The Breakfast Club - INTERVIEW: Keke Palmer & Boots Riley on Capitalism, Hollywood & New Film 'I Love Boosters'

Episode Date: May 22, 2026

Today on The Breakfast Club, Keke Palmer & Boots Riley on Capitalism, Hollywood & I Love Boosters. Listen For More!YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BreakfastClubPower1051FMSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Hold on. Every day I wake up. Wake your ass up. The Breakfast Club. You're all finished or y'all's done? Morning, everybody. It's DJ Envy. Just hilarious. Salamey Nagar. We are the Breakfast Club. Lawlerosa is here as well. We got some special guests in the building. Yes, indeed. We have Kiki, Palma, and Boots Riley. Welcome. Good morning.

How you're feeling? I'm good, man. What's good? What's up, Corvette? You came in here. Come on what's up, Corvette? She kept in here. It's cold in here.

Hersy or C. She came here. It's cold in here. It was cold in. I don't know why y'all had it so cold like that. I know. Tripping. But, you know, I tried to be cute.

That's what happened when you tried to be cute before you think about being warm. Well, you look nice. Thanks. New movie, I love boosters. Yeah, it's so excited. Jessica, going to love this movie. Oh, yes.

That was my first job, y'all. It's my best work. Your best work? My best work. Do you feel like that about every film? I've only done three things. I'm a Virgo and this one. Oh, I missed I'm a Virgo.

Damn. Yeah, it's the TV show. Okay, okay, okay, got you. Yeah, yeah, y'all didn't have a song. What you did? We always have to. So why I love boosters? Were you a booster back in the day

and you was like, this is something that... No, I was a broke rapper trying to stay fly. Okay, so, yeah. So, yeah, so you got to know some boosters. You know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying? And also seeing the fact that they do provide a community service. Like, you know, the culture that black folks have

and other communities of color have influences, you know, a lot of the big fashion houses. And then it gets sold back to us. So that's with a lot of culture. And right now, and actually for a long time, people have not been getting paid enough. So these are services, you know, back to school clothes to just whatever, you know. And so, yeah, it's illegal. But the morality is the same as what's happening in capitalism anyway.

That's what I love about your films. Your films always try to expose how capitalism psychologically reshapes people. Is that the thing that scares you the most in society? I don't know. I'm not as scared as I am hopeful. Oh, okay. Because, you know, I do see a path to where we can change things. And that's like what my art has always been about, is the fact that, you know, we know how power works.

works, right? Power doesn't come just from popularity or whatever. It comes from capital. You know, that's what that, you know, that's what moves the needle. And the working class can have a say over what happens with that capital. We can have a movement where you, where you control the capital collectively, right? And so that's strikes, work stoppages, things like that. You know.

Have you seen Boosters crazy recently, right? When growing up as a kid, boosters used to go to Macy's, right? And they just put some stuff under and then they run out, right? It was one or two. But now it seems like they're getting ridiculous. Like there is like teams of people running in stores, kicking down doors. See, I don't see.

I wouldn't consider that boosting. See, like I like how I like how it's presented in the movie because although, yes, it is illegal. And, you know, yeah, but I love, I did say illegal. It is illegal. But what I was doing. when I did it because I grew up in a hood. A lot of people couldn't afford the luxury, you know, the luxurious things for their kids going back to school.

Moms couldn't even buy school supplies, anything like that. So I wasn't just stealing clothes just to put them on. I was stealing them and I was selling them at a cheaper price. Like even, you know, notebooks, divider, everything that the moms needed. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. You felt to me for that. You can't, you know what I'm saying?

Yeah, and we focus on clothes in the movie, but it's house sold good things that people have. A bunch of stuff. We do have somebody with a laptop. growing up in it. She did it a couple of months ago. I didn't. You said you did it. It was a chapstick just to see if I could steal.

You know what I was. You know what I'm just a little chapstick. Kiki, did you have any experience with stealing, boosting before this movie? I only had to try to steal something once when I was like five. I tried to steal Recy Cups. Oh. Yeah. And my sister told on me.

