Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Mohit Rajhans Kicks Out the Jams: Toronto Mike'd #1400

Episode Date: December 28, 2023

In this 1400th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike catches up with Mohit Rajhans while he kicks out the jams. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, Electronic Products Recycling Association, Raymond James Canada and Moneris. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

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hosted by FOTM Al Grego, who's back in the studio tomorrow, and Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Today, returning to kick out the jams is Mohit Rajans. How close was I? Just tell me how to say your last name. Rajans. Rajans. How close was I? Just tell me how to say your last name.

Rajans. Rajans. Perfect. Okay. I just want to give it that extra like. Yeah. Something. Jazz. Rajans.

Rajans. Rajans. Rajans. Rajans. Can I call you Mohit? You can call me Mo, Mohit. You're like Madonna. You're like Cher.

You can go by one name. As long as I am the only Mohhit in your repertoire of guests as we speak yeah and this is a milestone episode congratulations mohit you're the special guest for milestone episode 1400 this is so as funny as this may sound i want to definitely take a moment to congratulate you because 1400 is not only a milestone for you, but it is a milestone for podcasters in particular because many don't make it this far on their journey. So if nothing, if we're not going to do a full on party right now, well, I just definitely the streamers come down from the ceiling, the balloons.

I did. I was curious about this yesterday because I, I didn't say, Oh, I need Mohit to be 1400. I just let the chips fall where they may. Is that what falls? Chips? Do chips fall where they may? Okay. So I let nature take its course and it actually, you were going to be 1399 and Toast with Rob Pruse and Bob Ouellette was going to be 1400. And then Bob Ouellette's buddy was getting a divorce and you had to get him out of the house and it was like a whole rigmarole And we did a swap. So you became 1400, which I think is very cool. And then I was just tweeting like,

what percentage of podcasts get to 1400? And Ivan Pihar, who works at Spotify, and I feel like has the analytics at his fingertips, said it's less than 0.01% of podcasts that will reach episode 1400. So I feel pretty good about that. Ivan is a guru when it comes down to podcasting in this business. So you are getting it from the source. So there you go. I feel I can trust him. So you're 1400. It's not

your Toronto Mike debut. And I realized this is your first time in the basement because we were in the backyard because this was November 2020 when you dropped by and that was like a heart of like no one's allowed in the house time in the COVID-19 pandemic. So you were episode 757 and we chatted about, first of all, I should tell people we're like from the same neighborhood. We're both new Toronto residents. Yes very much so and we uh we'll talk more about that we're going to get to the you're kicking out the jams we're going to get to the jams and we're going to catch up between jams i want to catch up with you find out what's going on in your world but we talked in november 2020 about dad spotting bollywood rethinking your content and so much more

and we talked for a good 90 minutes and I'm glad to have you back. I appreciate it. I can't wait to kick out the jams. Okay. Let's get to jam number one and then we'll talk more with Mohit between the songs here, which means I have one important question for you. Guest number 1400.

Are you Mohit ready to kick out the jams? Yes, I'm ready to kick out the jams. Yes, I'm ready to kick out the jams. Can you hit that high note? I can't hit that high note. I can't hit his low notes. Uh-huh. can't hit his low notes. Moe, tell me about your first jam here, Michael Jackson. Tell me about your first jam here, Michael Jackson.

Growing up, the Jackson 5 and Michael Jackson were very, you know, big in my household when it came down to all the different types of platforms, radio, cassette tape, all of that stuff. This was the song I picked, though, because it was one of the last that had a blend of what Jackson 5 used to be. Oh, sorry, I said it was Michael. This is Jackson 5. No, no, no. This Blame It On The Boogie is... Is it Michael or Jackson 5?

No, it's on Off The Wall. Okay, so it's Michael. Yeah, it's Michael. And yeah, and so this was one of those last ones where I thought to myself, what's the quintessential Michael song that I can play that could be in a aisle on, or that we could jam to,

you know, listening to it in winters as quickly as we can in our car. You know what I mean? It's something that can always get you pumping. I don't think this is credited to Michael. I think it's credited to the Jacksons. It is. Okay, so do you know, okay, I don't,

because I get, you know, the stuff before Thriller is hazy to me. Okay. Cause I was, I'm old enough that I had Thriller on cassette before that is hazy. So there's Jackson five. Of course, we've all been hearing all the, a lot of Jackson five during the holiday season. Cause you get the Christmas songs and everything. And then of course there is off the wall, but this is the Jacksons. So is the Jacksons like a older version of the Jacksons?

So did the Jackson 5 become the Jacksons? Like they just rebranded? I think so. I think what you might be seeing is the re-recorded version perhaps, right? So this might be a remastered version of, and then the credit and publishing done. The original will be on Wikipedia. But it is a Michael with harmony.

So at that point in his career He was harmonizing with his brothers You want to sing it? I do Do you still have the cassette tape? No, I don't. I don't have it. I did save a bunch of cassettes. I got one of those things that holds cassettes.

I filled it up with some of my favorites, and it's literally stored away in this closet here. I haven't looked at it in 100 years, but I did not keep my Thriller cassette. Do you have any Michael Jackson or Jackson 5 cassettes in your possession still? I don't have cassettes. I have vinyl from the original Sony publishing days. The Thriller.

I had multiple Thriller copies and the Victory album. And perhaps Off the Wall as well. Okay, here's a fun fact for you I have. This is a cover, which is a fun fact unto itself. But the wild twist here is that the original artist is a guy named, unrelated, but a guy named Mick Jackson.

So Mick Jackson, who is an English singer-songwriter, he writes this song, and it gets covered by the Jacksons, whose lead singer, of course, is Michael Jackson. So Mick Jackson is the writer and the original artist, and then Michael Jackson covers it.

That's a fun fact. Yeah, that's amazing, actually. I know. Okay, because I'm like, I got to find out, because in my mind, I'm like you, in my mind,

this is a Michael Jackson song, but it is actually credited to the Jacksons. So it was Jackson 5 when they were a little older. 1978, the song comes out you got uh jackie marlin and randy doing background vocals on this song and uh okay i'm just checking in on it yeah so mick mick jackson unrelated it's his song and it's a cover by the jacksons

and it's a great start because i wanted to boogie with you when we were kicking that out so mo hit i keep seeing you on my TV, like I'll flip a channel and there's my neighbor and FOTM Mohit. Tell me how this works. Like when there's a tech story that sort of in the zeitgeist, do you get a call the way that when a musician dies, Eric Alper gets the call? Like, are you the Eric Alper of tech?

What's going on? First of all, shout out to Eric Alper. Because he is ubiquitous in the way that you're describing it especially in toronto media stuff you know what i've i've contributed long enough to know what a story is and what is needed so if i'm available yes uh in many cases i'm lucky enough to be first phone call. In other cases, yeah. Do some networks go to you more than other networks? Like, you know, I'm thinking we have CBC, there's CTV, there's CP24, there's City News,

there's CHCH and Hamilton. Like, is there one of these networks that sort of is like you're getting the call more often than other networks? You know, it depends entirely on the type of story and where my expertise. Right now, a lot of artificial intelligence stories are circulating, and I've proven to be competent enough to be able to speak about it. You're a go-to voice when these networks need to discuss AI. Currently, yeah.

At the pedestrian. I mean, currently. You got to have some confidence. You are the guy you're the yeah well i mean look it's such a broad topic it's like it's like if you said to me five years ago so the internet mohit have you heard much about what's happening there and so i don't like to dilute it because there are many experts doing wicked things cynthia powell was on the show recently she's teaching in new york and uh yeah she just wrote

a big book about ai she's all in and i was my eyes were, I was just like glazed over. Like she's talking to her about it. Like I realized I don't have any passion for this topic, but please tell me what do I need to know about AI, Mohit? Like if you could share something with me and the FOTMs listening, what is something we need to know about artificial intelligence? Well, I think for you in particular, 1400 episodes are eventually going to be translated in a hundred different languages in many different places. Will I mispronounce words in other languages as well as English? Yes.

Perhaps the only quality control you'll do is effective mispronunciation so that it's consistent. But that being said, you know, you have an archive of content that you've created for multiple people in your life. You will use AI in the next two years to start to document it in different ways. There's little things like that

where your voice assistant will start to help the elderly population in better ways now rather than think of it as cumbersome. There's the first level and second level customer support you'll become more used to without thinking to yourself,

zero out, I want to talk to somebody. That's the type of stuff we're into next. So I'm not getting replaced by AI. They're just like going to supplement and complement what I'm doing already. Like I'm not being replaced by AI. No, you're going to be more efficient. Oh, okay. Okay, so then I'm on board now.

Okay, so it's going to help me with the translation and like other important stuff. This, this artificial intelligence, it's nothing to fear. We can leverage this to make ourselves more efficient. need guardrails uh you don't want uh toronto mike to be replicated in other languages by somebody else right right what if the bootleg versions of the podcast are hitting the streets and then all of a sudden the philippines you're like wait a minute i'm not even getting residuals on this i'm big in the philippines don't forget that okay now a lot of ground i want to cover here with uh basically all these topics that you're all over. But I actually want to jump to another jam right now because I'm digging this. Okay, so the Jackson 5 rebranded as the Jacksons. They blamed it on the boogie.

We're going to get a little more recent with a jam I love. You ready? Here we go. I ain't no joke, I used to let the mic smoke Now I slam it when I'm gonna make sure it's broke When I'm going I won't get strong Cause I won't let nobody press up and mess up the scene I said, I like to stand in the crowd Watch me run the damn And think about a thing you understand

I'm just an addict addicted to music Maybe it's a habit, I gotta use it Dude on the mic, Mohit. And think about it, then you'll understand. Maybe it's a habit. Have you had a live DJ on? Not yet. I've had DJs on, but I didn't let them do anything. They won't be doing anything or saying anything. Starting From Scratch was here. Of course, the legend.

Shout out Mark Agnone. Right. Mastermind was here. Oh, Paul. I get to think about who else was here. Paul P. Hart. Right. They gave him the reins at Flow, the new Flow, anyway.

He's the guy in charge of the content there. He's the mastermind. He's the mastermind. And I think they maybe let go of everybody, and it's just mastermind. So maybe he needs some AI assistance there. Okay, talk to me, Mohit, about kicking out this great Eric B. and Rakim Jam. Yeah, this is tied into the fact that Rakim, to me, is one of the best MCs of all time. I believe lyrically he's the one that got me

really into listening to hip-hop differently, along with Chuck D., which we'll talk about later. But this in particular I picked because the jealousy and sort of envy in me that I felt when Russell Peters used this as an opening to one of his specials made me go, that's such a quintessential Toronto hip-hop jam, related jam that somebody would use

despite the fact that obviously it's a global phenomenon. Sure, of course. I can't say that Russell's an FOTM but I can say his brother is. Clayton. Clayton has been over here. You know Clayton quite well, right? Yeah.

