#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Black Women Texas Judicial Candidates Targeted,Nashville Nazis,Cook Co., Ill. State's Attorney Race

Episode Date: February 20, 2024

2.19.2024 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Black Women Texas Judicial Candidates Targeted,Nashville Nazis,Cook Co., Ill. State's Attorney Race New Texas law is being used to discredit Black women running for judge in Houston. We'll look at H.B. 2384 and talk to some women whose campaign it could affect.  Clayton Harris III  is one of the candidates in the race to replace Kim Fox as Cook County, Illinois, State's Attorney. He'll be here to explain why he's the best candidate.   Tennessee Republican Congressman Tim Burchett misidentifies a man as the Kansas City mass shooter and calls him an "illegal alien." Now, Denton Loudermill is left trying to piece his life back together while receiving death threats.  Nazis protestors took to the streets of Nashville, Tennessee, over the weekend. A judge denies the appeal of the former cop who killed Atatiana Jefferson. And the Ohio police union is pleading with the Columbus district attorney not to refile charges of the cop who killed a black man at his grandmother's home.  Watch #BlackStarNetwork streaming 24/7  Amazon Fire TV / Amazon News, Prime Video, Freevee + Plex.tv Download the Black Star Network app at http://www.blackstarnetwork.com! We're on iOS, AppleTV, Android, AndroidTV, Roku, FireTV, XBox and SamsungTV. 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. to, yeah, banana pudding. If it's happening in business, our new podcast is on it. I'm Max Chastin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops. 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. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast.

Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. 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. Today's Monday, February 19th, 2024. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network. A new Texas law is being used to discredit black women running for judge positions in Harris County, where Houston is located. We'll look at HB 2384 and talk to some of those candidates whose campaign it could affect Clayton Harris.

The third is one of the candidates in the race to replace Kim Fox as the Cook County Illinois State's attorney will be here to talk about why he's the best candidate. Tennessee Republican Congressman Tim Burchett misidentifies a man as the shooter in a mass shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs parade, then calls him an illegal alien. Now,

Denton Loudermill is left trying to piece his life back together while receiving death threats. Nazis, these protesters, took the streets of Nashville, Tennessee over the weekend. This is what happens when Donald Trump is allowed in the Oval Office. A judge denies the appeal of the former cop who killed Atiana Jefferson. Also, the Ohio Police Union is pleading with the Columbus District Attorney not to refile charges against the cop who killed a black man at his grandmother's home. Plus, everybody keeps talking about the Club Shay Shay, Shannon Trump's interviews with Cat Williams and Monique. But I'm going to walk you through why an interview that he did with Country Wayne is one that we should be talking about when it comes to owning content

and providing economic opportunities for the African-Americans. Wait until I walk you all through this. It's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin 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, yeah It's Uncle Roro, yo Yeah, yeah It's rolling Martin, yeah

Yeah, yeah Rolling with rolling now Yeah, yeah. Rolling with rolling now. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's rolling, Martin. Now. Martin. A new Texas law is being used to keep three black women from running for Harris County judicial positions in next month's primary. which deals with court administration, including the knowledge, efficiency, training, and transparency requirements for candidates for or holders of judicial offices. Law was designed to ensure those who run for office as district court or appellate court judges meet specific educational and training requirements, such as courtroom experience, a current law license, and practicing law in the last five years.

Three white male incumbent judges are trying to use this newly enacted law to eliminate potential Democratic challengers from appearing on the ballot. Joining me from Houston are Erica Hughes, judicial candidate for the 151st Civil Court, Amber Boyd Cora, judicial candidate for the First Court of Appeals, place nine, and Takasha Francis, judicial candidate for the 152nd Harris County Civil District Court. Glad to have all three of you here. Now, first of all, for people who don't understand, Harris County made national news a few years ago when 18 black women ran for positions. Republicans changed the state law to get rid of straight ticket voting because it was all targeting Harris County. They did not like the fact that Democrats were winning in Harris County. Then in 2022 election, you had a lot, you had the police unions, as well as a lot of the white trial lawyers who were targeting those black judicial candidates.

Do y'all believe that what is happening here is a direct result of black political power being exercised in Harris County, where Houston is located. Thank you for the opportunity for the interview. This is Judge Erica Hughes. In 2018, it was actually the Houston 19. I was a part of that group. You came down and helped us campaign. Thank you for doing that. And thank you for doing this today. I think that Harris County is the largest county in Texas with over 4 million people in population. And that if Harris County turns blue, the state believes that it's a possibility Texas will turn blue and not red. I also believe, in addition to that, yes, the judiciary has changed since 2018. People are afraid.

People don't want the judiciary to change, specifically the civil courts. A lot of money, a lot of multimillion-dollar cases are handled there. And so, yes, I believe it is an issue with Harris County turning blue and the judiciary turning black, essentially. And so it's interesting here. So how are they targeting the three of you? And so which part of this law are they trying to say the three of you do not qualify or meet the requirements? So I'll field that one. Currently, I'm still in active litigation

with the opponent in my case. He is challenging my experience as a practicing lawyer for the last eight years. I've been a practicing lawyer for almost 20 years. I was a trial litigator the majority of that time. And for the last eight years, I've served the city of Houston as the director of the city of Houston Department of Neighborhoods. Now, the problem with his argument is the fact that he is trying to narrowly define the practice of law to private practice and trial appearances. But the Texas government code is very clear about what the practice of law is. It states that the practice of law is any action taken outside of a court that requires legal guidance or skill. That could range from something as simple as legal guidance to a complex litigation situation or trial.

And so as lawyers, and I think the average everyday person understands that that's not difficult to figure out what the practice of law is. But what I do find shameful is that a 16-year incumbent not only cannot interpret the law and understand what the practice of law is, but that he is also weaponizing a lawsuit as his campaign to cast doubt on my qualifications instead of letting the people decide. What's also interesting as well is that it's an attack on democracy all the way around because now he has amended his complaint to say that even if the people of Harris County elect me March 5th, he's asking a court to have a declaratory judgment declared that says I'm not eligible and for my name not to appear in the general. He has also filed a temporary injunction ahead of that date to have my name removed from the general ballot. This is

not democracy. It's shameful. And it is also telling of his lack of judicial character. Other candidates, your thoughts. Well, I'll piggyback on what Francis has spoken of. They're utilizing this new law to weaponize it. And I say that because my case went to the Supreme Court on a mandamus. And on that mandamus, it was based upon the subjective reasoning and opinion of my opponent, Mr. Justice Peter Kelly. And based on that, they wanted me off the ballot based on my response to my qualifications as far as what type of practice I run, what type of hearings or trials I've had. And so it was a very subjective question, which opens up the door for our future democracy to be in question because other candidates will get challenged the same way. And so that's the concern I have for this new bill and how it will impact future candidates to want to run and not get discouraged from

running because of these tactics that are being put on them. So that was one of the issues that I have, and that's why it is being used as a weapon. And for me, I served previously as the Harris County Criminal Court at law judge number three, and then I was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland under the Biden administration I served previously as the Harris County Criminal Court at law judge number three. And then I was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland under the Biden administration to an immigration bench. So my opponent, Michael Englehart, did not challenge my experience as these two were challenged because I've been a sitting judge. He challenged my signatures, which was also a subjective opinion. We need 250 signatures to be on the ballot. I submitted over 700 signatures, and so the signatures need to be from residents of Harris County.

When I submitted the signatures, he looked at the application and requested it and indicated that 102 signatures had been forged. Subjective because I say that he didn't have a handwriting expert, which is generally what's used in civil cases, to show that someone's signature is forged and you need to have their original signature to compare it to the signature on the form to say they're different. And so, therefore, the signature is forged. So he filed a lawsuit, Michael Englehart, in trial court. And at that time, my attorney requested to depose, of course, him and the Harris County Democratic Party. The thing about these cases is that all of us were not sued individually.

This law does not require us to be sued or named as a party. The Harris County Democratic Party was the individual or entity named in the lawsuits. We're a party at interest. So we would literally have to intervene or we would have to submit documentation to be a part of these lawsuits. So we're being attacked, but we're not able to defend ourselves. And so I'll go back to my signatures. He non-suited the case because he didn't want to be deposed. And then we went to the court of appeals. The court of appeals ruled in my favor and they denied his request to have me removed from the ballot. He then filed the mandamus as well at the Supreme Court in Texas,

and they also ruled in my favor and they denied, again, his request to have me removed on the ballot. So I remain on the ballot, but it's still an issue of are my signatures forged, which they are not. They are definitely signatures from residents that live in Harris County, in fact. He would need to go back to the trial court to contest or argue that these signatures are forged, and then we would get the opportunity to prove that they were not. He would call his expert. I would call my expert. They would counsel each other out, and I would also call the individuals who signed. For a fact, I have 51 affidavits of the 102 signatures he says were forged, where the individuals note, one, it was me that signed the application. Two, we would want Erica Hughes to be on the ballot for the 151st Civil District bench. And so it's embarrassing.

It's a lack of character. And it is stopping democracy. We have a fundamental right to vote. They want to take away the fundamental right to vote. The people need to decide if he wins his race, then let him be the judge. But vote for me on Election Day. I would be the judge. And so that's just, I guess, the summary of it, Mr. Martin. And Mr. Martin, if I could just add one additional thing to what Judge Hughes just said. She pointed out that she has affidavits on file. In my case right now, let me also mention the incumbent has no personal knowledge.

He has no controverting witnesses. He has no controverting evidence to dispute what I have submitted as the practice of law during that time. And so at this point, Judge Robert Schaefer does not have any evidence to say otherwise that I have not practiced law the last eight years. He's casting aspersions to cast doubt in the mind of the voters. And I'll take it a step further. Just as we're trying to disenfranchise through some of the laws here, certain people being able to vote in Texas.

It is now becoming apparent that now we're moving from not only being able to stand in the way of your vote, but stand in the way of your ability to run. That is not acceptable under any circumstances, not to mention I have an affidavit on file cataloging my experience and my boss, who I reported to, which was the 62nd mayor of the city of Houston, Sylvester Turner has put an affidavit on file corroborating my practice the last eight years. So there's nothing from the other side to corroborate that, but speculation. And that is a frivolous lawsuit. The law was put in place for us to state our qualifications, not defend our qualifications. All right, then. Well,

we'll be seeing what's happening there. We appreciate it. One of the things that we keep talking about on this show, reminding our viewers and listeners, is that local elections matter. Lots of attention is always on the presidential race, the U.S. Senate races, gubernatorial races. But we are all impacted by down ballot races. And so these are crucial as well. And so we appreciate it. Keep us abreast of what happens with these challenges. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Folks, I'll go to a break. We'll be right back on Roland Martin Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network. Back in a break. I hadn't had a break.

