just want to talk about me just for a second. March 1st will be 33 years working for the state. 33 years. I have two engineering degrees, two from the University of Texas at Austin, one in aerospace engineering and the other

in civil engineering. I have always been honored by the governor of Texas. It was a deep honor for me to be appointed to the board, to be confirmed by the Senate, to be appointed as chair. I've always been grateful to the governor, always. But what have I done? I have protected the drinking water supply of 31 million Texans. I've sat across the table from IBWC in Mexico and made sure they delivered water to Texas, not once as a principal negotiator, but over 11 years. The stuff they have going on now, a acre feet behind, that didn't happen under

my watch. It did not happen. Wastewater treatment facilities, I was responsible for issuing 600 of them a year. There's 3,500 in Texas. There's 7,000 drinking water facilities in Texas. It was my responsibility to make sure that they were done. They not only protected the environment, but they protected the economy of Texas. I sat across the table from EPA, from IBWC, from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, fighting the fight to make sure Texas was protected. Even when they disagreed, I went

to Baffert, Texas. And it has been my life's honor. My parents worked seven days a week to send me to UT. My father is a, well, he passed, is a Korean War veteran. And so it's my deep honor to serve as chair of the Texas Water and Development Board. I am never this emotional and I respect the legislature so much. Brian will tell you I'm the first to say that is not in the statute. We cannot do that. The first to tell you, the first to say it. I was the one, I was the one when I was at TCQ who developed the operating permit program for Texas, for Texas major sources in Texas to protect the interests of Texas.

It's always been my deep honor. And I don't mind tough questions. I never get this emotional. I can't even believe I'm saying all of this right now. And what have I done? I enjoy being a public servant. It is my life's calling. And it's very important to me. It's very important to me, the disadvantaged communities, the rural communities, I was the one who protected a hundred water systems from running out of water during the 2011 drought.

They had less than 180 days worth of water. I was the one who did that. I was the one who, and my staff, of course, who worked with the city of Wichita Falls because they didn't have any water. They put in the first direct potable reuse. Under my leadership, that was me. So for all those reasons, I have to believe that's why the governor chose me and I'm so proud of it and I thank him for that.

Let me remind Madam Chair, who appointed you to that position? The governor. And what is his name? Greg Abbott. And I'm very thankful to him. And I have such respect for the legislature, every member of the legislature. Such respect. And so I thank you for your time, Mr. Chairman and committee members.

If you have any other questions for the Water Development Award, we're here to serve you. We're here to serve the people of Texas. And I take that very seriously. Very seriously. Because I have seen what happens when people don't have water, don't have enough capacity for water. I've seen what happens to our rivers and streams. I've seen what happens when folks are in enforcement. I've seen when they don't have enough money. So we are here to help you. We're here to answer the tough questions. I don't mind the tough questions.

That's what we do. And that's who we are. We're here as public servants. And that is all I have to say. Now, Stephanie was justifiably emotional. Another black official, Edna Jackson, was also questioned. While Texas Governor Greg Abbott and other top Republicans later voiced support for Stephanie's qualifications, they didn't address the bigger issue, why two black women were forced to justify their right to lead.

With DEI under attack, this wasn't just about one hearing. It's part of a larger fight over race, power, and who gets a seat at the table. Now, this for me is not directed at Stephanie, and I understand her emotion. But let me be as clear as possible. Ain't no way in hell some racist-ass white Republican going to reduce me to tears and then force me to have to read my credentials. See, this is

what happens all the time. What happens is, and this has been the black existence. We've always had to justify our presence. When we are approached by cops, when we are questioned in meetings, we then have to recite our resume in order for the person across the table to go, Oh, I'm sorry.

And see, I ain't about that bullshit anymore. I'm not. I was having a conversation in one of the numerous chats I'm in, and folks were saying that, you know what, you know, we need to, you know, put up billboards and other things that laying out our complications. I said, no, I ain't doing none of that. I said, my position is going to be like Della Reese and Hall of Nights.

Y'all can kiss my entire ass. Wait, I ain't doing it. I'm not justifying my existence to nobody white or black or Latino or Asian or Native American. That shit ain't happening. I ain't reciting degrees. I ain't reciting degrees. I'm not going to run down how many awards I've won. I'm not going to run down who I've interviewed. I'm not going to sit here and do all those things

because, see, they still don't care. These same racist white Republicans call Judge Katonji Brown-Jackson the first black woman to sit on a Supreme Court affirmative action hire. They question the intellect and the birth certificate of President Barack Obama. You can't show me a black person in America. President, Supreme Court Justice, Attorney General, Mayor, Police Chief, Fire Chief, State Rep, State Senate, Board Appointee, you can't show me nobody black who white folks ain't never questioned.

I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated

itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad.

Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two

of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams,

NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne.

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Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

The black existence in this country is one of second-class citizenship. And so they are doing exactly what they've always done. But see, what is required, what is required in this moment is for us, and again, I understand why the sister did what she did. But I'm telling you right now,

ain't gonna be no black tears. Somebody white tries to challenge me, you can keep your punk ass moving. I ain't telling you a damn thing. I ain't justifying a damn thing. See, I told y'all whenever they had, and I know this is a long time, and I've been saying this more than 25 plus years. Actually,

this goes back to even when I was in college. Whenever there's a conversation about hiring, even, see I need y'all to recognize what happens. Matter of fact, Henry, you need to go ahead and zoom out, because I can't even sit down. Let me help y'all out with something. Black people do this too. I'm going to explain y'all what black people do. Whenever there's a conversation about qualifications, we use the word we qualify it. Even

black people, they'll say, well, we seek to hire qualified people. First of all, is it qualified assumed? So why do I need to qualify qualified? I don't need to qualify because I would assume you're not going to hire somebody who's not qualified. So I ain't going to say it.

Well, we want some qualified folks. And see, this was a budget hearing. See, y'all, too many of us are playing into their game. We're playing into their hands. So when they start dealing nonsense, I'm sorry, are we not here to discuss the budget? I don't recall anything on the agenda that had to do with hiring. Now, if y'all want to call me back to the meeting, have a further discussion when the conversation is on the budget. And then if that same racist state rep, Brian Harrison, who tried to become speaker of the house, by the way. And I would have said, oh, and if you got a problem with my resume, you go talk to the person who appointed me, your boss, the governor.

Y'all, we ain't doing this. We ain't doing this. We ain't doing this. And I'm going to need black people, doctors and lawyers and engineers to question your mere existence, I need everybody back to do this here. Every black person in America know what this mean. Everybody know. This mean, maybe I'm the move your ass on. Don't even say nothing.

Gone with that. We ain't doing that. Before I go to my panel, I'm going to give you all this story. In 2009, Obama speaks at the 100th anniversary of the NAACP convention. It was in New York at the New York Hilton. I flew on Air Force One along with some other black journalists for that speech. And when it was over, a group of us went, I think it was a bar in a hotel. I can't remember. It was either a bar in a hotel or somewhere else. And so it was Valerie Jarrett, Obama's close friend, Spike Lee, Vernon Jordan, and it may have been a couple

of other people and myself. So we sitting there just talking, chatting, doing our thing. And so some white boy, some white man, he had to borrow with a white woman. And he decides, I don't know if they were ear hustling or whatever, he decides, I don't know if they were ear hustling or whatever, he decides to just roll up on us and ask us about Obama. And I can't remember if, it may have been even before the election. I can't even remember. So it was like this, like, can y'all explain to me about him?

Some bullshit like that. It happened before the election, so I can't remember why, what the event was, why it was even there. It was in New York. Vernon joined and said, hey, we ain't doing that. Mm-mm. Now, we here among friends, but we ain't doing that right here. And it was hilarious because he was shocked. He was shocked that we did not just stop our conversation to turn to him

and then educate him on who Obama was and why he should be supported. And so, Vernon Jordan basically was like, man, you can move your ass alone. So Holmberg had a little attitude. He was shocked. And so the white woman, she decides, y'all gonna love this here,

oh my God. The white woman decides to say, well, he was just inquiring. And then, y'all, the white woman made the biggest mistake. She said, you know, you don't realize he's one of the most powerful men on Wall Street. Now, I told y'all we were sitting there with Valerie Jarrett, Spike Lee, and Vernon Jordan. Vernon Jordan said, who is he? He said, because I don't know who he is,

and I know all of the most powerful people on Wall Street. And the white woman sort of looked, then she just mows it off. And we went on our conversation. See that's white privilege. They think they can just stop your conversation to answer theirs and we're supposed to go, yes, master, master, what you need? Okay, master, we're going to answer your question. Anything else you need, master? Do you need me to warm your feet? Do you need. Okay, master, we're gonna answer your question.

