The Breakfast Club - Mahershala Ali and Uncle Ralph

Episode Date: December 7, 2021

Today on the show we had actor Mahershala Ali stop by for the first time as he spoke about his film "Swan Song" his first leading role, his upcoming role as Blade, his growth as an actor and more. Also, they had Ralph McDaniel or better known as Uncle Ralph who spoke on the documentary on "Video Music Box" and more. Also Charlamagne gave "Donkey of the Day" to the CEO of the company "Better Help" for firing 900 employees on zoom. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast, Post Run High, is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. own? I planted the flag. This is mine. I own this. It's surprisingly easy. 55 gallons of water,

500 pounds of concrete. Or maybe not. No country willingly gives up their territory. Oh my God. What is that? Bullets. Listen to Escape from Zaka Stan. That's Escape from Z-A-Q-A-S-T-A-N on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. As a kid, I really do remember having these dreams and visions, but you just don't know what is going to come for you. Alicia shares her wisdom on growth, gratitude, and the power of love. I forgive myself. It's okay. Have grace with yourself. You're trying your best, and you're going to figure out the rhythm of this thing.

Alicia Keys, like you've never heard her before. Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I can't believe you guys are the best. Collectively known as Breakfast Club, bitches. Good morning, Angela Yee. Good morning, DJ Envy. Charlamagne Tha God. Peace to the planet.

It's Tuesday. Yes, it's Tuesday. Good morning. Good morning. It absolutely is. How you feel out there? I feel blessed, black, and highly favored. What about you? Yes, I feel amazing.

I feel great. You know, I'm a big fan of Brooklyn, where I'm from, where I still live. But what I'm about to say will make people never want to move to Brooklyn. But this morning was rough. I have to. First of all, today is one of the worst days. I had to park like three blocks from my house because I got home late last night. There's no parking on the street.

And it's not like we have driveways. You don't get nervous walking three blocks away from your house and you got to walk to the crib by yourself? No, not at night. Not at night? Okay. No, the worst part is going in the morning. And I don't be scared of people, I be scared of rats. And today was garbage pickup day. And so that's always a scary time to be walking in the dark when no one's outside to your car.

I'm more scared of that than anything. You got pepper spray mace or something like that? For the rats? No, for people. I just told you what I'm more scared of. I'm just saying. But I do still love Brooklyn, but I know it's not attractive to hear that. For the rats? No, for people. I just told you what I'm more scared of. I'm just saying. But I do still love Brooklyn, but I know it's not

attractive to hear that. But yes, it's a lot of rats on the street on garbage pickup day. Did y'all see it's supposed to snow here in Tri-State on Wednesday?

Man, people in Miami don't care. People in Miami, like that's why y'all need to move to Florida. People in Miami, they have to care. The reason I say that

is because my cars... They have to care because of your cars. No, because head into my... Yeah, because of your car show. Boy, y'all some self-serving people. Absolutely. My car show. I got all these cars going down there and almost missed the truck. So, because the truck was supposed to pick up on Wednesday, but of course we can't get it through the snow.

So we had to actually start packing them and loading them today and tomorrow. I mean, we're carrying like 40 cars down there for the car show for people, kids five and under, or three. So, we're trying to put on a show. We sold thousands and thousands of tickets and I didn't want to cancel because of the snow. People love snow. My friend from Miami is staying with me right now.

People love snow. They do because look, she's from Miami and she doesn't get to see snow. She's like, I hope it snows while I'm here because I never get to see that in Miami. Snow is like grandkids. Snow is like grandkids. You love them, but you can still go back home. I was like, we hope like grandkids. Snow is like grandkids. You love them, but you can still, you know, go back home. Okay?

Yeah, I was like, we hope it doesn't. Yeah, she'll come up here for a day, but she'll be right back home. Man, you know a song we got to start playing early in the morning? Have you heard the new Mary J. Blige, Good Morning Gorgeous? Good Morning Gorgeous. We played it last week. We premiered it here. So, yes, we heard it.

No, you played the DJ. No, you played the DJ Khaled record. Amazing. No, we premiered Good Morning Gorgeous. Oh, I wasn't here for that. Yes, you was. Well, guess what? I don't remember that.

I remember playing the Khaled record. I remember playing the Khaled record. Amazing. But we need to be playing Good Morning Gorgeous every morning for the next couple of weeks. That is a great affirmation record. We played it every hour on the hour. We just played the Khaled record in the rumors, but we played that every hour on the next couple of weeks. That is a great affirmation record. We played it every hour on the hour. We just played the Cal record in the rumors, but we played that every hour on the hour.

What day was that, Eddie? Thursday or Friday? Friday. We did Friday. Was I here Friday? Yes. Friday was the only day I was here. You weren't here Friday.

I wasn't here Friday. Yeah, no, we played it every hour on the hour. Well, we need to keep playing that record then instead of coming here and talking about everything that we're doing. We need to be playing that record every morning. That is a great morning wake-up record. Also, I think in the snow,

they also said it's going to snow in Hawaii. Did I hear that right? Wow, it's going to snow in Hawaii? I didn't know that happened. I didn't know that happened either, but they said it's not. Are we syndicated in Hawaii? It's like global warming.

No, but it's just weird. Snow in Hawaii. It doesn't normally happen. Goodness gracious. Climate change is real. All right, well, let's get the show cracking. Front page news,

what are we talking about? Well, let's talk about Sony. They have fired a PlayStation executive, and the reason why is disgusting. All right, we'll get into that next. I didn't write it down.

So let's get to that next, and here it goes. It's Mary J. Blige. Good morning, gorgeous. There you go. Woo-hoo write it down. So let's get to that next. And here it goes. It's Mary J. Blige. Good morning, gorgeous. There you go. It's the Breakfast Club. Good morning. Good morning.

Morning, everybody. It's DJ and V. Amazing record. Charlamagne Tha Guy. We are the Breakfast Club. Let's get into front page news. Great record to set your intention to, man. Set your intention for the day, man.

Now, on Monday Night Football, the Patriots beat the Bills 14-10. Now, what else we got, Yeezy? Well, let's talk about Sony. They fired a PlayStation executive. He was allegedly caught in a pedophilia sting. George Kachopo. How do you say his name? Kachopo?

Kachopo? George Kachopo. He is the senior vice president from the team behind PlayStation, and allegedly he tried to arrange a meeting with a 15-year-old boy, according to a video that was posted on the YouTube channel People vs. Preds. Now, he's been at PlayStation for more than eight years, and he most recently served as senior vice president of engineering so the way this happened it's an amateur sting operation and they actually try to catch sexual predators who meet victims online so they identify cachopo as a 64 year old who was trying to arrange a meeting with a 15 year old boy at 4 30 a.m. allegedly in the video you can see the cameraman walking down the street

toward a house that cachopo is wearing a black PlayStation 5 t-shirt. He's standing in front of the house and here's what happens. Excuse me, everybody! This guy invited over a 15-year-old boy to have sex with him tonight! The cops will be here soon, scumbag. Ouch. Now, CNET reported that Kachopo contacted the decoy miner on Grindr. That's a dating app for gay, bi, trans, and queer people. They exchanged pictures, and Kachopo told the decoy his name was Jeff, and then allegedly gave his address in order to have sex with the

alleged 15 year old boy according to CNS review of the log so they actually have posted the conversation that they had and it's pretty... I'll tell you one thing the catcher predator clearly isn't as sophisticated as it once was

with all that screaming. Chris Hansen used to be way more calm when he used to catch the pedophiles. You want some cookies? Now, of course he can get arrested for that, right? What would he be charged with? What are you talking about? He's a pedophile, Envy. What are you talking about?

What would he be charged with? No, no, because I don't know what the charge is because he was caught about to do the act. You know what I mean? So I don't know what the charges are. Right, well, listen, the thing is that they did exchange pictures, right, allegedly. You know what I mean? So I don't know what the charges are. Right. Well, listen, the thing is that they did exchange pictures,

right, allegedly. I know he got fired. And then they have the conversation, the decoy is saying, I'm finally 15. LOL, I think we talked before. So even the idea

that you're going to meet with a 15-year-old, somebody you think is a 15-year-old, and then he says, are you really 15? And then he said, I just turned 15

two weeks ago. And... Well, what was the charge on the Catcher Predator? Because they used to get arrested. As soon as they walked outside the police was there. I mean, there's no charge.

You can't... Like, what's the charge? Is it an attempt? Is it, you know, I'm just curious. I forgot what the actual charge was. And how much time could he get for it?

They used to get arrested on the Catcher Predator. And how much time could he get for it, you know? Yeah. Then are you like a, do you have to register as a sex offender after that? Yeah, absolutely.

All right. Well, that is your front page. And all I know is that, that's also an extreme abuse of power because he has the best bait for a kid. Like what kid isn't coming to the CEO of PlayStation? I don't think he said that. As soon as you say that. Did he use that?

No, he just said his name was Jeff. That's it. Wow. Oh. All right. Well, that is front page news. Now, get it off your chest. 800-585-1051. If you need to vent, phone lines are wide open. Hit us up now.

And also, Mahershala Ali, actor, will be joining us this morning. So, we'll talk to him next hour. So, don't move. It's The Breakfast Club. Good morning. The Breakfast Club. Wake up. wake up. Wake your ass up. This is your time to get it off your chest.

Whether you're mad or blessed, we want to hear from you on The Breakfast Club. Hello, who's this? Hey, it's Carter from Jersey. Andy, what's going on, brother? What's up, bro? Get it off your chest, brother. I got a situation. Hey, Yeet.

Hey, what's good, boo? Listen, I got a situation. I got a good boo listen i got a situation i got a uh my man was doing uh my man was doing real bad in the street so i um i let him with my house you know what i'm saying he got his life together he got a job he's making like 22 an hour making commissions and uh he started messing with drugs he saw off the wagon so right i don't know like i don't want to kick him out and i can't keep an eye on him but i'm always working and i don't want to kick him out because i'm gonna leave him in the street it's gonna be even worse so me and his brother trying to figure out the situation

so like um i don't know what to do like you got kids yeah i got a son in your house no she'll be his mother but i'll get him on the weekend okay Okay. I would just be careful with him around my kids if he is a user like that. But, I mean, I'll... Yeah, no, I don't... Yeah, I mean, sorry to cut you off, but he got a son, too. Like, I don't want to... We wanted to say... We don't...

This week, we wanted to say something to his son, like, your pop's going to be away for a little bit. Because I get a son, too. Like, I get my son and I get his son. Because, you's gonna be away for a little bit because I get his son, I get his son too. Like, I get my son and I get his son because he, you know, it's a situation.

You're a good-ass friend. You're a good friend, bro. You're a good friend. Where you from? Colorado. So where's he gonna, where's he going when he goes away?

He's going to rehab or what's happening? Nah, like, well, when he go away, I mean, well, we're trying to get him to rehab now and, you know, he gets defensive.