I hadn't had a vacation. I had a week vacation here and there. Right. This year, after I got finished doing Queen's Chicken, we wrapped it up. Because I knew I had two TV shows coming on at the same time. So I'm going to take a little break. So I've been on break for the first time, and I can afford it. I got it.

You know what I'm saying? Right. So I can afford it. I can sit back and ain't got nothing to worry about, man. But this was the first time in almost in two decades that I've actually had time

to sit back and smell the roses. Next on The Frequency with me, Dee Barnes, the amazing Drew Dixon. She gives us the details behind the HBO documentary that shed light on the alleged sexual assault by Russell Simmons. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek.

I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? 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 multibillion-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 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. 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. We're talking about the Netflix documentary Ladies First right here on the frequency on the Black Star Network. This is Reggie Rock. You're watching Rolling Martin.

Unfiltered, uncut, unplugged and undamned believable. You hear me? All right, folks, welcome back to Roller Martin Unfiltered. Introducing my panel for today, Candace Kelly, legal analyst, South Orange, New Jersey, Dr. Amakongo Domingo Sr., professorial lecturer, School of International Service, American University, and Joy Cheney, former executive director, the Washington Bureau, and senior vice president for policy and advocacy at the National Urban League out of D.C. Glad to have all three of you here. Candace, I'm going to start with you. I mean, the reality is this here. Elections all the time. You're going to have people who are going to try to use

everything in their power to challenge folk from being on the ballot. And this is where, if you're running, you've got to be constantly prepared for these level of political attacks. And we see this all across the country. We do. And I think that one of the things that's important here is that these women, they especially set up the fact that legally they don't have any recourse right now. Now, I'm sure that's coming because it's their constitutional right to actually run for office. They are qualified candidates that rise to the occasion. And we're not talking about just African-American women. We're talking about Asians. We're talking about Latinos who are

also affected by this. So one thing is true that you said, that is that these types of challenges are happening across the country. We've even seen a challenge up against President Trump and all of that that's going on. It kind of reminds me all of that, that they're using these tactics that perhaps they believe were used on Trump unfairly. And that is let's go over the qualifications of this person who's running for office. So I think that just legally speaking and constitutionally speaking, it is their right. They have everything on paper. And they just now need recourse in order to go to court themselves in order to prove their case.

But becoming a judge, just as an aside, is so difficult. When you go to different counties across the country, I mean, you have to run around to get signatures like they were speaking of. You have to run around and speak to judges. You have to do certain things within a certain period of time. To have this as an addition to what they are already going through, just the holes that they already have to go through, is ridiculous. So hopefully we will hear more from them and the way that they will challenge this and ultimately win because they obviously have the experience. Some of them have decades of experience that needs not to be questioned.

You know, this is a Congo. You know, what we also see, as I said, we talk about black power. A lot of people were not happy when all those sisters won. And you had some ticked off folks. You've seen the attacks on progressive judges, progressive district attorneys in this country. And even there, you had a lot of former prosecutors running for judicial positions, angry about cash bail reform as well this is all a part of the attack on progressives in uh the judicial aspect of our system absolutely and and it's non-stop I mean I remember you know all the videos and the pictures and the stories about when they all you know got elected and sharing that you know with my own children my high school senior now you know wants to go to law school and all of that.

And every time there's an opportunity for us to celebrate our greatness, particularly with black people in general, but as a particular type of anger and just disrespect directed at black women in particular, there's always some form of backlash, whether it's Obama with the Tea Party and the like. But in the judicial space, we also see why it's important to make sure that we have Democratic power, because, you know, one of the sisters said, you know, she was appointed by Mayor Garland, right? If he's not there, these types of appointments don't happen. And Biden has promoted as many, you know, so many Black judges to the federal bench more than any other president in history. And this is an example of the backlash that we're going to continue to experience, as one of the sisters said as well, as we look to get this type of power.

She broke down how her position can lead to, their positions could possibly lead to Texas turning blue. And so Republicans have been very strategic across the country in making sure that if they're doing everything to either block or greatly slow down the process of Black people coming to power. And we are not being serious if we don't think that it's also these judgeships that are affected as well. It's not just Congress and senator and president. It's not just that. Every level where there's a position where we can assert some influence, they are coming for that with the most nonsensical methods to try to challenge us.

And we have to keep speaking up because I've been on the news all day, not me in turn personally, but listening to the news all day. There's not one story about this. So we have to use our platforms to continue to speak on this. Joy? Listen, we know that they do this all the time. They did this with Barack Obama, trying to suggest even after he had won that he was not a natural born citizen. They are doing this now with Nikki Haley, with whisper campaigns about whether or not she is a citizen and she's eligible to run for president. This is their playbook. They can't win the regular way with an idea. So they try to disqualify you. Frankly,

I'm going to take a controversial position. This is what they do. And I'm glad. It's the surest sign that we are encroaching on their territory. And it's the surest sign to anyone who's considering whether or not their vote matters. Your vote matters. If it did not matter so much, they wouldn't do so much to try to disqualify candidates that you would choose. They wouldn't do so much to keep people off of the judiciary. It is critically, as the other guest commentator said, we have to have people in power who can then appoint the kinds of people that then will be a judge. And guess what? It's not just judge at the state level. They will then be in position to have judgeships at the federal level. More people like Ketanji Brown Jackson, more excellent candidates that we can have all

throughout. So absolutely. Now, one thing we need to talk about is philanthropy. Who is helping these judges, these candidates fight in court? It is not free to do all the things that they said they had, get affidavits, line up people to support you. provide illegal funds to help candidates who may otherwise be deterred from running because they know they don't have the money to kind of mount this kind of defense of their candidacy in court. So while I think it is a sign that we're gaining, we have to make sure that we are fortifying with the resources needed to really push back. You know, you shouldn't have to be a millionaire or billionaire or have deep pockets to be able to do so. So if you're out there listening, open society, other people, whomever else, we need you to be creating legal funds,

if not already, to make sure these candidates have the money needed to stay in the fight. All right, folks, hold tight one second. We come back. Let's talk about what's up with these folks misidentifying the shooter in Kansas City

when the Super Bowl parade took place. This one brother is saying my life is in tatters because they branded him the shooter. Sounds to me like he's going to be suing some people. We'll talk about that when we come back right here on Rolling Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Be sure to support us in what we do.

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Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. We'll be right back. I'm Faraiq Muhammad, live from L.A. We'll be right back. So join our community every day at 3 p.m. Eastern and let your voice be heard. Hey, we're all in this together. So let's talk about it and see what kind of trouble we can get into. It's the culture. Weekdays at 3, only on the Black Star Network. Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Carr.

We look at one of the most influential and prominent Black Americans of the 20th century. His work literally changed the world. Among other things, he played a major role in creating the United Nations. He was the first African-American and first person of color to win the Nobel Peace Prize. And yet today, he is hardly a household name. We're talking, of course, about Ralph J. Bunch. A new book refers to him as the absolutely indispensable man. His lifelong interest and passion in racial justice, specifically in the form of colonialism. And he saw his work as an activist, an advocate for the Black community here in the United States,

as just the other side of the coin of his work trying to roll back European empire in Africa. Author Cal Rastiala will join us to share his incredible story. That's on the next Black Table here on the Black Star Network. What's good, y'all? This is Doug E. Freshen and you're watching my brother Roland Martin, underpiloted, as we go a little something like this. Hit it.

It's real. All right, folks. A Kansas black man who was misidentified by a Tennessee Republican wants to clear his name after photosermill being detained during the chaos, identifying Loudermill as the shooting and claiming that he's an illegal alien. None of those things are true. Loudermill is a native of this country, a father of three daughters, also a huge fan of the team.

He's not a mass shooter. He was detained for being intoxicated and not moving from the crime scene. Loudermilk was released without a citation. Two juveniles have been charged in connection with the shooting and left one person dead and 22 others injured. Juveniles are being held at a juvenile detention center on gun-related and resisting arrest charges.

Additional charges are expected as the police investigation continues. Now, Lowell Mill did, there was a news conference that was held where he talked about this here. Go ahead and play that, guys. All right, so let me try to find that because I want you to hear from him. And this is, you know, again, this is what happens when you have these people and they just rush to judgment. They start showing photos and things along those lines. I'm going to play for you in a second some of his comments. But, Candace, does he have any recourse against the congressman

for spreading those images and labeling him as the shooter? He absolutely does. And we've seen this before. We saw this during the Boston Marathon when someone was falsely identified as being a part of killing people there years ago. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news

show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding, but the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action, and that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams,

and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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, It's really, really, really bad. Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. 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 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 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. Because his character was defamed, that's going to be his main course of action. His reputation was brought down specifically by one person and other people who

shared the information and said that he was involved in this and he was not. And the courts will have to look at how he was harmed. There was some distress, I'm sure, that he experienced as a result of this. People have threatened his life. And as a result, his whole family was put in danger. And when you look at all of that, not only does he need an apology, but he needs some recourse for how he is now looked at and probably devalued in the community. He does have recourse. He has a very strong case. There's a lot of precedent for this, for people who decide, you know what, I'm going to take it upon myself and be the police officer

and the jury and deliberate and decide him guilty and put his name and face on the internet. That's what this is the equivalent of. And I think that this also is kind of reminiscent of what we heard a couple of weeks ago when we heard the heads of people, of social media like Mark Zuckerberg and the responsibility that they just continue not to take when something like this happens. At this point, CEOs, companies in the position who own social media should be telling this man, you need to take this picture down. This is a huge case, something that they must know is going on, and it's their responsibility to say take it down or take it down for him, which is normally what happens. And none of that has happened.