That's cute. That's cute. My sister was a snitch. Yeah, I couldn't believe that. I was like, look, why. I don't think that's boosting. I think that's shoplifting. Yeah, right.

That's what I said. You know what I said. You know what? Bootsin is different. Have you ever bought from boosters before? Yes, as a kid, I didn't know there were boosters. But, you know, that's all my... I was a kid, so that's all my family could afford, you know,

so you go through the little neighborhood sales. Basically, you know what I mean? But I wasn't, like, knowing that it was a booster. I never knew the name of a booster until I watched Baby Boy. And I was like, oh, that's who those people are. You know, but my aunties at the nails at their hair salons and stuff. I mean, I didn't know there was a name for that. I thought those people were just selling us stuff.

And, you know, recently it's been in the news a lot, like, You just talked about. But if you check out the Intercept, which is an investigative journalist site with award-winning investigative journalists, they exposed that all of these police unions came together in the wake of the George Floyd protests and hired publicists and said, hey, we're going to stop talking about police murder and all of that. And we're just going to hype up the idea that crime is rising. And in a lot of the places where they're saying it is, it actually.

actually wasn't, but there were more news stories. And then you started seeing Instagram sites hyping those things up. And a lot of those Instagram sites had T-shirt sales. I don't see people wearing the T-shirts, but they tell me that they're wearing a lot of the, they're selling a lot of shirts. So they kept this news cycle going. And it's the same thing that's been going on in the early 1900s. You always had these things come that they said like Negro Crime Wave. And that's what led to those first Atlanta race massacres. And that's what led to the black Wall Street, Tulsa race massacre. They kept being Negro Crime Wave, Negro Crime Wave.

They always demonize us. And obviously, crime happens. That's what we're saying in the movie. I mean, because poverty is necessitated by capitalism. So you're going to have illegal business. However, you know, however, they use it as the scapegoat for what's wrong with with the world. Instead of talking about the boosting that's happening every day,

the boosting that's happened when you go to work. You know. You have a background in organizing and activism, right, Boo? Yeah, yeah. I started when I was 14 and 15. I joined the Progressive Labor Party, which is a disciplined Communist Party. And I, you know, I decided I should get good at rapping.

I was not good when I decided. Like, people were like, you sure? You know? That's worth somebody saying you whacked. You sure? You sure? Yeah, no, no. I mean, I knew, and I knew I was not good, right?

So, but, but, you know, I knew that you could figure out how to do stuff and figured out, and I studied it. And, you know, pat myself on the back, I did get known as a lyricist. So, you know, that it was with this idea of putting these ideas out there that we could have a different world, one where the people democratically control the wealth that we create with our labor. So that's the goal, but just also put into context where we're at right now. I love the fact that you put these messages in the art, but the success in Hollywood ever conflict with, like, anti-establishment values? You know, everything is a contradiction.

And so, but the thing is, is like, that's where we're at. We're in this world, right? So we can't get out of it, right, without working together. And so I need to get, put the stuff out there on a platform. And that platform is created by the world that we're in. And I'm not trying to go out in the woods. be like, I'm free from society, you know. Because even if I could do that, which I don't think you can,

that's not the point. You know, I want, I want to help change the world, not just be free of it. Now, Kiki, what was your first thought when you read the script? Man, this dude got a lot going on. You know what I mean? I already was a fan, you know, and I was just really excited that I was going to have the opportunity to work with him. So I remember just being like, I really want to talk to him and see, you know, get to know him and everything.

So I read the script, loved it, and then I remember we met up. We had a quick phone conversation, and then we met up for lunch, and we talked for like four hours because he was just, I mean, you see him, you know what I'm saying? And I was just immediately just blown away. It was like I was in school with a professor. This is my favorite professor. You know what I'm saying?