Like, his mother say something to him, and then he gets defensive, then he leave the house, and then, like, he'll have his son. So when he get like that, like, you never really know when he going, how he going to act. Because he's working all week. He just lost his job. So now I'm like, come on, fire, like, you're in a situation. I can't keep helping you out like this.

Yeah, because then that kind of enables somebody when they know that you're always going to help them out. Well, not only that, he said he's moody sometimes around his kids. Sometimes the mood, you know, his mood changes when the day changes. You don't want him to have a nasty or bad mood, and he takes that out on his son or your son. So, I mean, I would say try to get him as help as possible. I don't even know which way to guide you and send you,

but it seems like he needs help, and I would be very, very careful with him, you know, in the crib with the kids. Oh, yeah. No, no, no. That situation, I keep away. Like, I don't like to keep it. I like to, like, kind of guide him when he's with his son. You know what I'm saying?

It's always us. If he's with his son, I'm with him. Right. It's always like that. Good. I brought him to the car show. I brought him to your car show. I brought him to your car show. The whole thing.

I brought him, his son, and all that. That's what it is. That's nice. In the Miami City. That was dope. Now, it's a situation. I would definitely suggest that you hit up a place that specializes in addiction treatment to get advice from them on how you should handle something like this.

Because they can give you the proper resources. You know, it's one thing to want to help somebody. It's another thing when you can point them to someplace that they can actually tangibly go to get help. Okay. Now they say, I think in Jersey, you can't, you can't like, um, not force them, but like sneak them in there. Like say you're going somewhere.

They got to, they got to do it themselves. No, absolutely. But what I'm saying is you can call like the national helpline for substance abuse and talk to them and they can let you know what are some things that you can do in a situation like this to try to help. And then you can also say, look, you need help. Here's a place that I think I would recommend for you to go to. And they can also give you more ideas on how you can convince somebody to go get treatment. Yeah, because if you don't, he's going to end up in one of those abandoned homes, you know, doing drugs by himself, and you don't want that.

Yeah, that's what he's doing now. Getting hotels and getting rooms just to get high. Like, come on, man. It's killing me. It's killing me inside. But it's an addiction, though, and a lot of times people can't control it, so it is an addiction, bro. I'm sorry for you, bro.

I don't even know what to tell you, bro. I'm sorry. Hey, listen. I'm going to know what to tell you, bro. I'm sorry. Hey, listen, I'm going to figure it out, but I thank y'all for answering. And congratulations on your 11 years, man. Thank you.

And you can call 1-800-662-HELP. Okay? That is the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration hotline. And then they'll refer you

to someplace local for you. What is it going to be? 1-800-662-HELP? Yep? 1-800-662-HELP? Yep. 1-800-662-HELP. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome.

That's a real friend right there. Absolutely. I'll pick up your son. I'll let you stay with me. I mean, that's what friends are for, right? If you have a good friend, a real friend, that's what they'll do. And I got a bunch of real friends like that. If something happened to me, they will be there.

Or if I'm out of town, they will be there. And that's what you want. Get it off your chest. It's 800-585-1051. real friends like that. Something happened to me, they will be there or if I'm out of town, they will be there and that's what you want. Get it off your chest. 800-585-1051. If you need to vent, hit us up now. It's The Breakfast Club.

Good morning. The Breakfast Club. This is your time to get it off your chest. Whether you're mad or blessed. You better have the same energy. We want to hear from you on The Breakfast Club.

Hello, who's this? Good morning, my comedy buddy, Angela. Snack Man! Hey, Snack Man, what's good? This is our local Breakfast Club comedian. No, he's your local comedian, but go ahead. Snack Man? Yeah, I got two jokes for you, Angela.

Okay, let's go. I'm not mad about wearing a mask because I'm saving a lot of money. And begin. Why doesn't Santa Claus have any children? Why? Because he's not real. Because he only comes once a year and it's down a chimney. Thank you.

Woo! I can't. Boo! Because number one, what if chimneyimney was the woman's name? And number two, all it takes is one time. Boo! Hello, who's this? Tasha.

Tasha from Jersey. Tasha, good morning. Get it off your chest. Okay, well, first I want to say good morning. Good morning. Just a quick few things. Angela, I love that you're a woman doing your thing. DJ Envy, I love that you're a family man. And Charlamagne, you're a really few things. Angela, I love that you're a woman doing your thing. DJ Envy, I love that

you're a family man. And Charlamagne, you're a really smart man. Like, you really are. I love listening to you when you get going on any of your conversations. I actually agree with almost everything you say. But what I do want to get off my chest is

the story you guys were talking about with, like, the pedophile. Like, I used to be a CEO, so I know he's definitely going to be charged with enticing a minor off the bat, and they'll probably hit him with something else for exchanging the pictures, but they only get five to six years for simple stuff like that. And honestly, I don't think it's fair. I think they should get more time because they're going after innocent children at the end of the day. And then once

they get into the prison system, they're still continuing their pedophilia. They're still trading files because, you know, they got stuff they're not supposed to. And it's like they don't get better. They just get worse and they learn to trade better. Okay. Let me ask you a question. As a CEO,

you know, once people know there's a pedophile on the yard, do they still get beat up and stuff? I mean, I would say absolutely. We don't ask, you know, obviously see it happen, we get the aftermath and they have like certain individuals that'll walk around, they're called

like the booty bandits, so if they find out that, you know, you're a pedophile, they're gonna take your butt, or they're gonna exhort you. Yeah, or depending on how bad you are, obviously they're gonna, you know, you're a pedophile, they're going to take your butt, or they're going to extort you. Yeah. Or depending on how bad you are, obviously they're going to, you know, beat you up. But they do get taken care of.

Wow. Yeah, I mean, listen, that is something, right? I mean, it's clearly something off with pedophiles. So what kind of treatment does a pedophile get? So when they come home, they don't continue to do that. I don't know.

That's the thing. Certain prisons, they actually have programs geared for the pedophiles to help them get the treatment. But certain individuals, sad to say, they actually recognize what they're doing. They know that it's wrong, but they choose to do it anyway. Right. But some of them, they don't know because they experienced it when they were

younger, so they don't know any better. So it's kind of like half and half. You have the individuals with any crime that know what they're doing is wrong, but they choose to do it anyway. Then you have the ones that are really traumatized from their childhood that just need help. All right.

Well, thank you for calling in. That's interesting. Yeah, we appreciate that. No problem. You guys have a good day. All righty now. Get it off your chest. 800-585-1051.

We got rumors on the way? Yes, and let's talk about Jesse Smollett. You know, he took the stand in his criminal trial yesterday, and we'll tell you some of the things that he is claiming when it comes to whether or not he was attacked in an anti-gay and racist attack. All right, we'll get into that next. It's The Breakfast Club. Good morning. The Breakfast Club.

Morning, everybody. It's DJ Envy, Angela Yee, Charlamagne Tha Guy. We are The Breakfast Club. Good morning. Now let's get to the rumors. Let's talk Da Guy. We are The Breakfast Club. Good morning. Now let's get to the rumors. Let's talk Dame Dash. Yo. This is the Rumor Report with Angela Yee. Rumor has it.

On The Breakfast Club. So listen up. Well, Dame and Dash was on Bootleg Kev's show. And one of the things that he talked about was some of the words and phrases that he invented. Now, in case you didn't know, when y'all say pause, Damon Dash invented that. If it's coming, why fear it? Embrace it.

Pause. Monetize it. Oh, God, that was crazy. Big pause. Big pause. Did you invent pause? Yes. My crew, the best out, we invented pause for sure.

There's nobody could ever, ever say that I didn't. No, that's all of us. That came from my block. It out we invented pause for sure. There's nobody could ever ever say that didn't know That's all that came from my block. It's not meant to be offensive It's always been a personal joke with my friends and now the whole world does it it's like I can't even have a personal joke You know everyone says people would ask me. I would never tell them what it meant ever. I'd like you have to figure it out That's right Things ever they created it. It's one It's one of the greatest things ever. Yeah, they created that. It's one of the greatest things ever.

I love it to this day. I just would never grow out of it. It's fun. It was that and the no word. But yeah, they definitely created that. Now, he talks about a lot of other things that he came up with and invented. And by the way, he also talks about having his own band, having his own artist boot camp. He talks about Kanye and Jay-Z and some of their comments.

But here are some other phrases and things that he invented. Pop tags. I made that one up. Okay. I'm the one that named Hova. I made that up. What was the inspiration for the Hova? Jay Hova.

So, yeah. I can's Jehovah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. So, yeah. I can't dispute any of that. I mean, those are the first time I heard those phrases was from them. So, yeah. All right. Now, Jesse Smollett took the stand in his criminal trial. You know, that's a very risky thing to do. Right.

Because when you get cross-examined, they are going to put you through it. This case is messy. Yes. So, he's trying to rebut the charges that he staged a fake hate crime and lied to the police in Chicago about everything that happened in January of 2019. He was on the stand for over five hours. So he denied orchestrating the attack. And he said that the brothers, who he knew from Empire, may have had other motivations at play. One of the things that he said was Bola Osundaro, who he calls Bon,

helped him get drugs, also helped him get cocaine. He also said they had a sexual relationship. And that started between the two at a particular Chicago bathhouse. One night the two were out and he testified they got a private room and did more drugs and made out. He also says that he and Bola snuck away from his brother after the three were at a female strip club together And they got a private room again and made out and masturbated together

Now Bola Osundaro has denied that they had a sexual relationship and said he didn't know that there was even any sexual tension And Jesse Smollett also talked about the brother Ola He said he kind of creeped me out every time we were around him He didn't speak to me. Every time we needed to leave, he made it seem like we needed to sneak off. Now, there was a hate letter that was sent to Jesse Smollett

in the mail at the Empire Studio. And according to Jesse Smollett, he said Bola Osundaro approached him about becoming his personal security guard. And he said he would repeatedly ask him that. But he had a problem with the idea of always having a security detail around him. So those are some of the things.

He also said that he didn't give a police detective his cell phone when they asked for it because he didn't think that the police believed his story. And he also said that the MAGA hat was a lie. He told police, you know, that that wasn't true. And he said that Chicago police, his relationship with them started to deteriorate after they mentioned the MAGA hats because that hat was favored by supporters of the president at the time, Donald Trump. So a lot of things going on. So what is he alleging? He's alleging that they were disgruntled lovers who flipped out on him. Yeah, I guess he's trying to say maybe that part of the reason why they were having any type of interaction with each other was because they were lovers. But he did say he lied about the MAGA hat. He's admitting that he lied about the MAGA hat?

Yeah, there was no MAGA hat. So he said he rejected some of what has been reported, including that he told police his alleged attackers were wearing MAGA hats. He said he never told the police that. Oh, got alleged attackers were wearing MAGA hats. He said he never told the police that. Oh, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. He said they lied on him. Yeah, he's saying he never said that.

And he said under oath that there was no hoax. He said he was driving, smoking a blunt, and texting with a woman after his MSNBC appearance when the Olsendaro brothers were in his car.

And according to the brothers, they say that, remember when they said that they were going through like a rehearsal of the hoax? He's saying that's not what happened. They just were in his car at that time and he was texting and smoking.