So I think there are two parts here. We've got the people who are posting this information, and then you've got those people who run social media, and they are not doing their job, claiming that Section 230 protects them and that it's not their responsibility. They have to step in and they have to step up. Here's what's crazy. On the Congo, go to my iPad. And these folks were, I mean, you had folks calling him 44-year-old Sahil Omar, an illegal

immigrant. You see his tweet. They tripping. My name is Denton Loudermill. Tim Burchett, days went by. Folks were posting on social media saying, dude, take this down. He wouldn't take it down. It wasn't until this morning he finally took it down. And so I hope he sues the hell out of Congressman Tim Burchett. Yeah, absolutely. And going off of Candace's point, you know, social media should have been involved in taking it down. I just had Instagram take down a video that I did, you know, music

video today, a video that was, you know, talking about how we need a ceasefire in Israel and Palestine and all of that. It was calling for peace, but they didn't like the imagery, right? But they can take that stuff down, you know, really quick when they want to. And so the fact that this was going to stay up there until he basically decided to take it down or not is really problematic. And, furthermore, this man is a rep state or a representative. He knows about rallies. He knows about protests and things that happen. He knows that oftentimes police officers will detain people as part of a way of keeping calm. And so when this first happened, and there were stories about people had, you know, people in custody, some reputable news sources were saying, don't post the pictures. Nobody

should post any pictures until we have more information. This is intentional. It's one thing. You know how we know it's intentional, Roland? Because it's one thing to say they have a suspect in custody. But to also add it's been found that he's a, quote, unquote, illegal alien, that's intentional. And that's designed to play on this narrative of, quote, unquote, illegals invading our country. And, you know, they want to attach, because of what happened in New York with those undocumented folks up there with the police, now what did Trump say at the last rally? Something about the new term is Biden in migrant crime or something like that. They want to add to that narrative. And so Vladimir needs to get that money. He needs to get paid big time because that's the only way

that it's going to change this. As Johnny Cochran would say, hit them in the pocketbooks and their hearts and minds will follow. Joy? Yeah, we need a deterrent here. Not just that he posted it once. He might say mistakes happen. He got caught up in the moment, but that he left it up there long after he knew that it was incorrect. The gentleman here certainly has a case to be made. I think he should go for a lot of money,

as much as possible. I also think that he needs to be saying something like my other guest said, the candidate said. We need to be talking about social media, your role here. Section 230 certainly should not protect them against this. And frankly, they should have taken it down. They should have some kind of banner on it that says this is found to be incorrect. I hope that that's not happened already, that someone will be doing that shortly. I'm sure I'm hoping that it will be on there. And those of us who are out there, we should make sure that we're encouraging

people not to forward this. It's a good lesson for all of us. In the immediate aftermath of an event, you simply don't know what you're looking at. You simply don't know what you're looking at. And so you have to wait. Otherwise you can ruin a life. This happened in the Atlanta bombing during the, during the Olympics years ago, it ruined that man's life. There's a whole movie about it. So we know that it's irresponsible to put these types of media messages out there. And you gotta make sure that folks know if you do this and you do so intentionally and you leave it up, there is harm. There's

economic harm to him. And he's gonna get some money for it. Well, I just think that everybody with this rush to judgment, I mean, Ann Coulter was on Real Time with Bill Maher saying, oh, you know, if these shooters were white, we absolutely would know by now.

I know who these shooters are. And Maher was basically saying, no, you don't. No, you don't. You don't know any of these details. But this is how quick they are. They want to demonize black as fast as they can, Candace. They do. And this is exactly what we're used to.

This is America. And it is one of those things where even though people know what the reality is and that there was an invasion of privacy and defamation and that he shouldn't be targeted because we haven't heard fully from the police, you have those people out there who just are not going to believe the facts that are in front of them. Nobody has said that this man was responsible for anything. That in and of itself should make anybody say, well, the police haven't said it, so why am I over here charging people online and putting their faces and information out there? It's really none of our business until the police come forward and say what they need to say, and then we can act. And even then we have to act responsibly when it comes to social media. People just are conditioned

not to believe certain things because they've been conditioned their whole lives in that way. So it's not surprising. And I don't think it's going to be surprising either when he files a lawsuit. I would imagine that someone is stepping up right now. I don't even think it would even go to court. It's the facts are right before our faces. I would imagine there'd be a quick settlement, truly. It's just one of those things that in and of itself, on its face, is wrong. And his reputation was damaged and his privacy was invaded. I don't know if it'd be quick. These people are pretty thick.

But I do think, yeah, they're pretty darn thick. You know, the other thing is, early on, I thought that one of the reasons they didn't have a person is they weren't sure if they were adults, that there was a belief early on that they were children. And so of course our responsibilities around kids are different than when they are adults. So there are a lot of things that are, that are yet to be determined in this case. So he was just doubly irresponsible for getting way out there and really contradicting some of the early reports that we still don't know whether they're true or not. But what we do know is that this gentleman is innocent of any of these accusations and the representative should be just humiliated that he attempted to ruin this man's life and he should have some accountability for

it and the chief should hook him up with season tickets hey man you got to go for it all well uh it is um quite quite interesting we'll see this i gotta ask you all this here so um these tweets have been going around for the past couple of hours. So Dr. Shelley Carbone, who works in the White House, worked in the White House under Trump, also was on active duty. I don't know if you all saw this here, but this actually was posted on Twitter. Babysitting this dumbass all week. This is Office of the Second Gentleman. Carbone's tweets are now protected.

And I'm watching all of these tweets going back and forth on social media. And people are very highly critical of this. And you've got others looking to confirm this, but I'm sitting here looking at all of these, again, folks who are commenting on this, talking about this here. And one of the things that you have, I mean, you have folks who are Trump holdovers,

who frankly have no business being there. This is where your Biden hairs get rid of all of these people who are holdovers, who love and endear themselves to the crazed, deranged orange man. I'm a Congo. Oh, period. Bottom line. Look, I understand Biden wanted to be a uniter and fighting to save the soul of the nation and all of that other type of stuff. But saving the soul of the nation doesn't mean that you keep people on your staff, on our payroll that taxes are paying for, who are racist or ignorant or disrespectful or anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, you know, what's the guy's name in the post office as well, you know, who Trump put in as, you know, these types of folks, you know, who helped delay the mail system during the last election and the like. These people have no business and no right to stay within government. We already know what Trump is planning to do as it relates to if he is to win

the next election. He already has his list of cronies in every position who will help enable him to become a dictator. And this is kind of this weird pathology that has always existed in this country, whether we're talking about people who enslaved folks, who got some forms of reparations once they lost their enslaved individuals, once we didn't fully penalize people who were part of the Civil War and the Confederacy, and they got kind of let off easy. We have this very twisted and sordid history of letting people in spaces that they do not belong in.

And Biden has every right. Look, Merrick Garland's a Republican, right? And the herd is a Republican as well. We're not saying it's got to be all Democrats, but people who don't demonstrate the type of decorum that you claim you want to be about, regardless of their party, have no business on your payroll. And Biden and Harris really need to step it up.

You know, I mean... Go ahead, Joy, go ahead. I'm sorry, but listen, we do have to protect civil servants. And I don't know, just because that person is in the White House doesn't mean that they're not covered under civil servant laws. And so the standards for who gets fired and who doesn't when you get a new administration are different. They may not be holdovers. I don't know this person. I'll look it up afterwards to

see if she's really a holdover or if she's someone who is a part of the civil service who still works at the White House? I know plenty of people who were civil servants who were Democrats who worked throughout the Trump administration. That's their job. We want them there. We want them there. That is part of who keeps government running and keeps some continuity. So what she should be answering for is, does she behave inappropriately by taking those photos, sending those tweets, et cetera? I would probably say yes. And someone's probably having a conversation with her. Her union might be having a conversation with her. But that is different than a political appointee. And I do think that we don't want those things to happen to us as well.

We want to make sure that you always have government that is consistent. And so she might be a civil servant, just throwing that out there. Folks, different ideas are fine, but just disrespect like that. Like I said, if it was a Democrat person who did it, I would be like, they got to go. If people don't represent the standards you set,

they have to go, period, bottom line. And, you know, that's what I'm saying, but absolutely I'm not saying it should be all Democrats or anything like that. I'm just saying, if you want to have a pure, you know, all the stuff you talk about decency, your staff and teams have to represent it too. Alright, folks, hold tight one second. We come back.

Oh, Lord. The right is losing their minds because Donald Trump was held responsible for being a liar and a cheat. Wait till I show you one of these shark tanks, dude. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding, but the price has gone up. So now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be

covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Business Week editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to everybody's business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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. 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. On Fox Business. I keep telling y'all these people are in a cult. And they absolutely are. That's next on Roller Marker Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. When you talk about blackness and what happens in black culture, you're

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martin.com on a next a balanced life with me dr jackie what does it mean to actually have balance in your life why is it important and how do you get there a master class on the art of balance it could change your life find the harmony of life. And so what beat can you maintain at a good pace? What cadence can keep you running that marathon? Because we know we're going to have, you know, high levels, we're going to have low levels, but where can you find that flow, that harmonious pace? That's all next on A Balanced Life on Blackstar Network. Hey, yo, what's up? It's Mr. Dalvin right here.

What's up? This is KC. Sitting here representing the J-O-D-E-C-I. That's Jodeci. Right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Thank you. Well, all of these Trump cultists are really upset that Tish James was successful in proving he's a fraud. He now has to pay millions, upwards of $500 million, y'all, with interest and things along those lines. Plus you throw in the E.G. Carroll, another $83 million. Homie going up to sell some stuff. But I want to show you again how delusional these people are.

Here's Kevin O'Leary. You see him on the shark tank. This is literally what he says to Neil Cavuto on Fox News regarding this issue. This award, I mean, just leaving the whole Trump thing out of it and seeing what occurred here, and I'm no different than any other investor. I'm shocked at this. I can't even understand or fathom the decision at all. There's no rationale for it. And so let me give you a real-time experience I'm having regarding this. And I'm not the only one. It doesn't matter what the governor says. New York was already a loser state, like California is a loser state.

There are many loser states because of policy, high taxes, uncompetitive regulation. It was already on the top of the list of being a loser state. I would never invest in New York now. And I'm not the only person saying that. And here's a real-time situation. In development in real estate right now, the hottest asset class is very high-end data centers. They cost anywhere from $2.5 to $3.5 billion each. They are very expensive. They require low power.

You need permits. But most of the major institutions in the world need more data centers, and that's why developers like me are doing this. Now, you need power. So New York has Niagara Falls. Normally, you'd consider that to put in one of these facilities, create 400 jobs, five more jobs for each of one of those for auxiliary services. I can't go to New York. So I'm going to Oklahoma, North Dakota, West Virginia. Governor Stitt, Kevin Stitt, my staff have met with him, Governor Bergen, the same thing, Governor Justice.