Yeah. We just did six episodes of a new podcast called Fries for the Table, basically about the comedy industry and the Brown experience. So that's where we're going. Interesting. Okay. Six. Okay.

So you only have $13.94 to go to catch up to me, but six. Okay. So Clayton, who I actually, he was here because Ivor Hamilton went to high school with him and they were having a big class reunion and then Ivor and Clayton came over to talk about the reunion

and I guess Clay was going to do some DJing himself. So there's another DJ I've had in the basement. But do you know Russell personally? I do. I do. I know the family, yes. But do you know Russell personally? I do. I do. I know the family, yes. Okay, listen, this is a big deal here.

Russell Peters is a huge global superstar. Will he take your call? If you text Russell Peters and say, hey, happy new year, buddy, does he reply? Same to you, Mo. So listen to how weird this story is based on where we geographically live. I was hanging out with a DJ in this neighborhood and we were sharing stories about Russell Peters from quote unquote back in the day. And I said, I sent a text to Russell saying, hey, I'm listening to Eric B and Rakim with DJ Scam. Okay. And he sent me a text back

with Eric B. at the time hanging out with him backstage. And there's a video saying, Mohit from Eric B. Hey, Mohit. That's amazing. At that time. Yeah, that is a great story.

Now I just remembered, of course, DJ starting from scratch, who I mentioned off the top there, he's the DJ for Russell Peters, right? He opens for Russell. Yeah, they've traveled the world together. Amazing stories they have. It's all connected here. It's all connected here.

Hey, quick, because you might have some insight into this. So in a nutshell, what do you cover? Just how... You tell me. When you're in an elevator with somebody and they're like okay you're an expert on what mohit what do you tell them in the elevator yeah so i spend 50 of my time working with companies that need new technology implemented to future proof what they're doing so whether it's social or through ai and then on the other

side i'm a subject matter expert for media that does everything from training to working directly for their audience. Because you have a media background, right? Like you used to work at City TV. Yeah, I was 10 years at Roger City, Omni, and Breakfast Television for eight of those years as a segment producer, film guy on the weekend. I was a media whore, as they say. Wow. Okay. So what exactly, I feel like we're in office space now, what exactly would you say you did for Breakfast Television? So it was interesting, you know, four hours of morning television every day. We had

brand new guests, brand new leads to chase, brand new stories to define. A lot of relationships had to be rebuilt when the Rogers acquisition happened and City and Bell and CP24. I was there. I had front row seat to all of that. Shout out to Ann Romer. Yeah. Yeah. The dismantling of the Queen Street location.

I was there for all of that. And it was great because I also had two years in the Queen Street location while it was all chaotic and the Much Music Video Awards and all that stuff. So it was great. Okay, so I've never worked in your industry there, but I have talked to people to find out what was going on. And one guy, I remember him talking, was Steve Anthony. So Steve Anthony, you'll tell me if I get any of these facts. You're my fact checker.

You're my Robert Lawson for this one. Okay, so Steve Anthony was on Breakfast Television. And then as you're kind of mentioning, there was that Bell Rogers thing where suddenly, because for a while, Breakfast Television was simulcast on CP24, which I guess they were calling Cable Pulse 24.

I don't know, CP24. And then CP24, which was owned by Bell and was going to stay at 299 Queen Street, they had to have their own morning show because they couldn't share anymore because they had some, whatever was going on, you're going to talk about in a minute. But they start CP24 Breakfast, which is on CP24. And then Breakfast Television stays on City TV. And Steve would tell

me forever, like how many people thought he was still that was still Breakfast Television. Like during this transition, he would talk about how long it took people to realize that, oh, CP24 Breakfast and Breakfast Television are two different entities with two different casts because Steve just stuck with CP24 Breakfast. It sounds like it was a chaotic period. It was beyond chaotic also because the two morning shows were in the same building for a time period.

And so when guests would show up, you'd have two people at reception waiting to make sure that the guests would know because it was the same parking lot. It was also a branding nightmare because both were fighting to see what CP24 meant versus Cable Pulse 24. And Rogers wanted to move the physical station from 24 at the time.

And Bell was like, no, you can't. That's part of the thing. We are CP24 on 24. There were so many funny things that happened at that time. So like I know enough that somebody will be in town for a media blitz, okay? So someone who doesn't live in Toronto like us and they'll be like, oh yeah, this guy,

let's say Steven Page is here for three days and then he'll be like, okay, he's going to do breakfast. He's going to do all these things. And if I'm lucky, he might even add Toronto Mike to that list, which is quite an honor. But has there ever been a guest like a, like a Steven Page type person who comes from upstate New York and he's going to do the two shows on the same morning, like he'll do the CP24 breakfast and then he'll do maybe 20 minutes later, he'll jump on breakfast television. Like, would that happen?

Oh yeah, it happened often. In fact, part of our job was to negotiate where he went first, right? Right. Because the peak of audience would be at a, this was really calculated and weirdly scientific. Remember Canada AM at that point was in Scarborough, so they didn't factor into the gas chasing at all.

But right. And also we're talking about a time period where celebrities didn't want to wake up. So, you't factor into the, to the gas chasing at all. Uh, but right. And also we're talking about a time period where celebrities didn't want to wake up. So, you know, they, it was just like, if you're going to get them up, they want to use all their time wisely. They do Maryland, they do us, they do. Yeah. And it was a very interesting circuit. Yeah. That, that, what a, what a time we should, maybe we should collaborate on like a mini series where we just talk about the time that, uh, whatever cp24 and uh city tv occupied the same building how long approximately are we talking about where they

would be in the same building before i guess they kick um i guess they kick cp24 to young and dundas at some point no no i'm sorry yeah you're right the breakfast television gets yeah we moved to young and dundas uh the o building. It's still confusing it is. It's still, again, you'd have people show up at Yonge and Dundas thinking they were there for CP24. And people didn't realize that we had left Queen Street. The other problem was that Bell

really wanted to start construction on the place while we were still there. And so it became very problematic to have two different newsrooms, right? While you're like, okay, well, you don't have a six o'clock, we go 24 hours or we're dropping the five. And it just became a weird mix of resources. And you had the best seat in the house for this.

Did you take good notes along the way here? I do feel like there's a something here. Like if it's not a podcast, it's a book. There's something here about this interesting period in Toronto media history. Well, what's most interesting to me- Maybe I'm the only target audience member. You know what, to be honest with you, Mike, you've done such a service in preserving

so many great memories when it comes down to the way the Toronto media industry has evolved. Again, when it comes down to the future, this is going to be archives that people are going to turn to to understand. There's not many people that have had these proper conversations. And the amount of respect you give your guests as a result, it's just phenomenal.

I'd be happy to dive into any aspect of it. The one thing I will tell you about that time is that I had, I had a security card to five different newsrooms because I was a freelancer. So those weren't the, those weren't the only two media companies that I worked for. In fact, I used to run from the CBC building to the Omni building at lunch to file a story and run back to the CBC building to work on a CBC building to the Omni building at lunch to file a story and run back

to the CBC building to work on a CBC on demand. So it was, it was pretty funny those time periods. Amazing. Uh, and you've been everywhere and we'll touch more as we proceed here, but I'm keen to get to jam number three. So, so far we've got like a, is that disco? What do you call blame it on the boogie? That's like, is that's disco adjacent, right? It's kind of a, is that disco? What do you call Blame It On The Boogie? That's like, that's disco adjacent, right? Yeah, it's a disco pop. Disco pop. Yeah, I'd call it that. And then you got some hip hop.

And again, very influential, Eric B. and Rick Kim. I love them. And there's a lot of artists. In fact, there's one we're going to come up with in a minute who's heavily inspired by that style. But let's kick out something different. All right. What are we kicking out here, Mohit? Probably one of the few bands I've seen five decades, four decades, three decades. For three decades, yeah.

Well, I'm guessing you saw them in the 80s, 90s. What do we call them? The aughts? I don't even know what we call them. And then the teens, and then again in the 20s, 90s. What do we call these? The aughts? I don't even know what we call them. And then the teens, and then again in the 20s. That's five. Yeah. That's amazing.

Yeah, it is. And one of the unfortunate parts is that I can't convince any other generation to love this group the way that I love this group. It hit us differently. Us Gen Xers got hit differently by Depeche Mode. Yes. Okay, so did you see them last summer? it hit us differently us Gen Xers got hit differently by Depeche Mode yes okay so when was you did you see him last summer I did yeah what was that Budweiser stage

no that was here yeah Scotia you know an amazing amount of pain that can still be emulated through the music without you feeling like, oh, this was 30 years ago. I love the light shows they still commit to. I don't necessarily care for like the personas of anything anymore. I just love the fact that the music resonates

even more beautifully now. They've really, really always been about the sound if you think about it, right? So hearing them in a big stadium environment, knowing that they're willing to compete, it's great. Did you grow up in Toronto? I grew up in Mississauga. I'm a quintessential. I was born in Scarborough, raised in Saga, live in Etobicoke. I consider Mississauga like Toronto Junior. So what side of 50 are you on? I actually don't know. I would put you as the younger.

Okay. Did you listen to, uh, CFNY as a young man? Yeah, I was, uh, CFNY.

Definitely. Um, Chris Shepard more like, uh, like often imitated, never duplicated. Yeah. The,

the evenings, you know where he is. We're, we're hunting for him. Yes. I know that you are. No, that'll be a coup or perhaps another podcast documentary.

Right. Searching for Shepard. Searching for Shepard. Clearly, I have had many private conversations with people who knew him very well. And clearly, he does not want to be found. Like, he's off the grid intentionally. He is not...

Forget the Toronto Mikes, which are like a fly in his bag. Who cares? But you know, his buddies from CFNY really want him for their documentary, which is coming out in 2024.

