The Ebro, Laura, Rosenberg Show - 160.) Should Artists Be Able To Use A.I. In Their Music? W/ Rob Markman (8/11/26)

Episode Date: August 11, 2026

Today on Ebro, Laura, and Rosenberg - Ebro, Laura, and Rosenberg are discussing Should Artists Be Able To Use A.I. In Their Music? with Genius VP of Music - Rob Markman, Puerto Rico, Original Gurus, RUBBERZ, Donell Jones teases Verzuz, Mamdani vs Amazon, and so much more! (8/11/26) Hear more of the show on Patreon: ⁠https://www.patreon.com/c/ELRShow Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's kind of like Rosenberg, but not quite. Rob Markmanberg. What's happening, bro? Remix, I'm good, man. Nah, listen, man, got to switch it up on you a little bit. I love it. What time you normally wake up? Okay, so that's great.

You're not sleeping in until 10 a.m. No, no, on days that I don't have to commute. You know what I'm saying? Sometimes it's remote, sometimes. So, you know, if I'm working from home, 7.7.30, I'm on. Yeah. Okay, okay. Got up 5 a.m. this morning, though.

Let's go. You got that train? Yeah, I took the train, man. I said, who wants to drive? You know what I mean? Who wants to drive? I like a drive, man. I like a drive, man.

I don't, you know. There be too many elements, man. Too many elements that send me into an emotional tailspin in the morning. Too many frustrations. Oh, the old man. In the car, in the car, I can curse you out and keep it pushing. Right, right. You know what I'm saying?

You can do that on the street, too. You can, but then now it's a back and forth. You know, not really, Rob. Not really. Not really. It's not the same. Not really. You got to make this show bigger.

You got to get bigger. Bigger every day, man. That's how you get the ratings. See, that's where people screw up, man. I look at it like, you know, we get a couple of pops here and there, you know, from things that organically happened on the show. You know, we had a little moment last, what was that? Last month, you got money to invest.

You know what I'm saying? It was moving around. It was an organic little situation that turned into some. And then being consistent is key. I feel. I feel you. That's what I'm on. Yeah, you've been on there.

Yeah, that's what I'm on. Y'all did make me look at my bank account, though, when that money to invest thing came out. I looked at the brokerage accounts and say, hold on. Am I doing it the right way? No, you are. You are. The right way is the way that's best for you.

That's a fact. That's a fact when it comes to that money. And the fact that you have one is already you're up. You're already doing things. You know, you got to learn that. You don't know until you know, so you had to learn that. Now, Rob came in with some stories we're going to get to the rundown with Laura Stiles. We're going to hit that.

But, you know, we always like to up. update you on the goings on, especially with our president who was farting and sharting on himself, waking himself up. I want to see this. Do you got, listen to this? I saw this. I can't believe that. It's clip one, Rassan. I just, I didn't even know if it was real. I was like, is this AI? Katie's point, we have a crisis that's causing a fertility rate to drop below 1.5. Replacement rate is.

Oh, nah. No, you're looking for a boy. No, no. No, it's crazy. Who amongst us? Damn. You're a fucking cook. This is the fucking... Fucking white people.

Yeah. Now, I guess that could be AI, but it was entertaining. Right. And speaking to AI, Rob, I noticed on the stories you brought in today, you've got a few AI stories. And in hip-hop, people are really paying attention to this. Yeah. Tiger just dropped an album, Starface.

Yeah. Which he admitted to using AI. He spoke with Vibe Magazine. Mikey Fresh out of Mikey Fresh. And he admitted to using AI. And then, you know, it got that 80s retro sound. So it's not a sound used to hearing from Tiger. So everybody's like, yo, how's you come up with this?

And then you got Phoenix Flexing with the Rubbers song. Now, people speculated, but I keep seeing videos where he's trying to prove it ain't AI. He kept saying. He kept denying it's not AI, it's not AI. And then, you know, hey, he came out and said, yo, I never said I didn't use AI. So now, you know, what they call that? They call that gas lightning. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think he said something along the lines. Like, I didn't realize, like, whatever program he was using was AI. That's not how those programs work. Yeah. You know, you actually give them prompts. And then they give you, you know, they give you something back just like chat and all these other things. The Sunos, I don't know the other names.

But, you know, what people need to watch out for is these AI companies in wherever they are, where they, you know, the ones you hit, the clods and Anthropics and all of that. or even the ones that are doing music. Tiger admitting he's using AI is likely tied to the fact that he might be working with one of these AI companies. Yeah, look, we don't know that for a fact, but I don't put it above the AI company

or a rapper at least at some point or an artist at some point being somebody who endorses it, right? A paid promoter. Well, and it's also something that is pretty common. It's pretty commonplace in songwriting. and production right now. Where someone who is capable, a producer, you know,

who we all love, pick a name, has an idea. Timberlin, of course, but he's been kind of open about it. But what they're doing is, let's say Timbalin, we know he could program some drums or something. But then, you know,

you give that to an AI, they come back to you with different chord progressions, different melodies, baselines, different options you can use. What producers used to do. do right or beat makers or whatever is they come up with an idea and then they got to wait for their boy who plays the bass or their boy who plays the horns or whatever to come into the studio cook up something that they could chop up and sample yeah right so now they can get that from

a computer chop it up and use it how they want to do it some people are being open about it songwriters and producers included and some people are like yeah now i ain't there yet but i think this is tiger doing this and these other discussions about it is kind of opening the door for others to feel comfortable about it and I think it you know for the AI companies that are making a gazillion dollars from charging you I don't know what do they charge I've never used one but a monthly subscription lower rate if you do pay the year right whatever so that's how they're making their money so if if if Phoenix flexing or Tyga goes out and says yeah I used it and I made these records and people like the music it's charting whatever that encourages the next young creative

to want to jump into that, pay that subscription, and it's money for these companies. Listen, man, I mean, we've been talking about this law for a while. It's the same thing with podcasting, right? These mic companies wanted to sell mics. Everybody could be a podcast. Oh, man.

You know what I'm saying? The, what is it? The Patrions, the YouTube's, give me another thing of people who monetize podcasting. Right. So the more that podcasting is the conversation, the more that people feel like they can make a buck doing it, the more people are doing it, right?

From the equipment to the hosting platforms to pick a thing, even the advertisers. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I hear you, but even, like, was it Kalani and Siza? The two artists have, yeah, very vocal against, like, AI and music. What was the country, the country music, AI person? There was an artist. It was a gospel.

I don't remember that. Yeah, there was, Zanya Monet, I believe, was like R&B, there was velvet sundown I think was the rock band that that that turned out to be a i so it's a lot of it coming up and kalani had made the point it's like yo so i have to compete with this like right the same chart like they're taking up the same space they get paid you know i think all of this is a valid argument yeah from the artists correct i wish the consumer gave a shit about artists the way that we wish they did or artist's opinions because if y'all really gave a shit about artists, artist opinions and artists work.

Y'all would have been out here buying the music, right? You would be out here streaming the music. You would be out here supporting artists in ways that a lot of people don't. And I hate to break it to everybody. The marketing of these AI companies and the amount of money being made from these AI companies is likely over the course of the next five years going to ship people's opinions. Siza and Kailani really do the work and they work with real musicians to do it. There's a lot of people out here who cut corners.

We see it in hip hop all the time. People who are cutting corners and the audience, oh, this is my song. It's viral. Now I'm clipping it up. It's putting it on my thing. And then everybody turned around and complain that the music is shit or the artist is shit.

But y'all was out here consuming the shit. I agree with you a thousand percent and I have made this point on my YouTube. I mean, we could wax poetic about it all day in debate or whatever. But ultimately the audience decides. Yeah. That's right. What you will and won't consume.