Anything else you need, master? Do you need me to warm your feet? You need me to go get you some water? You need me to go brush your head? Need me to rub your back? Nah, that shit is over, y'all. Slavery ain't here. Jim Crow ain't here.

And I need more black people to learn how to tell some folk to go to hell and put them in their damn place. Because y'all, this is going to continue and they're getting bolder about it. Trump is giving them the green light.

The companies are agreeing to stop funding stuff. On the phone today, a bank agreed to support a black event. Fired the whole department and then said we rescind our letter of support. Now, enough of that. This crap ain't continuing. It ain't going to continue.

It's time for us to be bold enough to tell some folk they can go to hell with trying to question our credentials when they damn sure don't have the credentials. Derek Jackson, state rep out of Georgia, joins us right now. Joy Chaney, founder of Joy Strategies out of D.C.

Majeed Padelin, a social media influencer and writer. Glad to have you here. Hope I pronounced that correct. I'm going to start with you, Derek. I mean, look, you've been in a whole bunch of these hearings before, and I'm going to tell you right now, praise the Lord, I am not elected official because I would have cussed his punk ass

out. Roland, listen, where you are right now is where I was 9 a.m. this morning, where they had Marjorie Greene to address us in the House. And then they brought Kelly Loeffler talking about DEI. And so all the Democrats walked out, Roland, right here in Georgia. See, because they forgot they weren't in D.C.

Hold up. They sent Mario Taylor Green and Kelly Loeffler to talk to y'all today in Georgia? In Georgia. Spewing all this nonsense about DEI. And so all of us in Georgia got up out of our seat and walked out, Roland.

See, so they quickly remember, oh, my goodness, we're not in D.C., we're in Georgia. And so we are sending a message loud and clear at all levels. When they go to town hall meetings, when we're doing protests, we're out in these streets rolling, right, to tell Marjorie Greene and Kelly Loeffler and anybody else Trump wants to send down here to Georgia, we ain't D.C. And I appreciate you opening up with this morning, I mean, this afternoon, that piece there, because this whole piece about the hiring and justifying our value and our worth, as you stated,

Roland, it's been going on for a long time. It's just that the quiet parts now, Roland, is happening out loud. And so we need to make sure black and brown people need to make sure we don't have to tell, look at all my degrees. I got four degrees on my wall.

I'm a retired naval officer. We don't have to do all that, Roland. We don't have to do that. And so I appreciate you bringing this topic this evening because we have to stop justifying our value and our worth, especially after we just watched Trump's cabinet. All of them, Roland, are unfit, unqualified. They cannot even talk about meritocracy. They can't talk about qualification. They can't talk about skills. They can't talk about nothing as it relates to when it comes to us and leading a multi-billion dollar industry. They are all unfit, unqualified.

The only one I probably could nod to is Marco Rubio, and he's on shaky ground. First of all, his ass jacked up too. Majid, we ain't justifying. We ain't doing this.

We ain't doing this. Yes, absolutely, and thank you for having me on the show, Roland. It's an honor. Watching that video you shared with us had my blood boiling because, I mean, ever since I was a kid, you know, my mom told me, because you are black, you are going to have to study twice as hard. You're going to have to not be on time, but be early. Everything you do has to surpass the level that is expected of anyone else because you are Black. You are going to be judged by those standards. And so as a result, most of the people I know have had to really achieve, achieve. And in order to achieve, you have to bust your ass. And so it's like it's automatically insulting to insinuate that I'm only here because there is a quota and you needed X amount of black people.

No, no, no, no, no. I am absolutely qualified. I belong here, not because of my skin color, but because I'm qualified. And that really should be the end of that discussion. But you alluded earlier to President Obama and Katonji Brown Jackson. And really, President Obama, I think, was like patient zero in terms of the white grievance, the white grievance that, would you believe that they actually broke the seal and let a black man into the Oval Office? And they never recovered from that. There were people, you know, marching around saying, we have to take our country back. Take our country back from who? President Obama was fully American. And then they let that clown question his Americanness. And the media went along with it. And it just, it drove me crazy because here's a man, President Obama was a a man who went to Harvard, for crying out loud.

Harvard Law, he achieved. He was a state senator. And then a U.S. senator. He reached the highest, highest pinnacle of success, and they still question him. People who couldn't even pronounce their own name without stumbling are suddenly saying, oh, well, he doesn't belong there. You know? Here's the deal, though. And it was just frustrating and annoying to watch that unfold.

But here's my thing, Joy. I don't even want to go there. I don't even want to go. I don't want to bring up Harvard or Yale because see, that's still a part of the same thing. Because see, then it's like, because it's sort of like, well, let me name these white institutions. It's sort of like, well, I've worked at Goldman Sachs.

I've worked at Morgan Stanley. It's the same thing. I ain't justifying shit to them. In fact, the state rep, the state rep, I applaud her significantly. How I would have responded is like my girl did in Portsmouth, Virginia, when

they were talking about, they had a vote, Councilwoman Lucas, y'all may not remember this, I do. Watch this. Councilwoman Lucas Burke, ma'am, you have the floor thank you mayor um i did hear the information last thursday and i was quite alarmed at a time in our nation where women are misrepresented underrepresented not represented mistreated this is egregious for this

male-dominant council to make this decision today. At a time when my Delta sisters, and this is our Delta sister, is here for our Delta Day to make this kind of mockery of women is egregious. At a time in our nation when Ketanji Brown was confirmed by the Congress to be the highest ranking member in the Supreme Court and this council chooses to degrade women, I'm pissed as a—and I ain't going to say it because you know I can say it, but I'm going to be cool with it, but I'm pissed. I spoke with Woodard and I spoke with Battle and I asked them, had you heard this information? And they did not.

They said they did not. But Mr. Battle told me I won't go for it. She's been a great city manager. I'm not going to put her down. But you sat here and you lied in my face. You lied in my face, Mr. Battle. And I want you to lie to these people to say that you didn't say that. You said that this woman has done her job and she has been nothing but great to this community, which we know.

We know she has done her job. We know she has bent over backwards. We know she has looked aside to some of the votes that you have tried to have people pay you all for votes, that she looked looked aside that she could have reported. She got a lot on this council and that's why they want to get rid of her. And I hope that y'all seeing what's

happening and I hope you make your decision when November comes. I'm pissed as a motherfucker. Yeah, I'm a fan. I'm mad as a motherfucker. I am. I'm just saying, Joy, that's probably how Roe would have responded. That is definitely how you would have responded. Not trying to be funny.

That is probably how I would have responded, and I would have had to make apologies to Olivia Chaney. That is definitely... Hey, I wouldn't have had to apologize because of Terentially and Melvin Martin. They were like, you damn right, son. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time. Have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes.

But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated.

I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English.

I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner.

It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette.

MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. And I know I'm going to get a text. I'm going to get a text in about six seconds of my dad saying, you damn right, son. Well, look, you're so right. But the good news is it takes all kinds. And I love the response of the public servant in Texas. I love your response. I love the public servant we just heard from. Everyone's going to respond differently, and there's room at the table. I love it. I'm with you, though. I do think we have to have a shift in our mind where we decide that not only are we good enough, in many cases we're better,

and we don't owe additional explanation, that even the point of making an explanation is to place you in an inferior position because many times we are making an explanation to someone who, on their standards, you know, is not our equal, right? It is beneath us in every way, educationally, economically, in terms of network. And I don't like to talk like that, but those are the standards that they use, right? The only thing that they have going for them in their mind is that they're white and they cling to it. And I think sometimes we have to break it down for them and say it. So whether you call them an MF-er or whether you just quietly with dignity, you know, express your credentials, you know, I'm here for it all because we can no

longer afford, I'm so glad that she didn't just go on with her presentation as, you know, as written. Right. She decided to address head on what was being said. What I've done. I'm so glad she did that. Right. I'm just, I mean, at the end of the day, and trust me, this dovetails with our next guest. I'm going to bring my next guest up in a second.

Because it's the same thing. When somebody's just sitting here disrespecting you, you're just not going to sit there and just take the disrespect. And that's what it is. And so I just think everybody understand, when it comes to DEI, all this, we ain't dealing with this nonsense. We know these folks are full of shit.

We know they lying. We know they doing. We know they think we uppity and all this sort of stuff. And I'm telling you right now, I'm here. Y'all can kiss my ass. We we uppity and all this sort of stuff. And I'm telling you right now, I'm here. Y'all can kiss my ass. We ain't going through all this sort of stuff. Black folks done went through way more hell. The result is unqualified, grossly unqualified-ass folk.

