The Breakfast Club - Paying tribute to Malcolm Jamal Warner … run toward the things that instill pride

Episode Date: July 22, 2025

Loren talks impact, legacy, and excellence from Malcolm Jamal Warner’s career. Watch his podcast Not All Hood on YouTube.YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BreakfastClubPower1051FMSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart podcast. I'm the homegirl that knows a little bit about everything and everybody. You hear that exclusive? You know she don't lie about that, right? Lauren came in hot. Hey y'all, what's up? It's Lauren LaRosa and this is the latest with Lauren LaRosa. This is your daily dig on all things pop culture, entertainment news, and the

conversations that shake the room. Now today, if we're checking in behind the scenes of the grind, and I know we haven't checked in in a while, it's been some time. Back on the grind. I don't. It's not that I don't know how I feel. I guess that there's like a level of shock and sadness. Yesterday, the news broke that Malcolm Jamal Warner

tragically passed away in a drowning. He was on a family vacation in Costa Rica when he went into the water and was taken down by a current and did not survive. He was pronounced dead on the scene after being rescued by some bystanders and just didn't survive, which, man, just even talking about it right now,

we were talking about it this morning on The Breakfast Club. Make sure you guys will check out our coverage over there as well too. When we got finished, our first segment, I said to Jess and Evie, I'm like, yo, I'm literally shaking. And I think what the feeling is is just just like, man, Def is, it can be so sudden and just

so unplanned. Not that anybody plans, you know, something like this, but I feel like he's been such a staple in entertainment and black storytelling my whole life. So it felt like, you know, this was somebody close to me because I think I texted one and said, man, like, this is just so crazy. It came out of nowhere and the response was that's normally how death happens We're getting on into the latest right now because you know as we talk about you know, the passing of Malcolm Jamal Warner, you know It's all over the news today, right and And it was yesterday, all over the headlines, all over the news.

It's anything everybody is talking about. Any and everybody are talking about it. I went on like a deep dive just now in preparing for the podcast because I'm like, I wanna talk about Malcolm J. Warner on the podcast, but I don't wanna just report it as news. I don't wanna just say, okay, here's what happened. Here's how you passed away.

We did that in the beginning. You guys got that. But I think that with this, it's hard to just treat this as just a headline, which is very crazy for me to say because I live in a world of headlines, but this just feels so different. Because of the untimely, like the untimely passing, like just how this came about and the story behind it and hearing him talk so much about family and his daughter and his wife being in love with his life and his daughter being in love with his life

and just having to think about all the people that loved him being without him now, I don't know, it just doesn't feel good to make this just a story, just a headline. So I wanted to dive a bit deeper here and have a conversation about the passing of Malcolm Jamal Warner and some of the work that he left this earth doing. And I think a lot of people I know for myself, when we think about what we want people to say about us after we can't say it ourselves anymore

I'm always thinking about like impact and what that looks like and how am I shaping that even if in the bigger the Beginning stages and I went to Malcolm Jamal Warner's podcast I'd seen If I'm being honest, I'd only seen one episode of his podcast prior to this. And then I saw the promos of MV and Gia on his podcast prior to this. But this was my second episode that I watched. And this episode that we're going to feature today in our conversation is actually one of not even one, it was the last sit down episode that Malcolm Jamal Warner did on his podcast. So it's an episode called Why the Hood Deserves More Respect.

George and Me Speaks the Truth. And it features a conversation that is extremely interesting. So in this episode, Not All Hood, which is the podcast by Malcolm Jamal Warner and his co-host Candace Kelly. They sit down with a poet. She's also an actress and an activist. Her name is Tamika Georgemi Harper. So she's known for being a part of HBO's Deaf Poetry Jam.

She was also on Broadway as well. And they have a real conversation. The description here says, this is a masterclass in radical self-love, hood, pride, and the resilience of black creativity. Georgia me, unpoligenically uplifts the hood as a sacred space of community survival and joy. She also delivers powerful insight on the gentrification of Atlanta, the misrepresentation of black stories in the media, the commodification of struggle

and the need to honor working class black Americans. So they have a ton of conversations here. In this conversation, they start off just talking about the hood. For anyone that was raised in the hood, whether you stayed and you built your life, you know, in the neighborhood you grew up in, or you moved and you know, do you go back and forth to where you're from or whatever the case may be, you instantly kind of get the sense of what the conversation is, like that tribal, it takes a village feeling that you really understand

only if you grew up in a community interlocked. Being black and growing up in the hood, it has its things, but the sense of community and I'm gonna stand next to you, not behind you or in front of you, because we need to do this together, is different. Especially if you're from different generations as well. So let's take a listen to the conversation on the hood and how the hood is shown in the media.