He does not want to be found. And now what's emerging, because you know, Nature abhors a vacuum, what's emerging are what I would call like unsubstantiated, I don't know,

conspiracy type theories where maybe he owes the mob a bunch of money from these club gigs that were done with the mafia back in the day and that's why he's gone off the grid. But without a doubt, he does not want to be found. But I do have a lead on where he is,

but it's not specific. I just know a country where I believe he is right now. And I don't know if that's enough for us to get some money behind this and we take a trip to the country. Or maybe when a guy doesn't want to be found and he's gone off the grid, like if I decide one day to go off the grid

and not be found, please leave me alone. Like I'm an adult who's decided to be off the grid and not be found. Don't try to find me. So maybe we owe it to this guy to not hunt for him. Yeah, I think a lot of the times

we forget about the atonement people do after careers, right? Some people decide, oh, I'm not that character. I'm not that ninja turtle. I think a lot of the times we forget about the atonement people do after careers, right? Some people decide, Oh, I'm not that character. I'm not that Ninja Turtle. That was a character.

You talked about personas. Like he had to put on an accent for that guy. Right. Well, that's what I was wondering about with Deadly Headly as well in that time period. So again, conversations that sort of linger in the

wonderful 416905 minds that you're able to bring out. Right. Okay. So that you're able to bring out. Right. Okay. So if you're listening, Shep, there's an open invitation for you, Chris Shep, out on Toronto Mike to talk about everything. Heck, I'll even Zoom with you.

I don't think that's going to help. Okay. So you're like Mohit. As you describe your specialties, like this media convergence with tech. So this thing that happened to me the other day is relevant and i'm interested in your insight okay so not this episode we're recording now hopefully and not the most uh recent episode which was toast with rob pruse and bob roulette but

three episodes ago what is that what number is that 98 i guess so 1398 yeah was me literally like for uh i think december 23rd i'm like i'm gonna just talk about christmas songs performed by fotms i think i picked 10 lovely christmas songs all performed from by fotms from like ron sexsmith to bare naked ladies to sky diggers to Crash Test Dummies and Blue Rodeo. I put this together. Nice little thing. So I talk a little bit. I play the song. I talk a little bit about the next song. I play it. Spotify immediately, like Spotify, which just reads my XML file. It's like, nope, we're removing this episode from Spotify. So it is the, I believe it's the only episode of the 1400, assuming this one doesn't get booted,

the only episode of the 1400 that Spotify will not index and serve up to its subscribers. And they don't give you a read. They just say it violates the terms of service. Well, I have, you know, done this enough times to know it's, I think I've messed with the ratio. Like, I don't know this algorithm. They don't publish it.

They just tell you you can't play unlicensed music. And as you know, we're playing a lot of unlicensed music on this very episode right now. But I think there might be this algorithm might have some ratio of original content to unlicensed music. And that episode was on the wrong side of the algorithm. It was too much unlicensed music per original content.

And I tripped some alarm. And I'm very interested in what the future holds for a show like this. One day Spotify might decide that they're going to tweak this algorithm where it's like, no, you can't play any unlicensed music. And then there will be no episodes of Trotter Mike in the Spotify feed. What are your thoughts on the monitoring of like podcasting and these tech giants like Spotify

that are very in bed with the record labels and the future of a podcast that does play a song by Depeche Mode? Well, for one, you are on the right track to worry because uh i think it's not that you're on the other side of the algorithm it is that there are algorithms targeting exactly what you're doing right and so uh the digital tags associated with any music that you incorporate now will set off red flags on every platform the reason you're going to see that being

more aggressive is because the record companies are finally playing well with the platforms and starting to reap the benefits for artists and seeing how ecosystems can be built so they're winning the problem is like you'll remember before youtube really became a popular culture thing where every brand started to get on, they wanted to clean it up and make sure that pirated movies weren't on there, etc. So what you're going to see, Mike, in the next two years is you're going to see this clearinghouse of content on these platforms, this need for some of these platforms to come to you to stop and say, how do we do this properly so that people like you can remain at the top of

your game? Shout out to Ivan Pihar. Yeah, no, and he knows this. Ivan and I have had conversations with reference to what's going to happen next. And I think that you represent exactly what needs to happen,

which is how do we make sure that your transition into doing this properly works? And, and to be honest with you, if, if, if not you, then who,

right? Like, well, it's funny because like because um we talked about cfo y and uh ongoing history new music was just making a bunch of noise they've just they recorded their no it was a radio show for a long time before it became a radio slash podcast show but they hit a thousand episodes and they made a big big deal out of it and i've had alan cross and the technical producer Robbie J in the studio multiple times and I always

ask them, like, how come when I'm listening to Ongoing History of New Music, if they're talking about Depeche Mode, they play like, I'm going to say 20 to 30 seconds of Depeche Mode and then it goes. And I'm like, do you know that you can get away with 20 to 30 seconds of a song? Because I'd be willing to work within certain parameters if I knew the freaking

parameters. I don't know the parameters. But then they say, no, they're guessing. It's a complete guess that maybe they can plead, maybe they'll be okay if they play 20 to 30 seconds. But this is not based on anything that Spotify or Apple has said. No, you're 100% right.

And the problem is Spotify and Apple need to protect themselves. And so the same way that in the next few years, you're going to see a bunch of people doing dancing videos to stuff that there's no music for. It's the exact same way we're talking about people just claiming the copyright to music. And that's enough to change. Now, Mohit, if Spotify came to me, this is all very hypothetical. None of this has happened, by the way.

But if Spotify came to me and said, hey, we're going to introduce a new, like, a SoCan-like thing that, you know, radio stations, they pay this thing every year and they can play Brian Adams and stuff. I want to play Brian Adams. If they said to me, make a reasonable price, $200 a year, and you can

play music on your podcast, I would be, okay, that's a $200 business expense and i don't have to worry about being de-platformed because really that's what they have again spotify could de-platform toronto mic and there's a lot of spotify subscribers who will be invisible and they may not want to change their app and therefore they just stop listening to toronto mic which would be unfortunate although i 100 i'm a realist and i've been kind of for years i've been prepared for the fact that i will wake up one day and not be on Spotify.

Like I live in this reality and I'm like, okay, we'll just adapt and figure it out from there. But because the alternative is I stopped playing all unlicensed music, which I'll be very honest, Mohit, I don't want to do it. Like I don't want to not play any unlicensed music. I wish there was a way, a reasonable fee every year I could pay and then not have to worry about this nonsense. I think the only issue with that is if everybody can pay the same fee, then it doesn't become useful for the music company to just get $200 from every producer because then every kid could get it. And then all of a sudden, just get $200 from every producer because then every kid could get it.

And then all of a sudden one song can be used a million thousand times and that dilutes what the artist wants from. Then I, then I mean, I know we're just, we just, I love the fact we can have a good chat about this because is there anyone who is not going to stream Depeche Mode because they heard that song on a podcast?

Like we just played a strange one. Like to me, what I've noticed happens is I get anecdotal evidence that people are like, I haven't heard that song in forever. Now I've dove into the catalog and I just spent 48 hours listening to Depeche Mode because it like re-triggers this love they had from when they were teenagers or whatever.

I am of the belief that hearing these songs, us talking about how much you love, we're about to kick out a song by an FOTM. It's about time. It's only song number four. But an FOTM performs the song we're about to play. And you and I both love this song. And just hearing it makes me want to hear more from this album and this artist.

And I don't think we're competition for streaming of an artist's music. I think we just enhance your interest in that artist. Yeah, you make a great point. You know, on the video side of things, when I was talking about movies, they would let us use 30-second clips. Okay. Right?

Is that YouTube? Where are they letting you play these 30 seconds? So originally I had a film podcast back in the day, but they give you the 30 second clip, even on television, right? They say this is the, so that you don't get sued for showing 30 seconds.

These are approved. So audio versions of that should exist. So maybe that's why they're guessing over there at Chorus about the 30 seconds, maybe because there's some precedent somewhere. I've seen nothing. I'm passionate on this issue.

I would love to see the rules, but it's always just, you can't do it. It's like. So if I want to ensure I'm not deplatformed, I can't even play Rosie and Gray at the end. Here's what's happened recently Mohit, because this is all very topical. As you know, Google Podcasts is disappearing at some point in a few months. Google Podcasts, kind of a popular podcast app. I put it at number three. You got Apple and you got Spotify

and then you got Google Podcasts. So it's going away and they're going to replace it with YouTube music, I think. I can't remember their branding for it, but Google's got YouTube music and I've actually added my RSS feed to YouTube music.

So now you can listen to Toronto Mic on YouTube now. It literally takes the feed, takes the audio and puts my logo on there and you see the logo and you hear the thing but every day i record almost every day so basically the the morning after every new episode of toronto mic which is like four or five days a freaking week i do wake up to an email from youtube listing all the reasons i'm blocked in like these 200 countries or every country or this is just gonna be muted or this is or the best case scenario is it's been you can't monetize this which I'm actually fine with but uh I wake up every day I just got news from YouTube that they

removed the um toast from yesterday so my toast is not there not that there's many subscribers there but toast is not there because I guess I played the wrong record labels music yesterday. So you, this didn't happen with Google podcasts, but it's cause YouTube. And that's why we're not right now. We're live streaming at live.torontomic.com,

but we're not live streaming on YouTube or Facebook because we wouldn't survive the freaking episode. Like the, the takedown notices and the angry emails for violations would be through the roof because we're playing not 10 we're playing 11 songs we're not allowed to play because I will close

with Rosie and Gray and even though the songwriters and the performers love that I play it they don't own the licensing for this song so the algorithm has no idea anyway long winded rant to say that I don't own the licensing for this song. So the algorithm has no idea. Anyway, long-winded rant to say that I don't want to do Toronto Mike without playing a little music here and there.

And that's where we're at. So I have no control over whether Toronto Mike survives on Spotify. But when the shit goes down, I'm going to put in a call to Mohit to come over and talk about it. Sounds good. So get ready to... By the way, are you still running? I am, I'm going to put in a call to Mohit to come over and talk about it. Sounds good. So get ready to, by the way, are you still running?

I am. I am. Yes. So what kind of, like, what kind of distances and how often do you go for a run? I see you running in the hood all the time. Yeah. You know, and, and I'm so thankful when I get to, I'll wave in the morning and get to see you on your bike.

Um, I, I, you know what, this has been a summer of run how you feel. I have really just gone whenever I feel like it and let myself. Like Forrest Gump. A little bit. I'm, you know, sometimes I'm in the mood, sometimes I'm not. And. What's a long run for you? Uh, 12.

Okay. 12's long, 7's normal. Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay. Amazing. You're in good shape and, inspiration to us all, Mohit. Oh, that's very nice of you.

Can we kick out a jam from FOTM already? Yeah, let's rock. This is a throwdown, a showdown. Hell no, I can't slow down. It's going to go. First offense. All the mix. Go on and break.