And I'm telling you right now, see, Kelly Loeffler, Marjorie Taylor Greene, you got all unqualified-ass Peter Hexeth. You go from a four-star retired general to this fool who was a host on Fox News. You go from credential folk to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who got a worm in his head. And the man said in order for him to concentrate in college, he needed to use some heroin? No, no, we ain't doing all that. And I told you all my dad was going to text me. But, y'all, we ain't dealing with all that. And that's how I felt watching Zelinsky in the Oval Office.

I was out. I got hit with the flu. That's why I wasn't here Friday. And so I'm not 100 percent, but I'm enough. But when I watched that, it was the same thing. You haven't said thank you. And then it was over, they throw him out the White House. And all these damn white Republicans, like Zelensky, should have been kissing Donald Trump's ass. And some of them even said,

oh, he should have came in and he should have said, oh, oh, oh, oh, senor, thank you so much. You've been so wonderful, you've been so great, you've been so omnipotent, so benevolent. No! Then you get that punk-ass reporter who happened to be the boyfriend of Marjorie Taylor Greene. Uh, don't you own a suit?

Mm-hmm. Can't your ass get a facelift? who happened to be the boyfriend of Marjorie Taylor Greene. Ah, don't you own a suit? Mm-hmm. Can't your ass get a facelift? That man sitting there talking, I'm telling you, Zelinsky was nice about it. Zelinsky was nice about it. But I would have been like, I'm telling you, hey, I'm telling you, all right,

that man has been in a war for three years, and your punk ass asking him, do you own a suit? That's how arrogant these white men are. man has been in a war for three years and your punk ass asking him to get out of the suit. That's how arrogant these white men are. Let's just lay it out. What we have is we have arrogant white men who are mad

that they now have to compete with black men and black women and Latinas and Latino men and they mad they gotta compete. America has been their playground for centuries. They took it by force. They took us by force.

They sat here and forced the Chinese and the Japanese to do their bidding this has been a white nation and what they cannot handle is the diversity of the nation and as we approach 2043 they no longer going to be in power and the arrogance of these white men

is on full display I want to bring in Terrell Starr Terrell's in Ukraine he's been seeing he's seeing and hearing what of these white men is on full display. I want to bring in Terrell Starr. Terrell's in Ukraine. He's been seeing, he's there, he's seeing and hearing what they're saying. And it's the same thing. They just, you know, they want to smack him around and want him to be on bended knee when it came to aid.

And they already said, yeah, yeah, you're going to give us all your mineral rights. Again, colonizing. That's what Donald Trump and J.D. Vance want. They want to colonize Ukraine because they've got something that Tesla batteries need. And that's all this is. And I'm so glad that he said what he said,

said the way he did it, and then for them to kick him out, and then for all of the European nations to say, oh, now we see what America now is, with them two punk-ass thugs sitting in the Oval Office. Terrell, share with us what you've been seeing and hearing in Ukraine. Oh, yeah. Well, first of all, I went on the streets just to get the feedback from people about what they thought about this meeting. And everyone was really proud of Zelensky for one simple reason. I don't know how they thought that a man who literally had hit squads sent after him during the first weeks of the war. I mean, there are troops that literally touched down in downtown Kiev, not too far from me.

These people, the Russians said death squads after Zelensky. Do you really think that a man who's endured constant bombing, missile strikes, drone strikes, is going to come to the White House and be pumped by you? But did you really think that this man who was hardened by this three-year war was actually going to sit here and take it? And then another thing was so ironic about J.D. Vance saying that, oh, you need to be thankful. When he was in the Senate in 2024, he had an opportunity to vote in an affirmative of sending an aid package to Ukraine of $60 billion, which he voted against. This administration has done absolutely nothing to support Ukraine's military interests or

economic interests. And Fleck brought the idea of colonization. The way that Ukrainians see this, they look at what Trump is proposing is no different than Russia is doing, which is exploiting and further colonizing their country. And one final thing, one of the toughest, one of the conversations I've had with Ukrainians about this has been, we cannot believe that the Americans chose to elect Donald Trump into the White House. Now, I have to quickly say, no, no, no, no, no. We, as in the vast majority of Black people, did not do this, right? You know, and they're really just coming to grips about the type of American culture that exists. And then furthermore, the way that the MAGA contingency has talked about Ukraine and Ukrainians is pretty xenophobic.

And the only difference between the ways in which the MAGA administration, because he has talked about Ukraine and Ukrainians, it's pretty xenophobic. And the only difference between the ways in which the MAGA administration, because he talks about them as being freeloaders, about, you know, these are people who are taking away from America being great again, which is really all he's saying is that he's taking money that should be going to white people is going to Ukraine. And actually, that's actually incorrect because people don't know how budgets work. But essentially, the way that Donald Trump describes immigrants, the way that he describes, you know, Haitians eating dogs and cats, Mexicans coming over across the border to take your jobs and to abuse your daughters, Trump really took the

language of racism and converted it into xenophobia in order to turn America public against Ukrainians. And so Ukrainians are now starting to feel that, and they know what's up now. But it's a big shock to them because the America that they thought exists didn't. And they see that because of the man that many Americans voted into the White House. Well, and I think that what you also are witnessing, again, you are witnessing how transactional he is. He doesn't care. He doesn't care about the country. He doesn't care about the people. And so this is no shock in terms of their behavior. And the bottom line is Zelensky cannot trust Donald Trump. To watch all these Republicans and the administration go out and parrot Russian propaganda,

they are literally doing the bidding of Putin, every single one of them. You got that punk-ass Lindsey Graham who has no integrity, no morals, no values, no ethics, no nothing. Okay, same thing. no morals, no values, no ethics, no nothing, okay? Same thing. How in the hell does he sit in a meeting? There's a video of how he's praising Zelensky that morning, but then all of a sudden, oh, that was a master class. These people cannot be trusted,

and so Europe clearly has to recognize that America is no longer the leader of, the president of the United States, based upon the occupant now, is no longer the leader of the president of the United States based upon the occupant. Now it's no longer the leader of the free world. He is absolutely a Putin Russian asset. He absolutely is. And so another thing with Lindsey Graham, he was saying that Zelensky needs to step down. Well, I was another conversation that I had with people here, and they were deeply

offended by that. And, you know, the way that—the phrase that one Ukrainian person told me was, Zelensky is family business. We can talk about him all we want, but you can't. You can't tell us who we choose to be our president. Now, to be clear, Zelensky, his approval ratings are hovering around 50 to 60 percent, depending on which poll you're looking at. But it is true that he's really unpopular on a wide range of issues, including the travel ban. Men between the ages of 18 and 60 are not allowed to leave the country. That's very unpopular. Even though Ukraine has done much better on the corruption index data from 10 years ago, it's still an issue. There are a number of problems in this country that people are really upset with Zelensky about. But one thing that they

definitely stand behind is a man who decided not to leave. He was famously quoted as saying, I need a lift. I need ammunition, not a ride. And so they're going to always ride for him. And so when Lindsey Graham suggested that maybe he ought to step down, one, they were deeply offended because who are you to tell us that? And number two, there was a presumption that whoever would replace Zelensky would be more amicable to agreeing to a peace settlement with Russia. I don't know who that elected official is. And I think that I'm pretty plugged in and know who's who.

There is no elected official here or anybody that would be a candidate for president that could replace Zelensky that would actually agree with Donald Trump. In fact, they may be more adversarial and aggressive. And so I think that what the Europeans are realizing is that, one, there is a real possibility that America is going to create some kind of Brexit environment and that they will leave NATO. And so the security infrastructure of the transatlantic alliance will be over. How does it affect us? And that's the number one question. Well, one, the whole idea about NATO is that it's a buffer zone. The more countries that are NATO-aligned, the more streamlined and the more centralized the military is and can quickly adapt and adjust and defend the continent and therefore the waters between the United States and then the United States continent.

There is a reason why we have never had a war in modern times on our continent. That is because of NATO. Furthermore, if you also—and what's really important, and no one has ever thought about this, once the Europeans believe that America cannot be relied upon, there are a whole bunch of defense contractors, major corporations that sell billions upon billions of dollars of arms and fighter jets and Horwitzers and other platforms to the world, especially into Europe. If they realize that you have that, Americans will consistently elect someone as unstable as Trump. They're going to create their own military industrial industry, and they're going to be less reliant on contractors.

And you know who that's going to affect? That's going to affect small towns across America, and that's going to really impact local officials who depend on these contractors to fill their coffers with millions of dollars. And they're going to get upset. But here's the thing. I'm not sure that even people thought this deeply about this and the possibility of that really happening. It will take time. Yeah. They didn't think about it because they saw Donald Trump as their savior, pure and simple.