Those are winner states. They don't do things like this. I have to syndicate that debt and all that equity. We're talking billions of dollars here. Do you think any foreign institution or any private equity firm or any pension fund would touch New York? No. And that's why New York... I can't listen to any more of that babble. Y'all, here's why this is all BS. I don't know who the hell he think he's fooling, but you cannot be in the financial industry and you acting like you ain't got nothing involving New York.

So that's stupid. And the thing that also cracks me up is how these people literally are defending a crook. Here's Jessica Tarloff taking them to school on Fox News. Watch this. So since Donald Trump ran the first time, he has been making this argument. If they could do this to me, they could do this to you. The average person is not inflating their wealth by $800 million to $2.2 billion. They're not sexually assaulting women. They're not storing classified documents in the toilet. They're not fomenting an insurrection. Mar-a-Lago, you remember the documents? Let's focus on this case. We can do a lot. You always do that.

No, no, Jessica, you're doing a laundry list. Really? You're doing a laundry list when we're focused on one topic. From me. See, they can't stand it when she's running these facts down. And the reason I just find this being an

incredulous joy because, oh, this is the party of law and order. And then I love this. There was no victim here. The banks weren't the victim. Let's be real clear. If any one of us did what Donald Trump did, we're getting convicted. And we're probably going to get charged criminal.

Criminal, not civil. But for these people, he can do no wrong. And they're perfectly fine with him being a massive liar, cheat, and a fraud. Correct, because they know they are massive liars, cheats, and frauds. And that has worked for them. It has worked for them for not just decades. It's worked for them for centuries. Many of them are wealthy.

Much of the industry in New York and in cities across this country, some of them were built on honest work. Some of them were built off the work of honest people, right, off the backs of honest people and off these types of economic games playing, white-collar crimes that they've gotten away with and everyone's looked the other way because it benefits them. And this is just one time they ran into somebody who wasn't raised on that, who wasn't interested in it and who shut it down. This is why you have to vote. Who is in power matters. Roland says it every night. I'm saying it tonight. It matters because when you're in power, then you have the opportunity to hold people accountable and say what you've been doing

before. You can't do it now. You're going to have to be an honest broker. You're going to have to be an honest broker. Right. I mean, Candace, and to say that, oh, my God, you know, what the judge ruled was weird. No, the judge was kind of clear. Dude, you claim your penthouse in Trump Tower was 33,000 square feet. It was 11. It was 11. They showed how Eric Trump was saying, no, we're gonna save the assets of the world this year.

They were flat out lying. The reason folks like Kevin O'Leary are upset, because all the people in New York may have to start stop lying. They may have to start telling the the truth because they could be inflating their assets to qualify for loans. Yeah. Let's talk about the numbers. Numbers don't lie. It was on the paper. And that's why the judge was so convicted in what he said that I'm looking at the numbers here and clearly you inflated them. There's a whole trail. There are those numbers

right there. But Roland, on the other side, there's a whole trail. There are those numbers right there. But Roland, on the other side, there are some different numbers, and that's why the public relations campaign has begun. And that is that when you do look at what Trump is doing and how people are still receiving him, he's not losing. He's going to be the Republican candidate. And so for people who believe that he is still their god, they are still following him. He sold out 1,000

sneakers for $400 apiece for a reason when we know that his base is not the base that actually can afford those sneakers. So we're looking at a lot of things and competing forces going on. But the bottom line is that the public relations campaign has begun. Here's some other numbers, too. How can you get away from the numbers on Wall Street and the stock exchange and try to just disregard New York City as being the center of the universe when it comes to money and how money flows in and out of not just New York City, but the country and the world? This is where people go to. It's all in the numbers.

The numbers are just not adding up for Trump right now. But we are beginning another public relations campaign. Omicongo, this is where you have to hammer him on you are a cheat, you are a liar, you are

a fraud. Because that's what he is. And clearly for these cultists, they don't care. They don't mind it. They think everything is awful. So when he said, I can shoot somebody in the middle of Fifth Avenue and I'll be able to get away with it, he's right because they are absolutely deranged people. And what we have to understand is if these deranged people don't care about any of these trials, any of these

decisions, we got to say we damn sure got to go out and vote to keep y'all crazyasses from being in power. Every single day is a new advertisement on why we should not be voting for this man and why we have to continue to spread the word. And, you know, for that guy O'Leary, you know, talking about, you know, the poor states, and he's talking about going to West Virginia, it's one of, like, the top ten poorest states in the country. It's somewhere on the list. And so, you know, these guys even lie about those facts. And you are right.

There are minions every single place in the government. Kind of going back to our first segment about the judges, whether we're talking about, you know, Mike Johnson and look at everything that he's doing to hold the country from moving forward. So we're talking about it in the Congress. We're talking about it on these shows. Like, they're sitting here talking about this makes no sense. I mean, Trump was charged under Letitia James, if I am correct, under the Martin Act, which came over, came about in the 1920s. It's one of, like, the harshest fraud types of laws in the United States. And that's what they got Trump on. All of these charges that Trump

is being brought on are laws that came decades and decades ago. And he's a hustler, plain and simple, bottom line. And so the way in which Letitia James made this so strategically in terms of how she brought it up to charging him, it was extremely powerful. And Gohran had already ruled that he was a fraud prior to this decision last week about how much he was going to owe. And we have to basically ask the simple question,

if you can't run your business, how are you going to run the country? Even above all of the racism and all of the homophobia, the sexism, all of the real things that we have to worry about with Trump, the fact of the matter is people elected

him the first time because they thought they wanted a businessman to run the country. He can't even run his own businesses. Period. Bottom line. That's the only real advertisement you need that should come from this. And I hope some of these super packs out there supporting Biden are already running those ads so I can share them too.

Indeed. Well, the folks at 11 Films, they dropped a pretty good ad recently. So what I'm going to do is I want to play that for you, and then

we're going to go to a break. And there's some people, again, who are doing their own independent work outside of these campaigns. And so check out this film here. These are from the folks at 11 Films. The Republican Party has become unrecognizable. I want to be a dictator.

Insurrection. Civil war. Truth is, if Abraham Lincoln were alive today, he would never be a Republican. Because it's Democrats that still respect and revere Lincoln's enduring principle, a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. I pledge myself to a new deal for the American people. People know the Democratic Party is the people's party, and it always has been, always will be.

We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other thing, not because they are easy, but because they are hard. Christmas, tranquility, danger, the eagle has landed. There it is, the U.S. flag on the surface of the moon. All of us must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice, and we shall overcome. As the American people, we will hold high the banner of human rights. We Democrats, we believe that we're all in this together

is a far better philosophy than you're on your own. I want to know, are you fired up? Ready to go? Fired up? Ready to go? Let's go change the world. Let's remember who we are. We're the United States of America.

And there's nothing, nothing beyond our capacity if we stand together. We are America's party. Our movement echoes through generations. This right here, again, if you're going to be engaged in a battle then you better swing that's right joy you holding your phone up what were you doing there i'm i'm i'm re i'm resharing i'm resharing i think it is so critical that we really talk to people and hit them in their hearts in their minds everywhere and let them know elections matter. If they did not matter, they would not try so hard to disenfranchise us, to kick us off the ballot,

to make it hard for us to vote. You can't have water. You can't register. More than two people register. That is because they understand how powerful we are. When will we understand how powerful we are? They get it. We don't seem to get it. Candace? Yeah, well. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding, but the price has gone up. So now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives.

But guests like Business Week editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is.

So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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 multibbillion 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. 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. Listen, this was an ad that really was saying, let's stop with the distractions.

This is what democracy is all about. Take a look at it. Because you know what? We forget about it. We end up arguing about it on Twitter and online and in the news. We're talking about other things that are way out of the jurisdiction of what we should be talking about, which is trying to secure a president that makes sense for America, trying to stop the numbers, to stop the racists, the anti-Semites, to stop the people who are out there causing nothing but dysfunction, because that's what this is all about. We are living in a world where people try to distract, distract, distract. And I think that this ad did a very good job of allowing people to see that, you know what,

this is the role that, don't forget, we are supposed to be on. Don't forget what is important. Like the panelists said, what's important is that you get to those polls, that you vote, and that you practice democracy. ED O'MICANGO. ROLAND MARTINEZ. I love it. You know, this is what Plies was talking about, about the, you know, Biden administration needing to brag more. Now, of course, Biden didn't create this ad, but I'm glad that there are organizations out there that are doing that, because like

you said, Roland, so many times that, you know, the Biden administration will talk about what it's doing, but it's on a,'s on a page on the White House that nobody's going to. And so these types of films, people are so visual nowadays. The way it lays out what Democrats have been doing over the years, while the Republicans are quick to say, we're the party of Lincoln, we believe in freedom for everybody and so on and so forth. But they're showing categorically how it's been Democrats that have been leading the way as it relates to equal and civil rights. Of course, not perfectly, but they're not working to take us back like the Republicans are. But these ads are only going to be worth it if they are continually shared and talked about and promoted so people can see it. So I'm all in on what 11 Films is doing.

Seen some of their other work as well. This is what we got to do, and I'm in 100%. All right, folks, hold tight one second. We come back, and we're going to talk to a brother who's running to replace Kim Foxx as the next state's attorney in Cook County. Also, in the next hour, Country Wayne. Shannon Sharper's done a lot of different interviews, has gotten lots of attention, Kat Williams, Monique, and others. But Country Wayne said something in his interview

that I think people have not spent a lot of time talking about. And it goes to show you how you must rethink content and rethink ownership, control, and power. I'm going to break it down for y'all right here on Rolling Martin Unfiltered on the Blackstar Network. Grow your business or career with Grow with Google's wide range of online courses, digital training, and tools. Gain in-demand job skills with flexible online training programs designed to put you on the fast track to jobs in high-growth fields. Thank you. employers who are currently hiring. Take one professional career certificate program or all six. Earn a Google career certificate to prepare for a job in a high growth field like data analytics, project management, UX design, cybersecurity, and more. All professional career certificate

programs must be completed by December 31st, 2024. Scan the QR code to complete the application. There are 1,000 scholarships available. Grow with Google and J-Hood and Associates. Be job ready and qualify for in-demand jobs. I'm Faraj Muhammad, live from LA, and this is The Culture. The Culture is a two-way conversation, you and me. We talk about the stories, politics, the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. So join our community every day at 3pm

Eastern and let your voice be heard. Hey, we're all in this together, so let's talk about it and see what kind of trouble we can get into. It's the culture. Weekdays at 3, only on the Blackstar Network. Hi everybody, I'm Kim Colson. Hey only on the Blackstar Network. Hi, everybody.