He also says the night of the attack, Bolo Osundaro called him about his training and his mail plan and they told him to get four eggs. So he went to Walgreens to get eggs and that's when he was attacked. All I know is, you know, personally, whatever happens in this situation, I don't think Jussie deserves no three years in prison.

I think that's what he's facing, right? Three years in prison? Yeah. It's like, nah, give him probation or something. All he did was lie to the police. Well, he's saying he didn't lie. Oh, well, yeah. Okay, you're right.

But even at the worst, yeah. Okay, you're right. But even at the worst, at the worst, you know, he's a completely innocent or if he is guilty, he just lied to the police. He don't deserve no three years in prison. I don't think there's enough evidence to say that he did it, though. Like, it's my word versus their word. Like, there's not enough. There's no

evidence to say that this was a hoax, right? They don't have no text. They don't have nothing to just their words versus Jesse's words, right? Yeah, and so he's back on the stand today. I don't think that's enough to convict him if there's no evidence. I can't believe this went to trial. Yeah, me neither. But, hey.

All right, well, that is your rumor report. All right, thank you, Miss Yee. Now, we got front page news coming up. What are we talking about? Yes, we'll give you the latest on what's going on with the Omicron variant. All right. And next hour also Mahershala Ali will be joining us. You know him from Moonlight and Green Book.

He's in a new movie, Swan Song. We're going to talk to him next hour. He'll be playing Blade in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. All right. So front page news is next at The Breakfast Club. Good morning. The Breakfast Club. Your mornings will never be the same. What up, y'all? This is DJ Breakfast Club. Good morning. The Breakfast Club. Your mornings will never be the same.

What up, y'all? It's DJ Envy. For nearly 60 years of quality coverage, make the right call and go with The General. Call 800-GENERAL or go to thegeneral.com to get a hassle-free quote today. The General Auto Insurance Services, Inc. An insurance agency, Nashville, Tennessee. Some restrictions apply. Morning, everybody.

It's DJ, MV, Angela Yee, Charlamagne Tha Guy. We are The Breakfast Club. Let's get in some front page news. Now, Monday Night Football. The Patriots beat the Bills 14 to 10. Patriots ain't doing that bad this year. They're 9-4. Buffalo Bills are 7-5.

Now, what else we got, Yeezy? Instagram will now tell users when to take a break from using the app. So they launched their take a break tool today. That will encourage users to spend some time away from the platform after they've been scrolling for a certain period. So now you can turn on the feature in your settings. And you can select if you want to be alerted after using the platform for 10 minutes, 20 minutes or 30 minutes. Then you'll get a full screen alert telling you to close out of the app, suggest that you take a

deep breath, write something down, check a to-do list, or listen to a song. That's great. So, if you pay attention to it. Yeah, no, no, that's great. Alright, now let's talk about the latest on the Omicron variant. The U.S.

is reevaluating travel bans on a daily basis. This is important right now because I know the holidays are upon us and people are making plans. It's making it hard to even decide where to go or what to do because you don't know where we'll be at that time. But Dr. Anthony Fauci is saying that a U.S. travel ban on South Africa and several other African countries is being reevaluated every day. He said the U.S. was aware of the hardship the bans have placed on the countries, but he said the ban was put in place when the U.S. was in the dark and just learning about a surge in cases in South Africa due to the Omicron variant and added that the ban was meant to provide time to assess the situation. So they did bar entry to travelers from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Malawi.

But the variant has now been identified in dozens of countries and several U.S. states as well. So now there's new travel restrictions because of this variant in the U.K., Australia, Japan, Brazil, Canada, India, Russia. And they're getting more and more information about cases. So if it's in all these places, are they going to ban travel for all these places as well? Well, we already told you starting in South Africa. Right. Well, we already told you

starting yesterday, you have to have tested negative within 24 hours. It used to be within three days. Right. And now it's within 24 hours. So they've made that rule already. So Joe Biden also announced

previously that there's new measures that are aimed at curbing the pandemic. All inbound international travelers have to be required to test within one day of departure for the United States. And all flights departing after,

is today, oh, yeah, starting today, must abide by a new CDC testing order, which was posted. So that's going to apply to everyone. Okay, and documentation of having recovered from COVID in the past 90 days is also accepted. And I'm really confused with this because they're saying Omicron And documentation of having recovered from COVID in the past 90 days is also accepted.

And I'm really confused with this because they're saying Omicron might not be as, it might not have as much damage to people as the Delta variant or the regular variant, right? Yeah. So why are they going so crazy over this variant? Well, they're saying it's more contagious is what it looks like. So it might not be as damaging, but it could be more contagious. But again, it's still too early to know everything because it's a new variant. Gotcha. So things come up all the time.

So they're keeping an eye on it. All right. All right. And taking Viagra can cut your risk of Alzheimer's by up to 69%. Really? What a crazy percentage number to go with your Viagra. But yes, so if you take Viagra, according to research, it can slash your risk of Alzheimer's by two-thirds. So you should take Viagra more? I mean, it's just a study.

They did analyze data on 7.2 million U.S. adults, and they found that regular users had a 69% lower chance of being diagnosed with Alzheimer's over the next six years. You just got to walk around with a third leg in your pants all day long. If you're Nick Cannon, but I don't know, everybody won't have that because you saw Nick Cannon went viral. I did not. Did you just go, mm? No. Yes, you did. I did not. You didn't just go, mm. That wasn't before Nick Cannon. What's wrong with you, man?

So random. I said, if you're Nick Cannon, you said, mm. No, I didn't. Alright, well, that is your Front Page News. My goodness. Alright, now, how do you pronounce his name? Oh my gosh, you all flustered now. Mahershala Ali will be joining us. He's an actor.

Of course, he won an Oscar for his role in Moonlight and Green Book. He's in a new flick. It's called Swan Song. It premieres in theaters on Friday, December 17th. He's an amazing actor. And you know, Swan Song is his first leading role. You would think that in Green Book he was the lead in that movie, but he actually won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor

and in Moonlight, but everybody thought he was the lead. Okay. We're going to kick it with Mahershala Ali when we come back. So don't move. It's The Breakfast Club. Good morning. The Breakfast Club. Hey guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series

The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast, Post Run High, is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. You know that rush of endorphins you feel after a great workout? Well, that's when the real magic happens. So if you love hearing real, inspiring stories from the people you know,

follow, and admire, join me every week for Post Run High. It's where we take the conversation beyond the run and get into the heart of it all. It's lighthearted, pretty crazy, and very fun. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Is your country falling apart? Feeling tired, depressed, a little bit revolutionary? Consider this. Start your own country. I planted the flag. I just kind of looked out of like, this is mine. I own this.

It's surprisingly easy. There are 55 gallons of water for 500 pounds of concrete. Everybody's doing it. I am King Ernest Emmanuel. I am the Queen of Laudonia. I'm Jackson I, King of Capraburg. I am the Supreme Leader of the Grand Republic of Mentonia. Be part of a great colonial tradition. The Waikana

tribe owned country. My forefathers did that themselves. What could go wrong? No country willingly gives up their territory. I was making rockets with black powder, you know, with explosive warheads. Oh my God. What is that? Bullets. Bullets. We need help!

We still have the off-road portion to go. Listen to Escape from Zakistan. And we're losing daylight fast. That's Escape from Z-A-Q-istan on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. As a kid, I really do remember having these dreams and visions, but you just don't know what is going to come for you. Alicia Keys opens up about conquering doubt, learning to trust herself and leaning into her dreams. I think a lot of times we are built to doubt the possibilities for ourselves. For self-preservation and protection. It was literally

that step by step. And so I discovered that that is how we get where we're going. This increment of small, determined moments. Alicia shares her wisdom on growth, gratitude, and the power of love. I forgive myself. It's okay. Like grace. Have grace with yourself. You're trying your best and you're going to figure out the rhythm of this thing. Alicia Keys, like you've never heard her before. Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. Morning, everybody. It's DJ Envy, Angela Yee, Charlamagne Tha Guy, we are The Breakfast Club. We got a special guest in the building. Yes indeed. Mahershala Ali, welcome brother. Hey, thanks for having me. Peace King.

How you feeling today man? I'm good, I'm good. First time. Life's good today? Life is good man. How y'all doing? Bless Black and Holly favorite brother. So let's get into it.

Of course we're here to talk about Swan Song first and foremost. And if I'm not mistaken, did you produce this movie also? I'm one of the producers on it, yeah. Okay, so what drew you to this movie in particular? The dilemma. I think the story is really unique. Did I read correctly that this is your first leading role? First.

That's nuts to me. I mean, I don't know why I never thought that. I just always thought you was the lead in these movies. Yeah, yeah. No, it's a first. It's been 20 me. I mean, I don't know why I never thought that. I just always thought you was the leader in these movies. Yeah, yeah. No, it's the first. It's been 20 years, 21 years. Yeah. And you did win Oscars already. I want to talk about that. Best supporting actor. How does that change?

Some people will say, oh, these awards don't matter and say things like that. But winning an Oscar, right, how did that change your trajectory or did it? Did it not matter to you? Did it change things? Oh, it definitely mattered and it changed things you suddenly get more opportunity quantity doesn't always equal quality though you still have to sift through it all to make sure that you are are locking in on the opportunity that feels right for you let's talk about that process though of

getting to the leading man status because everything about you says leading man right oh how do you humble yourself to i guess play your position until you get to this point? So the sports analogy is, you know, you might be seventh, eighth man on the bench, but you believe that you have the capacity to start, you know? And so I think what you try to do is every time you're playing, you just try to show up and do your job and try to prove that you are worthy of more minutes. So you just got to kind of keep doing what you're doing, keep your head down, do the best work you can do,

try to keep growing, and try not to repeat. You want to try to diversify, you know, so you might take something smaller just because it's so different from the last thing you did because then the goal becomes about showing your range as an actor so that eventually when that right thing pops people are just constantly seeing you in a different light that's kind of been my approach to try to be patient and also just understand that as long as i'm doing my best work that things unfold in god's time did you ever make the wrong pick like

damn i should have did this movie or that movie was great I could have had opportunity but I didn't go that route did you ever make that mistake um it's not a mistake but you make that decision you know I don't want to say that they're mistakes because I've grown I've grown from every opportunity and I think that every role that you get there's a reason why you got that role that's that's my approach to it because I've learned something from each role that I got it for a reason and it impacted me for a reason. And so as long as you're learning, it's less about making the right choice or the wrong choice, but it's more about can you look at your growth as a result of having just done this experience?