And so that's why we got shirts that say F.A.F.O. 2025. And they all about to learn, man. They all about to learn. And so, listen, Europe needs to handle their business. They cannot trust. I wouldn't trust Trump and J.D. Vance with a single piece of intelligence with data. That's like talking to Putin. And so I wouldn't have no conversations with them at all. Terrell, we appreciate, man. Great coverage. We'll stay in contact with you because trust me, this will be not the last time we talk about this. Absolutely. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. To my panel, look, I mean, I don't care what we're talking about. These people are actively destroying the country.

Look, when you talk about how they're targeting DEI, all different things. Now you got Peter Hexeth. He's directing the Army public affairs officials to eliminate content related. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time. Have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.

Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st.

And episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne.

We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette.

MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.

And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Thank you. left and right, and we can go on and on and on, all things that they're doing. You look at also what's happening with Trump announcing these tariffs to Mexico and Canada, economy, stock market is dropping like a rock, everything else. And so, guess what? All these people, all these people, Joy, y'all, if they voted for him, y'all get what y'all want. The Fed had announced that they expected a 3% increase in the American economy. Now they're projecting, because of the first month of this fool Trump and Elon Musk, a negative 2.5% growth of the U.S. economy. And so I'm just, listen, MAGA orange tears. Roe just sitting here going.

Exactly. And the other thing is, they don't know how to survive. We know how to survive. We'll be hurt, too. No one's gloating over this. But they will be hurt. And that's why they're...

I don't know if you saw the white woman who did all her body weight. She did an old-fashioned protest where they had to physically lift her out of there. I'm like, yeah. Why not? I mean, they need to be as upset as we were on election night,

and they are only at the beginning. But you're right about Europe. I have to say that, you know, for the whole world, they're going to have to step into the gap that's been left by the United States. We have—the stranger is in the House. We have a problem. We have been infiltrated by Russia, much like Ukraine, but in a different way, not physically,

but in terms of—or boots on the ground, but in terms of our social media, in terms of our election, and ultimately in the White House to the president of the United States and through his sidekick, Elon Musk, or maybe he's the sidekick. We have a problem, and we're going to have to focus on it. We're also going to have to focus on how we could have been such a weak host that we could have been taken over by a parasitic force. Well, but again, they wanted this. Again, they played footsie.

This is what they wanted. Majeed, it's a game with these people. And they, after all, they about to find out. I mean, it's happening. I don't know what these people are thinking. Prices ain't going down. Prices ain't going down. Okay. Egg prices going up. They about to, when they, these tariffs, I can't wait till they wake up tomorrow at 930. When they ring that bell, oh, they, it's going to hit them. And so guess what's going to be going to happen? We already see it. Companies are choosing

not to even build because they know they're going to lose money with the tariffs. Auto industry is saying, yo, y'all want to add 12 grand to every car. Guess what? My car is paid off. You know what, Roland? Joy said we're not really gloating, but you can speak for yourself because I'm kind of gloating a little bit. And I know that I'm going to experience the pain also, but at least I have the pleasure of knowing that I was right. And, like, I'm very active on Twitter and I'm frequently tweeting, like, we told you so. Because, I mean, first of all, we put a criminal back into the White House, a guy who was a convicted felon, who was an adjudicated rapist, and a guy who, you know, they voted for him, they say, because he's a businessman. But he, for crying out loud, he bankrupted, he was bankrupt six times,

and several of those were a casino. Who loses money on a casino? Yeah, you got to be pretty damn dumb. The guy made promises over and over that he was unable to keep. Oh, we're going to have a health care plan in two weeks. Two weeks came and went many times over. He can't keep his promises. And it will never not be absurd and obscene to me that he entered into unilateral negotiations with Vladimir Putin over the country that he tried to extort. He was impeached for trying to extort Vladimir, excuse me, Vladimir Zelensky. It is obscene. And I feel like we're watching, you know how you're watching a movie sometimes and you see somebody go towards, you're watching a horror movie, you see somebody go towards a door that

there's growling coming from behind that door and you're screaming at the screen, don't go in that door. And they're like, I'm going to go in this door. That's how this feels. You're like watching this unfold in slow motion, and it almost feels like you're powerless to do something about it. But I would say we're not powerless. I am enjoying watching these town halls, people getting loud and getting mad frequently. This is where we need to be because Democrats don't have votes to do anything about it. So you know what? Let's be loud. Let's be loud all the time. In fact, they, of course, Trump then complained that, oh, they're sending out the paid protesters to our events. And I love this one.

I saw Eric Erickson going, these are Democrats showing up. They forget that they're also Democrats who are living in the districts. So I'm like, what are y'all talking about? Here's Congressman Hakeem Jeffries addressing this very issue. Just got back to the Capitol. Another day, another lie from these people who are out of control. I'm told that Donald Trump, Mike Johnson and the extreme American Republicans are claiming that Democrats are sending paid protesters into their town hall meetings.

What's wrong with y'all? What's wrong with y'all? What's wrong with y'all? You don't need to send paid protesters into your town hall meetings. The American people are with us all across the country. People are rising up to push back against the assault on the economy, the assault on hard work and families, the assault on our democracy, and the assault on Medicaid. We don't need paid protesters, bro. The American people are with us. Just got back to the Capitol another day. I mean, here's the bottom line. Republicans, Democrat, independent, gay, straight, white, black, they're all upset. The reason why is because they start to feel the same pain that we were trying to warn everybody about Project 2025. But now they're starting to see the reality of Project 2025. Not only are NATO alliances at risk, but there are

some other things right here domestically going to be at risk. I mean, when you start to deconstruct FEMA, for example, when we start to have these hurricanes and tornadoes in another month or so, it's going to start washing out all that beachfront property. Guess who lives in that beachfront property where there's no FEMA dollars? They just told the National Weather Organization. They fired 150 people. But guess what they do, Roland? They just told the National Weather Organization. They fired 150 people. Well, guess what they do, Roland?

They're the ones that inform us about the hurricanes and the tsunamis, right? They're deconstructing FDIC, something that's been around since 1933. Why did we have to create the FDIC to begin with? Because folks made a run on the bank. Oh, they also just gave access to HUD, to Elon Musk. Why would you give access to Elon Musk to HUD, Social Security, Treasury, all these sensitive information data banks that has 272 million citizens, all our personal information. I'm telling you, Roland, this is going to get worse. This is not like any time before. We're starting to have mumps and measles outbreak. And CDC right here in Georgia cannot tell us when we call them up what's going on with mumps and measles. They cannot even inform. They cannot even come to compliance to our request about information as it relates to outbreaks and viruses and bacteria because this administration, they do not care about anyone. And that includes these Republicans that are showing up in these town hall

meetings right up the street rolling. That was all Republicans that told this Republican congressman to do his freaking job. Yep. Hey, I'm going to tell y tell you right now, y'all, this is a moment called fight. This is a fight moment. This is not a go along and get along. I believe that Democrats shouldn't show up tomorrow.

All this, well, we're the opposition. No, I wouldn't sit there stone face. Matter of fact, I'm telling you right now, if you a Democrat and you're going to show up for the speech tomorrow, this is exactly what you need to do. You need to be in your seat. And then when that fool stay, if you don't want to walk out, because, see, I couldn't listen to his ass.

I walk out, because see, I couldn't listen to his ass. I walk out, okay? If your ass stand up, and when he stands up to speak, you should do this here. And matter of fact, you should wear a hoodie that back says you lying. Your hoodie should say your ass lying. That's what you should do. Because y'all remember when Biden was there, old crazy ass Martin Taylor Greene showed up in a trucker's hat, all right, looking like a damn fool. Yo, you cannot normalize these people. And I hope

more people show up at these town halls. I hope more people ride their ass. You got Elon Musk lying, oh, we saved $55 billion. Y'all, they realized one contract was $144,000. They went back 2005.

That's 20 years ago. Y'all, they lying. They're lying. And so all the federal workers will be getting fired. Y'all should be pushing back. Everybody should be pushing back. See, that's why tomorrow, tomorrow, we're going to have coverage right here. But, y'all, we ain't having that nonsense on MSNBC or that nonsense you're going to see on CNN where they normalizing that punk.

Nah, we ain't doing that. I can't do that. And so we're going to have the blackest show tomorrow night at all these joints. And y'all know how we're going to do it. In fact, I got to show y'all this here these joints, and y'all know how we gonna do it. In fact, I gotta show y'all this here. Man, this is crazy as hell. If y'all wanna know why y'all don't even need to waste y'all time with these networks,

man, do y'all know what MSNBC's gonna look like tomorrow night? Do y'all know what they're gonna look like tomorrow night? Lily White. No, I'm about to show you right here. MSNBC sent this out. Join us

for their coverage on Tuesday night. Oh, no. I said Lily White. I said Lily White. Where's Michael Steele? I mean, damn. Where's Michael Steele? Damn. Lily White. I said Lily White. Where's Michael Steele? I mean, damn. Damn. My goodness.