I'm Kim Colson. Hey, I'm Donnie Simpson. Yo, it's your man, Deion Cole, from Black-ish, and you're watching... Roland Martin, unfiltered. All right, folks. A few years ago, when Anita Alvarez chose to not go after the cops who killed Laquan McDonald, guess what? She got bounced out. Kim Fox was elected.

Well, Kim Fox has chosen not to run for Cook County State's attorney. And so now there are folks vying for the job. Clayton Harris III and Eileen O'Neill Burke, they want to take her place because, again, Fox is not seeking re-election. Now, don't think for a second that race is not playing a role here because what you have going on in Chicago, you have all these people who are yelling, oh, crime, crime, crime. And what they're insinuating is, Oh no,

let's, let's get a tough on crime DA. And it's not the black guy. We can see through the BS. Clayton has, joins us right now. Clayton, glad to have you on Roland Martin Unfiltered. And so for folks, folks who don't know, you know, what is your legal background? So first and foremost, thank you for know, what is your legal background? First and foremost, thank you for having me on. My legal background, I'm a Howard University School of Law grad, graduated back in 99. I'm a former prosecutor here in Cook County.

I'm the state's attorney. That's where Kim Fox and I first met when we were both assistant state's attorneys. Criminal appeals, traffic, jumped over to narcotics, and ended my time in the office, special prosecutions, narcotics. So I look at the endorsements of local newspapers endorsing your opponent. Again, what I'm hearing, again, all of this, and I'm seeing this in other cities across the country, tough on crime, tough on crime, tough on crime. So they are insinuating that Kim Fox was soft on crime because she looked at a lot of the cases and said, what does it make sense in terms of how we utilize our department resources when it comes to dealing with people who are breaking crimes in the county?

Absolutely. What they want to look past or what they're trying to really call on is, hey, we can only be safe and we don't have to worry about justice. My platform is pretty simple, is that we can do both. They're not an either or proposition. It's actually offensive to think that people don't think that we want safe neighborhoods. We want safe neighborhoods just like anybody else. So we can be safe and just at the same time. And I actually teach at the University of Chicago public policy. And the course I teach is policing rates in America, black, white and blue. So we know that

we can do this. We understand what's going on. But we also know that in order for us to have a safe and or and not or a safe and just society. We have to hold everyone accountable appropriately, including law enforcement. And the thing here is that when we look at around the country, I love how all of these people are blaming things on cash bail. Then when you look at the facts, that's not the case. And even when they recall the DA, Chase Bowden, in San Francisco, putting the blame on him, it was all a lie. And so you have hysteria that's taking place.

And so now you have people say, well, let's go after these progressive DAs. They are the cause of all of this, as opposed to confronting the reality. When you talk about crime in this country, it's driven by economics. Go to the neighborhoods where you have high credit scores and expensive homes. You're not going to see that crime. You can look at education. You can look at economics as predictors.

I've talked to numerous police chiefs. They've said the same thing. The people who know, know. And what it is, is people are afraid to address the problem. As a public policy professor, what I tell is a lot of times people focus on the issues and not the problem. The problem is what's causing the issue. But when you focus on the issue, you might temporarily fix or remedy that issue. But it's going to pop back up because you never address the problem. When we talk about policing, one of the things that I say when we talk and you mentioned Laquan McDonald or George Floyd, people think that the problem is Van Dyke or Chauvin. I always correct them. I'm like, they're not the problem.

When Van Dyke got on the scene, there were five other officers that assessed the scene and didn't feel like Laquan McDonald was a threat. Now, maybe they couldn't have stopped him from shooting. But after it occurred and then they made the police report, those officers backed up that police report. That is the problem. That individual, you can root out an individual. That's an issue. The problem is the individuals that back. So we have to start addressing the problems. So when you talk about crime, you're 100 percent correct that we're looking at economics, the lack of resources or resources not being applied correctly. One of the initiatives that I want to implement here is more classrooms, less courtrooms,

more classrooms, less courtrooms. This is how we start by educating, re-educating, and over-educating our young people as well. Quotes from our panel. Candace, you're first. So certainly crime is an issue. We've heard you debate about it, and that's been in the headlines. But second behind crime, what is the topic that people are also coming to you about and that is of concern for them in Cook County? Police accountability. So that's a big thing. And what people sometimes don't recognize is that they're tied into one another. When our communities have more faith and confidence in the police, crime actually goes down

because they report crime and then they help the police at that point in time to solve crimes. So police accountability is the next largest thing. I am not skipping over crime. Like I said, we deserve, we demand safe neighborhoods as well. We'll look at the gun crimes. We'll look at the carjackings and those other things as well. But to your question right there, police accountability. So we're going to make sure that we are building back in the integrity of police. We have a do not call list that's on there right now. We're going to continue that. If a police officer is shown that they cannot be trusted to tell the truth on the stand, we won't use them.

And I tell everyone, having been a former prosecutor, being the son, my father was an officer in the United States Army. We grew up with discipline and respect for authority. But if we cannot trust the officer, then we're not going to put him on. Omokongo? Wishing you the best of luck with this campaign. I'm assuming that in addition to these issues of crime, the issues relating to immigration

and people probably painting you on soft on that and all of that type of stuff is also coming into the forefront. How are you dealing with that type of messaging? And what are your thoughts on the immigration situation as well? So the messaging is one that we have to take on straight ahead. So we're trying to beat back every narrative with facts and with the truth. This morning, I was blessed to stand with black clergy for Cook County, and we went straight at the issue and letting people know that these narratives now around me, the ones that are still following around Kim Foxx, are just not true.

And they're fear mongering on there with everything that's going on. When we talk about the immigration issue and everything that's going on there, what we have to focus on, again, is safety, justice, but also trust. We need to make sure that these individuals understand that if a crime is committed, that they'll be held accountable appropriately. But if they're victims of crime, that they can report these crimes and make sure that they still know that they're going to be safe. So we need to make sure that everyone understands that safety and justice are paramount here in Cook County and in the office. Joy?

Earlier tonight, we were talking about white-collar crime, right? There's all sorts of crime that is happening. What's your agenda for white-collar crime? But before you answer, my son is a student at the University of Chicago, and I'm going to send him right to you. I just came from the Windy City yesterday. But what is your agenda for white collar crime? I'll be looking for you, son. Make sure you tell them to take my course. They can sign up for next quarter already. White collar crime is the same way in a lot of criminal activities with the focus

on there. But right now we have to look at our workers and the wage theft that's going on. So we need to make sure that we are following and ensuring that they are safe with what's going on. When you look at some of the ethical issues that are happening, we're going to hold corporations accountable for the work, excuse me, for the misdeeds that they are doing as well. So I appreciate that because sometimes those are some of the things that get overlooked. I understand a crime being the largest thing right there, but a big thing that we're looking at are workers' wages being stolen. Good. The last question I have for you, when you look at this race, obviously, turnout is critically important. And, you know, are you seeing the energy on the ground to support your campaign? This is one of my biggest concerns.

So I really appreciate you allowing me to come on your show. When I told everybody I was going on there, there's like about time. I was like, yeah. So we got that. So that's it. But we have to have a groundswell. There's not a bellwether issue today, and not that I'm hoping for one, but that's getting people charged about it. And that's the unfortunate.

So when Kim Fox first came in, right, we're talking about Laquan McDonald. And that galvanizes. They're like, oh, you know, we need this woman here to do that. She's decided not to run. And there's not a bellwether issue that's really focusing individuals on this race. And it really needs to have focus on there. When we look at my opponent, she convicted, wrongly convicted a 10 year old child for murder back in the 90s. You know, these are things that need to be addressed. And this is the choice that people have. We can go backwards from where we are right now, or we can build upon what we have. So people need to be attuned and in tune to what's going on. And we need, we have to have

everyone come out for our primary election, which is on March 19th, to vote. Early voting starts on March 4th. It is so important that we vote. Well, it's absolutely the case. So glad to have you here. Good luck in the race. And we'll be watching to see what takes place. Thank you, my brother. Thank you all. All right, then. All right, folks, again, that's Clayton Harris, who's running for Cook County State's attorney. This is how you can reach out to him. Here's all of his social media information. There, the website, Clayton Harris for Cook dot com, Facebook, Twitter, email as well. All right, folks, going to and seeing something where others think you're crazy. But no, you get it. Others don't.

I'm going to break this thing down when we come back on Rolling Martin Unfiltered right here. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick.

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Cops believed everything that 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 Glod. 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 Tman 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 shine down got be real from cypress hill nhl enforcer riley cote marine quote-unquote drug fans. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got Be Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer

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season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Listen to new episodes of the war on drugs podcast season two on the I heart radio 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 podcast. The black Star Network. White people are losing their damn lives. There's an angry pro-Trump mob storm to the U.S. Capitol.

We're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash.

This is the wrath of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. There's all the Proud Boys, guys. This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people. The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women. This is white fear. Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Carr. We look at one of the most influential and prominent Black Americans of the 20th century.

His work literally changed the world. Among other things, he played a major role in creating the United Nations. He was the first African-American and first person of color to win the Nobel Peace Prize. And yet today, he is hardly a household name. We're talking, of course, about Ralph J. Bunch. A new book refers to him as the absolutely indispensable man. His lifelong interest and passion in racial justice, specifically in the form of colonialism. And he saw his work as an activist, an advocate for the Black community here in the United States,

as just the other side of the coin of his work trying to roll back European empire in Africa. Author Cal Rastiala will join us to share his incredible story. That's on the next Black Table here on the Black Star Network. On a next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, what does it mean to actually have balance in your life? Why is it important and how do you get there? A masterclass on the art of balance. It could change your life. Find the harmony of your life.