Learning about life. We was talking about everything, and I knew that I had to do the movie. So it was pretty easy, you know. And she's giving me a lot of credit, but if you sit and talk to Kiki, she's like a professor. I'm always like, damn, I need to just be quiet, let her talk about the movie. You know, because, yeah, you know, she has a way of condensing ideas into something that, where you're looking at the main contradiction and the main conflict and it's understandable. And I think over the years, people are going to start talking about her as a philosopher, you know, because, you know,

because I do think that, you know, she's one of our, she's one of the most loved beings on the planet right now, obviously, like Kiki, everybody wants to, you see all these things, people, but she is really putting herself out there and looking to do good work. So I love being able to work with her. Now, what I will say about this, we're talking a lot about a lot of serious things,

but this movie is. You know, the whole thing is there's optimism connected to these ideas. So it comes with joy. It comes with hilarity. And I've played this movie 35 times. I've watched this movie 35 times on tour. I took the old school independent music route and going college to college, community screenings, all this kind of stuff.

And, you know, it's like people laughing too much over the next line. that sort of a thing and, you know, just, just, it, that's one of the reasons I say. So I know, I think that's always missing it. And I tell it to everybody, right? I don't want to say back in the day, but back in the day, people were more hand-to-hand, right? They were going to colleges.

They were going to high schools. They were going to see people, touch people, not just worried about the internet. You know what I mean? They were worried about, let me see somebody, and let me get a reaction. They were going hand-to-hand, still hitting out flyers. And I feel like we missed that so much.

We're so used to this and the algorithm of what hits, but I think when you go, to meet people where they're at. It's so true. It's better than anything else. I just remember being in Hampton and seeing the, from B.I.G. to J.Z coming on campus

and what that means to me to now, it's like, everybody's asking, is there a check involved? No check on you coming. And I think that means more to people than anything else. I remember this, you got to do that, though. Like, you got to touch the people with something like this. I felt like that when we boosted the gas in L.A.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. We boosted some gas for people like we were giving out free gas and it was just so dope to be out there with the people. We was just really out there talking And they're kicking people getting some gas, you know. Because gas was $7, like, tripping. And they're like, damn.

Damn. Yes. So, yeah, that's been able to boost the gas for sure. Yeah, we needed that. We needed that. How did you choose which groups, like, which people you were going to have a conversation with? Like, you have, like, black community and art things. And then you talk about, like, Asian community.

And then there's, like, an intersection. Are you talking about when we did the tour? No, no, no. In the movie. In the movie. Oh, oh. You know, I mean, it's hard to break down when it started. But I was thinking.

about, you know, the production of things and the distribution of things because, you know, boosting is not outside of capitalism. It's part of capitalism, right? And so it's just a certain distribution network. So while I was thinking about the services that boosters provide, I started thinking about how things are made of other things and really are made of people's time, right? Like all this stuff we got, somebody made it, somebody spent time on it. And that time, they might have been rather, you know, hanging out with their family. So that's usually what we're selling. This is the time that we would be doing something else.

So I started thinking about that. And so I started thinking about, you know, the factories that make it, right? Obviously, you could go back to when people are, you know, harvesting the fibers and things like that. But, you know, the factories that make it. And I was thinking about how to put these groups together. And there's a thing that we talk about. talk about in the movie where it's like we're all on one side of the same contradiction.

So I think it's easy wherever your collective group is to just be focused on how things are affecting you. What I love what the movie does is it actually showcases how everybody's being affected in their own different way by the same thing. And how are we actually being activated together? You know, you have the Demi Moore's

character where we have Christy Smith, she's the big bad villain. But then when you see Corvette, my character with the Velvet Gang, and you see how quick she is to be like, yo, give me the thing from Poppy Liu, who come from China, and she's like, yo, I got the teleporter. She's like, yo, give me this so we can get what we get done.

And you already can see that the same mechanism is happening. You know what I'm saying? Would you say the same side? One side of the same contradiction. Is that contradiction capitalism? The system? Yes. Okay, got you gotcha.

And it's affecting us all in our own way. And it makes us think because we're in our own problems that this is just me. But really it's the same issue affecting us all. And I think that ties back to the whole. thing Boots is saying is that if we can get outside of just ours, you know, then we can't actually see that the people around us are all dealing with the same thing in their own fashion. Ours eventually going to impact you.