What did you learn from Green Book? I think like stepping into it, especially coming off of Moonlight, I was looking to do something that felt really unique. And so when I look at somebody who was empowered enough in 1961, 1962, to hire a white man to drive him through the South, that I interpret that as almost somebody like flipping off the South, so to speak. Like he had his own little ways of bucking the system. So when I looked at like his education, his experiences, I was like, this is somebody that I hadn't quite seen before. So that right there, I wanted to challenge myself. Did you regret it? The role? No, no, no. Cause I don't regret the work I did and I don't regret, regret what attracted me to it and why I did it. Now in every situation, things get complicated at times. And so if anything,

I think walking out of it, you learn more about like, what is due diligence going into a project? Like you could do your due diligence, you ask some questions, well, this is what I need. This is, you know, that I don't need. But then later on, you kind of learn as things revealed, you're like, oh man, there's an extra set of questions that I could have asked but you just also don't know what you don't know and so that's just part of the experiences of growing and moving from being someone who is most often supporting something to almost a lead in something and that leap is a real leap and so the awareness and all the details of that and how much of your life changes and the expectations and the responsibilities and all that is you learning too you know you're learning on

the fly and especially once you're working with like these big corporations and you're like well i don't agree with this trailer this shouldn't be in it it's out of context and they go it tested well you're like what what can you say to that? And so that's often the experience artists find themselves in. And you navigated, you learn from it, and you try to move on. And especially what happens is when you have studios and production companies, they're faceless, right? right and so once that film comes out and it may do well in one part of the demographic and another part of the country is not feeling it what especially as actors of color you walk out kind of carrying that bag as if you made all those choices or decisions when the faceless companies kind of like they on the next rollout for their next gig so i learned a

lot from it does that make you feel like you want to have more control as far as that's what made me want to produce i mean it's not what made me want to produce but it's something that added to the fuel behind behind wanting to produce because so often you're behind the scenes and i'm sure you could talk to a healthy group of actors of color because it's not just black actors, but where you find yourself where there isn't a black voice in the producerial role. So what happens is actors have to start saying like, oh, there's a problem with this scene. Can we try it this way? Because that could be problematic. And so that inherently becomes part of your job as an actor, though you will not be credited as a producer, but you're producing because you begin to start trying to protect the film and think about all these things that can impact the film and impact you as an artist. So in getting the producer credit, often you're already doing that work anyway. So I've appreciated being able to move into that space because now there's a legit seat at the table.

It's not like you're standing behind the people sitting at the table and being like, hey, can you fix this part? Because that could be problematic or this is actually what we need to go for here. Can you do that? And they may or may not listen to you. But if you're producing and you're the face of it, it's a way to protect yourself and the story now Mahershala break down the movie swan song what is it about the film is about a man who is dealing with a terminal illness and he is presented with the opportunity to clone himself and so this is the not too distant future so it's a say it's like40. Part of it is that he just can't tell his family. And the reason he can't tell his family is because this process is new.

So there's almost still in this semi testing phase of it. It's not like openly permitted yet. So with that said, considering that you have somebody who is relatively young, meaning the character I'm playing, and the child who is like 10 years old, you have somebody who's looking like, feeling like they're dying before their time. The advantage that the clone has is that he has all the awareness that the original has. Like he has all the same memories, all the same. He's him. It's not Pet Sematary. No, he's him. He's him. But he just doesn't have the illness. Right. And so there's this thing where you feel like the clone

is really about to take advantage of having this new opportunity at life. And so I feel like we all have that character's name is Jack the clone. I think we all have a Jack in us. We all have a higher potential. We all have our best self. So the work becomes about what do we have to do to manifest our best selves? Like how do we take stock and take inventory? Do we need a death sentence?

Do you need a ticking clock that you're totally aware of to begin to like look at some of the changes you need to make in your own life. Morning, everybody. It's DJ Envy, Angela Yee, Charlamagne Tha Guy. We are The Breakfast Club. We're still kicking it with Mahershala Ali.

Of course, he won an Oscar for his roles in Moonlight and Green Book. He has a new flick, Swan Song. Do you ever get stuck in character, though? Because it's like you do different characters. Yeah. From all aspects and players and all different people. Do you ever get stuck in a thing and can't get and all different people do you ever get stuck in a thing and can't get out um and how do you get out if you know what i would say i don't

think i ever get stuck in character but what i do think is i i think you i think there's things to take with you from each character i think there's lessons to take with you just like there's lessons to take from each relationship or each job and so I try to take the things that impact me in a positive way from these characters. But each character comes with a certain degree of toxicity too, right? Because you're living in somebody else's problems for 12 to 18 hours a day. And so for me, there's a time in which

I kind of need post-shooting to sort of like almost mourn the character, like to kind of get it out of me because you get in a rhythm and you get, I can't even eat sitting down. It's hard for me to eat sitting down because I'm just so used to rushing all the time. And then you quick change

and then you back on set real quick. And at a certain point you're like, yo, this is not normal. Let me bring it down. I got to let go of the stresses of this character that I've been living with for four months and begin to embrace my own again and kind of let that go so it just it takes time to to shake it like I

just feel it like I remember shooting Roxanne Roxanne Roxanne no but I had nightmares like the last week of shooting in that with that character like for real I'd never had it like that before and so there's a thing where your body doesn't necessarily know the difference from the messages you're telling it and that's why you have to be so conscious of what what you're listening to what you're taking in i remember listening to the radio it's like 12 i would turn the radio on at night and one time my mom came in and she was like no turn that off you can't listen to it i was like what are you talking about like you know she was like no there are you talking about? Like, you know, she was like, no, there's messages that you need to be conscious

of what you're listening to. I ain't trying to screw you guys up for people listening and sleeping. But like, there's messages you need to be conscious of and it's like,

if it's playing and you hear it and you know it, that's one thing, but yeah, it takes time to shake. I want to go back to something you said

in regards to Swan Songs. Does that movie change your perception of death and life you know what I think it encourages me to to live a little fuller I think it encourages me to to put my foot on the gas a bit I think it really encourages me to try to be as present as possible with my friends and loved ones right now my grandfather told me years ago he said tell people how you feel right now like and he you know he started he got teared up a little bit and he was i

didn't know where this was coming from and he was like i just want you to know i love you you know and that always stuck with me i was about 15 years old and leading up to this it just makes me think like yo if there's something i want to do there's something there i want to try if there's a change i want to make is there's one thing in like thinking about it and kind of road mapping it out through your head but there's another thing in like a very New York thing just go and I think that for me is the message you know because I just want to make sure that

I stay in motion you know and I think if we we keep like marching forward that's all we got because you know all of our numbers are going to be called. Yeah, so many of us are stuck in a really safe space too where we're comfortable with the routine of what we're doing in our lives. We know we have this steady paycheck and you're scared to go out and take a risk doing something else.

So did you ever have that experience in your career? I've had that experience most of the time. And that's a muscle, the reaction to that. When I start feeling comfortable, I found myself reacting in ways where that voice gets louder. And you could kind of work to ignore it. But eventually you need to react. So when I was on House of Cards, which was a huge show. It was after the beginning is, I don't know, I was season three and I started asking to get off the show and I had friends and family going,

are you crazy? This thing is huge. Like why you want to get off the show? And I was concerned with getting comfortable and finding myself as how I interpreted just another dude on a show. And so it was important for me to move on to keep building towards what i saw for myself which was swan song you know what i mean in a way of like i want to move up and i just don't want to be on somebody's show always supporting other people's narrative so cheo came to me doing luke cage and he was like yo you want to do this show and I was like I just got off a house of cards he was like he's gonna die I was like cool I was the only reason I did it though because they're gonna kill me I wouldn't have done it otherwise wow because I just got off

of a show well I I didn't want to get stuck I didn't want to be on another show for it I'd already done like I came into it and um crossing Jordan in 2001 I did my first year there I got fired after one year whatever but everyone else was on there for seven years and I watched it happen it was the best thing that could have happened to me honestly I ended up on like the 4400 and asked for a three-year deal so that was gonna be short and everyone else was in six-year deal. So that was going to be short and everyone else was in a six-year deal. So I always was trying to make sure that I couldn't get too comfortable because especially as an actor,

you don't want to get stuck as one thing. Like, because that is death for an actor to only... Okay, Blade. But I hear you. And that was a real concern. And for me, it's always been about trying to diversify and make sure that i wasn't repeating or playing the same character making sure that i'm always pushing myself otherwise for me if i don't feel uncomfortable then i know i'm not growing and so if something feels like it's starting to get easy

as much as like I love when things get easy but at the same time you're like it's too easy yeah and then I get unhappy in a real way and so I already know that about myself so I kind of have to keep pushing myself and figuring out all right how am I gonna take on something that scares me a bit so blade's gonna die is what you tell me there's there's plenty there's plenty to work out there's so much about that that is that is challenging just in general that you know i got my hands full and even in doing it and then wanting to do other stuff i don't want to just be blade like that is one character and honestly as huge as that is as huge as the marvel cinematic universe is and all of that is amazing all these characters are important to me equally i saw you

say uh that you were losing sleep over your voiceover role in the eternals and i'm like why your voice is amazing no well i'm talking character though so, and all I meant by that was if you're doing vocal work for something, you're months away from filming, you're still putting together all those things in your head. You're like body starting to change, which is going to change your voice. You don't know if you're going to go with something a little deeper. You don't know if you're going to. So suddenly when someone's like, okay, we need you to voice something. You're like, oh, I was coming to that in its natural order. And so it's just something that felt premature because otherwise you would never do that. You ever thought about doing radio? You got that quiet storm voice. Like that quiet storm.

Hello, this is Marshall Ali. No, no, but. Would you like to hear that new? No, no, no, no radio. But I respect it. I respect it. I respect it. All right, we have more with Mahershala Ali. When we come back, don't move.

It's The Breakfast Club. Good morning. Morning, everybody. It's DJ Envy, Angela Yee, Charlamagne Tha Guy. We are The Breakfast Club. We're still kicking it with Mahershala Ali. Of course, he won an Oscar for his roles in Moonlight and Green Book. He has a new flick, Swan Song.

Now, Yee? Were you an artist at one point? I'm still an artist. No, I make beats. I was on Hieroglyphics Imperium, the label, and doing some stuff before that. So I've always been involved in music in some way, shape, or form. You know, if you grow up in the era, you can't separate yourself from that. So you love doing Roxanne Roxanne because of that.

Did you know the story coming from Cali? Are you kidding me? Yeah, I had the UTFO records. Those were my early records. Like UTFO, Houdini, Fat Boys, like, all those were out there. I didn't disrespect you

like that just now. Like, no. Like, yeah. Like, no. I was disrespectful. You might not have known that. And my dad was a New

Yorker, so I was out. I'm from California, from the Bay Area, but my dad had moved to New York when I was three. And so I was coming out here and growing

up and getting a taste of New York for the summer, and then I would go back to the Bay, and I was like, I so I was coming out here and growing up and getting a taste of New York for the summer. And then I would go back to the Bay and I was like, I couldn't explain it. So what about Roxanne Roxanne? How was that for you doing that and having that musical background? Roxanne was was both a dream and a nightmare. And what I mean is that the playing this character cross who is, you know, violent, violent you know hitting her like we we all know the story right um it was honored to be in service of her truth i gotta be the bad guy but

she's gonna win in the end in some way right so you gotta give over to that and that's the only thing that really gave me peace about it so to do something to help tell an icon story and her in particular was was a great thing to be able to do, especially having a real relationship to the music and being aware at that time as a kid growing up. But what was hard was like the actual like the physical act of it. And, you know, you got to go there. You got to push yourself and then you got to do it like take after take after take. So you like pretending to beat somebody up and strangling them and acting like crazy for six hours of the day. Like that. Don't just go away. You got to shake that off.