So the audience really decides this and what I hope the artist will least do is be upfront about it. Shout to Tiger. Tiger was honest about it. Tiger wasn't accused of it. Tiger just came out. When they asked them, when Mike, first asked my vibe,

he said, yeah, nah, I did use it. This is how I used it. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And okay, now you get to decide as a consumer. Now I'm not feeling like I'm duped or, you know, it's something that it's not. Now it's a consumer choice. But the industry has made this shift,

even with the shift to streaming, was a shift to get the dollars of more casual music fans. You know, super music fans or niche fans would go into the record store and spend $10 a month, $20 a month on a CD or two. But they were like, well, how do we get the money from the casual fans for the folks who are on by CDs? And there's more of them.

So it's been this industry shift to capture more of a casual audience. And I think this AI conversation is just an extension of it. Who gives a shit? Right. And we're going to see. Yeah. We're going to see.

And of course, the really talented, right, elite artists and songwriters, they're not fucking with them. They don't. Right. And why would they? Right. Because guess what? Guess what the AI models, and this is the whole beef going on with the labels and publishers

and the AI companies, they're building their knowledge, these machines, off of the elites. Off a baby face, the dream, Stevie Wonder, you name it. Like, and I think that's at the core. Listen, AI is not going away, right? We've never been able to technology. People want stuff faster, more efficiently. You're never going to win against technology. I think what we need is regulation.

I think what we need are rules in place because, yeah, there's this data scraping going on. And it's akin to sampling. And a lot of people compare it. No, it's like auto tune. No, it's not like auto tune. It's akin to sample. You are sampling other mutes to then. It's a learning machine.

It's not a correction machine. Right. Autotune is a correction. a AI, right, tool. You know, what we're seeing with AI right now, when they talk about AI, they're talking about data and machines that actually learn.

Yes. That's a completely different thing. So who gets paid for that, regulation is a scary part, though, because right now, you guys, I think I just saw a story, because sorry, I have, like, headline fatigue. Did I see a story about, like, an AI-generated virus?

Yeah. That was being cooked up. It's like regulation is not a thing right now, especially with this organization, this presidency that's like, all they need is a hefty donation to be like, go ahead, do it. Well, they got rid of regulation.

That's what Doge. I mean, they told you, those of you that supported it, they told you Doge was about cleaning up spending. What it really went in and did, and Elon went in and did, is got rid of a lot of the regulation and the oversight that was taking place against his companies and other companies.

Absolutely. It's specifically for himself. Bernie Sanders just wrote a letter, an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg, maybe Sam Altman, a couple of metal, you know, all the companies that are leading in AI laying out what you just said.

Like, hey, we're losing control here and what Bernie Sanders was asking is for these companies to stop. And they said they would stop. They said if ever we lost control, we would stop, we would pause. And he's asking everybody to take a pause or they'll step in

and find a way to regulate this thing. So it'll be interesting. But Bernie Sanders just put out open letter. Well, say that, say that if we ever lost control. Isn't it too late by that point? It might be. I have no faith. I have no faith. We've all seen this movie before where the computers take over. It's called the Terminator. Yeah. It was amazing. I don't want to live it though. It was great to see it in the big sense. I don't want to live it. You know what? Laura, what you got coming up in the rundown kid? Let me see. We're going to cover a big rumor that's going around in the

versus world. Okay. I'm curious to see if you have some info behind that. But, I'm but a lot of people are celebrating because it's going to be, if it's true, it's going to be a fun matchup. All right. I just have some updates on the city of New York, something that Mayor Zoran, Mom, Donnie is cooking with Governor Kathy Hockel regarding the subways. Okay. So we'll talk about that.

And also, I don't know if you ever remember this, but do you remember the Courtney Clenney case, the only fans model who stabbed her boyfriend? This was in Miami. Boyfriend was black? Yes. I remember. You know if it's racial.

So I'm going to keep tag. Yes, yes, yes. Well, I'll give you an update on that, and it surprised me. Well, surprise and not surprised because it's Florida. But we'll talk about it all coming out. I don't know if, speaking of Mdani, I don't know if you guys saw this story. Clip, what is this? 12.

Rassan. The Mammani administration is suing a New York dentist, they say, is actively preying on vulnerable patients in black communities. The city says that Karnasi family dentistry, run by CEO, Khrush Shammtow, takes advantage of Southeast Brooklyn's predominantly black community. manipulating elderly low-income patients into unnecessary medical procedures and crippling healthcare debt. They took all of my fronties out. Were you confused?

Yeah, because all they were trying to do is push that loan on me. Have me signed that loan. Can I see family dentistry allegedly pressured an elderly woman on Medicaid into having all her teeth extracted and opening a new credit card to pay for it. Signed up elderly patients to high-interest medical loans without their knowledge or consent and committed over a dozen other alleged violation. Sham Tob, who owns a $3 million waterfront home on Long Island and is a donor to A-PAC, has not publicly responded to the allegations.

The Maldani administration's lawsuit was filed by Sam Levine, commissioner of the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. The suit aims to win full restitution for all harmed patients. This is so evil. Yeah. Nah, and time and time again, I got a couple of Maldani stories today, too. You know, because every time you guys start talking about Democratic Socialists, You know what I'm saying?

People start getting scary out here. But you got Mom Donnie actually doing things, right? And I think people are loving to see it. I haven't, it's hard pressed to find somebody with a little, at this point, six months into the bill, seven months into his thing. It's early, by the way. Yeah. To find a legitimate complaint about how he's doing the job.

I think he's serving. First of all, coming into office and doing the things that he said that he ran his campaign on and you just see him serving and trying to make life better for everyday New Yorkers. I don't know how you can be mad at that. Right. I'm saying? I know the landlords are pissed. I know you look.

Big money could be mad, right? Scammers could get mad. I know why people are pissed. But I see a man who is genuinely trying to address like everyday needs of New Yorkers. Yeah. I love it. It's so funny because somebody came up to me during Envision Fest and they were like, you guys glaze, you know, the mayor.

I was like, it's not that we're fans of any politician because any politician could, you know, could turn around and do something the complete opposite, right? But I was like, for me, I just appreciate the transparency. Yeah. And I appreciate, first of all, he has a phenomenal social media team that allows the public to know exactly what's going on. And they're like, yeah, but what if they lie to you?

I'm like, do you really think that they're in a position to lie, the right wingers will expose it and create a whole campaign to make sure that everybody knows that he's lying. I was like, to me, I'm not saying he's perfect. To your point, I just appreciate someone who is actually listening and delivering for everyday people. Well, you know, to that person who approached you and said that at Envision Fest,

I would love to hear what their qualms are with the mayor. Like if you think us covering the positive things and the things that we see he's got going on that are good as a problem, share with us the things that he's doing that we should be covering that are problematic. Right. And it's progression for the city because we just came out of Eric Adams. Corruption.

You know what I'm saying? And it's starting to feel like really night and day. Like it's not the same. So you can see things getting better. Like, do you want to go back to Adams? Like, you know, like. I think some people are racist, bro. and Islamophobic.

Yeah. And they can't help themselves. Yeah. So just his name alone, Ma'm Dhani, Zoran Mam Dani, is enough for people to always take a negative approach to anything he's doing. Right.

The fact that he's Muslim is a whole other layer to it, right? Yeah, but I mean, but it's classism too and the class that he is speaking for because, I mean, Eric Adams is black. Yep. And, you know, shit, racism will wear as ugly head there too. but he was kind of with the program. Boy, he was a cop.