What the media shows us is one side of black culture. It's the hood side. And the hood side, you know, ultimately, historically, is what has always created American culture. And it's the hood side. And the hood side, ultimately, historically, is what has always created American culture. It gets co-opted from the hood, and then it becomes mainstream. But I just loved your take and your reminder

that the hood should be as celebrated as the rest of the lanes of black culture. We thrive because there's devised plan for our demise every day. So for you to still smile, still find ways to make it, and then in the hood we help each other. Poor people help each other more than rich people all day. In my neighborhood, my whole life growing up,

we don't just borrow some sugar. It ain't no thing to borrow no sugar. I might borrow whole chicken from Miss Ada across the street, make a whole dinner and bring her a plate. You hear what I'm saying? That's my hood. They then get into a conversation, right? Because once you start to have a conversation

about the hood and the way it's perceived, and kind of how things used to be to an extent, I think right now because of the things that we're dealing with like you know people really really don't have money they really really don't feel like there's hope you have all of the things that people have dealt with before in our civilization in our neighborhoods but now things are personified because you have social media personifying everyone who's not in the hood or even the people in the hood that are doing well. So it makes, it's easy to make one person feel less than because of that, or it's easy to paint a picture of a neighborhood or a group of people from a certain area for lack

thereof. Right? So then they start getting into the conversation of black excellence and black love. And this stems from a comment that Malcolm Jamal Warner made about his experience or his learning of black soldiers, like actual soldiers. Let's take a listen to that. And it was that conversation.

So before, I have a thing, we talk about a lot of time, I have a thing about black excellence and like black love. Like when you put black in front of it, it makes it a subset of that thing. But then when I started, you know, having this argument with him, not argument, it was discussion, about the history of black soldiers, for the first time it made me think of black excellence in a different way. Right? Like, because black excellence now

is attributed to fame and money. So that's been my issue with it. But now when I'm looking into the story, black survival in end of itself is black excellence. Because we've always had to supersede, do better, Black survival in end of itself is black excellence. Cause we've always had to supersede, do better, and more things have been putting our way to cross over. Now the reason why I thought that this was like fire, and I'm like, yo, if I'm a, you know,

do a segment on Malcolm Jamal Warner for, Malcolm Jamal Warner for The Ladies Who Learned the Rosa, I want to have the conversation, almost like a teaching, I'm like, okay, here's like, you know, something that he was you know set on teaching and putting into the world because I Don't know I was watching this episode and I'm like, you know, I might not agree with everything that's being said here but the notion that we need each other more than we are willing to

allow ourselves to act on in 2025. I felt it, it's like, it's hard to get around. It's hard not to think about it. It's hard not to have a conversation about. As a media personality, I remember when I moved to LA, I was told, don't do the black stuff. Like you don't want wanna be the black girl. Like make sure if you're doing, you know,

the BETs or the this or the that, you don't just cover black news or black music or black this or black that. And if you do get a job outside of the black entertainment realm, make sure you don't become the black girl that only does the black things. And then I remember coming to Breakfast Club and feeling so good about being able to do the black things

and being able to really speak to those things because those are the things I grew up on. Some of the stuff I can have conversations about in my sleep because I grew up hearing it, watching it, knowing who these celebrities are, watching them grow in their careers and things of that nature. Y'all like it f my mind up when I made this transition because for so long I was like to Malcolm Jamal Warner's point of putting black in front of things, black love, black excellence, right? Even with like me having a conversation about being a business owner, black business owner, black entrepreneur, black journalist, I always felt like

if I leaned into those things, I would always end up with less than. And that is not the way that I was raised in my neighborhood. And you know what I mean? Like those are not the morals and the backbone of the things that made people where I'm from great. Understanding who you are and like understanding why black is so amazing

and understanding why being able to go out into the world as a person who knows all of that is such a superpower. You get into the world of things where you're then hearing so much about the disparities and what we don't get and how things are unfortunate and just all these things, right? For me, it was like I wanted to run from it. I didn't want to be black excellence. I just wanted to be excellent. Conversations like these where people are like, but hold on, but why not?

Let's recenter and really think about how much of a privilege it is to even be able to be a part of, think about your family reunion, right? Or whatever tradition is amazing in your family. And I'm talking to black people specifically, a lot of us. I don't know how many white listeners I got or others, any other race, but right here, this is for us. But think about something really sacred in your family. So for my family, it's our family reunions,

and we do this thing called the Mother-Daughter Sleepover. And we've been doing it since, man, like I was maybe two years old. And it's so special, and it's something that not everybody gets to experience. And when I speak from that experience, or when I operate in the world as a person that grew up in love like that right like a family that is whole that gets together that loves on each other when I operate

in the world off of that the way that things are received literally it has changed my life one of the biggest things that people say to me a lot is um is they they talk to me about my family, like how I was raised, like my mom, my grandmother. And I didn't realize it until I began to talk about it. They're like, everybody don't have that. Not everybody has a family that gets together for every holiday that celebrates the mothers in their family.