Do you question yourself as an actor nowadays when you're doing that? Because I was talking to Megan Good recently and she was saying how when she does sex acts, she thinks people look at it and think that's how she really gets down. Right. In this era of cancel culture, you think people would be like, oh, he must really do that to women. Look how he does it so well.

You know, I try not to think about it that way. I'm always a little surprised when people... Can't separate. I feel like Danny Glover had stayed impacted by his part in Color Purple.

I'm serious. Like, I felt like that that there's not a sweeter man on the planet but I feel like sometimes people play roles so well that it's hard for folks to get right that thing out of their head and they do associate you with that character so it's something to be to be really mindful of. But like a career is a mosaic, right? Like there's all these tiles in it. Each role you play and you step away, you step back from it. There's a picture, right? You look at Denzel, Denzel's career, and there's all these characters in there. There's characters that are icons and heroes as characters that are normal people. He's got a villain up in there. You know, when you step away, you go, oh, you see the spine spine of his work you see the picture of his work and you get a sense of his essence as a person but you're not gonna hopefully you don't judge him by one character he played like really well when did

you start to realize the power of intention that's a good question man that's a good question you know what i would probably say a little over 20 years ago when i converted to islam like one of the things that you do is you state your intention before you pray so i intend to make my fudger prayer like my morning prayer whatever and then it kind of led to me thinking more about like the importance of writing things down like i know i remember one time i wrote down i don't know maybe like 2006 or 7 or something like that I wrote down these goals that I wanted to do I want the book a pilot I want to do this that another I wrote him down I kept it in my wallet I remember I pulled it out sometime later and I like wow all these

things happen and also growing up with my grandmother as well being around my grandmother a lot she was always like filling my head with certain things tell yourself you have 500 million dollars she's been telling me that since I was a little kid like I was like that's a crazy amount of money but okay you know and and you start telling your thing yourself things and so i was i've gotten messages as a as a little kid about like being conscious of what you think and what you tell yourself and to to don't be afraid to state your intention because it will help you it'll kind of be like wind behind your back the reason i asked that because everything just hearing you talk it feels like everything you do

is intentional not everything but i try i try to be intentional i do try you know how did you feel when wesley snipe said you'll you'll do a great job in blade man humbled and so encouraged by that because you have to say that like. Wasn't nobody really asking him. For him to come out and say that, somebody I look up to so much, I sincerely appreciated that. So, thank you, brother. Have there been any talks about,

because we got the multiverse in Marvel now, have there been any talks about him reprising the role? I can't talk about it. He's trying to get some insight. I can't even talk. I can't even really, they put the hush down. He's trying to get some insight. I can't even talk. I can't even really, you know, they put the hush down. He's been pretty good at dodging these questions.

Yeah, I can't even talk. I really can't really talk about anything. How much pressure is it to do a Marvel movie? I'm learning. It's a lot of pressure, man. It's a lot. But other people have done it and survived and succeeded. So, you know, I'm just going to try to set myself up to do the absolute best work i could do

what's the next thing for you that you're scared of to accomplish that you're like okay to accomplish i don't want to get too comfortable like we've been talking about not getting too comfortable in a space yeah and so you have to figure out okay now i want to do this that i've never done before direct and you know god willing that'll happen at some point. Is there something on the table now? I mean, I've had a couple of things pop up, but it's been, I've said no because of just knowing what is on my acting slate and how I kind of have to do, even if I'm doing multiple things, I have to do one thing at a time. So maybe I got something else on the calendar on that day, but I can't be doing the thing I'm doing and prepping for the other thing. I'm just I'm not really good at that. What would be your dream role you'd like to tell? Hmm.

A story. Oh, you know what? That was Marvin Gaye for me for a long time. I can't I can't say what it would be now. I think, you know, there's other people out there that are right for that. But I don't know man honestly I would have to say that I'm kind of living it in in the way of like just getting to play this character on swan song even just the the range and like just what it asked of me just playing even two characters like it was all pretty challenging

but in a positive way how far away do you think we are from cloning people you think there's some clones out there it could be hey the real me might be at home right now you know we always like i wish i had a clone to go and do this press run you might be in london doing press yeah i don't know i don't know who who knows but uh it's but doing this it'll make you feel like in 20 years this might for real happen of course they got robots that can reproduce now. They've already cloned sheep. Who knows? Yeah.

Yeah. They working on it. Somebody, look, all them dudes up there flying to space. I'm sure they trying to hang out a little bit earlier, too. So, yeah, it's coming. You can check out Swan's song, December 17th, in theaters or on Apple TV+. And we appreciate you for joining us, brother. Hey, thanks for having me good to see you

Then we gonna play one of your beats that you produce back in the day Herschel Mahershala my real name my birth name is Mahershala hushaz. It's in the Bible, Isaiah chapter 8, verse 1 and 3. It's the longest name. You just called this man Hershey's, bro. You know, it's all good. They called me that growing up. I got called Hershey a couple times, man.

I was like, no, we can't do that. We can't do that. Mahershala Ali, it's the Breakfast Club. Come on. Is your country falling apart? Feeling tired, depressed, a little bit revolutionary? Consider this. Is your country falling apart? Feeling tired? Depressed? A little bit revolutionary? Consider this.

Start your own country. I planted the flag. I just kind of looked out of like, this is mine. I own this. It's surprisingly easy. There's 55 gallons of water for 500 pounds of concrete. Everybody's doing it.

I am King Ernest Emmanuel. I am the Queen of Laudonia. I'm Jackson I, King of Kaperburg. I am the Supreme Leader of the Grand Republic of Mentonia. Be part of a great colonial tradition. The Waikana tried my country. My forefathers did that themselves.

What could go wrong? No country willingly gives up their territory. I was making a rocket with a black powder, you know, with explosive warheads. Oh my God. What is that? Bullets. Bullets. We need help! We still have the off-road portion to go.

Listen to Escape from Zakistan. And we're losing daylight fast. That's Escape from Z-A-Q-istan on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast, Post Run High, is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together.

You know that rush of endorphins you feel after a great workout? Well, that's when the real magic happens. So if you love hearing real, inspiring stories from the people you know, follow, and admire, join me every week for Post Run High. It's where we take the conversation beyond the run and get into the heart of it all. It's lighthearted, pretty crazy, and very fun. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. As a kid, I really do remember having these dreams and visions, but you just don't know what is going to come for you. Alicia Keys opens up about conquering doubt, learning to trust herself and leaning into her dreams. I think a lot of times we are built to doubt the possibilities for ourselves. For self-preservation and protection, it was literally that step by step. And so I discovered that that is how we get where we're

going. This increment of small, determined moments. Alicia shares her wisdom on growth, gratitude, and the power of love. I forgive myself. It's okay. Like grace. Have grace with yourself. You're trying your best. And you're going to figure out the rhythm of this thing. Alicia Keys, like you've never heard her before.

Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It's about time. What's going on? Rumor Report. Rumor Report. This is the Rumor Report. Talk to them. With Angela Yee. On The Breakfast Club. Well, Jacquees went viral.

And that is for singing the national anthem at the Lakers game. And people enjoyed this. Listen to it. Or the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming and the rockets red glare

What'd you think? That was pretty good. Yeah, so he said, my first time singing the national anthem at the Staples Center RIP. Kobe, shout out the whole Lakers squad. And then he said, LA was legendary. One of them times I'll never forget. You know, they always talk about,

they said that Fergie had the worst national anthem rendition, the NBA All-Star Game back in 2018. And a lot of people were, you know, it was pretty bad. Let's hear it. You got it? Gave through, through the night. Met a flag, one still there.

Oh, say. Oh, my goodness. It was pretty bad. It was just good. That was pretty bad. But that's entertaining. If you had the game, you'd be like, what's going on? They were laughing. I remember the players laughing when she did the hit.

Yeah, remember that her ex-husband was mad. He said that J. Mon Green owed her an apology. Yeah, because he was laughing. Everybody was laughing though. And you know they made it into a children's book. That horrible singing? Yeah, the Ferg American National Anthem. I ain't mad at that.

Get paid. Okay. Yeah. I mean, I don't know if she did, but I guess they would have to get clearance from her in order for that to happen.

Absolutely. Yes. But shout out to him. All right. Now, Punk'd and Dishmantled has been set for season two premieres

at Roku. So they were two of the unscripted Quibi originals that were renewed for a second season while Quibi existed. That was definitely a quick bite.

Quibi came and went. But Punk'd was hosted by Chance the Rapper. It was renewed in June of 2020. So their second season will premiere on Friday. Some of the guests include Tiffany Haddish, Lil Nas X, Odell Beckham Jr., Tiana Taylor,

Miguel, Karuchi, Kate Upton. Here's what it sounds like from the trailer. I think my water just broke. Tiffany don't want nothing to do with this. That two-ton wrecking ball just fell onto my car. Are you kidding?

Drop it. That's messed up. I'm definitely never having a baby. I always love punk, man. I love to punk. Jadakiss was a funny one. Kanye West was another funny one. I love punk.

Yeah, I feel like they could punk you easily. Definitely catch me. Because you get... I get emotional quick. I do. Absolutely. You will get cursed out in a minute. We might have to set that up. All right.

Sir, your cars didn't arrive at the car show. That would be a good one. That would be. That would be a good one. And I have my cars on. Oh, my goodness. Don't play with me. Do not play with me.

We'll have to make sure they get there first and then do that. Don't play with me. Okay. And by the way, since we just mentioned Miguel, saying that he called off his divorce from his wife, they actually were spotted having a romantic dinner a few weeks ago after they had broken up. And so it looks like the two of them are back on again. So happy to see that they hopefully worked it out.

Yeah, that's a great thing. I love to see love like that. And, you know, they've been together a long time. So sometimes you get into arguments, things go a little like that. And you know, they've been together a long time. So sometimes you get into arguments, things go a little too far. It was 17 years they've been together. You gotta reset. Me and the wife have been together 27 years. So sometimes you gotta reset. I know. She'd be like,

I can't take this guy anymore. I'm sure she does that all the time. Alright. And Nick Cannon. We were talking about how Nick Cannon was trending. And then when you went to find out why he was trending, it was because of the suit that he had on that was kind of tight

and I guess you could see his print. And we talked about this earlier and they found that regular users had a 69% lower chance of being diagnosed with Alzheimer's over the next six years. You just got to walk around with a third leg in your pants

all day long. If you're Nick Cannon, but I don't know, everybody won't have that because you saw Nick Cannon went viral. I did not. Did you just go, mm? No. Yes, you did. I did not. Why did you lie?