So it wasn't an issue. That's what I'm saying. And with mom downy, now it seems to be an issue. But let's go back to the story, though, Ibro, because that's really important. Let's not glaze past the story. Yo, predatory dentistry, I read a little bit about it. Like, this has been going on forever, and it's been right under our noses. Like, I had gone, and this is, I didn't go to a dentist, but I went to an eye doctor.

I went to an eye doctor, and they're like, oh, you need to get this. procedure and I was like what I said yeah you need to do it so I had gotten a second opinion I have the luxury of getting a second opinion because I have insurance and I can do that not many people can the second dentist she was Canadian and she's like you don't need any of that yeah she's like you know how many patients I have coming to me asking for a second opinion because a previous doctor has told them that they need X Y and Z she's like it's also ability insurance she's like you don't need any of that and it's so scary

and the fact that they're taking advantage of poor elderly folks, bro? That is evil. Well, the other thing, and I only noticed this a few years ago for myself, you know, I have good insurance. But they would be like, you know, I used, when I was a kid,

I remember I would go to the dentist every six months. Right. You go and get a cleaner every six months. A few years ago, I was going to a dentist and I had switched dentist because I moved where I live. And they started being like, oh, you can come every three months if you would like. Right.

And I was like, do I, need to come every three months? They were like, no, but your insurance covers it. And I was like, oh. So y'all just want to just take advantage of my insurance. Right. You know what I'm saying? So it's happening because they get to hit the insurance is what you're talking about.

Now, if you don't have enough, you know, wherewithal or understanding of the insurance process, they're going to be clipping you. Yeah. And to the clip that we saw, even worse, was they said this poor woman had to take out a credit card to pay for these. So the insurance is not even covering you. That's right. And I worry about, yeah, how to elderly get prey to my parents up in age.

And my dad has a doctor's appointment every other week. And he has good doctors that we trust. But it makes you wonder, like some of these procedures, like, do you really need this? Is this necessary? Right. And, you know, elderly people are the most vulnerable. Well, and you don't really, you know, us regular. You don't really have enough information sometimes to make decisions, especially when it comes

your older parents, right? Because all you know is, yes, they're older. I know they got health problems. That's really all I know. I don't know how often they're supposed to be here. I don't really understand the medications you're offering. I know what you're telling me if you have the luxury to go get a second opinion, but then you're dealing with your older parents.

They may not want to go see another doctor. They barely want to go to the one they're supposed to go to. Yeah. Yeah. So they got you by the bulls. They got you by the, let's go to clip three. This is another thing Mom Donnie's doing in the city where I found interest in.

Special delivery. It looks like an Amazon delivery. And it drives like an Amazon delivery. And it's an Amazon delivery. Amazon is spending millions of dollars to convince you that this isn't an Amazon delivery. But all you have to do is see for yourself. My uniform says Amazon.

If I don't wear this Amazon branded vest, disciplinary action will be taken against us. The workers' routes and hours are set by Amazon. So why isn't Amazon responsible for these vans? Because Amazon and other corporations have built a vast network of subcontractors that shield them from responsibility. Amazon tells these subcontractors where to drive. Who to hire and what hours to work.

I do all the work that makes Amazon all the money. This is why I'm proud to support the Delivery Protection Act, sponsored by Councilmember Tiffany Kalan. Because if Amazon is delivering your packages, they should follow the same rules of every other delivery. When injuries and worker accidents skyrocket, Amazon says they have nothing to do with it. They can't have it both ways. By shielding themselves behind these so-called independent operators, this trillion-dollar company is able to avoid regulations on our city streets. And that's why we want to pass the Delivery Protection Act.

So a while ago, I don't, you probably seen this where the, where the moving truck, like the rider moving truck pulls over. Yeah. And it's mad Amazon packages coming out of the rider truck. And I was like, maybe they ran out of Amazon trucks or something and just had to use subcontractors. But then I remember they used to sell the FedEx routes back in the day. Remember that, like I got people that own the FedEx route. So they offload the routes to smaller subcontractors.

But then Amazon's not responsible for any of the people. people working on the route. Right. Even though you're delivering their packages. Right. And dictating routes. And dictating routes and all of that. Yo, listen, these companies find loopholes.

All type of loopholes. I'm all for it. Yeah, I wonder how, you know, Bezos is going to be pissed if this goes through. Absolutely. Well, and so are the people who own the route. Yeah. Yes, he'll be pit, but, you know, like how much money is it a drop in the bucket probably to what?

You know, like, we're talking about workers, right? Workers protection of folks that don't make that much money anyway. My career, you know, I worked in the mailroom to get myself through college and a little bit after college, right? You know what I'm saying? And so I know what that's like. And, you know, it's not a ton of money. It's not glamorous, but, you know, it's New Yorkers.

We thug it out. We grind in. But those workers deserve protection. That's a huge industry. Yeah, man. Well, and I just love the fact that we have a mayor, like we were just saying, who's willing to go at the elites, right? Right. That's what he was hired for.

That was what he was ran on. Working families, working people, workers' rights, trying to clean up some of the mess, right? Trying to get through some of the bureaucracy and clean that stuff up. Like he's been doing with the small business stuff, like with the barbershops where you ain't got a call and get 20 different, you know, reviews to get your permits. And permits to get your barbershot. You can move things too faster. So that's helping a lot of the small businesses. So, you know, look, shout to Mom Donnie.

The glazing continues. Here at Ebro, Laura, and Rob Markman. Got out of here. Still ELR, still ELR. It's still ELR. However, that's why we invited, because we was looking for people to fill in. And we was like, it got to be somebody with our name.

He was like, Rory, Rob. I'm fucking, we'll go with Rob. I don't know if Rory want to get up this early. You know what I'm saying? Plus, Rosenberg was feeling some type of way. We can't have multiple white people sit in for him. Oh, but they did the white-on-white interview. They did the white-on-white interview.

They did the white-on-white validate me, right? But that was clean. It's friendly. But if Rosenberg's out, he feels the type of way, like, yo, y'all just putting in another white dude? Nah, yeah, you can't do that. You can't do that. Let's go. It's a rundown time.

Laura Stab. Laura got to run-down, turn that up. Screen's on glow when she pulls up. Headlines heavy, but we still cut up. Life still flashing. We don't slow up. So Donnell Jones was at the Wine and Slow Jams Festival and revealed that him and Joe are set to bring their verses.

They're set to hit the stage for versus on August 20th. All right. That's the big rumor, Ebro. Have you heard about this rumor? I have to contact the team at versus. I would have to reach out to verses and feel and shout to Complex. Yes, yes. And figure out, you know, me as the Apple Music representative, you know, I have to wait on our partners.

Okay. I was looking to see if he studied, studied, studied, I wanted to see. I'm looking for the lie. That's a Joe song. Let's just say it's true. This is going to be a good one. You guys are excited for it? Yes.

All right. I love that. I love Joe. What date did he say was happening? August 20th. He got a date and everything. Yo, it's crazy. It must be locked in.

So let's see. Yes, King Lou. Well, I was going to say, then complex right after just responding to like, y'all know something i don't know so oh complex didn't confirm it either no they said y'all know something we don't know well i'm i'm gonna use that same script i'm gonna use the same script okay in other news now i mentioned it earlier the courtney clenny case now we talked about it i think it was i don't know louis was about a year ago or more sorry time gets blurry but it was the only fans girl who stabbed her boyfriend to death in their Miami condo.