Okay, party people in the house. May I return your please? In a moment, the beat will be played in many parts. Go on and break. Hey! Okay, party people in the house May I have your attention please? In a moment, the beat will be played in many parts Come on and Hey! Many many parts, very One

Two Three Come on and Hey! This jam is amplified Just glide, glide Backbone slide Wow You listen to every word I say

Every verb you heard I play Snaps the vertebrae Okay, I can do the whole thing I think I did it with Ed Keenan recently actually which was not a sight to behold but please tell me Mohit why Maestro Fresh Wes's Let Your

Backbone Slide one of the first Canadian hip hop records I had on vinyl shout out Maestro shout out Farley one of the most vivid memories I have is how they shut down hmv at square one when they were supposed to perform live on electric circus my brother was at that he brought home the record for me uh the actually the second i think the the

album had come out that day or symphony in effect yeah. And I was lucky, I've been lucky enough to run into Maestro several times in my career and life and he was actually at the very last show I did with Breakfast Television and it was a,

yeah, it was, you know, I've been lucky enough to sort of roam around and see his career blossom. But a fan, definitely a huge,

I know his catalog, you know what I mean? So much so that what you said makes me laugh because when I see him, I always rap his lyrics to him. It must be so annoying. You see him and you go, this is a throw down. Oh, I do drop the needle. I think he likes it. Oh, yeah.

I do. I do it all. So even the director of those videos is an FOTM. Joel Goldberg, who's one of the co-founders, if you will, of Electric Circus. He still works with Moses. He works at the Zoomerplex now. But yeah, Farley, Maestro.

Dwight's in it? Dwight Drummond's in it? Dwight Drummond's got a cameo in both those videos. Let your backbone slide. He was friends with Joel Goldberg because he was working security at 299 Queen Street street if you can imagine dwight drummond working security back in the day but i love all the lore around this single particularly and this scene i love talking to everybody who's a part of this scene yeah it was

monumental i remember it was the first time you'd see on much music just that real representation of what the toronto scene was about to become when it came down to hip-hop and then watching him sort of transfer that into everything from the juno stage to all of that stuff was first time at that time i even had michael williams on recently who was at uh he's the original host of electric circus before monica deal who i know we talked quite a bit about monica deal last time you were on, who I've subsequently met. I was at this 30th anniversary of Electric Circus, and I got some time with Monica, but I also saw her that same week at Massey Hall when there was this Rock of Fame induction,

and she was there because of the 299 Queen Street Dock. I saw her there, too. There was a run there where I was bumping into Monica every other day. But all this to say say Michael Williams talks about introducing Maestro to Stevie B who then, and I'm going to go look at the back of my 12 inch single because most people didn't see

us, but LMR was the American label that signed Maestro and the distribution in Canada was Attic Records. We've talked about this quite a bit. We've lost both founders of Attic Records in 2023. Alexander Mayer himself was an FOTM and it's a small world, man,

but someone's got to cover this stuff. I love the Stevie B story because that shows the tie-in between the freestyle music and Canadian hip-hop because that was a time period where Stevie B was huge in Toronto. Absolutely. Maestro now lives in New Brunswick.

Yep. I ran into him in Halifax out of all places. Does he host a game show right now? I know that he had a burger, a Sliders company going on. I never know what he's up to. And a cape to something on the... Some challenge. Some race challenge thing. I apologize, Maestro.

M-A-E-S-T-R-O. Oh, that actually... You know what? He's got his acapella. He loves to plagiarize. Love to borrow. Steal. Pace peel.

Wheel to wheel. The wheel, the wheel, the wheel. There's only one Samson, many Delilahs, check it out y'all, before you're miles away, use a telescope or binocular, but don't jugger,

not my vernacular. This jam, yeah, I had, that's on the 12 inch dude. I have it, I just showed you, I bought that in 1989.

That is a moment. I'm not faking anything with you. That's so amazing, I love that you just did that. Yeah, because I remember the 12 inch, and actually that's my preferred version to be quite honest, but

everybody wants what they saw in much music. So I just want to give them. All right. So that's an FOTM Maestro Fresh West. Love that guy, but

we're going to kick out another FOTM. You ready to bring the noise, buddy? Bring it. Too strong. Too black. Too strong. Yeah black. Too strong.

Yeah, I can do this one too, man. I can do this one too. Yeah! Peace! How low can you go? Get thrown! What a brotherhood. Once again, Pat gives the incredible.

Rhyme animal. Be uncannibal. See, public enemy number one. Five-0 said freeze, and I got numb Can I tell them that I really never had a gun But it's the wax that's a Terminator X-Bone Now they got me in a cell With my records they sell

So the brother like me said, well Farrakhan's a prophet and I think you ought to listen to What he can say to you What you ought to do is follow for now Follow what the people say, make a miracle See, pump the miracle, millions to hold us back. Talk to me about the original Bring the Noise. Yeah, definitely front to back.

One of the only vinyl records that I'd listened to repeatedly when I first got it. I was so enamored with whatever they were talking about. Hank Shockley and the whole production sounded like... The Bomb Squad. The Bomb Squad. It sounded like nothing... I'm with you, man. ...that I'd heard.

And even playing it in my dad's record player at that time, who had only used it to play mostly Indian and Bollywood music and stuff. It just sounded like the whole house was shaking. It was, uh, it's, it's still a moment. I still listen to this when I run a hundred percent. I still listen to it takes a nation millions. I also, uh, still listen to fear of a black planet. Those two back to back. I love them both very much, but I'll also go earlier and I'll go Yo Bummer's the Show I'll do. And I'll also do Apocalypse 91, The Enemy Strikes Black. Those four in a row.

And of course, let's not bury the lead here, but Chuck D is an FOTM. What you've been able to accumulate conversation wise with Chuck D is phenomenal and quite envious. I've only met him once and I've been lucky enough to. I consider him a prophet and you're very lucky.

Love that guy. I got him to say Sudbury. I got him to say lots of... I figured, you know what the problem... Not the problem. They told me I could have an in-person interview of Chuck D but his handler person said I had 20 minutes.

I typically get told something like that and I I negotiated up to 40 if I can, but this time I was saying, well, what about 30? You have 20 minutes. Okay. Chuck D will sit down with you on your microphones and talk to you, but you have,

uh, 20 minutes. And then I said, Oh, okay. 20 minutes of Chuck D. I'm not going to waste my time talking about the things he talks to American media about. Like I'm like, okay, we time talking about the things he talks to American media about.

I'm like, okay, we're going to hyper-focus on DJ Ron Nelson bringing the first hip-hop shows to Varsity Arena and 8888 Young Street, and we're going to talk about

the Ontario tours that they did back in the day. We're going to talk about Maestro Fresh West. We're going to talk about the queen tours that they did back in the day we're going to talk about Maestro Fresh West we're going to talk about the queen of Canadian hip hop Mishy Mee also the FOTM that's what we're going to do and that's what we did and then we were kind of talking about Raptors who had just won the NBA championship

and Chuck D is a big NBA fan and I can tell you right now he was really into it and then I got the look from this woman and she was letting me know I'm at 21 minutes or whatever and i had to wrap up but what a thrill it was great that's amazing what a great conversation i i hope you can repurpose and repost it as well ai is going to do that for me okay mohit ai is here to do all the stuff i don't have time to do make me more efficient before we move on hey what, what's up? This is Chuck D. You are listening to Toronto Mike right here, right now in the place to be.

Andrew Ward is on the live stream, live.torontomike.com where it's unpoliced by algorithms and it's unpoliced by the labels. Don't tell them it exists, please. But Andrew says he's enjoying this and he, he, he enjoyed when I rapped with Ed keenan on let your backbone slide so uh shout out to andrew ward and 1236 and hey ref and ian service and jay ho and everybody who's

checking us out on a thursday morning okay a little more about you before i get to the uh next uh jam once in a while you you're really big on something and then it's like, I'm going to wait this one out. And then it sort of seems to disappear. So, you know, it's impossible to predict the future. You're in a tough spot. You're trying to tell us what's the next big thing. And sometimes you nail it and sometimes it's a big thing and then it's not as big a thing. What is the current status of Clubhouse? I know you were very big on Clubhouse and I sort of felt like waiting it out because I didn't personally feel like I enticed to check out Clubhouse. And know you were very big on Clubhouse and I sort of felt like waiting it out because I didn't personally feel like I enticed to check out Clubhouse. And now I never hear about Clubhouse.

What happened with Clubhouse? Clubhouse introduced what social audio is going to become, but didn't have the balls, let's say, to be able to do it on their own. They became a company that was inundated with a large amount of money to be steered in multiple different directions. And as soon as the big players like Apple and Spotify, et cetera, started to indicate that they had other plans for social audio, it sort of fell on its face. It couldn't become what it wanted to become. Also a product of the moment, I think we all can identify apps that we were into for three to five years from Angry Birds right down to various ways we message online, right? So Clubhouse,

and the reason I went in on it was it opened more of the idea of what you can do with audio. I was getting a little tired of the fact that you could never even search for a podcast. Okay. So again, I kind of waited out the whole clubhouse thing until i do that sometimes i kind of did it with um what are they called the uh nfts okay well that was smart okay so things like this even crypto and i know crypto still exists and everything but you get a million people telling you you got to get in on this crypto you got to you know nfts are the next big thing but you don't i don't this is me speaking for myself right now i don't really fully understand it uh i i decide it's not for me and i sort of ignore it for a bit and then if i

wait long enough it'll just disappear and it seems to happen more often than not but clubhouse to me seemed a little bit like listening in on a twitter thing like it's like i don't want to hear twitter like it's sort of like i go on twitter and i. It's like, I don't want to hear Twitter. It's sort of like, I go on Twitter and I still go on the app formerly known as Twitter even though it's a shadow of its former self and I can get something out of it. But Clubhouse, I have to go in and talk to people or I have to listen to people talk.

I don't know. I guess it was some people did enjoy it very much, like my friend Chef Jordan Wagman, who met a lot of good friends on Clubhouse. It was of a moment. It was of a moment, but again, it inspires what can be done with audio. It'll depend on how many people really want the product in the future.

I want to give you something for the now. I want to give you, Mohit, a wireless speaker. It's a high-quality Bluetooth speaker. Oh, I'm going to smash my board with it. Oh my goodness, now I need a new board. Way to go, Mike.