And so what beat can you maintain at a good pace? What cadence can keep you running that marathon? Because we know we're going to have, you know, high levels. We're going to have low levels. But where can you find that low, that harmonious pace? That's all next on a balanced life on Blackstar Network. What's up y'all. This is Wendell Haskins,

AKA Wynn Hogan at the original Chiefs All Classic. And you know, I watch Roland Martin unfiltered. Thank you. All right. So y'all know I often on this show, I'm always talking about business and then seeing things others don't see and also understanding content. And, you know, a lot of people have been talking about the club Shea Shea interview, Shannon Sharp, and it's interviews with Kat Williams and Monique and and I said before I I I'm not wasting my time with what what's about to say about Tyler and Oprah and other comedians I mean I don't care about that stuff I don't it means nothing to me uh and Shannon's been killing it did huge numbers uh and that's fine I mean if that's his show cool I got no issue with that

um and people are like well you're gonna talk about that no I've been meaning to talk about though one of the interviews he did that's with country Wayne he's a comedian um and there were some things that he said that I think we should be learning from and to understand and it didn't get the same amount of attention, obviously, as a lot of stuff that Kat and Monique said. But I dare say this portion of the interview, I argue, has far more value, has greater impact, and if people think about it, could profoundly change how we understand and utilize social media as well as content. Listen to some of this.

How much money do you think you made? Hold on one second, I'm gonna do this here. Let me get this thing connected properly. Here we go, one second. All right, here we go. How much money do you think you made through social media? Through social media? Probably a dog.

Probably about... Just social media? Mm-hmm. Probably about 20 million the last three years. That's when I really started monetizing. Telling jokes, huh? And skits? And some skits, man.

And storylines. I was telling jokes at first. Need a partner? Yeah, it looked like you're doing fine. I tell you what, boy. Hey, you know about this money. Yeah. You know, the social media game,

you know, it's the in-stream ads and stuff, but they didn't have that at first. So how I was monetizing at first is getting popular, you go on tour. Right. But I was like, that ain't monetization. Right. Because if I got to do this, that's work. But I was like, that ain't monetization. Right. Because if I got to do this,

that's work. So I'm like, no, how can I learn? Because what I did, I was hearing about residuals and all that, and what I did in math,

the whole thing about math is to simplify something. That's what math is. You take 50 over 100 and break it all the way down to one over two. So what I did, I took the TV format,

people talk about residual in TV shows, and I minimumed, you know what I'm saying? I took it to a... I minimized it to a point of I got my version of that. And now I'm able to make residuals. I'm making money right now while I'm sitting. And people was laughing at me at first. When I first started doing those skits, people

were like, oh, them little skits. And I went to every... Before I started, I went to every social media who was big at the time and sat down with them. And like, I was like, look, man, we got to do this social media thing. We come together. We can share storylines, share content. They was all like, uh, no, they don't seem like, all right, you want to keep going out

here tap dancing on tour? All right. So that social media thing, when I figured out that niche, man, I was on to it. And I seen it, so I ain't care what nobody said. I was doing all kinds of skits.

I was an old man one time. I was a character named Drip. And I'm like, man, this money really on social media. Because that's where everybody's eyeballs at. Right. So if I'm an advertiser,

I'm going to keep pouring money into social media so I feel like social media was the future, whether people wanted to sell it or not. But you knew that? I knew that.

I knew that because I paid attention and listened and I realized Hollywood was always the ad business. It never was the movie business or TV show business. They always say, let us pay our bills.

So you got to, and in the Army, in the Army they teach you attention to detail, teamwork is the key. So wherever the eyeballs are at, that's where the money going to be at. Right. So if I'm looking to my left and my right and people on their phone all day,

it's like investing in the stock. I will be stupid to believe that people are watching this more than they're watching this. I'm like, these advertisers finna start pouring this money, and I'm going to be a part of this new generation. You got on the train early. I got on early. I got on early.

And I caught the pandemic because we'll never sit down like that again. No. So I was like, man, we sitting down, everybody waiting to go back to work? I'm like, no.

And everybody wants to be entertained when there's no entertainment going on. Man, I was, I got all the kinks practicing. Okay, they like this, the algorithm like this, this like this, this like this,

this like this, this like this. I say, bam. I say, man, this old boy. I say, I'm going to have me a billion dollars by the time I'm 50. You know what I'm saying? I already seen it. It was just too many people watching social media.

Besides, obviously, you take care of your kids, you take care of your family. What are some of the other things Wayne spends his money on? What do you spend your money on for you? For me, I got a Rolls Royce, my house furnished, you know what I'm saying? I got a couple houses. I got a house in Bel-Air, a house in Atlanta, a condo in Atlanta.

Bel-Air? Yeah. Yeah. You ain't talking about my boy wrong drink, right? You talking about Bel-Air like right up the street from me. Yeah, that's where I came from.

Yeah. You looking for a partner in those kids, man? You know how your boy can sing, I can dance, look. I don't know who you think you fooling. You get Shay Shay got his own skits.

I know you be checking RPM and CPM. So you got a place in Bel Air, you got a place in Atlanta. Yeah, I got a house in McDonald's, and then I got a condo in Atlanta. Okay. You spread out your head. Yeah, and I got a couple apartments. I got another, I got two houses in Atlanta. Okay. You spread out your head. Yeah. Yeah, and I got a couple apartments. I got a, I got a, I got a,

I got two houses in Atlanta, in another apartment, and baby mama's, everybody got apartments, but I use all that stuff to shoot skits in, too. Right. So that's my studio.

They don't even know that's your studio. They don't know, but I, listen here. Well, listen here, it's hand over fist because I understood the content, and I spent my money on content.

Right. You know what I'm saying? Because I, you know, it's hand over fist because I understood the content and I spent my money on content. Right. You know what I'm saying? Because I, you know, I purchased content now. The post on my page that I don't even film. Right. That's how I'm really working without working now. And, you know, that content, I spend my money on content. You know what I'm saying?

I got some real estate stuff I'm about to do. I got some movies. I put my own money up on my own movies. My Netflix special, I finance my own special. You know what I'm saying? The license is in Netflix. So I spend my money. I put my own money up on my own movies. My Netflix special, I financed my own special. You know what I'm saying? The license is in Netflix. So I spend my money. I flip my money.

Right. Because I grew up flipping, so I'm addicted to the flip. Right. Some people get addicted to the drug, but I got addicted to flipping. Right. So I love taking my money and investing it in me. Because you believe in you. Oh, I believe in me.

Why ain't going to get it? They can say what they want to about Wayne every time. The country boy, he ain't stuck with what they talking about. I mean, obviously, like. If y'all were paying attention, if you understood the gain that you were getting. See, the reason, even before Shannon interviewed Wayne, I was paying attention to this, because during COVID, I was watching those videos,

and I DMed Country Wayne a few times because I was curious how they shot him. I was curious, were they shooting multiple cameras? Were they editing? And in the interview, he says, no, they were shooting them straight. He said, no editing. They were shooting them with iPhones.

That was it. And then I remember watching an interview where Wayne talked about how people told him, you can't, if you're going to go on tour, if you're going to go perform in these theaters, you're going to have to get a comedian with a bigger name to travel with you. Well, he cultivated his following on social media. And then when he hit the road, he was selling the venues out himself, which meant that he didn't have to pay another big-name comedian money to sell the venues out because he was selling it out. He was monetizing his audience. But see, I don't know if y'all missed it.

Now, again, a lot of his skits were on Instagram, and he talked about YouTube, but he actually cut a deal where he had his stuff on Facebook uh-oh did you say Facebook yeah he posted this today or yesterday uh where he pulled it uh and this is from an Instagram page the most popular social media platforms. Number one by monthly active users. So number one, you see here, Facebook, YouTube too. Then you got WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok, and it goes down, Messenger. You got Snapchat at the bottom. And you see Twitter not even in the top 10.

Some of y'all missed that. Twitter's not even in the top 10. Some of y'all missed that. Twitter's not even in the top 10. And so Wayne, in his comment there, he said, I'm glad I didn't listen to people who said Facebook fell off. So he was doing his content on Instagram. Facebook saw it. And if you see the interview with Shannon, he was doing so well on Facebook, they called him and said, say, can you do more videos? Why? They were making money as well.

And so then, I don't know if y'all caught it. He says in the interview, he says in the interview that I'm now financing my own movies. So when y'all go to Netflix and see the Country Wayne movie, Netflix is paying Wayne a licensing fee. Okay, I don't think some of y'all realize what I just said. Netflix does not own Wayne's content. Because Wayne is not going to Netflix saying, hey, I got an idea.

Can y'all finance this? Wayne is saying, no, I don't need y'all to finance my stuff. I can finance it myself. So now, when he goes to the table, some of y'all, this is what I'm about to tell y'all. Wayne is not to the table, some of y'all, this is what I'm about to tell y'all. Wayne is not at the table as talent. He's at the table as the business in show business. In the same interview, in the same interview, because some of y'all might remember, y'all might remember when we talked about Taraji Henson.

We talked about, we talked about the, we talked about the shows and things along those lines. We talked about what they meant. We talked about how much she was getting paid. And there was a very interesting exchange in here. Because I know somebody might sit and go, man, them little skits I see Wayne doing on YouTube and on Instagram and Facebook. Well, listen to this.

Man, to see they, you know what I'm saying, like my boy Mike Bliss, me and my brother were going through the numbers and I'm like, man, I paid him a million dollars this year. You know what I'm saying? And the people that I be able to bless, I'm like, man, I paid him a million dollars this year. You know what I'm saying? And the people that I'd be able to bless, I'm like, man, I'm able to bless everybody, seeing everybody else get their cars and their businesses. That's the most thing.

That's the most, all that stuff. I only got a place in L.A. Because, you know, by the time you come out here, handle your business, get Airbnbs, it's about the same. Right. So I'm like, I got to have a place. My clothes are already here. Right.

And it's a place to call your own. Yeah. You know what I mean? So when I'm out here, I got to have a place to call it. My clothes are already here. I got to. Right. So. And it's a place to call your own. Yeah. You know what I mean? So when I'm out here, I can write clear. But man, the most, I'm proud of being able to bless others, man. When I see that, I'm like, dang, look at, look at Ro. Look at my sisters. Look at my brothers.

They balling. Right. I'm like, man, that's what, that's what it's about, man. That's, that's the only thing that get me like, I get excited for them to get more. Well, I'm like, boy, I can't wait to pay. If I pay you a million this year, boy, I get excited for them to get more. Right. Well, I'm like, well, I can't wait to pay if I pay you a million this year, but I'm trying to pay you a two million this year. Cuz the more I pay you, the more I know I got coming.