So I remember the visuals, like the pictures were crazy. So she was facing a second degree murder, pled guilty to manslaughter in 2022, okay, for the death of her boyfriend Christian Abumselli. So Courtney and the prosecutors agreed to a sentence of six years in prison. But get this, she gets credit for time served. So she's already been behind bars for four years. So this woman could get out Less than two years

For murder For murder Oh, that's her rear hair color Yeah, she looks very different now that she's been locked up Since the six years Boy in Venezuela She's credit for nearly forced to her That's crazy

What you mean I mean? I don't get it I mean time service She's been in jail for four years Right but I guess I'm stuck on How'd you only get six for murder It's manslaughter She pled out to manslaughter

Got it. So that's the last sentence. But it to me is just, bro, the pictures were nasty. I remember all those visuals and I just can't believe it. But six years for killing somebody is wild. Speaking of the mayor again, Mayor Mamdani and Governor Kathy Hockel and the MTA have joined forces and announced a historic pilot study to lower the sub-lap platform's temperatures by installing this like first of its kind. It's called the thermal energy network.

So the plan is going to extract extreme heat from the underground stations. We all know how hot those get and recycle it to warm nearby city buildings during the winter. So basically it's going to warm up during the winter. So take the heat store it from the summer. Take the heat and store it for later. Which is really kind of cool when you think about it. I don't know how it works. I had to read the article like three times about it.

How you just going to store heat for math? You didn't take that class. I didn't take that class, bro. I had two lunch periods, the space period and the domino's period. There you go. You and then there. I mean, anybody who's been on those platforms, bro, when I tell you, it's hell down there. Well, no, but look, new technology.

And I'm sure there's a lot of technology that's been available that, you know, through because of bureaucracy and sometimes corruption, things aren't even attempted like this, right? makes me think of the bureaucracy and the corruption down in Puerto Rico with the water pumps and all that. They've been had water pumps and things ready to fix that system for over a decade. Yeah. Yeah.

They have water pumps installed that aren't even turned on. Like it is straight corruption and like it's criminal. It's criminal. No, it's criminal for sure. And not to mention the amount of like just leaves. Bro, they could fix certain leaks. Right. And then, because I read somewhere that the amount of water that gets just spilled out is insanity.

So it's like 40% of it. Yeah, it's a huge amount. We are saying because it's also a problem in the capital in San Juan. Yeah. And usually like the capital, because the tourist and so the capital is usually straight. Like the whole island is plagued and even the capital, like, they got to fix this. I think once it starts affecting tourism. I'm not going to.

I know people who came back, it was like, yo, we didn't have water for like two days. This is crazy. It should have got done. Well, you know they want to,

and just so we're clear, sorry, Laura. Go ahead. Just so we're clear, they want to break the island. They want to break Puerto Rico. They want people to leave, continue to leave like they did after the hurricane.

That's right. And they want poor people to give up. they want people to stop voting stop participating so they can finish taking the island completely and do what they want to do that's what this is a part of that don't make no mistake

I just wanted to point out Rob that the hotels are priority yeah of course but you know that's how it works yes hotels at you know are priority the rest of the people around are suffering I mentioned it before we went on air me and my home girls were in Puerto Rico over the summer

and they got an Airbnb B and they were like they didn't have water from 11 a.m. to like 6 p.m. And she's like this is how people are living every day. And now finally we're getting some coverage because if it wasn't affecting San Juan, if it was only affecting the Oscars, we would never hear anything. Right. Right. Right. What's that real rich neighborhood where like Jake Paul? I don't know man, but he came up. He bought a lot of land for sheep there and Oh, well yeah, it's a tax haven and all that. Yeah, a lot of them are. You'll see them. Well, because I want to find out if their water's working.

Of course it is. Well, he probably got something private. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, absolutely. What is it? Dorado. Yeah, Dorado, y'all got water. The rest of the island's suffering.

I'm just saying, for those that love the island or from the island, you know, and know the history of the island and the people and the culture, the way America has dealt with Puerto Rico for over 100 years, has, in my opinion, been a travesty, and it's only gotten worse. I don't understand. Like I don't know enough about the political climate and why people vote for what they vote for or don't participate there.

Enough to know why governors have always been conservative and there's just been a consistent conservative governor and a conservative political faction there that's kind of run the island. I don't know who they're paying. I don't know. You know, the whole, remember the whole story we showed here about how they was, because when you're in prison

in Puerto Rico, you can vote. and they was paying prisoners to vote a certain way so people was taking money to vote a certain way. If that's happening in prison, imagine what's happening in the towns. I will say when I've spoken to locals about it, there is just no hope. They're just like it's corrupt and we know it.

They have completely lost hope. It's all they know. But it's been like this for, I mean, you go back to Hurricane Maria. No, it's been like this for Jay. Lou, your mom is down there, right? Yeah, my mom is in San Sebastian. So she's on the, what,

And the corruption, I mean, that's forever. Her husband's forever. Mom's kind of like whatever with it. I think other than, there's two things that really. Man, y'all need to get y'all a mom, Donnie. You know what I'm saying? Who's the mom, Donnie down there, Puerto Rico? Benito.

Right. Which they hate. Yeah. Whose day? The government. The government hates Benito. Yes. The people.

One more show, too. The people, they just doing another one? He's doing one more. Listen, y'all get, yo. Benito. Bring AOC and Zoron down there, pull them out on stage. Let's get this popping. Because I tell you what, and the reason I say that in all seriousness,

is because even here in New York City, think about your life in New York City and how often there's been scams and corruption and the government not being able to do the littlest, simplest things that you just think about that. And once again, we're only six, seven, months into the mom donnie thing let the mom donnie glazing continue but the way it feels right now is something that i don't think people are accustomed to feeling yeah but that's my point but it's young

people and and it's not it's mom dyni of course it's aOC of course it's this new wave of politician chiosay yeah um you know what i'm saying who who are really really and like now we hear for the people as representatives of the people who live in the city every day and who are are trying desperately to hold on and remain in New York because we're also being priced out, just living conditions of forcing people elsewhere and it's becoming just the town

for the rich. And this new wave of politicians, Mondani, obviously in the lead are really speaking to the youth. Well, and it's also people who haven't youth, for sure, but who know how the government could work.

That's the other piece. Right. Like they've done, the work they've been in the rooms they under and they they they went to the classes me and you didn't go to you know what I'm saying they did the schooling we didn't do to go and understand oh now we can take this money that the city is collecting yeah that governments collect and use it differently yeah you know it's funny I'm sorry Lord congestion pricing right in the new story that you said about how they're storing the heat and yeah they're using congestion and to help fund that.

Oh, okay. And ever since congestion pricing started, I was like, where's this money going? And I would like more transparency in that. What was the girl's name we used to have on? We used to say there was a girl that was one of the advocates, Rob, that we had when we was on hot. It was a girl that we would have on.

Like, okay, so you're the person who is the spokesperson for this, a Brooklyn young lady from Brooklyn, who would come on the show and say, here's the plan. I go to the meetings. Here's what we're pushing for, but we haven't been able to, when Griff, when Griff come back from vacation, we'll track her down and see if she's still involved in that. But, yes, the congestion pricing money was specifically a line item for improvements.

Yeah. Because according to the conversations we were having, MTA did not have a line item for improvements in their budget. They had a line item for operations, just kind of the day-to-day stuff. and then obviously paying people, right? But there was no line item in their budget set aside for improvements. And because I think New York City and the state share the money, but New York State has oversight,

part of the politics of being a governor is the upstate folks don't want to see you spending too much money downstate. Like that's the political hustle, right? And so I think that's why Mom Donnie and Hockel, this is a big deal for them to, you know, kind of be in cohuts on this. Okay. I mean, I like this.