Forget Spotify, de-platform me. I'm going to de-platform myself here. Okay, this is courtesy of Moneris. What? The very good people at Moneris want you to have that speaker because you're going to listen to not just Public Enemy and Maestro Fresh West,

but you're going to listen to season five of Yes, We Are Open, which is an inspiring podcast from Maneris FOTML Grego, who happens to be visiting tomorrow to talk about Letter Kenny and Shorzy and all this kind of stuff. He hosts this show. He's won awards for

hosting this show. I should take a note that before I finish kicking out the jams, I want to talk to you about awards, okay? Take a note, okay? You're taking a note. Let me watch you. Okay. But you're going to listen to season five. He went out East. He went to Newfoundland.

He collected inspiring stories from small business owners and he shares them on this podcast called yes, we are open. So thank you. Mineris for sending that over. Raymond James sent you over nothing Mohit, but they do want you to leverage the wonderful Mineris speaker and listen to the Advantage Investor Podcast. Whether you already work with a trusted financial advisor

or currently manage your own investment plans, the Advantage Investor Podcast provides the engaging wealth management information you value as you pursue your most important goals. And big shout out to EPRA because they're the good people behind recyclemyelectronics.ca. And if anyone has some old tech they need to get rid of old electronics, I'm sure, Mohit,

you've got a garage full of old cables or something. You know what I have? I have a big box of cables and some of these cables I've literally not used in 16, 17, 18 years. And I don't know why I'm holding on to these old cables. Because as soon as you throw it out, you're going to

need it. Some of this tech is literally obsolete at this point. But then you'll remember there's a picture on the one thing that you're like, well, maybe my picture with Don Henley is on. Right. And then I'm like, where's that cable? Why did I recycle it? Well, when

I do finally get around to recycling these old cables and these old devices and stuff, I'm going where's that cable why did I recycle it well when I do finally get around to recycling these old cables and these these old devices and stuff I'm going to recycle my electronics.ca to find a place near me where I could drop it all off so those chemicals are properly recycled and they don't end up in our landfill you got it mohit I'm ready you understand okay we talked about your cycling goals no we talked about your but your do you have goals like when you run you mentioned your you know you run when you feel like running that's a great way to go by the way like if i want to go for 7k now oh i'm feeling like a longer i'm gonna go for 15k whatever i've seen you when my schedule you know what happened is when i was biking the kids to

school i would often like on my way back i would do extra loops of our hood here and then i would see then then our our schedules would sync up I think I'm ahead of you right now. So I think I'm like already home because we do the YMCA before school care. So I drop them off very early and then I get home to have my coffee and I miss you out there on the streets doing your runs.

So do you have goals? Like, do you even track it? Like, do you have an app where you track your runs? I've tried everything as a result of what I do for a living Do you have goals? Like, do you even track it? Like, do you have an app where you track your runs? I've tried everything as a result of what I do for a living. And I've not kept any of them, including the watch in that. I don't, I find it counterintuitive.

I, like you, find it meditative, right? Right. And so to, you know, I am inspired when you'll, you, for example, post a picture about where you are, because that's really your goal is to find a cool place that you can sort of land with this idea that you're documenting. I love that, you know, and I, I, I hope that I have the health to be able to continue like this more often. I will, uh, by the way, J-Ho, let me know if you have another handle I would know. I'm trying to think of who J-Ho is.

It just says, loving this Mike and, uh, Mohit. So, uh, shout out to J-Ho and let us know if I know you by another handle. Cause I like to know these live stream, uh,

contributors. So Mohit, I record every ride I've done since 2012. So that's like, what is that now? It's almost 12 years. Okay. So every ride I've ever done since then,

I record it on my phone. I use, uh, map my ride. I, this is where I'm at now 12 years okay so every ride i've ever done since then i record it on my phone i use uh map my ride i this is where i'm at now i do map my ride and then i literally take the file that it uh create export the file and upload it to my strava because everybody's on strava but i've been using map my ride so long i just keep everything there okay so i record i'm at my ride and then i usually upload in 2023 anyways Anyways, I upload the file to Strava and this is like part of the process. And for 2023, I had the same target I've had for 2022, 2021, 2020, which is I try to bike 10,000 kilometers in the calendar year. So this is my target, a nice round number, 10,000. And on nice, nice months, I'll hit a thousand and crappy months like January, February,

sometimes December, but not this one. I'll be, I'll just try,000. And crappy months like January, February, sometimes December, but not this one, I'll just try to hit 500 and then it all sorts out to 10,000. Well, Mohit, this story before we get to your next jam. I did a little math and I saw in early December, I saw, oh, I might hit 12,000 kilometers for the calendar year of 2023. That would be an average of 1,000 kilometers a month. I think I can do it. And I start realizing I can do this.

Then I got sick and I didn't bike for six days. And then I gave up on the dream. It's like, I'll just end up at like whatever, 11, 700, whatever. But then I got back on the bike after I recovered from my flu or whatever. And I started doing some 35K rides every day and then i did the math again and i realized oh if i average 35k every day for the rest of 2023 i will actually hit 12 000

kilometers for 2023 so the last two days are days i think i just would have maybe skipped because it was pouring rain but i got my ass out there in the pouring rain and And I did, I went to sugar beach two days in a row. I actually snapped photos there. Like you talk about it, the bike to your hashtag. Anyway, I have four days left of riding, including today.

And if I average 32 or 33 kilometers a ride, I will hit 12,000 kilometers for 2023. And this to me is a huge thing for me. It should be. And then I feel like I might in 2024, I want to do what you do, which is I bike when I feel like it, the distance I feel like,

and I don't have to hit any silly targets that I self-impose. So now I'm obsessed with this 12,000, but I feel like once I hit it, because I think I'm going to hit it if I can stay healthy in these last four days, I would like to do what you do. I think you're the guy who's got to figure it out.

You run when you want to run. And if you don't want to run, you don't run. Where I'm like every day at noon or whatever, I go for a ride whether I want to or not. It's like I think you've got it right. You've got it, Mohit. I appreciate that, but I think that it's quite envious what you're able to do right now. I look forward. You're going to end off this year with over 1,400 episodes and that accomplishment.

I'm going to ask Ivan, what percentage of people on the planet Earth will be able to claim that they have 1,400 episodes of their podcast and averaged 1,000 kilometers of cycling? And by the way, none of these on a trainer or stationary bike.

All these kilometers on actually two cities, actually. Maybe I leaked into Brampton once or twice. I don't know. But all my rides are on Toronto or Mississauga streets. Ivan, what percentage of people can make both claims? That's what I want to know. Okay, Moe, let's get back to the music. We just kicked out two FOTMs.

That streak's over. But I fucking love this song. Let's do it! I think I can, you know, this is three songs in a row. I think I know all the words to. So you and I are similar tastes. Here we go, yo. Here we go, yo.

So what, so what, so what's the scenario? Here we go, yo. Here we go, yo. So what, so what's the what's the what's the scenario here we go yo here we go yo so what's the what's the what's the scenario hey yo bo knows this and bo knows that a boat no jack can't rap you know that parts of this were the video were shot at the concert hall no yeah that's what you're here for drop those fun fun facts liberally. Shout out to Black Guys who outfitted some of the people in the video as well. You'll see some two Black Guys outfits. Those are Toronto. Any cameos from DJ Rod Nelson in that video? No.

I think it just happened to be that both groups were performing one evening in Toronto. And it happened to be on stage and it's B-roll on there. I always like that line, run to the border, go get a taco. Okay. I feel like everyone listening knows Scenario. Yes, yes, y'all. Who's got the vibe?

It's the tribe, y'all. Charlie Brown. Inside, outside, come around. Who's that? Brown. Yeah. Call me Charlie. Leaders of the new school. Wow i mean what i gotta tell you something very tell me anything so one of the secret lives i've had in my yeah i

do have you have my attention one of the secret lives i've had over the past 20 lives i've had over the past 20 some odd years is I've secretly found ways to meet most of my hip hop heroes. How do you do this? I started as a school reporter at McMaster University and I covered beats that nobody like beats in terms not like music beats but like things that people didn't want to cover. Yeah like things that people didn't want to cover yeah like you know people didn't want to cover hip-hop people didn't want to cover different things and i thought maybe interesting mike i've been so like i have over i'd say 50 interviews of just hip-hop artists that i've done in my career that have all been for selfish reasons they have not been because you know i have this i in some cases I didn't even get paid for them.

I just did them because I wanted to talk to these people. And that's like why I started this podcast, I think. Because maybe one day if I keep at this podcast for years and years and years, I'll get Chuck D to talk to me for 20 minutes. There you go. And not on Zoom either, you know. This is another thing.

Pre-pandemic all guests had to be in person like this is literally was like a rule uh and then pandemic forced me to do some remotes so i i still do a few remotes like i did jason priestly remotely i did randy backman i just did rick emmett remotely but you'd be shocked at the people who i simply will like politely say no to because i will wait to get them in person because it's a hundred times better for me personally. I don't know. The listeners might not notice the difference.

For me and my personal enjoyment of doing this program in person. Boom goes the cannons. No bragging. Wow. Hold on. This verse kills it, man. Hold on. Vocab, you live necessary. Wouldn't dig it into my library. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. This verse kills it, man.

Let's come back. Wow. Can I tell you, Mike? Yeah, yeah. Basically, in a nutshell, is Mohit, you can't Zoom with me, brother. You got to get over here. Okay, go on. In 1998, I got Busta Rhymes

to do my answering machine message. You win. Okay, I can't compete with that. That's amazing. His verse, I love Scenario. Love it. Love this album, Tribe Called Quest. What an album.

What a hip-hop album. J-Ho, by the way, is Jeremy Hopkins. So for now, I hop album. J-Ho, by the way, is Jeremy Hopkins. So for now, I will remember that J-Ho because I met Jeremy at TMLX 14. Mohit, why weren't you at TMLX 14 at Palmer's Kitchen? I always actually look at it and have FOMO. But you never go. You never go.

I have FOMO. You know you're invited to these things. I do. I get the direct invite in my mail. And why don't you come? I'm afraid. Okay, here. So this is important. None of this has mattered until now.

I haven't even recorded this conversation. Listen, this is important. TMLX 15 is 99.9%. I will be confirming this shortly. It's going to be June 27, which is a Thursday from 6 to 9 p.m. at Great Lakes Brewery, which you could literally run to.

This is like less than five kilometers from where we're talking right now. Great Lakes Brewery, TMLX 15, June 27. Mohit, I don't even want to have this event if you're not going to be there. Like put it in your, you've got a device, you can stick it in the calendar. Bring your wife. I don't care if you bring your kids. I'm going to have Palma Pasta. Palma Pasta is going to cater this event.