Where's Eugene Daniels? Hey, he ain't gonna be there. He ain't gonna be there. But what I would say, though, to those people, and I some of them came out and supported Joy, and they came out and supported the people of color who were anchors.

But what I would do is I could not show up. I would have said to them, you would have to fire all of us because we're not coming on the air. That's what support would look like. Here's my whole deal. No, no, no, no. Here's my whole deal.

We don't need their ass. We don't, but damn it. No, no, no, no. Here's my whole deal. We don't need they ass. We don't. But damn it. No, no, no. MSNBC has the most black views in any network. Y'all, we don't need they ass. Tell them. Holler at y'all later. Everybody who's watching right

now, I want y'all go to my Instagram, go to all my social media. Y'all pull up what we're doing tomorrow night. If y'all want to see representation, tomorrow night, tomorrow night, we're live at 7 p.m. Eastern. We're streaming the blackest show

out there. The blackest show out there where we're going to be breaking down all of the relevant information that's going down tomorrow night with the speech. Y'all ain't going to watch MSNBC. Y'all ain't going to turn them networks

on. They don't give a damn about us anyway, so don't waste your time. Tell everybody. We want to have 100,000 folks watching us live. We're going to have panels dealing with labor. We're going to have panels dealing with civil rights, economic rights, business, millennials. We're going to have panels dealing with labor. We're going to have panels dealing with civil rights, economic rights, business, millennials.

We're lining folks up. I'm going to show you right now. Come on. Go to my iPad. Let's go. Y'all, listen. One of our panelists, Mustafa Santiago Ali, he's going to be with us. Recy Colbert, she's going to be with us.

Dr. Greg Carr, he's going to be with us. Tiffany Lofton, she's going to be with us. Tiffany Lofton, she's gonna be with us. Uh, Brea Baker, she's gonna be with us. Jameer Burley, she's gonna be with us. Y'all, we gonna be killing this thing. Of course, Gavin Reynolds, he's gonna be with us. And of course, when Trump speaks, we ain't carrying that bullshit,

because I can't let that man lie to y'all. When he goes live, we going live with Reverend Dr. William J. Barber. He's going to be giving us the keynote speech. He's going to be giving out the State of Our Union live from Philadelphia. He's going to be at Philadelphia

Episcopal Cathedral broadcasting live. We're going to come back here. Yo, it's going to be lit on the Black Star Network, because see, over here, unlike MSNBC and CNN and Fox News and ABC and CBS. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time. Have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes.

But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad.

It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast.

Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves.

Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA

fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Angie Stone, who he tragically lost Saturday at the age of 63. That's next. Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Support our work. Join our Bring the Funk fan club. Of course, you want to contribute to us via Cash App. Use the Stripe QR code. It's right here.

If you're listening, go to BlackStarNetwork.com. You can also, of course, check your money order at PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. PayPal, R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo, RM Unfiltered. Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Short break. We'll be right back. We begin tonight with the people who are really running the country right now. Trump is often wrong and misleading about a lot of things, but especially about history.

Donald Trump falling in line with President Elon Musk. In the wake of the unsettling news that MSNBC has canceled Joy Ann Reith's primetime show, The Readout, Roland Martin and the Black Star Network would like to extend an invitation to all of the fans of Joy Ann Reith's MSNBC show to join us every night to watch Roland Martin unfiltered, streaming on the Black Star Network

for news, discussion of the issues that matter to you and the latest updates on the twice-impeached, criminally convicted felon-in-chief Donald Trump and his unprecedented assault on democracy, as well as co-president Elon Musk's takeover of the federal government. The Black Star Network stands with Joy Ann Reid and all folks who understand the power of black voices in media. We must come together and never forget that information is power.

Be sure to watch Roland Martin Unfiltered weeknights, 6 p.m. Eastern at youtube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin or download the Blackstar Network app. Hey, this is Motown recording artist Kim. You are watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Boy, he always unfiltered, though. I ain't never known him to be filtered. Is there another way to experience Roland Martin than to be unfiltered? Of course he's unfiltered. Would you expect anything less?

Watch what happens next. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Anything less? Watch what happens next. ¶¶ Man, many of us woke up on a Saturday morning with the tragic news that R&B giant Angie Stone died in a vehicle crash as she was traveling in Alabama. This is a video of her last performance. She was in Montgomery, Alabama on Friday night. They left Montgomery that morning. They were headed to Baltimore, where she was going to perform in halftime at the CIAA basketball tournament. Yet the sprinter that she was in, along with nine other members, flipped, was hit by an 18-wheeler. And this was some video that a passerby took, not even reckoning realizing that it was Angie Stone.

And of all the folks who were in that sprinter, she was the only one who passed away. Such, again, again, tragic, tragic news for just so many people. And according to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, the Sprinter van she was in was involved in this crash in Montgomery. Around 425 a.m., the van had crashed and overturned an I-65 before a freightliner, Cascadia semi-truck, crashed into it. Angie was known for her ability to blend old school soul with contemporary rhymes. Her voice, songwriting, and sheer artistry bridged the gap between classic soul and modern R&B. Some said neo-soul. Her fans got a chance to really get to know her when she starred in the second season of R&B Divas on TV One.

Joining me now are two of those musical giants who appeared on the show with her, Nikki Gilbert-Daniels of the group Brownstone, and also Monifa. Monifa, I'm going to start with you. Man, it was, for so many people, obviously, it was Sutton. That was so stunning. You know, Angie was always out there. She was always sending me videos on DM on Instagram that she came across that she wanted you to check out.

I last saw her at TV One's Urban One Honors, and we always talked trash because she swore she was the baddest Spades player. And I was like, oh, Angie, I'm going to hurt your feelings. Every time we saw each other, we would go at it over Spades, and I was like, Angie, I got a deck of cards in my backpack. We can go. I hate the fact that we never got a chance to play spades. But Angie was a regular sister.

She wasn't bougie. She wasn't tripping. She was straight down home, South Carolina. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. You know, it's very interesting. When I heard on Saturday, like it just didn't land. I don't even think it still has landed. And but I thought about how long I've been in that meeting Angie for the first time, actually, through Nikki Gilbert and working with Nikki for so long on first on Soul Kitties Cabaret, which is where Angie and I first worked together and got we got to know one another.

And I'm like, my God god it's been so long and um and then being in this you know sharing the space and I I can speak for myself in this pivotal moment in my career um doing R&B Divas um reintroducing myself to a new generation, sharing my story. And actually, you know, in this sisterhood, in this bubble with Angie was very, very, very, very interesting and important, I believe, because Angie's a team player. She was all about sisterhood, all about the collective. She wasn't singular-minded. And she always had a word for you.

And she was an amazing talent, period. And obviously before R&B, I mean, she was one of the pioneers of hip-hop and one of the first female hip-hop stars. Everybody talks about Queen Latifah, MC Lyte, and others. Not to take anything away from them, but Angie was before they were. She's the shoulders. She's the shoulders for all the female, you know, lyricists. She is definitely an integral part of hip-hop, period.

Hands down. What would you say, I mean, all the times y'all spit together wildest or funniest moment? Because one, she loved to laugh. Oh, yes, definitely. I mean, absolutely.

Angie was funny. Like, you know, I mean, Angie was actually very funny. Like, you know, I mean, Angie was actually very funny. And, you know, taping a show like R.M.E. Divas, I mean, you know, there's it's a it's a fishbowl. It's like this pressure cooker situation. So there were we had moments, you know, personality clashes. It was honest. We got, you know, we had some tough moments and we got through them. You know, she's human. We were human

and we were able to still come through in love and with respect. And the last time I was with Angie, we did the reunion for the Urban Honors. And I was, I walked out with her. You know, she had just gotten out of the hospital.

Pardon me. She had just gotten out of the hospital. And I ended up, you know, walking out with her as we did the song. And I just never thought that that would be the last time. And it's like starting to hit me. So I'm just like, good God. You know, I was really, really, really shocked. And it broke my heart. It broke my heart to hear how she went.

And I'm just praying for her family and her children and her loved ones and everybody that supported her. I think suffice to say, I mean, that's the case for a lot of us. I was at the award show. You're right. It was great to see all of y'all together.

I saw her and we kept talking about, again, we were talking trash about Spade. Spade. And did not catch up with her when she had left before I got a chance to get a photo with her. But it was, and I pulled up, because last, like I said, she always sent me videos on Instagram

because she was just always involved. But truly, truly, it was a great system. So, Monifa, we appreciate you sharing your thoughts with us. Thank you for having me, Roland. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. I'm going to now turn to Nikki Gilbert.