I like this a lot. I was thinking about it because I, have you seen some of the train stations, though, that looked like a scene from Saw? Yeah, absolutely. Like, I showed one of my home grows from out of state, and she was like, there's no way this is New York City. I was like, no, no, no, no.

It is. With the sewage. Yeah. From the, hey, it's still, when the movie The Warriors? 78, 79. It looked the same. Hoyton Skimmohorn still look like that. Same train station.

Nothing changed. Which it really blows your mind when you think about how they didn't even take it into consideration. Improvement. Wow, what a new concept. Well, also to the MTA, books have been cooked

since I was a kid. Always crying broke. You know, there's always this thing they raised the fair. I think that's how the state got involved. Got control of it. Yeah, because the books was just terrible. It was corruption.

Yeah. Well, when you're on Broadway over in Brooklyn, too, you know, like you're driving on Broadway. And they're doing that whole overhead thing, redoing that whole overhead thing. I'm thinking that's, they've been working on it for a while, but I've seen that it's, um, uh, they sped up and they're doing more faster. Okay. And they're saying that that's also congestion price of money. I would like, because I know every time I hit the city, I see that $9 or whatever it is come out the easy pass, right? So I hope it's going to us something good.

I was just happy in the article. I hadn't seen much on congestion pricing in a while. So in the article where they talked about cooling the stations, they were like, oh, they're using $800,000. Anybody watching this from Team Mom, Donnie, social, whatever? Maybe that's something y'all could work into the social announcements. Giving us updates on where how this congestion pricing money is being spent and making that more of the headline.

Yeah. Right? Because I think that would be nice. Because, yeah, they, I suspect at some point, because isn't the $9, that was the lowered number? Wasn't it supposed to be like 15? Something like that, yeah. And then they were like, and Hockel was like, nah, chill, it's going to make it nine,

but that's not permanent. Yeah. Just like everything else, they're going to flip that congestion pricing up, a notch. And it ain't do nothing for traffic. The other, oh, traffic. I think like the first month, it was like, it was nice. Man, I tried to get to the Usher concert on Saturday. I was in the South Bronx.

Man, it took me three hours to get to, yeah, yeah, yeah. To MetLife, man. Well, no, it didn't do nothing. It didn't do. It made things at the G-dub worse. Oh, yeah. Anything above 90, what is it? 96, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It made that worse because people cut around the top and get over to the boroughs now. Yeah. To the other boroughs. But if you're moving around below 42nd Street, most, it's actually, I ain't going to hold y'all. At Westside highway, be nice, nice. Yo, nice. Because my Apple office is right over here by the garden,

so I spent a lot of time on the below like 34, between like a now and 34 most days and over where their studio's at, it ain't that bad over here. And they used to not be able to use Sixth Avenue at all. Forget it. Sixth Avenue was done. So it did a little bit, but, you know,

it was nicer when it first started. Yo, when the first started, it was like a ghost town. It was like, I am legend. It was like, oh, just zipping past. I know. I know. In other news, of course, the Michael Biopic broke tons of records, but Michael, too, is stunning to film at the end of this year, early 2027.

They're getting right to work. I'm going to hold my opinion. What? What? Well, first of all, they announced it on the shareholders call. It was where it was announced, right? Yeah, so it's all about the bread. Because, yeah, all the money.

First of all, it's also on stars right now. Like, I was flipping through the challenge the other day. I'm like, oh, Michael's on cable. Yeah, already. You go buy. You can buy, you can rent it. It was quick. No, it was a, yo, and look, the family's getting mad.

I don't know what the splits are, but the family's getting mad bred. So, you know, shout to the family and the kids and the grandkids, everybody getting paid. I'm happy. I just am reserving comment on the next installment. I don't know what it's going to be like, right? Like, I can play along with y'all on the first one and where it's not about any of the controversial stuff. Right. Right.

It doesn't get into, you know, the allegations. I can do that because I have my own Michael Eris. Right. Like I'm very much a young Mike. After bad. Things change that dangerous. Dangerous was a turn to point. Yeah, like, and even before, even before, like, why are you hanging out with McCauley

Culkin and Emmanuel Lewis? And why are you, why are y'all carrying Emmanuel Lewis like he's a child? And I will say, because I remember, and Rob, correct me if I'm wrong, but I remember reading that the reason the family had a big say in it obviously they're like producers on the show but they purposely wanted to leave a lot of that controversy out I heard that

but I also read and there was reporting when the movie came out that the original script of Michael and they even shot some scenes addressed some of the controversy and what the Jackson family had found was that in one of the settlements with one of the kids

that it could not be depicted in movies like they couldn't talk about it and then they had to reshoot some of it. This is what was being reported, I think I read it in Variety. They had to reshoot some of it. Jackson family said our bad will pay for the reshoots

for, you know, more cut of the profit. And so that's why it felt like that stuff was missing in the first movie. It kind of seems like they're hinting towards that it'll get addressed in the second movie. I don't know how they go around it.

Well, that's why I say I'm a win. Especially you know I'm we all going to see Listen Oh you're not like we not going to see it So nobody's saying that We just don't know if it's gonna We're gonna like it or not Right right I don't know if you guys got a chance

To see the Netflix The documentary where it covered a lot of the cases And I forgot a lot of that So there's you know There was a lot of interesting pieces there That make you think so look I was mad at the first one Why Quincy Jones just pop up right We didn't get the die

You know the Diana Ross They got all that up out of there They Diana didn't want participate so they got all that story about it there, the whiz. Quincey Jones just pops up out of nowhere. But people, look, people enjoyed it clearly. Yeah, look, I think

it depends. Going back to what we were saying at the beginning of the show, sorry, Rob. The people decide. The people decide. But it was good and entertained, like, I took my kids to see it. And they enjoyed the movie, they love the movie, but they don't have the same context that we have. So it does open up conversation,

hey, dad, but I heard about this. What happened with this? What was this? And you feel some of it. in, but it's Hollywood. It's a depiction of, you know, I don't expect a ton of it, right, from it. But then you go to even like the HBO documentary from probably eight years ago now or something like that. And a lot of that had to get walked back. Yeah.

You don't know what people's intentions are. I don't know that we know what's true or not. I know shit look weird. Well, look, I know for a fact, the FBI event, that's a fact. Then the FBI investigated for like mad years and they found nothing. And found nothing. So I'm not really expecting them to like, you know, confirm or deny as much as cover and how they're going to cover. And, yeah.

And I'd imagine it's like, well, how did that affect them? Because it obviously affected them, affected the family. You know, they, so I think it's going to get covered in the second movie. I don't know how they make a second movie. I think you can get away with it in the first one. And then like I said, there was that legal oversight that the Jackson family had, but I think they'll figure out a way to color. I think they have to. That's the rundown, guys.

Thank you, Laura Stiles. Thank you very much. Laura got the run down. Entro is the hour. So. Headlines heavy, but we still caught up. Light still flashing. We don't slow up.

So y'all remember the explosive doo-doo from, we could change ago, right? The cyclospora. The diarrhea with the, from Taylor Farms? I still had had a salad since. But yeah. Now, well, now you got to look for the salsa and the guacamole. Yeah, we can't have nothing. Then the Sal Manila.

They got Salmanilla. Same company, by the way, Taylor Farms. Now, by the way, Taylor Farms was, I think, a supplier to the Chipotle's and Taco Bells and McDonald's. It's. It's the jalapinos. It's the jalapagos. I remember there was an issue with cilantro. Right.

That was one of the main ones. But it was all Taylor Farms. There's other farms, y'all. Right. So, you know what I mean? Just so you know. It's not all the farms. What about the eggs?