Ours eventually going to impact you. I was having this conversation yesterday and I was talking about how like, you know, middle-class white people are the ones that should be speaking out the most right now because the America that they've loved their whole life is going to be completely different in five to ten years if we don't figure out, you know, how to take care of the least of us. I was saying, a country is only as good as their, as their worst person. And mind you, some of those middle class white people are making like 22,000 a year or something like that, right? And but like they're able to say they're middle class by looking at, uh, at black folks in communities of color and being like, ah, I'm different, right?

So there is a, that middle class is act. The real middle class is actually smaller and they're really just the working class, right? But those are the people who should be able to say, you know what, America would be better if billionaire's paid their face. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And, you know, a lot of the way that they ended up electing, that people ended up electing Trump was that group thought,

oh, he's like a class traitor. He's in the ruling class, but he's going to help us out. You know, so even a lot of the ideas that I talk about, people agree with already. Like, but they just don't use the same terms maybe or whatever. and, you know, everybody knows that, everybody knows the idea that, okay, quote unquote, power is, money is power, right? And they know they don't have power.

And so we know all of these ideas, but we haven't seen, a lot of us haven't seen a movement that we think could win. Right. And that's the big difference. And I think there's so much fear around what it looks like to actually create a movement, especially when you think about the different leaders. You know, usually there's a leader. there's a group, there's somebody that's stretch in the past,

and I think there's a lot of fear behind that, you know. The end of the day, you see so much stuff. I know with the millennial, we don't see so much dismantled. You know, so it gets to a point where you're like, well, if I'm just going to stand out there, I'm not just going to get gotten, that's it? And then y'all go just name a holiday after me? Like, what does it actually mean for us all to be on the front line?

Especially in this day and age, because I get to the point where it's like, I don't want any more of my friends dying. I don't want to say, let's go out there, now you're in jail, or you separated from your family because ice came and got you. You know what I mean? And so it gets to a point of how do you think the way that we think about organizing in community, you know, it has to be evolved more than just being out there, standing out there. It's like, how do we actually get together? How do we plan? Well, I think a blueprint is what they did in Minnesota, right?

Like, you saw people, you saw them have hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of people who knows, come out in the dead of winter when it was cold and to help folks that are targeted by ice. and they got some traction. It was a one-day thing, so it was, you know, part of it was symbolic, but it did lay a blueprint of what we could do. I mean, you put it like this. Obviously, we all know that money moves the needle. In Italy, they had a prime minister,

they have a prime minister that's as right-wing or maybe more right-wing than Donald Trump, if that's possible. And she was totally on, is totally on board with Israel and the genocide that they're committing, and the U.S. is committing with them. But they had a general strike. And they shut down the ports,

shut down all this trade, and they forced her to send out the Navy to protect the flotilla of Gaza. Now, that's where the lever is. It doesn't matter if you get, 30 million people out on the street. You know, it's about the levers of

capitalism. How does that work? Same thing, you look at like... If the market crash tomorrow, a totally different conversation. It's the strategy of what you attack. And you look at Iran. Like, what happened there? Like, the most forceful thing

that Iran was able to do is shut the straight of Hormuz. Money. Like, it wasn't artillery shells. It was money, right? And that's the closest thing. And the working class in the U.S., we could make a bunch of straits of hoar moves as far as money loss and make that happen.

We're just not organized there right now. Let me have both of y'all. When you look at America today, do you see a country evolving or just finding newer ways to market like the same system? I think, I mean, I imagine, yes, to some degree there's some evolution, but I do feel like we've seen a lot of the regurgitation

of the new phase of the same thing. you know, and I don't really know how you how you get out of that. You know, I feel like we talk about that in the movie too where there's this idea where I don't know that there's like one click of the thing where you're going to have a big solution. And it's, boom, it's done.

And I think that the fact that that doesn't exist actually is what stops us for moving, but there can be small things that are done that can make your life better or the people around you's life better tomorrow. And I think... So this is a podcast about video games. Kind of.

It's also about friendship. Definitely. And chaos. Unavoidably. Welcome to It's Dangerous to Go a lot. A podcast where we talk games, culture, nostalgia, and immediately go off topic. There is no gatekeeping. There is no skill check.