Nikki, glad to have you here with us as well. Again, just. I love you. I love you, Mo. I have to say that. I love you if you're still there. I love you so much. Sorry. It's... She wasn't just for a lot of fans,

obviously. People loved her music. But for y'all, I mean, she was indeed a sister. Yes, indeed. Absolutely. Angela Laverne Brown-Williams Stone, my sister. Which is rare in this industry to have people that you really bond with like that because so many relationships are so transactional. But Angie was my sister friend in every sense of the word. And I love her and I'm going to miss her for the rest of my life um when we for again personality i i and folk may be around the same age but why did angie always think she was somebody's mama you know what it was more rolling it was more big sister vibes from angela it was more from angie I'm sorry. Angie B as I, as I liked to call her.

It was definitely more big sister vibes because like Monifa said, um, Angie always understood the importance of the unity and being together as sisters and loving on each other. She would always be like, let that go. That's not important. She always had a word. Angie always had a word. She was an old soul. And Angie didn't have brothers and sisters, right? So when she loved on you and she called you a part of her family, that's exactly who and what you were. So, you know, her actions definitely spoke louder than her words, no pun intended. When you think back to all the moments y'all spent together, what jumps out?

When I think back to all the moments that Angie and I spent together, I would say what jumps out at me most, I'm sorry, when I think back at the moments we spent together, what jumps out at me most is constantly, like I said, and I think Mo said this as well, wanting us to be better, wanting us to get the respect that we deserved, wanting us to be unified, wanting us to be sisters in real life, not just in the industry. And Angie will break out some holy water and a prayer and a Bible on you in a minute. We used to laugh and joke about that, but Angie was always putting God in every situation and always bringing that spirituality to every situation. So what I

remember most is how she would always come into the space and bless us and pray for us. I remember praying with Angie and laughing with Angie more than anything. Um, everybody has favorites in terms of songs. What did you love to hear her sing? Oh, my God, No More Rain, period. Hands down. I'm a Motown girl, so for anybody to be able to have a little of that Gladys sample in there and also have the soul.

Angie was, she just had such a soulful voice. She was, um, you know, like good food, good cooked soul food. And just, she was in a pocket. Angie Stone had a pocket like no other. It's like she could sing Hickory Dickory Dock in her Angie Stone way. And it was going to be a vibe. I met her almost 30 years ago when she was in Vertical Hole. It's no question about what she brought to that group.

And just soulful. But No More Rain is my she brought to that group. And just soulful. But No More Rain is my, that's my one. I like that one. Obviously, brother, $20. Tyler Perry posted that he said he would, often he would be writing, he would play $20. Yes. Because we remind him.

But I love from her, of course, Mahogany is so easier said than done. I just love the jam on that. And the thing about, so I was sitting doing some work last night at home getting over the flu. And I just played, I just press play. And so many, Angie did not have a lot of fast songs, but when you, that's what I'm about to say,

when you say it in the pocket, it was like, cause, so, she, I love, I was, I would just, again, I just press play, and probably about 30 songs played, and so, wasn't fast, there were a few that were slow, but they were like, just pressed play, and probably about 30 songs played. And so it wasn't fast. There were a few that were slow, but they were like just right there, just. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time,

have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company

dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st

and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. I'm Greg Glott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player,

Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette.

MMA fighter Liz Caramouch. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. In that groove, in that groove. And yes, as you say, in the pocket. Yes, indeed. I wish I didn't miss you with a little tempo. It was a little tempo right there. Oh, yeah, yeah. But again, everybody has obviously a different styles, but, uh, sometimes you, you just want to just chill. Uh, and again,

you ain't, you ain't trying to slow jam and then you ain't trying to sweat. You ain't trying to slow down. You ain't trying to sweat, but you just want to just chill with it. Right. Right. And we always have that. And, and, you know, that's why I want to just chill with it. Right. Right. And we always have that. And you know, that's why I want to encourage people. I know that she's not with us in the physical, but Angie, her voice, her music, her vibe, her soul, her pocket is always going to be there. We didn't, we haven't lost that, you know?

And it's going to take a minute for everybody to really process it. I'm still just kind of like Monifa in a state of this isn't real. But it is. And but she left us with some great, great music and great energy and great vibes and real sisterhood. And that's so important. And I was again, I was when I was texting Tyler, I was texting some others. You know, I said I said the thing that's important for us,

and I always say this, is hashtag live life, love it. You got to, I mean, every day, every moment, you can't assume. If somebody crosses your mind, oh, you know what, man, I'll call him tomorrow. No, no, no, no. You call them today. Yep. You call him today. Yep. You call him in that moment. If they come across your mind, you pick the phone, you call them right then. Yes, sir.

That's what you got to do. Yeah, and that's what I appreciate about Angie. I was just thinking about you. I just wanted to call you, tell you I love you. Wasn't always business, you know. It was just I'm checking on you. How you doing? Indeed, indeed. Nikki, we appreciate it. Thanks for joining us. Thank you for having'm checking on you. How you doing? Indeed, indeed. Nikki, we appreciate it. Thanks for joining us.

Thank you for having me. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I'm going to go to Juba Saeed. He was the executive producer of R&B Divas on TV One. Juba, glad to have you here. Good to see you. Just your thoughts on the fact that here we are having to remember the great Angie Stone. Yeah, I when I heard the news, obviously I was in shock.

I I had to make a few phone calls because you never know when the news is just, you know, Internet speculation or hearsay. So the first thing I did was just send out a text to my group of folks at TV One, who we all shared a lot of time with, with Angie, and who we, you know, whether we were in publicity or in the creative space like I was, really wanted to know that this was true. And that got confirmed. So it definitely hit hard.

And we had conversations internally because of um how close it uh we were on that show um what what was what what what made her different from the other artists on that show because everybody sort of brought a different sort of perspective you know what i think there was a level of maturity that Angie brought. You know, when we first started RMBD, one of the things that we were proud of is that we were saying, we're going to be the reality show where the people on the reality show have a lot of talent, right? And that was kind of, you know, back then it was like all these people with no talent. And I didn't believe in that because I worked. Man, you had people with shows who were on wives. They weren't even wives.

Right, exactly. So, you know, we were proud of the show. We were able to get this collection of amazing women together for this show. We were proud of that. But what it turns out is when you get a lot of alpha folks together, and whether they be housewives or RBD, there's going to be some turmoil. And there was that. But when Angie showed up, there was immediate mutual respect given

by all the other ladies because of her history of music, because of the way she carries herself, because of the way she speaks. And I think that's what made her different amongst the other women. Of course. I mean, there were different people in different shows. Look at my iPad. You know, when they visited, my news one now said

it was Nikki, it was Mo, it was Angie, and I can't remember. I think Kiki was late to that one. I can't remember. So, yes, Kiki was probably late.

But it was... But again, you're right, from a maturity standpoint. And again, this was somebody who brought a much different personality, a vibe. And I think so many people just appreciated, as I keep saying, her down-homeness, if you will. Yeah, you know, whenever she walked in, I remember the first time, everybody walks in, when she walks in, everybody starts singing her songs. And she, because of the kind of heart she had,

she never got sick of it. She sang along with you, with whatever song you're singing, whether it was Black Brother, which was one that a lot of people would sing whenever she walked in the room, and she would chime right on. She was completely humbled by it. You know, sometimes I always wonder because an artist might sing a song 100,000 times and it felt like she never got sick of that song. She never got sick of the other songs that people would sing when she walked into the room because it was a celebration of her and her talent and the way that she, the energy she gave out. And I'm guilty of it, too.

I was happy to be guilty of it. And I was always nervous because I'm like, I don't want to offend. But listen, she welcomed that kind of energy every time. Indeed, indeed. So, I mean, she's going to be missed, as Nikki said, has left a significant body of music that we can always enjoy for eternity. But still, we'll miss that big smile and that big hug. And I'll miss all that trash talking she said when it came to stage.

She was that girl. I remember there's one thing I still carry with me today that it's a little innocuous, but she was about her business. And in negotiations to get her on the show, she was about her business. And in negotiations to get her on the show, she was about her business. And when we first sat down after she signed, one of the things she said to me, and it always stuck with me, and I might misstate it a little bit. She goes, the deal ain't good until it's signed on the wood. And I repeat that to myself because of

everything that we do in our business, you know, oh, so-and-so is going to work with you, or this is going to happen, that's going to happen. It ain't happen until the deal is signed on the wood and I got that from Ang. Absolutely, absolutely. Doc, I appreciate it.