There was eggs. I read eggs too late. Is that telephones as well? I don't know. I don't know the egg one. I heard a bet they had a bacon recall. I knew that through some of you swine partakers for a loop. Y'all that love that pork.

Y'all they was recalling thousands of pounds of bacon. Well, you always take a risk. You always take a risk. With the swine? Yeah, yeah. You never know what you might get. You know what I'm saying? You're willing to go for it.

You know. You know, yeah. Yeah, Rob came in a date. You had this Rock Nation, Jay-Z album speculation on your docket today. What you want to get into on that? Yeah. Is it happening or not? Looking at Ebro.

Why would I know? He's Rock Nation. I don't know the whole thing about having money. Rock Nation, invest money. I'm looking at you. They didn't invite me. I don't have money to invest. I wasn't invited.

I think, listen, so it all started, Ray Daniels, who. we got the clip if you want to run it. Yeah, yeah. Learn from Hove. Hove is not going to put himself out there to be laughed at. It's just, I'm not doing 60,000 y'all. By the way, I'll tell you something that I know

I heard about on the Jay-Z Tip, just a little quick update. His album is done. Mm-hmm. Okay. It's completely done. It's just we might get it if somebody partners with him. If nobody partners with him, it's not coming. Wow.

Hey, he's not playing about it. You cannot play about your brand. You said this like a month ago. Yeah, you can't. Somebody called and confirmed it from me. So I was like, okay, I just want to reveal it on the team. He's not going to have... You heard it here first.

He heard it here first. Let's go. Does first week sales at this point even matter? I don't think so. It only matters to the industry and the people that want to laugh at you. The industry matters. That's the only time. It's just, it's nothing.

Because back in the day, if you didn't sell a certain amount, you was dropped immediately. Yeah, you was dead. If you didn't ask your phone. Hell no. If you didn't do 100,000, you was out of it. You were done. That was the magic number.

That was the major number. You had to be big. It was either you, oh, bigger than 100,000 first week, Are you smaller? It was two ways of misery. Yep. That was it. Okay.

So Rock Nation responded and, you know, they didn't call out Ray Daniels by name, but they, on the IG stories yesterday, they put album done and then fake news. Ah. So Rock Nation. There it go. Interesting that they're responding to this because they usually don't kind of respond to any type of rumors or hearsay or speculation.

But Ray Daniels said adamant, but Rock Nation says, nah, it's fake news. Well, there you have. That's the answer. I don't even know what to contribute. It doesn't mean that the album's not, you know, what part of it was fake. Well, so most artists that rap, sing, whatever, are always actively recording. Rapping and singing for their own creative process.

Let me try this. Let me try that. I got a song idea, whatever, whatever. So, you know, like that was AACB Rocky did an interview with Jason Lee. And he was talking about Rihanna's music. Yeah. And it was like, yo, she's got fire. She's got, you know, et cetera, et cetera.

Similarly, she's a singer. Yeah. And people have given her songs. And I'm sure she recorded some stuff. Does that mean we're going to get it and get and get to listen to it? No. No. Jay once talked about the vault of years ago, like, Beyonce's songs that they just kind

of listen to in the house that may or may not ever come out. So, yeah, yeah. No, we definitely, he's working on music, right? Look, he just put a verse on the Beyonce that morning due remix, which I enjoyed, thoroughly enjoyed. Yeah. But, you know, I think, look,

I would like to see an album. I would love to see what Hoves has to say musically after this Jay Z-Z-30 celebration. Like, I think it'll be a nice time for an album. We'll see. You know, that other part about that, hey, I'm not going to put it out unless I get a corporate sponsor felt more like the speculative part.

But I don't know what I see. Right, right. Well, the, I'm trying to. remember that what was the album or was it Magna Carta Magna Carta with Samsung was that was a partnership album at the time Kingdom Come had a big Budweiser campaign

attached to it right right right Jay is about his business though I would I think and I would like to think that if he really had something to say he would put that because 444 didn't have a co-responseer attached to it I mean I guess title

title got the exclusive or something like that and that was the team that he played for but 4-44 felt more like, nah, I got something to say. Like the artistry. Well, and I guess the deeper convo I wanted to have was about first week sales

and big brands like Hove has, right? Like, is, where is that convoy? Because, you know, I think it was yesterday. Y'all was yesterday, right? Laura, he was playing us, Drake up here talking about my pen ain't dry. And he was doing a, he did a 24-hour stream. And he's done tons of marketing.

Had great success on these. and you know, I dropped three on my head top, and all of this. But he's had great success with the music, right? And I guess it should be noted that there's a back and forth between those two. Are we concerned that like the Drake stands are going to attack Hove if his, like, what is that concern about first week sales? I don't know that, Jay, is concerned.

I think once you get to, that's going to be a conversation for sure. Let's not skate past that There are people who will Clown whatever that number is Let's go back though First week sales aren't even sales There's streams I still don't know why we Take what is streaming and do this equivalent thing

Call the thing a thing It's just my opinion So but yeah people will clown the numbers I think Jay is in the space where Who cares And Jay may do fantastic amazing numbers But who cares Like I feel like at this point either you have something to say musically or you don't like you know I don't know that he's putting albums out just to put him out now

Well we often have covered here You know wrong chart champ Right And so thinking about the metrics of things how things are measured right because You know me I'm a person and I make this comparison all the time that you know the best things aren't necessarily the things that sell the most using the McDonald's hamburger comparison. They sell a lot of hamburgers. Yeah.

And people like McDonald's hamburgers. Not saying people don't like them. But they would never be in the conversation for Best Hamburger. Right. At all. And when it goes to hip, I'm just a different type of fan. There's some fans who let the numbers and the metrics of things

dictate their taste. Hey, man, when most deaf and quality came together and did Black Star, I ran out of the cop that. I was a fan of that. When Killer Mike dropped that Michael album, it was a beautiful album. I was a fan of that.

Dead Prez, let's get free. Man, that album did a lot for me and loved that album, classic to me. And I couldn't tell you what those sold. Right. I couldn't tell you what any of those albums sold. I know the high regard that I'm- But even when we just celebrated reasonable doubt,

I spent a lot of time up here talking about what that album didn't do when it came out and what it means now. Right. To just hip-hop, full stop. Right. Right. It's a perfect example of cultural impact

having something to say, right, doing it all for the right reasons, having and then 30 years later looking back and seeing a stadium full of people singing word for word, right? Every record in it defining an era or defining a time of hip-hop. You know, but it is tough to make those moments, you know, in the atmosphere that we're in today because there is so much narrative shaping

in spaces where music, where music isn't actually being listened to. The narratives get shape on Instagram and TikTok and X where people are throwing around shots and having discussions. Nobody in there is actually listening to records. They're just texting and talking. Matter of fact, even on platforms like this, we're just talking.

We're not actually having a shared experience with music as frequently as we used to, five, ten, well, not even five, but probably 10, 15, 20, 30 years ago where you would go to a location or even turn on the radio. Right? Flex still tries to create those experiences where he's like, I got this record tonight.

I got this record tonight. I got this record tonight. Whatever that is, right? But are people checking for that? Nah, I mean, we just celebrated 15 years of reasonable doubt and everybody across my timeline was talking about the moment when Flex premiered Otis. Right.

And what my kids who were not, conscious enough to know what was going on. I was playing the Flex audio. And they was like, oh, we just thought that was a meme. That was really on the radio. I'm like, yes, this was a re-play. He played the record for a half hour. He just kept bringing it.