If you win a game on easy mode, we support you. If you've never touched a controller, honestly, same energy for some of us. It's fun, it's chaotic, it's friendship with a loose gaming theme. And somehow we keep getting away with it. You should listen. Stream it's dangerous to go alone on the free IHeartRadio app. Or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers, and guess what?

We have some big news. What's the news, new? Huge news. We've created our own podcast. called Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to a...

We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts throughout there. But this one's extra special. So how did we actually come up with a name Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. Oh, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band. Before Jonas Brothers was...

This is how you guys remember it going to be. down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, where people could call in and say, Hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas,

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Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The story I've told myself about love or relationships can then shake my behavior and that can lead me to sabotage the possibility of connection. This Mental Health Awareness Month, tune into the podcast deeply well with Debbie Brown and explore the journey of healing, self-discovery, and returning to yourself. We explore higher consciousness, emotional well-being, and the practices that help you find clarity, peace, and self-mastery in a world that can feel overwhelming. The world is becoming lonelier.

We're not becoming more so. social and connected. We're becoming more individualized, but we actually meet people in connection. If you've been searching for a soft place to land while doing the work to become whole, this podcast is for you to hear more. Listen to deeply well with Debbie Brown from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Often we feel like, and it almost is like it's a way that keeps us back to think,

that I've got to do this big thing when really I could just help the person next to me. You know, I can help the community of where I am today. I don't have to think about what's happening all the way across the world that maybe I don't have access to, but I can do something in my community right now. And that's something that I also do love about the movie, is that it kind of rephrases this idea that you gotta change the world as a whole. You got to, you know what I mean? But it's like you can change your world, you know?

And it'll have an effect on that world, right? to have a, because, well, I want to give up the movie. But, you know, yeah, it's all connected. And I want, you know, I want to ask just to go back for a second. We talked about the movie a lot. We broke it out, but where did the inspiration come from the movie? What was in your life during the time that was like, cool? Well, 20 years ago, I wrote a song called I Love Boosters.

And it's on the album, Pick a Bigger Weapon. And it was, so it's more, this wasn't a, that song didn't inspire the movie, but the inspiration came from the same place. And really, and it's like I was saying, like there's a lot of folks getting villainized and being used as a scapegoat for the problems that exist in our world. And really what happens is that capitalism must have unemployment in order to exist. If the unemployment rate goes too low,

you'll see pundits complaining, and worrying because how they keep wages low is say, oh, we got all these people to replace you. So they need an army of unemployed workers to keep wages low. Now, because they need that, if they got an army of unemployed workers, then they got an army of unemployed people

who want to eat, right? So you're going to have illegal business. And that's built into it. So capitalism necessitates poverty, which necessitates illegal business. and what we call crime because it's very arbitrary what we call in crime, right?

And so if you have that, then you need, how do you tell the whole working class that, hey, the system you're in means some of y'all got to be poor. Some of y'all got to not have housing. You don't. You say it's all merit-based.

And you say, hey, the reason that these folks are poor is because of their culture. And so you place it all on black folks or people of color, even though the poverty is going all over the place. And you're like, and so they can say, like, look, the reason they're poor is because their culture doesn't teach them the right things or their culture is deficient. And that's where the, that's where capitalism necessitates poverty,

an illegal business where capital and therefore necessitates racist tropes, right? Because that way you tell that you even make the white working class be like, well, I'm not like them. You know, like my, I'm just waiting for my, I'm just right now temporarily messed up. So what we have right now is in the song I talk about mainly black women because that's what I encountered as boosters, right? And obviously it happens all over the place, right?

But also what gets villainized are black women. So that's what the song, that's what the movie is uplifting. It's not just capitalism, though, right? It's consumerism and image culture, too, right? What do those roles play? I mean, I look at consumerism as just a, byproduct of, you know, it's not, you know, and I don't really know exactly, you know, I hear of consumer.