Right. So that's what I'm proud of the most. What's your favorite luxury item that you own? Okay, now, some of y'all really missed that. What I'm about to say is not, I need to preface this, because I don't need the blogs doing whatever they do. What I'm about to say is not a diss on any black actor in Hollywood.

But you might remember, you might remember Terrence Howard talking about how he got paid $12,000 to do Hustle & Flow. You might remember Taraji talking about what she did not get paid for Benjamin Button, I think. How she had to fight to get paid even for the color purple. And I think the number was 500. I can't remember what, it was 500,000. I can't remember whatever she talked about.

Country Wayne just sat there and said, one of the brothers in his skits makes a million a year. Doing skits. Makes a million a year. Doing skits on social media. I want that sit in. And I get

it. Follow me here. I get how we think, ooh, TV show on Fox. Ooh, you in a big screen movie. But when it all comes down to it, can you pay your bills? It's dollars and cents.

So his boy Mike likely has much less overhead than a major actor who's trying to be in television shows and movies. Might bring it home a million dollars a year. Doing skits. Again, this did not, and I get it. I get why the Cat Williams interview blew up. 57, almost 60 million views. The Monique interview made it up to 10, 12. The Steve Harvey interview.

But I dare say this discussion that Shannon had with Country Wayne is one of the most important discussions that Shannon has done. And we've been so busy with other news, I've been meaning to get to this for the last three weeks. It's because in order for things to change in our community, this has to change. We have to stop, let me be perfectly clear, operating in a mindset of white validation. Let me unpack that. A lot of us are enamored with the idea, oh, I'm on CNN.

I'm on MSNBC. I'm on MSNBC. I'm on Fox News. Do you know what one of the saddest things when she died? Midwin Charles was a legal analyst and Midwin had been everything she could to become a legal contributor on those networks. And they called and they called and they called and they called, they would call it,

and she's making appearances and all that sort of, they never pulled the trigger. She was going on for free. And Midwin and I often talked about it. We had talked a few months before she passed away. And I see a lot of other people. Look, I did free appearances on these cable networks for four and a half years. But see, also while I was doing that, I also was leveraging it with other things that I

was doing. Selling books, speeches, things along those lines. And so when I say white validation, I guarantee y'all there are some people going, he's not a real actor. He's just doing those skits with Country Wayne. But I've seen Mike in other movies. Not only that, Country Wayne now goes from the skits on Instagram, the skits on Facebook,

to building out a highly profitable YouTube channel, to now doing comedy shows, to now financing his own movies, which means that he now can begin to finance other projects. You heard him say, I'm making money while I'm sitting right here. He then said, you know what? I'm now buying content. I'm now buying content that I'm now placing on my platforms, that, y'all, is understanding the

business of the business. And one of the greatest mistakes that we continue to see from African Americans in Hollywood, in music, in news, in any of these areas where it's content, we love the show, but we don't love the business. Oh, I know. Listen, I just got back from NBA All-Star Game in Indianapolis. And you know what, Steph, LeBron, they're going to be making $40, $50 million a year in salary. And other players are making

this. But remember, Chris Rock said, they said, Shaq rich. Chris Rock said, no. The person paying Shaq is rich. We have got to change this, and we've got to get out of the notion of giving our content away, allowing folk to pay us minimal amounts of money, then we don't own it. And so then when we no longer can sing, when we get older, no longer can act,

guess what? The money stops flowing. But if you've created multiple revenue streams and you've monetized your following, you can then take a seat and still print money. That's called the business of show business. And I really think if more people, if more comedians, if more content creators would get out of the business of likes and learn the business of the business,

many of these black content creators would not be going broke. You got black people creating dances that blow up on TikTok and get no money. Yet when Isaac Hayes III creates an app called Fanbase, which allows for you to get paid, folk like, oh no, it ain't this, it ain't this, it's not this,

not realizing the hundreds of millions that were pumped into TikTok and Instagram and Twitter and Facebook for it to now be Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and Facebook. It's the business. And I spend lots of time, y'all, talking to black people in so many different areas. And too many of us have been conditioned, and I understand from our parents and grandparents, to get us that nice job to pay our bills, what then happens when we get laid off?

It's a whole bunch of black people right now in corporate America. When they hit 55, bye-bye. And you know what? Now they're stuck. When they hit 55, bye bye. And you know what, now they're stuck. They got a big mortgage, kids in private school, might be going to Ivy League schools or other schools, now all of a sudden they trying to figure out. Y'all may not notice, it's a whole bunch of these black folks who are in corporate America,

now they consultants. Consultant on what? Because they were so fixated on just the job. We have to learn to think beyond the job. I am a firm believer I would rather be the one writing checks or signing the front of the check and not just the back of the check. And so that interview, if you don't understand content, listen to it and study it and realize if you're out here just posting stuff and you ain't getting nothing from it, you know what you're doing? You're making Instagram rich and TikTok rich and Twitter rich and Facebook rich and Snapchat rich. You're making all of them rich. You're getting nothing by it.

Last point. When I was in Indianapolis, I met the wife of the CEO of YouTube. And she said her husband, he was there with their kids. And so Friday night, when I was attending one of the games, it was a break in the act. I think it was the Rising Stars game. Oh, hell yeah, I went to go talk to Neil Mohan. Oh, yes, I did.

Went over and talked to him. And had a few questions for him. Talked about what we do here. Talked about what they are doing. Future. Talked about shorts. Talked about how those things work. And we talked for about 10, maybe 15 minutes. I say that because I could have easily just, man, okay, walk over, say hey, all good. No, no, no, no, no, no. You don't sit here and be in the presence of the CEO of YouTube, a multi-billion dollar entity among the business and not pick his brain. There are way too many of us. I'm telling you all this.

We are so locked into the flash and the pizzazz. Too many of us love the red carpets. Too many of us love the shine. Love being seen. And it's a whole bunch of people in Hollywood right now, y'all, broke as hell. It's a whole bunch of rappers and singers broke as hell. It's a whole bunch of rappers and singers broke as hell. Nobody's calling them. Nobody's booking them

because they were fixated on the show and not the business. So if you want to share and talk about who Cat was talking about, go right ahead. If you want to talk about and spend time locked in on who Monique's talking about and what they saying and doing go right ahead but I'm telling you right now if you truly want to be educated, you should take the time and go listen to what Wayne had to say, because you will understand that that is a different perspective than what we are used to hearing. And it is one about the business. I want to go to my panel here. Candice, you do stuff beyond law. You have a

hair care company. That's right. And again, it just absolutely drives me crazy when I hear us complain about we not getting our worth. I'm not getting paid this, not getting paid that. And I sit there and go, okay, so how are you then leveraging your fame, your name to create a pathway for yourself to where you're the one green lighting your own stuff as opposed to somebody else doing it for you? Well, listen listen when i started curl prep it was 14 15 years ago and this is really when natural hair was becoming really big

and there were a lot of people who were the algorithm was different so the numbers were different and what was key and i heard a lot of people talk about this, was what happens if YouTube or Facebook decides to change? And it ultimately did. And that's why whatever audience you have, you just can't wait for the algorithm. You have to figure out how you can invest in yourself for beyond the algorithm. Is there a book? Is there content that you could put elsewhere? Is there a station maybe you just want to start by yourself like you did? You spent years going out there and giving yourself a free like as is the business. That's how it's done.

But then you thought better of yourself and said, I'm going to invest in myself. And now you know and can plan better for your retirement. One thing key about what Country Wayne said was that he spends $3 million a year on production. He has a whole production team. It is not for the faint of heart to produce, even if it is just with your phone. You have got to get out there and produce content and be consistent. And once you get those numbers, you can't just rely on the algorithm. You know, I think it was Montana that they at one point had voted the state legislators to get rid of TikTok. And then people were thinking, wait a minute,

is this going to happen across the board? Now, a federal judge stopped that before it happened, but it's coming. You need to figure out how to keep those numbers in your pocket and do something more with them. I always say, do something in person too. It's not just all online. Do you know what I did during COVID? I did some social media posting. You know, you could check my record, but you know what? I sent a lot out by mail too, because people were not using snail mail, but they were at those doors for those Amazon package. And I know that they were excited to go to the door because that was the only interaction that a lot of people were getting any given day. I sent out thousands of cards and got great results because I use old school ways of doing it. And finally, I just want

to say he is right. We have heard so much about how Facebook is for old people, old people. Guess who has money? Old people, whatever you consider. They have the money. They have the income. And they also have the numbers in terms of people who are on there more than they are for TikTok and Twitter and Instagram. So you have got to invest in yourself. Don't wait for the algorithm. We were talking about Mark Zuckerberg a couple of weeks ago and how he turned around and, you know, apologized to all the parents who believed that he had killed their children. These senators are doing something for a reason. Don't wait for the algorithm. That is my message. I'm a Congo. Yeah, that was that was that was powerful. I mean, it was a great education, you know, one I plan on sharing. And I've just been so frustrated when I see some of these shows, you know, asking if people know what they're, understand what they're doing with their platform.

And like you said, people are going to focus on the Cat Williams and the Monique, but we have to spend more time taking the knowledge from interviews like this. I never heard of this interview until today, you know, because I don't watch the shows like that. Furthermore, there is so much that we can already glean from what has happened with TikTok and Instagram and how our content has been stolen. I'm thinking of the teenager, Jaliyah, who had her dance to Renegade stolen by Charli D'Amelio and how Charli D'Amelio ended up on, you know, Ellen DeGeneres and the Super Bowl and all of these things. And people were talking about Black content producers on TikTok and Instagram need to start protesting. Well, Beyonce's country song is out now and new dances are coming up on the line. People need to watch this and study this to understand

how they can go beyond, like you said, the show and focus more on the business. Because, you know, Country Wayne ain't 50, 60, 70, 80 years old. He's, you know, comparatively, you know, a young guy who's doing this. And so that blueprint is real. And if we can really start to flip it, start controlling our content, have Netflix, you know, paying us like, you know, for creating our own things, there's a lot of power here. But we got to get off looking at ways to create new forms of gossip when these folks are putting out this knowledge. Because even with the Cat Williams interview, there was a lot of knowledge that was dropped about the industry, but people focused on the

hairline and this and all, Steve Harvey and all of that. When we get out of this gossip circle, we can truly start to assert ourselves in true forms of ownership. And I applaud Country Wayne for laying down that game. I applaud you for bringing this to your platform so it can be multiplied by more people because you are absolutely right. That's the most important aspect of the content of all of the incredible things that Shannon Sharp has been doing. Joy? The other thing is, let me speak up for consultants. For those of us who are doing work that's not necessarily on social media, one, you can be on social media. You have to have a platform there.