But they just thought it was a meme. They thought it was made up. Yeah, they thought like, yeah, stick your hand in the cash register. They were repeating the whole thing back to me verbatim like if they were there, but they just didn't have the context of when it actually happened. But those shared moments of excitement around music are very, hard to create. I feel like Drake did a great job on this last release. Yeah, yeah. And and and- Of creating moments of shared excitement around music. It's very hard to create

for new music. And I don't want that to get lost too. It's kind of like pick your poison. What game do you want to play, right? What I'm saying is I don't know at this point in his career Jay and Jay is competitive. I know he wants to compete, but it's playing the first week sales game. Drake wins at that and it's hard to do it's not an easy thing to do it's not diminishing it's just kind of like okay

how do you want to go about it the shit that Drake is doing is not easy that staying omnipresent constantly staying in your face constantly feeding you content or music three albums at one time shot of music video. Drake's got partners right stake

kick like he's got corporate partners helping him stay omnipresent Absolutely, but it's still not easy to do. Right, but back to the point of, oh, do I need a corporate sponsor for this album? Yeah, it takes a lot of money. With all the shit, the content that we get just on a daily basis, for any artist, it takes a lot of money.

I mean, Drake had to get out here and bark at the golf batty for the corporate sponsor. On a 24-hour stream, keep it pumping. He looked like he had a good time, man. He looked like he enjoyed it. Wait, what was that for Sean? You got a mic. She wasn't batty, though. No, no doubt.

Nobody's questioning. And, Rassan, are you confirming you, sir, would have barked? No, no, no. I'm happily married. Rough. Good answer. Good answer. Your bark would have had a little bit more base in it.

Drake did the, what is that, the little, what were those little dogs, the little toy, the little dogs? No, he did that bark. It was fun, though. It was fun. No, he was having fun. But, yeah, no, it is a very different atmosphere. But, you know, I think the excitement and speculation around Jay having an album done I think it's also fun.

Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's somebody who has given us so much great music and it's still someone who could drop a freestyle and people are going to examine it and you know what I mean? Sell out three days a year. Like, the fact that all of that still is in play. I think, you know, for me and I was saying this even around the Yankee Stadium shows, Like, I remember reasonable doubt coming out.

I remember, like, I remember not, I wasn't thinking about 30 years from the date. I had no idea what I'd be doing or where hip hop would be. We didn't care. It was just fire in a moment. And I think, you know, being able to have somebody like a Jay opens the door for other artists, right? To have a longer, because remember, there was a time where if you was still trying to rap at 40, 45 years old, It was a rap for you, bro. Drake is 40.

Right? And we're still enjoying his music. And that table has been set for other rappers. We're meeting rappers now at 30 years old. They just getting going. Two Chains was revolutionary when he branded himself. He was kind of old in the game. You know, there used to be a cat,

and this is not a slight against a Rakim or Big Daddy Kane or an EPMD. But you got to a certain point where you got three or four albums in. and the game said, all right, that was the ceiling. The ceiling got raised. Kane is working on a new album where Kim just dropped something new. Look, Nause is a perfect example. Nause won his first Grammy at this stage in his career. Nas sold out the garden for the first time off of King's Disease at this stage in his career.

Killer Mike is winning Grammys at this stage in his career. It's a beautiful thing, and it raises the ceiling. And for the generation that comes after, now you have a longer runway. Now there's a blueprint for how to do it. That didn't exist before. The ceiling for us was low. They used to tell us, yo, we were a fad.

Right. This rap is crap. This music will never last. It's not real music. Y'all don't play real instruments. All of that shit when we was growing up. But even like, what Nause is doing and shot to mass appeal,

just giving a platform and equipping like these legends to release new music now. Right. To me, we just talked about how beautiful that is to see Slick Rick with a new beautiful project, like killing it, Raquan. Like that is. Amazing.

Dayla, I think Cabin the Sky, one of the best albums last year. Yeah. Mar-Diepe, I was so scared for that Mar-Diepe. Yo, they delivered that shit, boy. Because I know Prodigy so much. The way that they delivered, the way that Prodigy sound is so alive and present on that, that was such a beautiful thing. Now, I ask any of y'all the question, what did any of those albums selling in the first week?

I don't know. Doesn't matter. Because I didn't care. You didn't care. But we know the story. We know how it made us feel. Yes. And so, you know, I think we got to get back to that.

I mean, look, it's a business. rap is competitive. The numbers, I'm not going to say the numbers aren't important and the numbers don't matter. It's not everything. And what's your legacy going to be?

What can I drop today? That's going to last 20 years, 30 years. I saw on your docket today, you brought, speaking of sounding great, you brought up the Bino-Ridot. Nipsey Hustle Project is dropping Friday. I listened to that project

and sat down with Bino-Ridot. That joint, yo, it's not what people is going to expect. It's fire, bro. No. I don't know what y'all expected from a Nipsey Hustle Project, but Bino-Ridot and Nipsey actually cooked this years ago.

Wow. I am so curious. Yeah, wait. When you're dropping your interview, I got to make sure that I'll compete. I just drop same day to see who's first week is up. You know what I'm down for a dust up. Now we're going to compete with the numbers. Who's going to get more views?

Yeah, I'm independent, I'm independent, I, I got the machine. I got a corporate sponsor. You got the machine behind you. No, no, no, no. The prolific album. I ain't gonna lie. The first time I listened to it, I was like, because it wasn't what I was expecting,

especially because this is their second collaboration album. They have no pressure in 2017. Right. This is like another side of the coin. And then when I listened to it, the second time, I said, oh. So it's a lot of the jewels that we get from NIP, especially, and the game that we get in the perspective,

is all there is just presented in a different format, man. I'm excited for people to hear it, man. Ladies got to tune into this, too, specifically. Let's go. No, it's vibes. It's vibes. And it's very well done. Let's get to the gurus.

Hey, y'all, it's job for the gurus. Rosenberg. It's all right. You know you are a beautiful queen. Ebro, don't ever play yourself. You're not a guru. The original gurus at gmail.com. The original gurus at gmail.

That's where you email us. Where the gurus unite to shine the light. Ebro, burn the sage. We have to set the scene. You gotta get ready with some advice. Okay? All right. Dear gurus, I'm a fat.

I've been following you guys since the very beginning. And I need your help. I've been married for seven years. And my husband is amazing. Here's the catch. He's not taking care of his health. I have been working very hard. I lost 75 pounds in the last year.

I've changed my life around. I got a couple health scares. and because of my three kids, I decided to take action. Now, how do I speak to him? I've had about three, four conversations, and he gets super quiet and dismissive. I truly love him with all my heart, but I do need some advice. How do I get through to him? I just want him to get better.

Rob, you married, right? Yep, yeah. Married, um, it's going to be 25 years in November. Oh, wow. That's guru talk. Yes. No, he's a guru. Yes.

Jump in on this. That's deep, man. I think she's absolutely right. I think him getting dismissive is probably his own insecurities. I'm assuming, and I don't know because she doesn't say, but she talked about the weight that she lost. So maybe it's a weight issue when she's talking about health, but that's just an assumption. Regardless of what it is, they have three kids together. And, you know, if you can't do it for himself and it's hard, I'm.

I'm acknowledging that it's hard. You have to appeal to him. And not in a guilt trip way, but those three kids need you. Those three babies need you. Yeah. Your family needs you. Like,

that I think if nothing else has to be the motivation. I want to be here from my kids. What is generally, and I, you know, Rob, there's more question for you, but even you,

Lauren, dealing with your partner and, you know, whatever you got. What is generally the, the defense, the insecurity of wanting to address and improve health.