I think it's the idea of value too, right? Yeah. You're talking a lot about the way that people are trying to obtain value for themselves. Really, people want agency, but a lot of times because of consumerism, telling you that this is what will give you value, you believe that's how you're going to find that agency. That's what I think is image called. Yeah, for sure. Yeah.

Yeah. Wanting the labels. You know what I mean? Just to feel better about yourself. And our movie does touch on that, but it's not. really about that as much as it is I mean the thing that we do have in there is Demi Moore lives in this crazy place that's based on a thing in in the Bay area in the Bay Area we got this Millennium Tower that people paid millions of

dollars for each condo and it was built wrong as like leaning on like a couple inches but so we exaggerate that but that's this arbitrary notion of value that's placed on there. And, you know, I don't know if the movie, maybe I'm wrong, but I think the movie talks about consumerism, but in the, it's not

that's not really the what we're putting as the problem. It's more like a thing that happens. Yeah. I was just going to say, I guess the interesting thing is why using that as a portal into talking about this? Why using fashion as a portal to get

into a discussion about that? Yeah. And Corvette, Kiki's character, is, idolizes DeMe's characters. So she wants to be that. So that's more like, you know, what it is. She wants to be that designer. She, that is doing what, what Demi Moore's character, Christy Smith is doing.

And so she's into it that brand more because probably how it is, it makes you feel like it's getting close to freedom. Right? Like people want a life where they could do whatever they want to do, where they can control the world around. And I think that's why we get so weird in this time where it's like people do want to be CEOs, people do want to be founders. But then at the same time, there's this idea where you're on that climb.

And we see Corvette go through this. And even as an entertainer, I understand that I feel like any of us will, where it's like at some point, when does this not become serviceable to everybody around me on my climb to trying to be great or trying to. to make sure that I have the agency I need or the freedom that I think I need at some point. And we really see this mirroring happening between Corvette and Demi Moore's character, Christy Smith, where in Corvette's world, she has to see how she's now, what she's idolizing, what it's actually asking her to operate from,

which is individualism. That's what capitalism says. In order to be where you want to be, in order to be that founder, be that entrepreneur, be that person, it's almost like you've got to leave people behind or you've got to step on head. When you ask the question, it stops being serviceable when you stop being of service to other people. Yes. And I think that there's a moment in the movie, too,

where you realize that that is the real power and understand it. Because the whole time I feel like you're, it's like you're on this dream chase, but at the same time, the dream is because you want the power over your life, but also the power to make your situation better. But then you realize kind of the flip on, you know, service to people. And that she's ignoring everybody around her that's going through the same thing. That's what capitalism also does because we are so, so in survival mode,

we're not looking to the right and the left. and see, everybody's in survival mode. Like, I love the conversation that she has with Naomi Acky's character because we also are in this fight where it's like, the way I'm fighting is the best way to fight. What the way I'm fighting is the best way to fight. Everybody don't fight with their hands. Some people fight what they mind.

Some people are going to go into the office and work and learn what they need to learn and then take it back to the field. Everybody doesn't do it the same way. And Naomi's whole thing is I'm making sure my kids are good. While you out here, willing to put your life on the line, willing to chase after a billionaire to, I don't know what you're doing. I'm making sure we're good. I'm making sure the community is fed.

This is the way that I'm fighting. This is the way that I'm choosing to survive. And so I really love that because I think we're always trying to teach each other and tell each other so harshly how you need to fight for the community. We're all just trying to get by. I'm just trying to make it through the day.

You know? And sometimes I sit on the couch. I was going to ask you, Kiki, did I love Boosters challenge your worldview? But it sounds like it reinforced it. See, I feel like you were right. You better watch you arrive. here for like the last like year and I realized that in your conversation with Michelle Obama like

I think you're in the air right now yeah well you know I've been working in the industry for so long and you know it's a difference between when institutions give you respect or acknowledge you and your community and I think for me I've always been defined by my community as early as I can remember what the keyland they be they have always been the ones who said we see you we we see what you're doing and I think at this place in my life that's all I want to make sure that I can continue to uplift those voices, you know what I mean? That's what matters most to me. If I've been able to continue to expand and get better resources, how can I bring that back to Key TV? How can I bring that back to the kids? How can I create a project that can inspire? And I do think it's a blessing because, you know,

this kind of work isn't always around. You know what I'm saying? Like this project, if you don't, if I don't write it myself, I'm going to be hopefully lucky enough that somebody like Boots Riley writes it that allows me to have conversations like the ones I want to have. You know, in order to have the conversations and to even make the waves or get people to get into your head like this, you have the opportunity to do something other than, and again, you know what I mean? Which I live for that. You know, it's like I live for that, but that's only one note of it.