Thank you, Roland. I appreciate you, man. Thanks a bunch. I'm going to go to my panel right now and get their thoughts

and perspective and we're going to get Anthony Hamilton on the line also reaching out to Calvin Richardson. First and foremost, Joy, favorite Angie Stone song? Brother. I mean, that song is beautiful.

And I know that we were having a graduation party, and we had like a video uh and it was it was for a young man who was graduating and we played that song um it is a beautiful song and frankly you know sometimes we overlook our black men and we don't always show how much we love them um the world doesn't show how much that you know that they are loved And so this song was an ode to them. And this beautiful black woman singing it, I mean, it is just, it was just so meaningful. It still is. I was going through a bunch of, Derek,

I was going through a bunch of different photos. And I came across, this is from 2016, the Tom Joyner cruise. That is not Drewski. So that is actually me. So those of us who were on the Tom Joyner morning show, my man, the costume designer, Tom would pick different themes. And so they had me dressed up that particular year. First of all, let me see on this panel

who could name who I was dressed as. I'ma see if y'all, what y'all got panel? Ooh. I wanna guess Sidney Poitier from Uptown Stars. Ah, ah, yeah, okay, you got the movie. It was the Bill Cosby character. I want to guess Sidney Poitier from Uptown Saturday Night. All right. Okay, you got the movie. It was the Bill Cosby character. Oh.

The Bill Cosby character. Okay. The Bill Cosby character. Now, him in the control room, his ass old. Him was like, oh, that's Mongo Slade. So you know he know. See? So see that?

See right there? That's what you use to test black people in a black card if they saw Uptown Saturday Night. Joy was hiding like, oh, Lord, Lord, oh, my God. I saw you hiding, Joy. Joy, uh-huh. See, Joy one of them new Negroes, see. Joy is younger.

No, see, for Joy, black cinema started with Love Jones. Exactly. You know, they can't go back. They can't go back to Uptown Saturday Night, Let's Do It Again. Can't go back to Cooley High, Car Wash. Yeah,

them new Negroes started Love Jones. Actually, Car Wash. Car Wash. Yeah. With the big afro. Come on. Now, yeah. With the big afro. Come on. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

So. With the fish in the heels. Come on, man. Come on. Come on. So, Derek, your thoughts on Angie Stone? Listen, I met Angie when I first retired from the Navy. And my business partner at the time wanted to get into concert promotion.

And this was in 2004, 2005. And he said, hey, you know, maybe we can get Angie Stone to be the headliner because he wanted to do this R&B and comedy type thing. And she was open to it. And, man, down to earth. And I know a lot of folks, Roland, you know, try to put Angie in this box. But there's a reason why we say neo-soul. There's a reason why we say mahogany soul. There's a reason why we say that she can rap

and down to earth because that was Angie Stone. She was that sister that will sit down and play spades with you, like you said. Just talk about what was going on in Atlanta or South Carolina or wherever you are. She was that sister that was just down to earth. And you asked what was the favorite song. My favorite song that Angie was Brother as well, because she wanted to acknowledge us, that this world that was beating down brothers, she didn't care if you made six figures or one figure or a nickel. She wanted to acknowledge that we are black men

who give to this society, those who carried the briefcase, and those who did not. And that's the reason why Brother was one of my favorite songs, because if you ever had a chance to meet Angie Stone, that tribute meant something, especially as a black man. And I've been looking for the video when we were on the town of Gerona Cruz. What she did was when she sang that, she had all these brothers come on stage,

and it was like a conga line. It was just a long, so literally the line just kept moving the whole time as she performed it. Marjit? Roland, I got to keep it real with you. I have not had the pleasure of familiarizing myself with Angie Stone. Oh, see, you got to lock yourself in the room now. See, you got to, when the show's over, you need to lock yourself in the room,

and you just need to go ahead, and I don't care what streaming service you use cause her music gonna blow you away. You gotta do that doc. I'm looking forward to it because the tributes that I've heard today are just absolutely beautiful. So absolutely, I definitely look forward to hearing her music. The thing, and we're again, y'all let me know. We got Anthony Hamilton so we can holler at him.

I mean, like so many artists, Joy, she was recently on video talking about her battle over her royalties, over the music. And you heard you would talk about being about business. Play that video here. This is Angie right here. Hey, what's up, family? It's your girl Angie Stone. I did an impromptu this morning. Happy holidays. I'm just going to wait for some people to get in here, some stuff I need to talk about. I didn't go about it the set up way mainly because I've been dealing with a lot the last month, a whole lot.

And I'm just here to let you know I am so outdone with things that have been going on in and around me. And because we're at the end of 2024, I kind of just want to shut it down. Looking forward to 2025. I want y'all to go like and share. Get some people on this live. Mainly because I'm about to reveal some stuff that you know lord just told me to talk about today going out of this year going into a new year i need to bring you guys up to speed with some things that i've kept very personal and to myself some things I wanted to share and other things I didn't want to share. But now I'm okay to reveal some things that are probably going to shock some people.

So I'm going to give you a little bit more time to get some people in here because it was a lot for me to get on here and do this. I mean, this last month has been trying. First out, I want to shout out all the people in Detroit. I had a show that was supposed to be with Music Soulchild child Marsha Ambrosia. Shout out to Raheem Devon for standing in for me. So, yeah, that was one of the last IG VIT Lives that Angie did for, of course, the tragic news on Saturday. We have not gotten further reports from Alabama State Police

regarding cause of the accident or anything along those lines. Control room, look for, go to our discussion. I'm hitting y'all right now for y'all to call Calvin Richardson. Of course, you know, he did one of the, give me one second. I'm sending y'all his number right now. Do, do, do. Okay. Y'all got it. So let's, let's get. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.

Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company

dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad.

Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast.

Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams,

NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of

what this quote-unquote drug ban. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things.

Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to

Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Alvin Richardson on FaceTime if we can, or Skype. So y'all got the number. Give him a call right now. Plus, folks, we had Anthony Hamilton. He was picking his kids up.

We had him live. Obviously, we're trying to get him back on as well. Raheem Devon. Raheem Devon, give me one second. Anthony, give me one second. Calvin is hitting me. All good. All right, he's hitting me again, but we're good.

All right, so that's fine. I told him his calling. Let's see here. Is that who we got? All right, cool. So in a second, we're going to pull up Calvin Richardson. Y'all know, of course, one of those great songs he did with Angie off that Mahogany Soul album, which is just unbelievable. And so it's always good.

So let's go right. Can I wait for someone to join? Can I make one comment? Real quick, I'm about to go to Calvin Richardson. Really quickly, one of the best parts about the Brothers song was that not all of the men she shot out, not only were they blue collar, white collar, et cetera, some of them were incarcerated.

And I loved that line. It showed that we all have value, not just black men. Everyone does. And, I mean, just a beautiful person that would have thought to be that intentional. Absolutely, absolutely. Folks. Calvin Richardson did a song with Angie called more than a woman. A lot of folks remember that he joins us right now. Calvin,

glad to have you here. I hate under these circumstances, but we're paying our tribute to a truly beautiful sister, Angie stone. Man, it's a pleasure to be talking to you again, Roland. Like you said, not so much under these conditions, but Angie was a special lady to me. We were very close, and I'm still shaken by the incidents, by the loss. Y'all, again, y'all mixed it up in the studio, made some great music.

You've done stuff with a lot of different artists, but what made her so special? You know, the one thing, rolling out of everybody that I've met that's in the industry, I work with so many people, and a lot of them was through her, her introduction, man. But the one thing about Angie,

if she was for you, she was for you. If there was one person in the world that I know that was pro-Calvin Richardson and wanted to see me win, she was that person, you know? And she was always a big cheerleader. She tried to pull me in on almost everything that she had going on once we got connected.

So, you know, she was definitely a special person in that sense. Music is obviously so personal, and everybody has their own unique ways of singing and putting things together. Take us inside of the studio, that process of the give and take working with her? Angel, she was very comfortable, relaxed in the studio. It was almost like, you know, if you're sitting in the control room, it's like you're sitting at home on the couch and, you know, just talking. And basically, we were similar in a lot of ways. You know, we just, we did our creating in real time.

We didn't necessarily have to write the words down. You know, we just vibe and get on the mic and, you know, pretty much just make the magic happen, let the magic happen, never force anything, just let it happen. And so I learned a lot from Angie in the studio about the business, around the business, how to conduct myself in certain situations. You talked about, again, sharing the stage.