And it's a legacy tradition that really understands wholeness and that warm feeling of tribe and community. Not everybody has that. When I got in LA and I got in these spaces, like, you know, they're talking about, like Malcolm Jemona Warner said, these soldiers were fighting for these privileges that they didn't even get to enjoy, right? The only difference between journalists and black journalists is the experience and the expertise that I bring and that's an asset anywhere. And I might not be able to, you know, always get to enjoy all of the fruits of my labor because you know, I'm a black and I'm a woman and all of these things.

But like, who's to say that what I'm doing isn't excellent and that I can't love it and I can't continue to do it and work for it? And you know Like this conversation made me think about that feeling of and maybe that was like an identity battle too Right because you're in these spaces where you feel like you have to convert You have to shrink the world as a black woman who shows up like I'm telling you guys like I think when you are part of a community and in the neighborhood and the hoods like what they are talking about and you think about the good things that come from it the the learning to survive the

understanding of culture of family of I got you no matter what of whatever you need right being able to hold those things and those pillars that you learn throughout your whole life literally changes your life. It puts you on a pedestal that is so amazing. Like you have these black soldiers that Malcolm Jemmah Warner is talking about who, even though they're trying to erase it, they're being written about in these books, right?

And talked about throughout history, not just because they're like, you know what? We just wanna go be soldiers. You couldn't get around the fact that they were black soldiers. And I'm sure that their upbringing, their families, their faith that they were instilled with, made them operate in ways that allowed them to achieve the great things that they did,

even under those circumstances where they didn't even get to enjoy the fruits of their labor. But it made them great. We're talking about them today. So as I'm thinking through, like the Malcolm Jamal Warner passing in, you know, just man, I remember I remember watching a Cosby show and that was my first time ever seeing a black family all in one house.

Like, I swear to you, that was the first time I ever saw it. In that way, we're like they weren't struggling, Like, I swear to you, that was the first time I ever saw it. In that way, where, like, they weren't struggling. Like, they were dealing with life, but they weren't struggling. Like, they were doctors, and they were astute, and their kids were going to college. And think about that. Like, imagine if Malcolm Jemaw Warner has said, I don't want to be on this show because I don't want to be the black son on the black show that's talking only to black people.

What I'm talking about is a sense of pride that these hoods and these neighborhoods is still in us. And when I put that parallel to like the life and the legacy of Malcolm Jemar Warner from what I grew up watching and how I felt about him from my, you know what I mean? Like just watching him in my household and growing up on the Cosby show and things of that nature. It's like taking who you are, where you're from, and being able to teach through whatever gift it is that God gave you to be able to do so can literally change people's lives and you can't run from that. And he didn't. He was so intentional about the things that he did. I'm 33 years old and I will say that this year

has really taught me about intention and being intentional and I'm not the best at it all the time, you know? But I've learned a lot about it. But when I look at people like him and what he's done, that wasn't just a one-off show for him. He lived every moment after that, and intentional, intentionally speaking to black people and doing things that to black people and doing

things that bettered people even if people didn't agree with him all the time so definitely want to send you know a rest in peace to him and man I can't imagine what his family is going through right now if we feel like this and you know we're you know selfishly because this is a character well he had a character that we grew up on, but you know, Charlamagne was talking a lot today on the show about like the man, you know, Malcolm Jamal Warner, the man, and not Theo, the character. We you know, and our loving Theo from the Cosby show, the character are devastated and

we're shocked and we just have so many questions. But imagine those who loved and got to experience Malcolm Jamal Warner as the man and how they feel right now. You know, like, so definitely take some time, send a prayer for them. Legacy, like that's just the only place you can end something like this is legacy and thinking about legacy because if nothing nothing else, those family members,

those friends who know Malcolm Jamal Warner, the man, that is what they're gonna have to hold on to now. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. This has been another episode. I know that this episode was a bit different. I hope you guys enjoyed our conversation that hopefully shakes your room. You can't run from the things that are still pride in you from the beginning. When you choose not to run, you build real legacy. Look at the

life of Malcolm Jemar Warner and go check out his podcast. The podcast you can find on YouTube, Not All Hood in a H on YouTube. There are some episodes there for you to check out and at the end of the day, you guys could be anywhere with anybody talking about all these things because there's always a lot to talk about, but you guys are right here with me, my little riders. I appreciate you guys.

I'll see you in the next episode. This is an iHeart Podcast.