I didn't know I said, mm. That wasn't on purpose. Oh, it was a reaction. I wasn't talking about Nick Cannon. Well, Damon Dash would say. Pause. All right, and QC Sports has announced the launch of their new full-service basketball division. So congratulations to them.

They also have announced Derek Powell as global head of basketball. He has 22 years of NBA insight, negotiation, and agency experience. That's what you got to do when you venture into something. You got to get somebody on the team that actually has been doing that for quite some time. Correct. So congratulations to them for QC Sports. And Travis Scott wants the Astroworld lawsuit dismissed, and he doesn't believe that he should be tied to litigation when it comes to the tragedy that happened,

so he's asking a judge to get rid of one of the lawsuits against him. Now, he just filed legal documents denying the claims against him by a guy named Jesse Garcia. Jesse Garcia says he was in the crowd at the festival. And he's saying that, you know, as it pertains to himself, his company and his foundation, Cactus Jack, he's doing a general denial. That's a legal term in civil suits that allows one to submit one blanket response to all of the allegations against them. So he wants to make it clear that the deaths and injuries are not his responsibility, and he wants the judge to toss the suit against him and his entities.

So we'll see what happens. Yeah, I don't think the judge is going to drop that, but I mean, I don't necessarily believe he should be accountable. You know, he's performing. He's an artist. He didn't hire the security, pay for the venue and all that other stuff. I don't think he should be liable for all that stuff. It's going to be in court. It's going to be in court for a long time. He said he was unaware of what was going

on that night. That's what he's saying. He didn't realize that's what's happening. You can tell because it was one incident where somebody did pass out. He stopped. He made sure security got them out and he continued performing. He didn't know that people were passing out and dying. I'm sure if he'd have known that, he would have stopped it. I mean, he's an artist.

I'm sure sometimes people pass out a lot when they're performing. Alright, well that is your rumor report. Alright. Thank you, Miss Yee. Now, when we come back, Charlamagne got donkey of the day, so don't move. It's The Breakfast Club. Good morning. The Breakfast Club. Your mornings will never be the same. It's here.

The most star-studded black western ever made. The Heart of They Fall, directed by James Samuel. Alongside a killer soundtrack that features original songs by Jay-Z, Kid Cudi, and more. Watch now on Netflix and stream the soundtrack now on all platforms. This don't be a donkey. Because right now you want some real donkey shit. It's time for Donkey of the day so if you ever feel i need to be a donkey man hit me with the heel did she get donkey in the name please

i have become donkey of the day it's a breakfast club bitches you're a donkey donkey of the day for tuesday december 7th goes to the ceo of better.com visual garg that's his name visual garg now what is better.com well Better.com, Vishal Garg. That's his name, Vishal Garg. Now, what is Better.com? Well, Better.com is a mortgage company that launched in 2016, and they are a direct lender providing online mortgage financing. But F all that. It doesn't matter what service the company provides for the people

because what it did to its people was a complete disservice. See, I'm a proud 43-year-old man. Okay, I love every bit of my age, every minute, every second. So I'm a bit more old school than most. So some of this new stuff, I just can't get jiggy with. Okay, see, I just said get jiggy with. I did that on purpose. People relax.

But what the CEO of Better.com did, I just can't get with. Let's go to CBS2 New York for the report, please. It was a mass Zoom call where employees logged on and learned they were being fired weeks before Christmas. In a video that has gone viral, you hear Vishal Garg, the CEO of Better.com, giving the bad news. For some, it's reminiscent of the movie Up in the Air, starring George Clooney, where firing people in person instead of via teleconference was part of the plotline. This was real life, though, for some 900 employees of the digital mortgage lender, which has offices in Oakland, California. Now, look, I'm old school, and I also could be projecting right now because I've been fired like seven times in my life. Four times from radio, once from Taco Bell, once from a clothing store called Demo in the Mall, once from a factory

called Industrial Acoustics Company. So that's seven times I've been fired in my life. And every single time I've gotten fired except one, I got fired face to face. See, I respect when you look somebody in the eye and tell them you are moving in another direction. The one time I didn't get fired face-to-face was because my black ass chose radio. Salute to Z93 Jams in Charleston, South Carolina. I chose radio over demo in Northwoods Mall.

And I just simply didn't go in. So my manager at the time, Nikki, she did what she had to do. Salute to Nikki. Drop on the clues bombs for Nikki. I appreciate you, queen. Now, radio is even better. They don't just fire you. They have HR come escort you out.

That's why I never keep anything in any office at a radio station I work at. To this day, at the Breakfast Club, I don't have no damn office. I mean, there is one back there for us, but I don't use it because, hey, you just never know. I'm traumatized.

So I'm saying all that to say that Vishal Garg is a coward. Now, maybe in this era that we live in, folks get fired all the time via Zoom. Maybe. I don't know. Maybe they still following some type of COVID protocol. But if you have to fire people, call them in the office and do it one at a time. Okay. Getting fired shouldn't be no damn group project. Even when it was mass layoffs in 2008, I believe we still got called in the office individually. At least I did. OK, granted, it was like, you know, 30 of us getting fired and not 900. But damn, you're going to fire 900 people before the holidays and then say H.R. will send you an email detailing benefits and severance.

Wow. Now, Vishal has been involved in this type of scandal before. In fact, this is the second time in his career he's fired employees like this. In fact, he said the last time he did it, he cried. Listen, I do not want to do this. The last time I did it i cried this time i hope to be stronger but we are laying off about 15 of the company if you're on this call you are part of the unlucky group you dude that is being laid off that's right f you dude and this wasn't even his first controversy he once sent an email to his staff saying, you are too damn slow.

You are a bunch of dumb dolphins. So stop it. Stop it. Stop it right now. You are embarrassing me. End quote. First of all, Bishel, how dare you insult dolphins in this way? I can't speak for your staff. I don't know your staff. But dumb dolphins is an oxymoron. Dolphins are one of the smartest animals in the world. Dolphins are notoriously talented mimics. They are quick learners. They demonstrate self-awareness, problem solving, empathy, innovation, teaching skills, grief, joy, and playfulness. Dolphins.

Okay, you are bugging if you think dolphins are dumb. I don't know your staff, but I know dolphins. So if you are calling dolphins dumb, then Vishal, you might really be the one who lacks intelligence. We already know you lack emotional intelligence by the way you fired your 900 employees. Does everything have to be digital nowadays? That's my question. Why does everything have to be so impersonal? Give me the opportunity to do that

walk of shame with HR out of the building. Give me that opportunity to curse you out in person. How can I tell someone when one door closes, another one opens if I didn't even get the chance to walk out the first door? What do we say now when somebody gets fired or when you lose a job? What do we say when one Zoom meeting ends, another one begins? Come on, man. Technology is really making the world impersonal. The impersonal Internet has really replaced the human touch. Maybe this is the new wave.

I don't know, but I don't like it. Please give Vishal Garg, CEO of Better.com, the biggest hee-haw. In fact, let Remy Ma give him the biggest hee-haw. Hee-haw, hee-haw. You stupid mother f***er. You dumb. All right, thank you for that donkey of the day. Now, when we come back, Ralph McDaniels, Uncle Ralph will be joining us.

He's the host and creator of Video Music Box, one of the first shows to play hip hop videos. All right. That's probably where a lot of these other places got the idea from. So we're going to kick it with Uncle Ralph when we come back. It's The Breakfast Club. Good morning. The Breakfast Club. Hey, guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast, Post Run High, is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even

deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. You know that rush of endorphins you feel after a great workout? Well, that's when the real magic happens. So if you love hearing real, inspiring stories from the people you know, follow, and admire, join me every week for Post Run High. It's where we take the conversation beyond the run and get into the heart of it all. It's lighthearted, pretty crazy, and very fun. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Is your country falling apart? Feeling tired, depressed, a little bit revolutionary? Consider this. Start your own country. I planted the flag. I just kind of looked out of like, this is mine. I own this. It's surprisingly easy. There's 55 gallons of water for 500 pounds of concrete. Everybody's doing it. I am King Ernest Emmanuel. I am the Queen of Ladonia.

I'm Jackson I, King of Capraburg. I am the Supreme Leader of the Grand Republic of Mentonia. Be part of a great colonial tradition. The Waikana tribe owned country. My forefathers did that themselves. What could go wrong? No country willingly gives up their territory. I was making a racket with a black powder, you know, with explosive warhead.

Oh my God. What is that? Bullets. Bullets. We need help! We need help! We still have the off-road portion to go. Listen to Escape from Zakistan.

And we're losing daylight fast. That's Escape from Z-A-Q-istan on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. As a kid, I really do remember having these dreams and visions, but you just don't know what is going to come for you. Alicia Keys opens up about conquering doubt, learning to trust herself and leaning into her dreams. I think a lot of times we are built to doubt the possibilities for ourselves, for self-preservation and protection. It was literally that step by step. And so I discovered that that is how we get where we're going. This increment of small, determined moments. Alicia shares her wisdom on growth, gratitude, and the power of love.

I forgive myself. It's okay. Like grace. Have grace with yourself. You're trying your best and you're going to figure out the rhythm of this thing. Alicia Keys, like you've never heard her before. Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Breakfast Club. Your mornings will never be the same. Morning, everybody. It's DJ Envy, Angela Yee, Charlamagne Tha Guy. We are The Breakfast Club. We got a special guest in the building. Uncle Ralph, Ralph McDaniel.

Yes, indeed. Good morning. Hey, good to be here at Breakfast Club. I'm honored right now. We're honored to have you here, man. Congratulations. Thank you so much. For the documentary on Video Music Box.

I watched it yesterday. I was hungover, so I was laying on the couch, and I just turned it on. Oh, good. Yeah, thoroughly enjoyed it. Oh, great. It was such a staple here in the tri-state area. I remember it was Video Music Box, and it was New York Hot Tracks. Yes. Yes. Yeah, you're showing your age now

with New York Hot Tracks. That's right. I didn't have cable. Right, right. And so if I wanted to see videos, the only place back then you really could see it if you caught one of those shows. Channel 31. Yes, Channel 31. And, you know, look, this has been something that we've been wanting to do. I've been working on this project for 10 years. So we went through a bunch of hoops to get through Showtime and Mass Appeal.

And then Nas came in and said, I want to get this right and I almost cried when he said that because I was like what are you talking about bro? How do you go through all that footage? Because you have a lot of footage now if you don't know Video Music Box is a video show that started off playing hip hop videos when nobody else would.

It wasn't on cable so it was channel 31, one of the high channels and after school we'd all run home to go watch it. Yes. But you have footage of years, man. How did you go through the footage to decide what you're going to put in this documentary? Because the documentary was, what, 90 minutes? 90 minutes, yeah.

It could have went, to me, for three hours, and it would have been interesting. But, you know, showtime was like, easy, take it easy, pal. But, you know, we filled up that 90 minutes with so much stuff. And, you know, so many interviews were left on the editing floor. It was difficult to really shave it all down to 90 minutes. But, you know, you got the 80s and the 90s. I said the 90s are super important. Let's make sure that we got the 90s.