Some folk don't necessarily like doing that. So it has to be a little different when you work somebody who has no problem sharing the mic and encouraging someone else. She was definitely that person. She definitely didn't have a problem sharing the mic and encouraging someone else? She was definitely that person. She definitely didn't have a problem sharing the mic, pulling you up on stage at any point. She heard I was in Cancun a couple of years ago. We was down there doing this festival and she was performing and I was on another night, but I happened to be out there in the audience and somebody told her that I was there. Like she stopped what she was doing in the middle of her show to bring me up on the stage. You know, it took me a minute to get through the crowd of people because I was, you know, wasn't close to the stage, but you know, that was just Angie being Angie. She loved sharing

the light. She didn't have no problem, you know, making it not so much about her, but whoever else that she could encompass in the spotlight. She was good with that. I asked our panelists this. I'll ask you. Your favorite Angie Stone song? Man, she had so many. I think I heard a lot of people saying, brother, you know, I was in that video, so that was my

that's one of my favorites as well, but what, like, she had a bone to pick with you, pissed off, so pissed off. Like, Angie spoke about real things, and I think that's what really attracted me

to her music, you know, No More Rain in This Cloud. That was one of my favorites as well. What would you say something that you would want folks to know about Andy Stone they don't know? You know, Andy was very, as much as she loved sharing the light, she was very competitive in a sense that when she'd take the stage, everybody, you could be a friend off the stage, but if you're on the lineup, Angie is really going to go out there to do her thing, and she's going to make you work for it.

If you've got to come behind her, you came before, she's going to make sure that your job is not going to be easy that night. That's just how she was. That's just say a lot about how she delivered the product that she made up with her songs. I embodied that myself. Like I said, just being around and learning those things. She was very competitive in that sense.

She wanted to be number one. What you're saying is she'll put that pressure on you. You're going to have to bring your A-game what you're saying is she'll put that pressure on you, and so you're going to have to bring your A game if you're coming behind her? No problem applying the pressure. She's going to do that. She's going to make you feel it too, you know, and enjoy, you know, doing it. Well, absolutely.

Well, I think that, again, it was a shock to so many people when the news, I mean, I literally woke up Saturday morning to that particular news, and it was just unbelievable. And so many people were saddened by it,

and certainly condolences go out to her family. You know, for a lot of us, you know, look, we're fans. You know, how we look at this. But for them, it's a lot different because they've lost a mother. They've lost a loved one. And so I think a lot of people just need to remember that that's the case as well. That's right. That's right. And, you know, Angie was family

for me. You know, she was like my sister. A lot of people tied us together. My phone hasn't stopped dinging yet, you know, ever since it happened, you know, and so I'm still, like I said, still processing it, still trying to wrap my mind around it. It's just crazy. But, you know, she definitely will be missed. There'll never be another Angie Stone. She's the only one. Indeed, indeed.

Calvin Richardson, we appreciate it, my brother. Good to see you. Thanks a lot. Alright, thanks, man. Folks, as we said, we're still trying to get Anthony Hamilton on the line. And, you know, it's always, Derek, in these situations, you know, when someone is in OA, someone has been ill, you take a Quincy Jones, lived a really, really full life. But it's always so hard to see someone who was literally on stage the night before, hours before, and then find out several hours later that they perished in a car accident. I think that's just also what makes it so difficult, I think,

for folks to also have to put their arms around. Yeah, you're exactly right, Roland. I mean, when you think about, I mean, the loss of a loved one hits you in so many different ways. But when that loss is unexpected, right, they weren't going through any kind of terminal illness. It wasn't due to, you know, age. When that loss happens, it just makes you recalculate your priorities. It makes you think about what's important to us and how that we need to value each and every day, as you stated previously. And so the loss of someone like Angie that touched so many, I mean, millions and millions of people, most of us would never have that kind of impact, scope or scale.

And so when you think about this treasure, this beautiful being that God blessed us with for 63 years, remind us what's important and how we need to make sure that, as you stated again, we, when we think of someone, we call them and tell them how much we love them. Eric Bonet actually dropped a video a couple of months ago. He and Angie were actually at a funeral of an artist who they both worked with. He posted this on Instagram.

Let me go to it. So pull this up. My brother Jonathan Richman was a beautiful, beautiful celebration. But we got work to do. We got to do some unfinished business. We absolutely do. I know that we do.

I think we came together because of John. Because the first time I met John, I kind of stole him. I was in Indonesia and Angie was doing this incredible show and I saw this dude on keyboards. John was big back then.

And he was playing his behind off and we in the church, I can't say what I was really going to say. You said behind. Okay, I can say behind. He was playing his behind off. And we in the church, I can't say what I was really going to say. You said behind. Okay, I can say behind. He was playing his behind off and then he started singing. And I'm like, I don't know who that is,

but I need to meet that brother right there. And he went to plot. I know that that's not me. I'm going to get him. Well, you know what? Then he became my brother. And he was both of our brothers. That's right.

And we sent him off today. But he's not really gone. Because this music is with us. And we're now joining the music. You know, and I'm going to go to work. And we're about to lock up, wake up, and keep up. We're going to let y'all young people upstate us on this podcast. That's right.

Come on. Come on. I love you. I love you more. Thank you. That's right. Come on. Come on. I love you. I love you more. Thank you. That was Eric Benet. And so he, as he shared his thoughts and reflections, and that was just a couple of months ago. They were at that particular funeral and now Eric now mourns Angie Stone. So let me think, we're going to, in our tribute here, we know we're going to try to get Anthony Hamilton on tomorrow.

I know he was busy. He was literally in the middle of picking up his children. And so we're going to try to get him because we definitely want to allow him to share his thoughts. Raheem Devon wanted to join us as well. He's actually live on The Quiet Storm on WHUR. The whole tribute is to join us as well. He's actually live on The Quiet Storm on WHUR. The whole tribute is to Angie Stone as well. So we're going to try to get Raheem on as well.

So let me thank Pan Amajee. Thank you for your first time on the show. Appreciate it. Good job. Derek Joy, thank you so very much as well. Thanks all for being here. Folks, that is it for us. And I'll say again, and you heard me say it uh right there you heard me say it

right there uh when i when i talked about um i talked about listen you know life is fragile life is short um uh if you as i said if you think about somebody they come across call them hit them up don't procrastinate. I've been guilty of that where I say, you know what, I'm going to call somebody. I'm going to do this here. And then unfortunately it didn't happen. And so don't make that mistake because and let somebody know you love them. You're thinking about them. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

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And so that's just one of the things that we need to always remember. So that's it for us, folks. Again, tomorrow, tomorrow, we will not be live at six. So please remember the programming note. Tomorrow, we will be live at 7 p.m. Eastern. 7 p.m. Eastern. We're going to be live tomorrow right here on the Black Star Network and for the state of our union, the state of our union. And so we're going to do that.

And so we've got an amazing lineup of people, labor leaders, business leaders, voting rights, you name it, lots of conversations we're going to have. And I'm going to tell you right now, the conversation we're going to have tomorrow, you are not going to see or hear on any cable or mainstream network. It's not going to happen. We're going to be speaking from our perspective, our issues that matter. Now, when Trump speaks,

we ain't playing that. I don't want to subject you to all those lies from Donald Trump. So when he speaks, Reverend Dr. William Barber, Bishop William Barber, he is going to give the state of our union.

He'll be speaking live from Philadelphia. We'll be carrying that live from Philadelphia. And so we cannot wait for him to bring the message to the audience. And that's really what we're looking forward to. And I want y'all to share the word. I want y'all to pass it around. We want to blow it out because this is the thing that we've been talking about. People keep saying, what do we do? Who has a plan?

Where do we go? We don't what must we do? And our goal here is to provide you those answers. And so we will have legal experts, business experts, voting rights experts talking about the things that matter to us and what we must be doing to confront this moment. We are facing attack on democracy. We're facing fascism. We are facing an attack on the civil rights and the economic rights infrastructure. There are people, there are people who do not want to see us advance. We must do our part to ensure that our people are informed. And so that's why you must watch State of Our Union tomorrow, 7 p.m. Eastern, right here on the Black Star Network. Again, pass it. Go to my social media.

Grab the graphic. Share it far and wide. We want folks to understand that we are going to have a conversation that other people will not have, will not have. And so we will be recording what he says. I'm going to come back and play for you the lies because we can already know in advance he's going to lie. So, let's do that. Let me get out of here. Y'all want to support

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we're going to close the show out again. Andy Stone, remembering her, passed away at the age of 63. And so we're going to end the show in memoriam to her. And again, condolences go out to her family, her friends, her loved ones. Folks, I'll see y'all tomorrow right here on the Black Star Network. I am the Lord of the heavens, and I am the Lord of the earth. We'll be right now. Thank you for being the voice of Black America. All momentum we have now, we have to keep

this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scared. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig?

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