Everyone's going to be full on delicious Italian food, and it's going to cost you nothing. It's going to cost you. Your whole family can get full. Does your family like Italian food? We really like Palma Pasta. Okay, so two things. One is, on June 27, you all get fed a TMLX 15.

But this is also very exciting, Mohit. You're not leaving here today without a large lasagna that is sitting in my freezer right now and will fill up this box here from Palma Pasta. They're sending you home with a lasagna. It is amazing. I had it last time time to be honest with you and my kids wanted me to come back just to get one well that's why you're here you're here

for the lasagna so did i mention this event is at great lakes brewery on june 27th right great lakes will buy everyone who comes to tmlx 15 they'll buy you your first beer so you'll get your first fresh cold craft beer on the house just because you came out to TMLX 15 to hang with me. It's an important day for me personally, but that's not what I'm going to promote this on. Come to TMLX 15.

You get your Great Lakes. Do you drink beer? I don't, no. Does the wife drink beer? She does, yes. You're bringing some fresh cans home for your wife today. My kids? No. I know they're not old enough to drink beer.

I won't even play that game. It's funny because I did tell my nine-year-old, I told him at some point, I told him that when I was his age, like my uncle would give me a sip of his Labatt's or something, right? Like a sip. And I hated how it tasted. But I remember it was a big,

oh my God, I had a sip of beer. And now every time, he always wants some beer now. Like he thinks I had beer and I was his age. He can have beer too. And I'm like, well, it won't be long before you can have a nice legal pint with me

on the patio of Great Lakes Beer. But they've been wonderful sponsors. They're back on board. So you've got TMLX 15 in the calendar. You're bringing home some beer for your lovely wife. I say lovely wife like I've met her. I have no idea if she's lovely. Is she lovely?

Be honest. Be honest with me. She's extremely lovely. Do you have to say that because she might hear this? Is she going to hear this? That's a great question. I always think if I were on a podcast to kick out the jams, I would actually want my loved ones to hear it.

Will you share this link with your loved ones? Before it gets deplatformed, I will make sure. Are they Spotify users? We are. We are a family of Spotify users. Okay, that is trouble for me. I will tell you this episode that Spotify yanked right away for violating its terms of service. No one else

yanked it. You can listen to it on Apple right now. You can listen to it on many podcast platforms., you can listen to it on Apple right now. You can listen to it on many podcast platforms. You just can't hear it on Spotify. But you know what I would say if you have a lovely wife? You know what I would say to you, Mohit? You're a lucky man. Thank you. Maybe we should talk up the opening and hit the post. Or maybe that's too much work.

Maybe we should talk up the opening and hit the post. Or maybe that's too much work. Yeah, it's... Richard Oshkroft. So you didn't want to talk till Richard started singing and then you wanted to talk. Okay, that's why you're not a radio... Did you ever work in radio? Not in your position.

No, not as a host. Not in my position as a radio host. Okay. I always get mad when people tell me the verve. They'll say, oh, one hit wonder, bittersweet symphony. I'm like, no, go screw yourself. Lucky Man was a massive song and we loved it on the radio. We loved it on the album and we loved it on much music.

Lucky Man was a big jam. And it's a great song yeah you know what I even followed Richard Ashcroft into his solo career he was the lyricist for me that continues to sort of like hit the right notes but this is a time period

in my life I had you know a signed verb poster in my room just to show how loyal I could be to different types of music and honestly it was so far away from the other loyal I could be to different types of music. And honestly, it was so far away from the other music I was listening to at that time that it was a great break from it. It's a good song, bud. Good song.

And skinny guy, Richard Ashcroft, right? I always think he's Cam Gordon-esque in his figure. Yeah, I guess. Although you're a skinny guy. Yeah, I know, but I think if Cam put on the disguise and had the British accent, I could probably. Yeah, I always think of those guys like Jarvis Cocker, right? These are tall, skinny guys.

He's a Brit. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe it's a look. Maybe it. Do you remember when Jarvis Cocker at the Brit Awards stormed the stage when Michael Jackson was performing? Because he said he was Christ-like. Oh, my gosh.

Remember this? I remember that. Like. I almost remember it from a weird VHS standpoint. I don't think I remember the actual... I remember it very well. This was a big deal for us. I don't know. Richard Ashcroft taking a stand against this Jesus

Christ pose that Michael Jackson... Not Richard Ashcroft. No, you're right. Jarvis Cocker. Sorry. Confusing my Brit poppers, Brit rockers here. Jarvis Cocker, who was one of the reasons

I liked the name Jarvis was because of Jarvis Cocker and my third born is named Jarvis. So there you go. You know, another band in Sampling Hell,

right? You know, they got, because of the Rolling Stone sample and all of that, they sort of were buried from go. I guess for a long time, Mick and Keith got all the money from Bittersweet Symphony, right? Yeah, that's what the word was.

And I think in North America, that's how the story ended, right? Also, kind of what makes that story interesting to me is that it was a an instrumental album instrumental versions of rolling stone songs that they sampled like they didn't sample the rolling stones version it was like a an instrumental version of one of the big rolling stone songs right i don't i didn't know that actually um i'm here to educate you mohit i come to the right but you should come by more come by more often how long was this walk for you? 5 minutes or less? I took the long way and then I took an Uber from the long way

alright I'll cover that receipt for you that Uber there okay do you think you're a lucky man Mohit? I do I do not in the same way of the song I don't think tell've never really well you tell me i actually never dissected these lyrics i just assumed he was uh recounting his life and deeming himself a lucky man but maybe it's like uh the nirvana song rape me maybe it's an ironic spin

on that term maybe he's an unlucky man i don't know you're the ashcroft fan yeah i think he's an unlucky man. I don't know. You're the Ashcroft fan. Yeah, I think he's trying to find some light in the love. Okay. Beautiful. And what about you? So, so you,

you're, you're, you found the light in the love. You're, you're in a good place. I am. Yeah. Okay. And I know you're a wealthy man because you can afford to live in New Toronto.

That is the home of a multimillionaire. Multi. Multi. Quadruply. You're doing all right yeah i i'm doing like um just what a friend of mine said the other day he said uh i googled my no my kids googled me and i'm a 12 millionaire did you know that and i turned him and i go oh my gosh i'm a 12 millionaire too where did they get all these five you and i should 12 millionaire ourselves. Where did they get all these five? You and I should 12 millionaire ourselves together

and we should cohabit. Like there's this, listen, I think you and I remember a time period. Yeah, exactly. We remember a time period where this was an area where you could afford.

Well, that's, that's why I'm here. Yeah. Like that's literally why I'm here is I got married a second time and we needed a home and all the, all the neighborhoods I liked were way out of my price range. That's literally why I'm here. I got married a second time and we needed a home.

And all the neighborhoods I liked were way out of my price range. I didn't have a million dollars for a home. But there was this pocket in South Etobicoke where they were giving away houses. And we said, oh. And then I found out it was right on the waterfront trail. And the rest is history. Truly blessed, especially during the pandemic to have this area.

Oh, don't tell everyone. They'll come. It's our secret. We are north of Highway 7. Limited supply, though. We are north of Highway 7. You know what? And the one thing about living down here

is I don't know if you felt this too, but Bloor Street seems very north. Like, I got to go to Bloor Street. I got to go all the way up north to Bluer Street? It's like your concept of geography in the city, to me, it's been completely altered. What I think of is north now. Because it used to be like I would think,

oh, Highway 7 is north, but now Bluer Street seems kind of north. Yeah, I don't... Maybe that's a Mike thing. I grew up in Mississauga around the square one area, and so this was never visited for us. The first sign of Etobicoke for us south was the motels.

Right? Right. I never knew about this place. I'll shout out my high school buddy. He didn't go to my high school. He went to Humberside Collegiate where all the cool kids went. Ed always liked to buy surplus stuff, like from old army shops.

And I remember we did a bike trip to TNT because he wanted to check out this place called TNT. And literally that's my only memory of this hood before I moved to it was this bike ride I took with Ed to TNT, which is still there. Do you ever go into TNT? I haven't gotten in it. I've seen it being used for filming.

My first was Kiling in lakeshore the club that was there there was a club there what was it called uh not changes what was the club it let us use my brother's library card to get in wait a minute where am i going with this um what was the name of the club there There's a statute of limitations on that stuff. The Fashion Building is there now. They played awesome hip hop and reggae. It was Thursday nights. It was draft beer.

It was the furthest that I had ever gone from Mississauga to go to a bar at that club at that time. Oh my gosh. I'll ask the live streamers here. If anybody on the live stream can identify this club at Kipling and Lakeshore that Moh at that time. Oh my gosh. I'll ask the live streamers here. If anybody on the live stream can identify this club at Kipling and Lakeshore that Mohit is remembering. I don't, I didn't go to this club.

I will quickly aside just say, Rick Emmett tells a story about being chosen by Mike Levine, but basically being chosen by the founding members of Triumph to be their third member. And it was at Hollywood Tavern. And as a member of South Etobicoke,

you'll appreciate this mohit that Hollywood Tavern is the building that the House of Lancaster on the Queensway would assume. And now, of course, it's gone. Our House of Lancaster is gone. I remember this area was like,

had a lot of strip clubs, I feel like. And now there's like no, well, there's actually, there's still one on Lakeshore and Fifth or something, whatever that is. But there's still one, Club Cave,

I think it's called. I've never been inside. And I'm not even sure it's a strip club for people who like to look at naked ladies, or if it's a strip club for people who like to look at naked men. I'm not actually sure. I've never been inside. But Club Cave, if you're looking for a gig, that's still in the

hood here. But anyway, Hollywood Tavern became the house of Lancaster and then it got demolished for condos. There's some South Etobicoke history for you. So put that in your pipe and smoke it. Alright. I want to get to another jam and then I'm going to ask you about awards and I'm going

to ask you at some point before we end this I want to find out what are the big tech trends for 2024 in addition to AI, which seems to be a big deal. Let's kick out something a little more recent. Why, you ask? Well, I said recent, but I actually don't know what era of Beyonce this is from. Like, is this recent? No.