And let's make sure we got more of that than the 80s. Because there's a lot more people around from the 90s. So let's touch on that. And I like the 90s era myself from a hip-hop perspective. Such a full-circle moment for you. You did Nas' first video. Yes. And then for him to be executive producing this with mass appeal, man,

how did that feel? Nas came in, and I looked at him, and I said, you know, this is something that I think you're going to enjoy. And originally he was the executive producer. He wasn't the director. And then he somewhere in the middle said, no, I'm going to direct this. And I want to get this right, Ralph.

And I just was, you know, it was, you know, like I did. It ain't hard to tell. The first single off of Illmatic. I directed that. And this thing called EPK, which was really the thing that really broke Nas in New York because it was like an interview with all the producers and all the people that were involved.

I went to his house, hung out in Queensbridge. It was just like a little short documentary that I did for Nas. So now he's doing, you know, my thing and I'm like bugging. I'm like, wow. Like, this is the God.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just one of those things. It's like, yo, you never know who's going to be who. That's why you should show everybody, everybody love. Key, key. You know, we see people all the time that come up and I always show people everybody love key key you know we see people all

the time that come up and i always show people respect because i don't know first of all because i'm from the street and i understand respect the street you know because we got to go out there in these in these blocks all the time you know and i'm like well we don't want no problems out here so i never know who's who and let's continue to respect and i think that people say man you be out here you know you on the ave and you in this place and I'm like you don't got no bodyguard they be looking around like where do I'm like I'm good what's up I was gonna ask that you ever got into any any any problems cuz like with fat Joe sit on the documentary yeah you know I'm on my block and they say in

video music box got a party down the block and you were in the Bronx you were in Brooklyn you went to LA you wentA. You went to the hoods. You were on Jamaica Avenue. You were in the hoods. Did you ever have a problem at all? You know, we probably did, but my man Beast. Yeah, you highlighted him in the doc. Yeah.

You gave him the love, yeah. Yeah, but Beast was not like my security. He was my friend. You know, like, we weren't like, you know, people. He did security for all these other people, like, that, you know, he became known for. Wyclef. Wyclef and everything.

And he's known. He's in the shotters movie and everybody knows him for shotters because he blows up the whole place as he's acting right but but Beast was official you know you know he's official cat you know and and so we kept guys like that they just hung around I tell you tell people this a lot of not Beast but a lot of the other guys that work with us all had come home from jail they needed an opportunity and i said yo i'm gonna give you all an opportunity to work with me but y'all can't screw it up you know and most of those guys took it and ran with it and did the right thing now video music box was really just in the tri-state area but people knew about it from all over why do you think it never ended up going national? Well, in the doc, I said that I went to MTV, and there was this concert called The Fresh Fresh, and I went there, and I was like, I saw a mixture of everybody.

So white people, black people, Asian people. I said, oh, this is happening right now. And I went to MTV, and they were like, no, middle America's not ready for this, Ralph. You know, it's not happening right now. And I'm like, there's a tour. It's going out. I got the videotapes. Take a look at it. at it and they were like no you don't need to pull out the

tapes it's okay we already know what we're going to do and then two years later they did Yo MTV Raps and you know and people thought oh you gotta be tight right now and I wasn't tight then I was more tight the first time because I knew that it was happening already and they could have had to jump on it so my whole career I've been a little bit early you know how that is sometimes you're a little bit early so you don't really take it and go like oh man y'all trying to jerk me I didn't take it like that I just said it was early and then that was it you know and then what happens after that and people do what they do when when MTV comes out I mean your MTV raps comes out and rap city and whatever else was out there, you know,

it all kind of feels like Video Music Box to people, but, you know, whatever it was gonna be was what it was gonna be. Was there ever any network that came to you and wanted to do it? Once. Remember there was this show called um, oh man, My Girl D. Barnes, uh, Pump It Up. Pump It Up. Oh yeah, Pump It Up.

So they asked me to do that, but they wanted me to stop doing Video Music Box. And I could tell that at the time, Fox was not really serious about this hip hop thing. And I was like, I'm not going to stop what I'm doing and commit to y'all. And then six months later, y'all go, nah, it's not working. And then I'm stuck.

So I said, nah, I'm going to continue to do my little local show. Why? What's the problem? This is a national program y don't want me to do. And they were like, no, you can't do that. And I felt like, you know, I can't do that. And Dee Barnes did it.

And so, yeah, that's what happened. How did you get paid original from Video Music Box? Because there were no commercials. But you would travel. You go from borough to borough. You went city to city, club to club. So you had expenses. So how did you get paid? How was you making money we that's when we started giving parties you know

and fat joe says yo that's what djs do you know we don't get paid a lot of money and we do whatever we do to have events and do things you know and and that's what we did you know we were sitting in the club and watch a promoter that give giving us like three hundred dollars to show up and he walking away with you know twenty five thousand thirty thousand dollars in his pocket in a club you know and i was like that don't make sense because everybody came here for us so we're gonna start doing that and um and that's what we did me my man sam crazy sam crazy all these dudes were like you know we was doing three or four parties in the night you know and you know just walking away with the money and going okay we good yeah you explaining the doc, you know, and, you know, just walking away with the money and going, okay, we good.

Yeah, you explaining to the doc that you never actually made money off the show. No. No, because it was, first of all, it was on a PBS channel. And so it was non-commercial, which was great, really, because it gave us the opportunity to educate where, you know, you can't really do that

in commercial world. Like, you know, I don't have time for that. We got to run commercials, bro. We ain't trying to help the community. You know, we wanted to do a lot of that, and we did do that in the commercial world. Like, you know, we ain't got no time for that. We got to run commercials, bro. We ain't trying to help the community. You know, we wanted to do a lot of that and we did do that

in the show. So it was a balance of both. And that's how we got through, you know, being on that station. All right, we got more with Uncle Ralph, Ralph McDaniels.

When we come back, of course, he's the creator of Video Music Box. It's The Breakfast Club. Good morning. Morning, everybody. It's DJ Envy,

Angela Yee, Charlamagne Tha Guy. We are the Breakfast Club. We're still kicking it with Uncle Ralph. Charlamagne? You know, you got the video of Big and Nas freestyling. Yeah. You know, Jay and Big in the club. All great. But what is your most prized piece of footage? Hmm. That's a good question.

I think for me, it's probably Big and Jay when they did my birthday. Because that was really kind of like out of the blue. And Jay came and was hosting it. And they were both at the early stages of their career. It was like the beginning of Rockefeller and the beginning of Big at Bad Boy. And the place was crowded. This is when people got dressed up and they danced at clubs.

Remember that? And it was just one of those nights where you were like, couldn't call that any better than that. That was a beautiful night. It was like everybody, your peers were there. Just one of those shows

that was just, it was perfect. But you didn't realize that those two individuals would become these mythical, you know, beings that they are now. Right, right, right. You always say, you know, people always ask me, what if Big was alive? What would that be like between him and Jay and Nas? Like, what would that, you know, what would that look like? I don't know. You know, like, I mean, Nas, you know, is, you know, like, I'm a fan of, like, you know, what would that look like? I don't know. You know, like, I mean, Nas, you know, is, you know,

like I'm a fan of like, you know, poets and, you know, and Nas is that kind of spiritual kind of thing. You know, that's how, when he started doing my thing, I was like, this is a spiritual dude, man. Like I'm going to be in a good place. You know, all I was saying to Nas was we got to have that hip hop soul, bro. You know, cause I watched documentaries. I'm like, this is mad generic right now.

We know this. Everybody, people notice all this information. We don't need to go through this. Let's get into different stories. And that's what I wanted to do with this. And he was like, got it. And he just started working and making sure that the direction took the right direction. Because we know, yeah, it was the Bronx.

And we know there was dances. And we know graffiti. We know that already. There's more stories to us than that, you know? To me, the soul comes from your footage. Yes. You know what I mean? Like, your footage throughout gives it that warmth that makes it, you know, classic.

Yeah, yeah. Nah, I mean, and I'm super happy that, you know, that we still have the footage. Because I thought about that, too. Whenever you show the room, I always think about, what if he'd have lost all of that the way RZA lost all that music back in the day. Yeah, RZA lost so many of his masters, but

we've been in the last... One thing about the pandemic is it got me to be around and really work on digitizing all of this content. So I just was like, yo, I got to get this done. And we started a non-profit, the Video Music Box Collection, and we started raising money for it.

And people started giving us a couple of dollars. We're still raising money for it. I still need money for it. People, give me some money. But that is what helped us get to the point where we have, you can look at this content and be like, that's pretty clear from 30 years ago. You remember the DVD days and all of that.

You know, there's guys out there that can have content. That is super important, man. Restore it. Take care of it. Our history, hip-hop history is important. Black history is important. But, you know, sometimes our stuff just gets pushed to the side. There's been so many masters and visuals that have been lost over the years

and it's like, wait a minute, somebody just threw that away? Because they didn't think it was important? Who did that? Happens all the time. You think there'll be a part two since you said you do have a lot of footage that you weren't even able to use for this one?

Yeah, I told Showtime, yo, we could do two or three more, you know, and some other stories that we got in the books. So that's on the plate for 2022. I would like to see artists talk about those moments more. Like, I want to just hear Nas go more in depth on the Big thing. He said something in the doc that I didn't know. He was like, yo, him and Big were supposed to start a crew called the Goodfellas.

And I was like, well, damn, didn't him and Jay, weren't they going to start the commission, Big and Jay? So I'm like, what would that have looked like? I would like to hear the artists see those videos and those moments and how they remember them. The crazy thing about that moment is that in that night, Method Man was there. That was Miss Jones' birthday party, right?

That was Miss Jones'. Well, Miss Jones says that it wasn't a birthday party. It was an album release party. But I'm pretty sure it was a birthday party. I don't know. But, yeah, anyway, you know, Common was there. You know, there was so many artists that were just getting ready to come up, you know, and I was like, you know, when I look at the footage

and, you know, Nas talks about it was a fight behind him. It was, you know. And we knew it was coming. Like, one of those parties was somebody going behind him. There was. And we knew it was coming. One of those parties where somebody's going to fight. Somebody's going to fight. And it was just too much energy. You ever see, looking at all the footage, you ever see people in the crowd, you'd be like,

look at that artist. Now they're a huge rapper. Look at this person. You ever see some of those? Yeah. I had that conversation with J. Cole because he went to st john's university and was a fan of video music box when he was at st john and jay cole was like

man you know you know i came to your parties i came to your events i know who you are you know and this is a young guy and i was like i knew who's music i i was familiar with and i was like yo i appreciate you man you coming up the same thing with A$AP Rocky you know he's like yo man I gotta call my mom I'm standing next to Ralph McDaniels right now you know and and A$AP Ferg I knew his dad you know so I see these people in in in the in the at the young stage and now to watch like I did this interview with Ferg and I was like yo bro you're doing some amazing things building building furniture and cars and all that. You know, like, that's what we did this for, for that to happen. Gotcha. I saw JD.