And I will say this, I feel like it's Kiki's best performance in the sense that, yeah, like she does some stuff on there that I've never seen her do, right? I saw it in things like Pimp and a few things. I saw it there, but we went for, you know, just from talking to her, I could see that she's a comedic genius and there's parts of that comedic genius that hadn't been on film yet. And that, you know, she gives like a performance that's more from, you know, it's how she talks. It's not the cadence like where you. It's not my character.

Yeah, you know, it's, it feels, I don't know, I'll say like, it feels really. It feels, right? It feels grounded. Well, Kiki Palmer, I did a tech talk that actually comes out today and talk about adaptive intelligence and performance as a tool that I've used to be able to survive my own life. And so one of my most popular characters is Kiki Palmer. It is, you know, it's your girl and the guy, you know, but that is only, that's a character that I constructed that I created

for my ability to be able to move to the world and to be able to do the things I want to do. So, yeah, when you give me the opportunity to say, let's go, let me actually explore the other parts. of my performance, my ability, I'm able to show something different. And it says something to me at one point. I don't remember when it was. You were like, yeah, boots, everybody says that they want this other thing. But then when we get on set, they want the boom, boom, boom,

you know, because there's a lot of pressures where they're like, okay, how we're going to make the money, blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. And so for me, I always want everybody, the whole cast, to be doing something that they've never done before. So that we feel them as a character, we fall into them. I never thought about that Kiki that you think you're playing the character yourself. I was thinking the same thing.

So your Kiki is the character and what? Lauren is only human? Yeah, come on, Lauren is only human? No, Ron is only human takes me out. I mean, it's just like how we all show up at work. You know what I'm saying? At the end of the day, it of course is me because I'm doing it. But it's a character.

It's also a performance, a performance to a certain degree. I'm not, I know. I mean, maybe people do, but if you. know I'm not in my house talking about some, you know, every now and then. I don't know. Every now and then. But it's just like it's what you, it's what we do as performers. I'm an artist. So that's, my point of it is, is that it's an intelligence to be able to perform, to be able to pick up patterns, to know when the room needs to shift, to know what people need you to pull up more and to pull back more. But that is you servicing the room.

So you're not being yourself. You're trying to make sure that the vibe is right and head up to And Kiki Palmer is, that was me in my neighborhood. You know, I grew up in a very rural part of Illinois. We didn't have a lot. And so I was the one that was, get out in the floor and dance, Kiki. You know what I mean? Because that's what was needed. Do you hate that character?

I love that character. But that character, what I think is this era that she was talking about that's opening up, even when I came and did Just Kiki and I talked about the, it's about integration. I don't, it's not being fragmented in this space where people don't understand what that has also meant to me, what that's cost to me and what embodiment is for me today. Where it takes a long time for you to realize poverty is not around over your shoulder. You know, so that's where, that's where I'm at. You know what I mean? I've been to support of my family since I was 12 years old and I have no shame about that.

I really, you know, it's like, but that's the way it had to be. They wasn't going to let my parents through. So the nine-year-old had to be able to get out there, tap. dance and move. But what once was something fun that I did for my family became a character that I'm doing and living in the world and I'm not, I'm not constantly embodied in it. And so then it becomes the question of what does all this mean to me. How do I also honor what that has given me? But also make sure that the person that just gets to be and that's not constantly making sure that the room is right is able to just exist. And it's funny because that's this character Corvette, she's experiencing

in a lot of ways her own version of that where she's trying to figure out how to maintain value, how to survive, who she has to be, what she has to become, what she's up against. And I remember we had a conversation when Boots, we were talking and having a conversation like I'm having with you guys. And he was like,

I want you to go back to that place before you reached where you are now. And I want you to be the you that was on that journey because Corvette hasn't figured out what you figured out. When do you get, I'm sorry, so when do you actually get to be Lauren?