I'd say at least a decade. Okay, see, it's all a blur to me. Hey, can I guess? Can I guess that this is your wedding song? No. I'll tell you why I love this song. There's three reasons why I love this song. One, I love how it showcases her range. It starts in a very

very simple place and by the time she ends it, she's just knocking it out of the park. The second reason is because it is one of her songs that's considered timeless like you referred to the fact that you don't know what era of Beyonce this is so when I played it for my kids and my daughter growing up it didn't sound like a new or old old song and then the third thing is in the video she really does pay homage to a lot of R&B artist videos from back in the day so new edition and

all of those people that i grew up watching and i love that detail because it really does acknowledge that she is sort of the one person show that all of those groups used to be so those that's the reason why i really wanted to put the song in well you love this song man these are your jams i do love the song i can listen to it anytime And I can play it in my house anytime and our family will love it. It's infectious. In 2023, which we're still in for a few more days here, you were nominated for the Smart Speakers Best of the Stage Award. Yeah, I was very lucky. 2023 was the first year that a lot of these conferences were being rebuilt.

And so there wasn't a lot of competition when it came down to people who were getting invited to do keynote speaking. And I happened to be talking about topics that people were interested in. Mike, I'll be honest with you. I never thought that I would start to plot my way through the speaker circuit. And I've been very, very grateful and thankful about it. I didn't win, I don't think, but it was an honor to be here. You're not sure?

I'm not sure. They might have sent you an email if you won. I'm definitely not qualified to win compared to the people that have been doing it for years and years. So I'm very grateful for it, and I look forward to continuing it. I am nominated for two Canadian Podcast Awards. I don't know if that's my... Well, that's the thing. Before you clap, I got no idea if this means anything.

I've been wrestling with this. I tried to get the guy behind these awards. I tried to get him on Toronto Mic'd. I sent him a personal message on Discord, and I'm like, hey, what if we did a Zoom to talk about what are these? How do you determine the nominees? How do you determine the winners?

I would like to know these things I'm nominated for. I just want to know if like I know Al Grego who we've talked about a few times he literally prints it on his posters like he's got the logo on his posters and he's like we want a Canadian podcast award and I could see why he does that but I would like to

know personally like what these mean like is it just some guy in his basement make not that there's anything wrong with a guy in his basement I'm a guy in his basement but like I would like to know more about them before I like brag about them

but then I was thinking okay so I'm nominated for two they're gonna tell us the winner is on Friday night if I don't win these awards these awards mean nothing okay Mohit

like oh whatever no one it's not about winning awards it's about engaging with your audience and growing your audience and resonating with people or whatever but if i win these awards like will i even be able to shut up about it like will every episode start off with um canadian podcast

award winner toronto miked in the canadian podcast award winning podcast toronto miked like that's where i'm at with the canadian Awards. Friday night, I'll know if I won. You know, I think that you're right. You got to be a little bit skeptical, but at the same time... What is this? I know what the Oscars are. All of a sudden, these awards emerge, and

we're supposed to give them some weight, like they matter? But Mike, I think that you can't overthink that in the fact that you talk about building community, or these awards are just trying to do the same thing. They're trying to create a community within it. I still wish the founder would have a little chat. I'm not out to get anybody.

I'm literally just a curious cat. I have some one-on-one questions about the Canadian Podcast Awards. And maybe they are something to be very, very proud of. And I just want to discover that. So Friday night, we'll have the answer as to who... I'm nominated twice, as host, and the show is nominated. Amazing.

And I believe Al Grego is nominated again, as he always is. I believe Larry Fedorek is nominated in one of the same categories as me for his Later That Same Life podcast. So Friday night, we'll find out if I'm a Canadian Podcast Award winner. If you hear nothing more about this subject, it means I didn't win and I decided it doesn't matter. But I'm nominated.

They can't take that away from me. All right. And congratulations to you on your nomination for the prestigious Smart Speakers Best of the Stage Award. And I'm sure they're just as important and prestigious as the Canadian Podcast Awards. And you had a number one Amazon book, Rethinking Your Content. That's amazing. Yeah, it was nice. It was a wonderful little time period. It was obviously needed when people were starting the pandemic and they wanted

to figure out what else to do. Now I'm on to book number five and it's fascinating. Where do you find the time to write these books? Between your hits on CBC or CP24, you just find time to hack away at the keyboard? I think it's distilling a lot of information that already exists. So not much of it is me saying, a lot of information that already exists. So not much of it is me saying, oh, I need to make up what the potential is to use this.

There's thousands of people that are prophesying about this stuff. I'm trying to bridge one generation to the next with it. How have they not performed this together? This is not how the keys come in. I know you're not mad at me, baby It's time to take it right away from me I'm lonely Over my dead I think I killed everybody in the game last year Man, fuck it, I was on though And I thought I found a girl of my dreams at the strip club, mm-mm, fuck it, I was wrong, though

Shout out to all my niggas livin' tax-free, nowadays it's six figures when they tax me Oh, well, guess you lose some and win some, long as the outcome is income You know I want it all, and there's some. Shout out to Asian girls. Let the lights dim some. Shots came. I don't know where they was sent from. Probably some bad hoes about to take the hint from. Yeah. You know me well, nigga. Yeah. I mean, you ain't the only real nigga. They got me

on these white women like sale, nigga. Slave to the pussy, but I'm just playing the field, nigga. Is this a PG show? All these people really discussing my career. Not anymore. Asking if I'll be going platinum in a year again. Don't I got this shit the world wanna hear again? Don't Michael Jordan nigga. Is this a that way from the beginning. I just been playing. I ain't even notice I was winning. And this is the only sound you should fear. Man, these kids wearing crowns over here and everything is all right.

Okay, so obviously we're listening to our second Toronto rapper of the jam kicking. This is Drake. But who's Drake with? Chantel. Okay. Chantel Krivjax. Wow. Speaking of NFTs,

her husband was pumping them out pretty hard. Okay. Shout out to Rain Maida, another Toronto mic, by the way. Did you know Rain was a mic? I did. Okay.

Can't tell Mo hit anything here. Tell me why this song, number nine on your jam kicking today. Well, first of all, I think Drake changed the entire music scene when it comes down to Canada. I believe he's under sort of appreciated when it comes domestically to what his impact has been. Shout out to both Noah and Noel for the production.

Does he live close to our neighborhood? Like maybe Long Branch or something? Cause he's a South Etobicoke guy. I want to say. Uh, Aubrey, Drake? No,

not Drake. 40. Noah. Uh, Noel and Noah are. Yeah. Noel is, uh,

one of Drake's, uh, producers as well. And he's in the area as well. So Noel, okay. I misheard. Okay.

I heard that you said Noah. So Noah Shabib. Yeah. Lives nearby. Yes. Okay. Just heard that. You said Noah. So, Noah Shabib lives nearby. Yes. Okay, just confirming that. His dad just passed away. Yes, rest in peace, Donald.

Donald. Yes. And there was a special chat with Peter Gross in the Toronto Mic feed about, because Peter Gross was in one of his dad's movies called Ripoff. But back to Drake. I'm a big Drake fan. I think Drake, a great musician and he's the most streamed artist

on the planet, right? He is. Unless Taylor's caught him. I don't know what's going on with Taylor Swift. Donald Shabib going back to that with Down the Road

was his very popular. Going down the road, yeah. Going down the road and made one final film before he passed as well. So unfortunately, he passed rather rapidly. So the Shabib family was without

donald this holiday season that's a shame and i do i do remember talking because peter had a phone call with him and then we played the call on toronto mike and i think he lived in etobicoke as well yeah mimiko mimiko yeah and and um yeah i believe the dora awards were either related to the family like the the the creation of the dora awards was either through his sister or maybe even um yeah i'll have to look into that but there is a direct correlation between that family and the dora awards which i find fascinating and going down the road is a wonderful movie that i could watch uh over and over and over again. I love that movie. Yeah, a quintessential classic and a filmmaker that was completely underworked in this country

as well. It's so ironic that his son has done such global things in music when you would have, you know, you had Donald there for so many years just waiting to do the right type of project. So it's been fascinating to watch. Ripoff was not the right kind of project for Donald, but he'd be the first to admit it as he did, as we heard on Toronto Mike. So Donald Shabib, sadly,

we lost him in 2023. Shout out to Ridley Funeral Home. There should be a measuring tape for you. Did I, you got one there. Okay. So that's courtesy of a new Toronto institution. So Mohit, you and I are new Toronto institutions, as is, let's name them all.

Carl Hansky is a new Toronto institution. Michelle Butterly is a new Toronto institution. Mary Berg is a new Toronto institution. And Ridley Funeral Home, new Toronto institution at 14th and Lakeshore. Enjoy that measuring tape responsibly. Thank you. I appreciate that. And you are right about those legends.

Am I missing any other legends in New Toronto? I don't mean Lakeshore Village, because then you've got to bring in Long Branch and Mimico. The guy who invented the lightsaber lives in Mimico. Do you know this? Yeah, Roger Christensen. I know him. No, just Christian, I think.

Oh, yeah, Christian, yeah. Because you're thinking of the guy who played. Hayden Christensen. Right. Right. Who was like a Thorne Lee guy. I went to his wedding. The silence is me processing that.

So how did you end up at Hayden Christensen's wedding? No, I went to his wedding. Oh, Roger Christian. Okay. That makes more sense, actually, because his son is very good friends with the boy across the street From me and I often see him picking him up And dropping him off

Arjun, Arjun's his son's name Right, right So is it just that you're neighborhood friends Because there's a Lakeshore mom Click or something Is that how you got to the wedding You're asking me if I went to the Lakeshore mom click To get invited to

No, because you're married to a Lakeshore Mom, probably. I am too, probably. Okay, I'm not doxing anybody, but I believe there's a- I know his wife. You know his wife. I know Lena since I started in this business. Okay, wow. Was R2-D2 at this wedding?

No, Stormtroopers were, though. I feel like he didn't design them though, did he? Maybe he did. I think a Millennium Falcon should have been like, instead of the limo that, you know, the Millennium Falcon, because I know he helped design that very much. Okay, that's awesome. Fun fact.

I do have a couple of quick questions before the final jam. One is this. This is a very important question, and I ponder it often on these bike rides, and then I come to my own conclusion, but I want to hear what you suggest. Should I be on TikTok? I think you should put clips of your favorite moments on TikTok without worrying about having

to be on TikTok. You don't have to be on a social media platform. You have to use it for what you need it for. So you distribute clips of highlights from Toronto Mike on the platform. No one has TikTok. Yeah. You know why? Because no one else has 1,500, 1,400 episodes to choose from.