I saw JD and some footage with Houdini on the dock. I use that footage all the time, too. Do you get paid every time I use your footage? Yes. Because they're you. Okay. Yeah, they're licensed. I know enough to do that.

How do you want Video Music Box to be remembered? The whole idea of this, you're watching Video Music Box film, was to not be forgotten because I could easily see how our history is forgotten and the importance of us just giving an artist a little bit of a break, a little bit of three minutes of a music video or a shout-out is what catapulted all of these artists that we now know and love into stardom and, you know, making a whole bunch of money. And I was like, we can't let that go. You know, my daughter is

the producer on it. And I said, Kim, you know, we got to keep this legacy. Everybody, not just me, you know, we just got to keep our legacy. We don't do that. You know, black folks, you know, you know, all these other names are on buildings or whatever they're important. We need to get our names on buildings. We have so many street names being changed now. That's the process of starting to do that, you know, getting name change in community so that we see a name or we see a statue

that we can relate to. That's right. And that's what this is part of, the same concept. And there's certain people, whenever they call, you should always pick up that phone and say, yes, what do you need me for? And you're one of those people, Ralph McDaniel. So we just want to put that out there, too.

Yes, thank you so much. Thank you. Uncle Ralph. Uncle Ralph, we appreciate you for joining us. Make sure y'all go watch that documentary on Showtime, man. Definitely. It's on Showtime On Demand right now. You're watching Video Music Box.

It's Uncle Ralph, Ralph McDaniels. It's The Breakfast Club. Good morning. The Breakfast Club. Good morning. The Breakfast Club. Morning, everybody. It's DJ Envy, Angela Yee, Charlamagne Tha Guy. We are The Breakfast Club. Let's get to the rumors.

Let's talk Drake. Drake. It's time. She's spilling the tea. This is The Rumor Report with Angela Yee on The Breakfast Club. So Drake has withdrawn his Grammy nominations. He has gotten two nominations for the 2022 Grammys. And that was for Best Rap Album for Certified Lover Boy and for Best Rap Performance for Way Too Sexy. Now, we're not sure why that decision was made, but they're going to remove it from the Grammy website in an update.

So not sure what happened here. I wonder why. Remember, The Weeknd didn't get any Grammy nominations last year, and so he criticized the Grammys for that. I know they have a good relationship. And so Drake had made a statement at the time. He said, I think we should stop allowing ourselves

to be shocked every year by the disconnect between impactful music and these awards. And just accept that what once was the highest form of recognition may no longer matter to the artists that exist now and the ones that come after. That's dope. And he said, this is a great time to start something new that we can build up over time and pass on to the generations to come. I don't think he cares about the Grammys. I mean, he made a great album. And Drake is spitting. If you listen to a lot of Drake's raps

and what he's rhyming and his features, that boy on fire. He don't care. All right. Now, Pete Davidson and Machine Gun Kelly, I know you enjoy this. They did a live stream and they were doing a photo shoot

wearing their Calvin Klein briefs. And so the two of them kind of stripped down to their underwear for this campaign and they did like a little fake funny spicy photo shoot. They took turns posing on the couch and then there was one scene where Pete Davidson is on the couch

as Machine Gun Kelly is pouring popcorn into his mouth. It was weird. Did they pause? Here's what it was sounding like. I don't know this is what i was kind of picturing nice stuff by the way you too now yeah good for you i just i would have put an extra like two socks in there and just for sure it's mine always gotta fluff it up or get a sweet in between or going yeah for sure you can't just go cold no you know what i mean i'm

freezing right now yeah i am a grower for sure sure. I'm not really a grower or a shower, for sure. Yeah, it's actually a scientific wonder. That's okay. We'll just get new agents. They just having fun, man. That's all it is. They just having fun. And Calvin Klein did share a photo of the two of them at the camera,

so I guess it's a campaign for Calvin Klein. It worked. Yeah, and Calvin Klein, please stop calling me. I don't want to do it. I know you guys offer me a lot to be your underwear model. I don't want to do it. I know you guys offer me a lot to be your underwear model. I don't want to do it. I just don't. Is it that Calvin, or is it the Calvin who works at McDonald's?

No, Calvin Klein. They've been reaching out to me a lot, but I don't want to do it. I don't want to show off my body like that. We don't want you to do it either. All right, and Virgil. They did honor Virgil Abloh in his hometown. There was a memorial, and there were a lot of people that participated to pay their respects to the family. Rihanna, Kim Kardashian, Kanye, Tyler, the creator, Drake, Kid Cudi, Frank Ocean, A$AP Rocky.

And so this was all in Chicago at the Museum of Contemporary Art yesterday. And so here is his sister, Edwina Abloh, and here's what she had to say. As Virgil once said in his last show, there is no limit. Life is short and that you can't waste even a day subscribing to what people think you should do. Virgil left a permanent mark on the world in which we will never forget. Your legacy will continue to flourish in the eyes of low and great. I'm forever grateful for you. Rest well my sweet and gentle giant. Again rest in peace to Virgil. He was only 41 years old

when he passed away from cancer. It was a private battle that he did not disclose publicly. Only his closest friends were aware of it. Wow. All right. And this comedy festival, this sounds like something amazing to go to. Netflix is a joke. Now, this festival was supposed to happen last year, but because of the pandemic, it didn't happen. But now it is going to happen, and that's going to be April 29th to May 8th of 2022.

So we know some of the people who will be on that stage. Who? Dave Chappelle. Okay. Amy Schumer. Okay. Tina Fey. Yeah.

Wanda Sykes, Jerry Seinfeld, David Letterman, Chris Rock, Ali Wong. Wow. Yes, it's going to be huge, and so I think that'll be something really fun to go to. Where's it going to be at? This is in L.A. Okay. I feel like we need to be there so in addition

there's gonna be Dion Cole, Aziz Ansari Chelsea Handler, Kevin Hart some of our favorites Pete Davidson will be there, Ellen DeGeneres will be performing, it's what they're calling kind of the Coachella of comedy but not saying the name Coachella cause it gets sued they better not say that name, Comichella

no they're not doing that. All right, so yeah, so that sounds like something really dope to go to. So that is Netflix is a joke. Netflix does have a lot of the best comedy specials on there too. Yes, they do. All right, well, that is your rumor report.

All right, thank you, Miss E. And I don't forget, my car show is like four or five days left, all right? Celebrity cars from people like Khaled 50, Yo Gotti, Trina, Dwayne Wade. You don't want my car? I got a 2022. No, it didn't make the cut?

Okay. No, I got your car next year in New York. I'm not going to take your car to Miami. But yeah, so we got to move the ride for the kids. Damn, that was a nice let down. That was a nice way that you let me down. I'm going to use your car next year. Your car's really dope.

I don't know if my car don't need to be at the car. I'm impressed with your car. Your car's really, really dope. Shout know if my car don't need to be at the car. I'm impressed with your car. Your car's really, really dope. Shout out to my girl Nike Yee over. Shout out to Nike Yee. Yes, over at Freeport, Long Island, who made it happen for me at BMW. She did. When they were saying nobody was getting in the car, I was listening to everybody else

telling everyone, oh yeah, you know, we just don't have it available. This is all we have. What's in stock? And I was able to customize and order my car the way that I wanted it. So thank you again. Shout out to Nike Yeet. But car show in five days. Get your tickets kids five and under are free and I can't wait

to see you this Sunday in Miami. All right. You dissed me though. Y'all heard it. I did not. All right. Well, the People's Choice Mix is up next. Get your request in. It's The Breakfast Club. Good morning. The Breakfast Club. Your mornings will never be the same. Novartis created the More Than Just Words initiative to raise awareness about racial disparities and breast cancer care. To learn more about what More Than Just Words hopes to accomplish and hear a talk with Grammy-nominated R&B artist Jasmine Sullivan, visit morethanjustords.us.

Morning, everybody. It's DJ Envy, Angela Yee, Charlamagne Tha Guy. We are The Breakfast Club. Now, shout out to Mahershala Ali for joining us this morning. Yes, amazing actor. So I'm excited for him to actually direct his first feature film coming up next. And also Ralph McDaniels, Uncle Ralph, the host and creator of Video Music Box. I grew up on that, and I love this documentary. If you get a chance, go check it out.

It's on Showtime, right? Uncle Ralph, I run into him all the time. He's always been super cool and humble, so I can see why people would always be open to want to talk to him. Absolutely. Show him his respect. All right, and now when we come back,

we got the positive notes, so don't move. It's The Breakfast Club. Good morning. Morning, everybody. It's DJ Envy, Angela Yee positive notes, so don't move. It's The Breakfast Club. Good morning. Morning, everybody. It's DJ Envy, Angela Yee, Charlamagne Tha Guy. We are The Breakfast Club. I'm super-duper excited. I think we got like four or five more days to my car show in Miami.

We had to run an audible. It's supposed to snow in New York, so I have to get the cars out of here so I can get them to the car show. We got about 30, 40 cars heading out to Miami. So all day today I'll be driving the cars to the trucks and getting them loaded because we just got to get these cars out of here. I don't want no problems with snow. I don't want no accidents. You know, we got a lot of valuable cars and a lot of people's cars on these trucks.

So we're going to get these cars out today. If you haven't got your tickets to the car show, get your tickets. Celebrity cars from Calit is going to have some cars in the show. Yo Gotti, Flo Rida, Trina, Dwayne Wade, Nicky Jams, just to name a few. So get your tickets if you haven't got them already. Yeah, and I want to shout out to Tamela Payne. Her son, Casey Goodson, was killed by a police officer. She hit me up.

She said she's probably going to be at your car show. Oh, great. Yeah, and we've had her on the Breakfast Club before, but she's still trying to get justice for her son. And so there's been some more news lately. The cop who did kill her son is actually

being indicted. So I think that's important information. And we'll be following that case very closely. He was going to Subway, walking up to his house and hadn't done anything wrong. And so finally, the Ohio deputy has been charged with murder in the case of Casey Goodson Jr. And she's been fighting for this for quite some time right now. So there's no body camera, no dash cam footage. Everything that happened is still largely

unexplained. And so they were fighting just to even have this case heard. So I'm happy to say that at least that's happening, you know, so far. He had a sandwich in his hand, not a gun, and there you have it. So we'll keep you guys updated on

that, though. It's been a really tough year for her. So shout out to Tamela Payne. All right. Well, you got a positive note? Yes. And this comes from Arthur Mel Robbins, who's been on The Breakfast Club before. She said, you don't let go of a bad relationship because you stop caring about them. You let go because you finally start caring about yourself.

Breakfast Club, bitches! Y'all finished or y'all done? Hey, guys. I'm Kate Max. about yourself. Keep going. That's what my podcast post run high is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. Listen to post run high on the I heart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. As a kid, I really do remember having these dreams and visions, but you just don't know what is going to come for you. Alicia shares her wisdom on growth, gratitude, and the power of love. I forgive myself. It's okay. Have grace for yourself. You're trying your best and you're going to figure out the rhythm of this thing. Alicia Keys, like you've never heard her before.

Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.