The other thing is you also have to have social entrepreneurial projects that can make money for you while you're doing something else, while you may be in retirement, while you may be. That was the most powerful thing. You cannot work your way into wealth. It has to be something that is passive, that can work without you actually doing it. That's income. Wealth is something that's generating separately. And that's what we need to be focused on now for our children. The other best part of that interview is he was excited to throw it back to his community. Because his community is who put him in the position to do what he's doing now. So he's able to give it to other people. He's building wealth around him.

He's creating legacy. These are the things that we ought to be taking away. I did watch the Monique interview and the Cat Williams one. I did catch part of this one. Not the whole thing because these are long interviews. But I have to say, I will be going back to watch the rest. And more people ought to be watching his video. This is a master class.

And creating wealth for yourself, not just for someone else. Creating wealth for yourself. This man is a free black. Roland is a free black. I am as well. I work for myself. There's something to be said for that. And many of our corporate friends, not only are they, you know, being let go because they turned 55, some of them are being let go because the wind shifted. And the people that they hired when they were pretending like they cared about racial justice, they don't care about racial justice anymore. And so they fired those people. Cannot rely on others. You have to make it yourself. And the thing that I want us to understand

and why I wanted to talk about that is because if people actually just listen, if they actually just listen and understand how these things work, if they understand the business of the business. And see, what he's doing is something that Issa Rae and I talked about several years ago when I had my TV One show. We were talking about how she worked with friends of hers and how they didn't wait for Oprah or Tyler Perry to call them. I want to play

this for y'all. And because, again, people need to understand it. And here's what's crazy. This video here, I swear it goes viral like every three months and somebody posted on some platform uh and uh each and I we we we text matter of fact when somebody said this one here I said to her and she said she said man she said I love it she, people come up to me every week and they talk about this portion of the interview. And I love that people are understanding this. So, again, listen to what Issa Rae had to say about how you work with those who are near you. Watch this.

We have a tendency to try to, like, when we network, network up. And it really is about networking across. Like, who's next to you? Who's struggling? Who it really is about networking across like who's next to you who's struggling who's in the trenches with you who's just as hungry as you are and those are the people that you need to build with it's not about like finding you know hitting up like calling Tyler Perry like how can I work with you calling Ava to be like how can I be on it's about calling your college mate it's about calling your co-worker and saying hey you trying to do this I'm trying to do this project. And

literally every project that I've done, every friend of mine has been in in some way, shape or form because I needed them, because they were just down. They're not even part of the industry in many cases, just to help me make it work. And I would do the same for them in a heartbeat. It's just about I guess passion

and hunger. Folks, if you listen to that and you understand, and matter of fact, hold up, I thought it was going to a commercial. I'm going to play the rest of it. Listen to this. The Awkward Black Girl, like I had to pull so many resources together

and I had to hit up, you know, a couple of random people just to try to put this story together. And then even in the brokenness of not having an editor and editing it myself, trying to tell the story because I couldn't afford to put this story together. And then even in the brokenness of not having an editor and editing it myself, trying to tell the story because I couldn't afford to get this shot that I wanted or go to this location that I wanted

and piecing that together, there's something, there's so much creativity in brokenness. Like, brokenness will have you making it work. And... Now, and trust me, I know somebody somebody I love when people say stuff. I know somebody sitting here and I can look at the comments, too. And well, you know, we talked about doing these doing these these skits with an iPhone. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways.

Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters,

and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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. I'm gonna show y'all something. Watch this. You wanna get back on the court.

And that's your agent. I want to get you there. But we are in a lockout. There are no actual games to watch. You think these fools, these rich white dudes, gonna let these sexiest sport fall by the wayside? This team's my family. I need us to be

one big family again. Football is fun, but it don't sell sneakers. To move merch and inspire rap lyrics, they need your services. The NBA wanted control of a game that we played. We played better.

They invented a game on top of a game. I can see a whole infrastructure that put the control back in the hands of those behind the ball. What you gonna do? I'm about to pull up a chair.

My God ain't right. We're at the height of the information era. What you gonna do? But I'm about to pull up a chair. My God ain't right. We're at the height of the information era. We need a story. Headed to the light. What are you doing, man? This is my career. You have a chance, sir, to do what has never been done before.

Come on, man. Give him the rock. I don't wanna do that. This is the matchup everyone's been dying to see. We may not die. 24 million people saw a video. I'm not thinking of breaking up our happy marriage. What you saw yesterday was just the beginning.

Oh, man, this is getting crazy. Of what could be a whole new industry. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding, but the price has gone up. So now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that

make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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 big way. Real people, real perspectives. This kind of starts at it 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. I talk about that movie a lot in my presentations because what many of you may not realize is that that movie, everything you just saw was shot with this. In fact, this is the iPhone 15. This is the iPhone 13. That was shot with the iphone 8. wow steven soderbergh shot that entire movie with the iphone

8 a clip-on moondog anamorphic lens a dji osmo stabilizer and a 12x12 light panel. The entire movie. So if anybody's sitting here dogging Country Wayne, he's shooting his skits with the exact same the exact same camera that Soderbergh did. I'm gonna show you one more.

And the reason I'm showing you this is because I need the people watching, whether they are elementary school kids, junior high, high school, whether they're college, if they're parents, the grandparents are watching, I need people watching this to understand that the only thing, and this is critically important, the only thing that limits us

from being able to do amazing things is our capacity to think that we can not do it. Final one. How many of y'all remember Matthew Cherry winning the Oscar for the animated short? Watch this. To eat healthier. That's mine. Eat healthier.

I'm going to share mine with you. I want to be a better person. Guys, you hear it safe and sound, just like I promised. I wasn't worried about that. You miss back home this time of year? Yeah, I do miss back home at this time of year. I miss it being warm 24-7. Yeah. Yeah, it's just hella lonely here.

Yeah. It was hella lonely. It was hella lonely. Yeah, I understand about that single. Parent life. Oh, okay. Yeah, I got two girls myself. Oh, cool. Yeah, I got two girls myself. Oh. Don't! Say sorry one more time.

I swear on everything holy. You know how many times I've heard you say I'm sorry? I'm sorry. Wait, so you're with just your girls, that's it? I want a taxi, but I can't come to your house. What else am I supposed to do? I'm sitting out here trying to make this money so that we can get married and have a good life. But she's in here with some dude? Nah, nah.

Got me looking crazy right now. Nah, nah. Dear God, I just want you to forgive me. I don't wanna be the man that I was last year. I wanna be better. So how you doing tonight? Managing. Managing.

Managing. That was shot on an iPhone 6S. I'm about to jump out of the seat there. Again, I just need our people to understand. We are beyond creative. We do music. We do dance. We shoot skits. We do all these different things.

You can do those things for fun, but you can also do those things for business. And if more of us would understand, again, the business of our business, then we will realize how we can actually brand our businesses, how we can be shooting our own commercials, how we can be driving them on social media, how we can be utilizing the free marketing of social media platforms. That is how we must be driving them on social media, how we can be utilizing the free marketing of social media platforms. That is how we must be thinking. And so that's why I wanted to do this. And so again, if y'all want to share the Monique

and the Cat Williams, stuff like that, that's great. But if you want to truly understand one of the most powerful club, Shay Shay interviews that Shannon Sharpe has done, that discussion with Country Wayne, listen to that. I want to thank the panel. Let me thank Candace, Joy, and

Makongo for being with us on today's show. I appreciate it. It's President's Day, and so we appreciate y'all being with us. Thank you so very much, folks. That is it for us. We appreciate you watching today's show um listen um we launched this show september 4th 2018 we launched the black star network september 4th 2021 and this is all

about having conversations and discussions and you're not going to get anywhere else you're not going to get any of these conversations, the level of depth that we went to. You're simply not going to get it on MSNBC. You're not going to get it on CNN or ABC or NBC or Fox News. In fact, you're not going to get it from any of the black-owned media outlet. There's no black-owned media outlet that does what we do every single day. Not Blavity, not Essence, not Ebony, not Black Enterprise, not the Griot. I can go down the line, all of them. No one does the amount of original news we do every single day, five hours every single day. Nobody. The Griot does two hours. That's it. They got 24-hour network, all of Byron Allen's money, two hours.

Mark Lamont Hill, Ebony Williams. We do five hours every single day. And so this is about empowering. We don't do gossip. We don't do mess. We are about, as Kathy Hughes said, utilizing the media information is power. And so support us in what we do. You hear me say this, and those of you, some 25,000 of you,

since we launched have contributed to our Bring the Funk fan club. We purposely do not charge a subscription fee because we want our content accessible to the masses. I'm battling these ad agencies. I had four meetings last week. I have a meeting with a major advertiser tomorrow. I've got meetings on Friday. We're still battling to get those dollars. And so what I say, and this is not a lie, y'all. This is not hype. When I say your contributions allows for them to be paid, allows for us to install new lighting and the monitors and these robotic cameras and all these things,

having this studio space to do what we do, it absolutely matters. So your support is critically needed. Please send your check and money order. PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. Cash out. Dollar sign, RM Unfiltered. PayPal or Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinSMartin.com, Roland at RolandMartinOnTheFilter.com.

We've got about 83,000 downloads of the Blackstone Network app. We're trying to get to 100,000. Download the Blackstone Network app, Apple Phone, Android Phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV. You can also, of course, watch our 24-hour streaming channel available on multiple platforms. Amazon News, specifically going to Amazon Fire. Go to Amazon News and check us out.

You can tell Alexa, play news from the Black Star Network. You can also go watch us on Plex TV, Amazon FreeV, also Amazon Prime Video. And when you get my book, White Fear, How the Browning of America is Making White Folks Lose Their Minds, that book goes to support this show as well. So we're available at bookstores nationwide. You can also get the audio version that I read on Audible as well.

Folks, that's it. I'll see you tomorrow. Holla! ...black star network and blackowned 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? A lot of times, big economic forces show up in our lives in small ways. Four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one.

Small but important ways. From tech billionaires to the bond market to, yeah, banana pudding. If it's happening in business, our new podcast is on it. I'm Max Chastin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I know a lot of cops. 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. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated.

I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war.

This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. 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. This is an iHeart podcast.