Can AI do this for me? I don't have the bandwidth. That's a problem being an independent operator here. There's no one here to help. There are aspects. Yeah, for sure. You know, it's so crazy. I can show you on your phone right now how while you're waiting for something to happen

in this world, clips can be made for you. We're not heading to a world where things are going to be more difficult. It's just about how you want to use your time. TikTok represents another aspect where you're going to find more people in your community and it's going to be people that wouldn't natively go to Spotify

to look for a podcast. Okay, so let me follow this up by saying anecdotally, because I haven't done any major study on this, but I do sense the core of the Toronto Mike listener. This box is empty. Yeah, it's in the freezer. I don't want it to thaw down here. It's in the freezer, but I do have one for you. I want people to know that. It's a palm of pasta box, everyone. If it's empty when you

leave, you can tweet about this bullshit artist, Toronto Mike, who gives you an empty box and tells you Empty beer cans. Empty beer cans you an empty box and tells you... Empty beer cans. Empty beer cans and an empty box. But okay, anecdotally from my events, I have these 14 I've had where we gather in person. There are some baby boomers, there are some millennials, but the core is Generation X, okay?

I think that's because some of the subject matter we refer to resonates with people our age our age range the generation x is generation x on tiktok this is the way i want you to start to ask questions about social media yeah okay i want you to start to ask what people are doing with their thumbs okay so every time you understand that when you see people they're on tiktok right now they, they're not on TikTok because they like music or dancing or one thing or the other. They're on it because it's so easy to just scroll through the stuff that they want and eventually they get served more of what they want. Eventually, there's going to be another version of that that people will scroll through. So your audience is on TikTok only because of its accessibility. Right.

That's it. Well, that's why I'm asking you the big questions. Maybe 2024, I start a TikTok channel where I distribute highlights. Ian Service and I were talking about this the other day, like highlights of episodes. And then if people like what they hear and they

can subscribe and hear the whole thing. Amazing. And you know what? You never know what type of story and anecdote you might consider passive in somebody else. I'll tell you one thing. I had one of my cousins from India send me a clip from an old Omni interview that I never even posted that went viral there and had 2 million views. And she said to me, like she sent it to me, like, is this you?

That's wild. Can you imagine back in the day if omni got anything like that it would mean like their whole listen you think two million is impressive when i post the uh the the audio of uh gino vanelli asking me can we get off black cars already two million that'll be day one okay you watch tiktok i'll be like what's going on here so stay tuned for that in 2024 and we have one more jam to go so i'm going to ask you the the big question which is obviously we talked about ai off the top did you launch mohit ai i do own mohit.ai yes only because uh your official bio says mohit will launch mohit ai in 2023 and we're running out of time if you

haven't done it yet but so so this is still in the works, Mohit AI? Mohit.ai. It's your bio. You wrote this thing. It's my newsletter. Oh, it's your newsletter. Yeah. Okay. Well, some Mohit official bio talks about Mohit AI. Is it? It's Mohit.ai. Okay. Sorry. Well, it's actually, the way it's written is mohit.a.i. But, okay. So mohit.ai will be a resource tool to assist businesses from cultures to corporations in evolving and educating themselves on the latest in artificial intelligence technology.

There you go. That's impressive. You're impressing the heck out of me, Mohit. Other than AI, if we put AI to the side, and I know that's tough. It's the elephant in the room here. What are the trends we should look for in 2024? Are there a couple that are top of mind? Yeah, I think you're going to see a massive move towards people wanting their privacy

back and sort of understanding what settings, et cetera, they're going to need personally to set in order to make sure their data isn't compromised and their privacy is secure. I think the next thing you're going to see is that many people are going to de-platform from certain social media sites because they're going to feel sort of a disconnect to be everywhere. And then you're also going to see a massive amount of user-generated content that is going to be from out of this world changing the way that people use social media because people don't want to see your selfies anymore. What if my selfies have someone else in it?

It's like Mohit. We're going to take one by the tree. I actually have never taken a, I don't think I've, I don't have any memories of taking a selfie where it's literally, I'm the only one in the frame, but I, I took like 2000, I'm not too bad. I took 200 plus selfies in 2023. Cause I take one with every guest

after the show. That's amazing. But that's not a, I know it's a selfie because I'm taking it, but if someone else is in the photo, do we still call that a selfie?

Well, who owns the photo if someone else is in it? That's the other question we got to ask. Okay, well, I have a, you consent to the photo when you come on

Toronto Mic Diet, that's for sure. Now, I do have a fun fact for you before we kick out your final jam and it's from Jeho who who's on the live stream, and he says, Donald Shabib's wife is in the movie A Christmas Story. Teddy Moore is Ralphie's teacher.

She was pregnant with Noah when filming that movie. Wow. Is that a mind blow for you or what? And if you had attended TMLX 14, Mohit, and I was hurt not to see you in the crowd, you would have received, courtesy of Retro Festive, you would have received a moose mug from the National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation movie.

You would have received that. And you would have had an opportunity to see a replica of the gun from A Christmas Story. I'm all choked up thinking you weren't there. Are you ready for your final jam? I am, I am. Alright, let's kick one more for Mohit. One of my favorite albums. One of the last...

Sorry, go ahead. No, no, I'm listening to you. One of the last crossover events I was allowed to attend in the 299 Queen Street building was when Jay-Z brought Kanye and Rihanna to Queen Street for the first time to debut them. And I remember that was right at the height of the divide between Rodgers and Bell, and none of the Rodgers people were allowed to come. And I snagged my way in thanks to Richard Caso as actually thanks to Richard Caso, because it was one of my favorite moments. That's a wild story. And it just reminds me that I am, I'm serious. Like if there's, if there's any meat on these bones, that transition period,

a 299 queen, there's enough for, I can tell you for the Toronto mic listenership to, to if we can flesh that out and get that out there, I think there's something there. That's just for 2024. We should talk more about this. Has Dina been on the show? Dina has not been on Toronto Mike.

And I would love to have Dina. Are you friendly with Dina? Like, will she answer your texts? Text her right now and tell her 2024 Toronto Mike be there. I would love to talk to Dina. Yeah, go ahead. She's a yeah go ahead she's a great person and she's no longer on

breakfast television she was replaced by an FOTM but she what's nice is by all accounts Dina did not get the tap on the shoulder she just had enough she just decided to walk away yeah Dina has been a wonderful friend

and somebody who I produced for a lot when I was at Breakfast Television and is the quintessential person that you want to model your career after if you're looking at doing something in this business. Dina, come on Toronto Mike, let's talk about it. Okay, Watch the Throne. This is the Jay- jay-z kanye west uh collective the

album from the throne their collective here kanye uh has had a rough run lately and i did read on one of the social media apps that uh he formally apologized to all members of the jewish faith for his uh gross anti-Semitic, uh, statements over the years for what it's worth. I always wonder about separating the, uh, art from the artists.

It's a common, uh, topic on this program. I think I'm pretty good at it actually. Uh, but it is, uh, it is,

I think it's triggering and tough for some people to hear Kanye West in 2023, considering some things he's said over the last several years. What say you about separating the art from the artist? I do believe in hip-hop. The one thing that people don't do enough is separate the characters that these people have created and who they are. I don't think Method Man runs around the street being Method Man.

I don't think Maestro runs around. He's in The Wire, the Method Man. Well, look, and Wes Williams is very different than Maestro. Maestro had a persona in himself. We've come full circle with him. He doesn't wear a tuxedo? No. He could.

He could and get away with it. Walking up those steps at the concert hall, he could do that. Right. But at the same time, yeah, I think that that's the biggest... Yeah, I think Jay-Z, right down to Kanye, they're very different as people versus products. I think their music, in some cases,

can be forgivable. But in some cases, when their music, which is representative of their characters, is problematic, they should be held accountable. Because I'm all with you, especially Eminem, for example. I completely understand a persona, maybe a Marshall Mathers versus an Eminem,

and there's a persona, and maybe you shouldn't mess it up. But at the same time, Kanye West on social media sharing anti-Semitic tropes, he's not playing some anti-Semitic character. This is Kanye West representing Kanye West. So to me, that's a little different than separating Marshall Mathers from Eminem. But I do think that Kanye West

is and was extremely talented and leaves a catalog of wonderful music. I just wish he wasn't so anti-Semitic. That's all I'll say about Kanye West. Yeah, he should shut the F up. That's

no good. But this was very good, Mohit, and it won't be the last time you stroll over for your Palma Pasta lasagna, but I enjoyed kicking out the jams with you today. Mike, $1,400. Congratulations once again. Well, congratulations to you on being the guest for 1,400.

You can get a tattoo to commemorate the event. Maybe the number 1,400 somewhere to remember the milestone episode you were a part of. And remember what Ivan said. Less than 0.01% of podcasters hit 1,400.

I can only think of a couple, but I haven't done a lot of research. But WTF made, they're at like close to 1,500 now. I got to catch Mark Maron there. And I'm pretty sure Rogan's hit 1,400. But, you know, maybe This American Life. I don't know. No one in this country.

Maybe Humble and Fred, actually. I've never done the math, but they've been at it as long as I have. No one on this street. You got to go all the way to Queensway to find someone else who's done it north of Bloor well south of Bloor Queensway is as north as I'll go everybody but thank you

Mohit for kicking out the jams with me where can people I don't know follow your many media appearances like is there a good social media account for that yeah you can follow me at Mohit Rajans on Instagram, M-O-H-I-T-R-A-J-H-A-N-S. And at thinkstart.ca is where you can read my blogs and my media appearances.

And there are many. You're the Eric Alper of the intersection. I'm the Eric Alper of Eric Alpers. When a tech guru dies, do they call you up? Like if Elon Musk dies tomorrow, will you be making the rounds? Like, oh, Mohit, we got to book Mohit. You're on all the shows talking about Elon Musk. You know, I don't take for granted what people want me to talk about, but I try to be well-versed enough to be able to do it. I know it's not, you know, it's thankless in some cases, but I really do enjoy doing it. Do people ever ask you to talk about hip hop?

No, I can't wait. You could do that though. Okay. You can follow me on Twitter and blue sky and who knows in 2024, maybe you could follow me on a tick tock. We'll see. But I am at Toronto, Mike, much love to all who made this possible. That's great lakes brewery.

That's Palm of pasta. Don't leave without your lasagna mo hit. That's Raymond James, Canada. That's Great Lakes Brewery. That's Palma Pasta. Don't leave without your lasagna, Mohit. That's Raymond James Canada. That's Moneris. That's Recycle My Electronics. And Ridley Funeral Home. See you all tomorrow when the gang

from the produce stand drops by. I think they're taking home at least three lasagnas. I'm going to need a delivery. See you all then. Cause I know that's true, yes I do I know it's true, yeah I know it's true How about you? All that picking up trash and then putting down rules