Is it the work? Is it, are you in denial about like, where this is going? What is the actual thing? And I'm only asking because I honestly don't know as somebody who has, you know, I've enjoyed throughout my life being physical and trying to improve my physical and doing that. Like, that's something I enjoy, right?

I wouldn't claim to, like, I enjoy going to get a colonoscopy, though, which is something like I need to do. You got to do that. I saw the last episode. Yeah. You know what? I'm going to keep you accountable. There you go.

I appreciate that. But I'm just saying, right? Like, that's something where it's like, yo, I got to go drink a drink. Get all the doodoo out my system. And then lay on a table, tuted with my ass tutored on the side. Okay. Listen, this is what it is. But you're going to be out.

You're going to be sleep. You're not going to feel any of it. Even more reason for me to not trust what my doing while I'm sleep. But I'm going to do it. But I know what's impeding me from it. You know what I'm saying? Like I know what it is. So I guess what I'm asking is in this scenario.

Yeah. What do we think it is that's keeping him from wanting to be better? So I think it's a couple of things. I did, because I've been here before in not exactly like this, but I've been in a similar. situation. I think sometimes when your partner has locked in and there's progress, I think maybe there's a little bit of maybe resentment or maybe, damn, I should have probably locked in with her when she asked me to. And now that there's a huge, this woman says she lost 75 pounds is a huge deal,

bro. She's probably a completely different person. And, you know, there's humiliation also attached to it. But she did mention that she spent. spoken to him three, four times already. So it's like, this is a case. Like, how does she get through to him? Because I'm sure, Rob, she brought up the three kids. She loves him, but she wants him to get better. Maybe she's being, maybe if she's not being supportive enough.

Maybe it's more of a, I talk to him, hey, you need to do. And maybe he needs a little bit more of the. It's different because different people respond to different things. You know what I'm saying? and it's a difficult conversation. I've been in situations where my wife is like, you get kind of big. Like, you know what I'm saying?

Like, but it's that thing where, okay, you can speak to me honestly or the colonoscopy thing. Like, I wasn't like rushing to get. She was like, nah, you got to do this. You got to do that. And she's right. But, yeah, I think a lot of it stems from, like you say, Lord, like insecurity and maybe he's seen her go through the progress

and made feel bad about himself. the other thing is we put shit off, especially when it comes to mortality. Like it's just hard for some people to think about. Yes. Like, you know, but, you know, and rather, it's like avoidance rather than confronting. Yeah. It's easy. And a lot of things, right, we avoid tough conversations.

We avoid, you know, confrontation, all of this stuff. And the avoidance of doing the work is easier to avoid and not think about it and play 2K. or binge watch, stranger things or whatever you do. Smoke another blunt. You know what I'm saying? Or eat. Some people run to that. Like, it's easier to avoid than to actually do the work, man.

Maybe if you just, hey, we're going to do this together. Like, maybe. Well, in acknowledging maybe how hard it was for her, right? Like, maybe there's something in there because I know some people respond to just knowing, oh, this was hard and it was hard for you. And it's going to be hard. And I'm going to be here. Well, it'll be hard.

But every, just do a little bit every day to get to the spaces and places where we're trying to get to make you healthier. Yeah, from maybe cooking certain type of meals to maybe, hey, let's go for a walk together. Maybe just start encouraging like healthier habits little by little without, you know, pushing for a full 360. And, you know, at the gate, maybe that'll help. Yeah, when you do grocery shopping, less of the chips of hoy, you know, of seaweed wrap or what do people eat? Some nuts, some pistachios. Listen, I'm gonna keep a hundred with y'all. I don't, I try not to keep no snacks in the crib.

The only snacks in the crib is fruit. Right. Like if you, because honestly, I think we all overeat. Yeah. I think we're all eating relative to how much physical work we're doing. Right. I think we're all just eating. But we're conditioned to society.

Exactly. Three meals a day. That's right. But, you know, and I don't know, just the thing I will respond to the most is probably the kid. Like any thought of. of me not being here for my sons to help when they go through things is the motivation for me. Like, I got to get my shit together because, you know, they're going to need me every step of the way. And if I'm not there, I fail.

Absolutely. So let's just say, let's start with little tweaks. You know, hopefully he'll respond to some of that and try to lock in together. Good luck. So say the gurus. There go. Bung. Outro.

Yo, Rob, spit some bars. I know you got a bird. I got to that. What you got? What you got, sir? No, Rob got heat. Hey, yeah, Lord. I didn't came this far.

Took the train. Then take the car. Drumming this beast. Come on, let's go. Bars. You know what I mean? Yo, Lou, what was they saying in his chat today? How did Rob do, man?

No, people are enjoying Rob. Yes. Rob did a good job. More bars. Thank you, Rob. Thank you for joining us. You got to come back. Thank you for having me.

Yeah, look, y'all gave me a reason to wake up early. I feel like less than a moment. And look for that Beano-Riddle conversation with Rob Markman. What else you got? Moving. O'Bad Genius, man. We just did a conversation. We did a partnership with Sprite.

Okay. Called The Living Track List. Did a roundtable that Angie Martinez, mom. I saw that. Scotty Bean was up there. Yeah, that was fired. Nyla Simone. Shout to Naila Simone.

Yeah. So Sprite created this thing called the Living Track List, which was, you know, So they put lyrics on cans, your QR code, it takes you to the site, and it's just different important songs throughout the errors of hip hop. So, B-I-G is juicy, Queen Latifah, U and ITY, but also Futures March Madness, so Black Star's definition. So we kind of talk about the importance and where these songs kind of fit and hopefully to inspire more thoughtful conversation around hip-hop

and the next generation to keep making great music. Well, it also pointing people back to listening to music, right, and not forgetting these records and what they mean. and what they mean and what they did. And we didn't get here by accident. It was the contribution. You know, hip hop is a communal thing. Yeah.

I think we forget that. I think we overlooked that. You know, a lot of times it's me, me, me, I'm the best. Goat, go, go, go. But hip hop is a communal thing. We sample, you know, we need DJs. We need producers. We need radio.

But even when the conflict happens between emcees and creatives, right? Like that, you know, as much as people pick sides, it's also bringing us together to critique. and love and you know what I mean there's passion there you know what I'm saying like disagreements are good for families too yeah I do this because I love it man and I know certain I know you do it because you love it and lower and certain fan bases they oh you're picking the side you're picking the hey man the side is hip hop yeah and I think we want was what was best for hip hop and we enjoy what we enjoy but if we can have thoughtful conversation around there I think it makes

all of us better there go right there the living track list yeah so go check that out Shout out to Sprite. Shout out to Genius. There you go. Rob Markman, go look for him. Rob Markman on Instagram, right? And Rob Markman everywhere. All-B-M-A-R-K-M-A-M-A-M-A.

Follow me on YouTube, man. I got Just My Thoughts. Subscribe. Yeah, subscribe. Just my thoughts. And the best interview ever, I'm coming up with a Bean Overdow interview. Yeah.

Well, and also, too, Rob, you know, one of the reasons we had him up here today is because he is one of the individuals that, you know, I think all of us here on the show, regard as a great journalist. Right. That's right. And someone who, like you said, loves hip hop

and wants to put out thoughtful content on a regular basis for the sake of, you know, celebrating hip hop, critiquing it, taking a deeper look, and just doing great writing and sharing. So thank you for that, man. Thank you all, man. I appreciate the platform. And I love what y'all doing, man.

I knew your next move was going to be your best move. Yeah, appreciate it. And this is dope, man. I love you. Thank you so much. Thank you. See y'all tomorrow. Like, subscribe.

and do all the hitting the buttons and things. ELR. Bebibbibin. Don't call it.