Like, does it ever get tiresome to be, have to show up? Well, luckily, because I'm talking about it and I'm able to actually start articulating and sharing that experience, I'm able to be right now. Yeah. You guys are meeting me there because I'm allowing you to because I'm actually, you know, I'm telling you and we're sharing the conversation and we're able to understand it. I think in the generation we're in, it is time to start talking about what that, every entertainer is not the same or celebrity, I should say. But as an artist, like we have to start talking about what it is to be an artist, what it is to be a person, and what really happens in that in-between space. But are you tired of sharing that part of yourself? Like, are you tired of sharing who you are personally?

Like, I'm an actress. I do this part. I do this part. But now it seems like they're diving more into your personal. Yeah. I'm excited to be able. I think that's why I love doing my podcast. I love being able to talk and really share who I am outside of just the clips and the moments that people get to see that are profoundly, that are hugely.

performance-based or me making sure, you know, I'm ready to, I really want to have more conversations because I feel like I also have so much to share from what I've been through. As a creator, as an entrepreneur, I don't want these people to go through the same things I went through. Oh, wow. You know. They're wrapping us up, but I do want to ask one thing, because you survive child stardom, right? Without having a public breakdown, even though you've been taking care of your family forever.

What protected your spirit? I mean, I hate to say this is going to sound cliche, but I think in many ways that, you know, if people don't believe, then that's what they would feel. But honestly, God. Honestly, God. I grew up in a church. You know, my father's a deacon. The foundation of what I believe, the conversations that I've had with myself, the ritual was that my grandmother gave me, God rest of their soul, my grandma, my grandmother, my grandmother, dad. So I never felt like, even when I had to go underground, I knew I had, I knew I had God with me, you know.

And so I remember the moment when I was 17 and I was like, nobody can know me because it was unsafe because I was constantly under scrutiny and working as an adult as a kid and I couldn't be sad on set or I couldn't be angry. I couldn't show any of those emotions. So I told myself, I'm going to just be, yes, let's do it.

And I just said, the real me, she's going to go low-key because they can't handle her. They can't handle the questions. They can't handle the awareness. They can't handle what the conversations that I have with boots. They couldn't handle. me trying to talk about that kind of stuff in my position is True Jackson VP.

And so I just continue to survive my life. And then at some point I said she can, she's safe now. She can come up for air. I can talk about this and share this. Can I say something I've observed just from being in your sphere is that even without the child's stardom thing, you have what a lot of people in Hollywood don't have

is you have your family around you. They are, you know, regular people that are just good people and they're around you all the they're always somewhere a couple rooms over or something like that and you you know and you do live your life with them they're there and and and and you have them advising you and you have them protecting you and so uh you you have that community right there and it's something that you know i would wish upon anyone to have i hope i love that you and your mom are executive producers of the Yes.

Yes. Amazing. And I Love Boots is out today, so make sure you go check it out. Kiki Palmer, Boots, Raleigh thing. I know Kee Yves. Check this out. We got, we don't, it's not only Kiki Palmer and it's Kiki Palmer. Taylor Page.

Taylor Page. Naomi Aiki. La Kee Stanfield, Don Chito. Poppy Liu. Aza Gonzalez. Poppy Liu. You know, and it's, look, we're wide. It's only in 1700 theaters, which is big.

but that means if it's not right near you, convenient. I need you to travel over there and get it to this weekend. We got to blow this up. And thank you, everybody. Thank you. Yes. Kiki Pommel. Appreciate you.

Thank you for having us. It's the Breakfast Club. Good morning. All right. Every day I wake up. Wake your ass up. The Breakfast Club. You're all finished or y'all done?

Hey guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast. Hey Jonas.

We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it, but, you know, tired and sick. Tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from. from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman, help make you funnier. This week, my guest,

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