Latest / The Bootleg Kev Podcast / #234 - Civic Cipher
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Blueleg Kap Podcast Special guests in here, my guy Q,
- 0:02Speaker 1: my guy ramses a civic cipher up. For people who
- 0:06Speaker 1: don't know what civic cipher is, ramsis, I'll let you
- 0:10Speaker 1: educate the people civic cipher is. You should put the
- 0:13Speaker 1: mic in front of you too, ra. It is a
- 0:15Speaker 1: radio show that exists to give the hip hop community
- 0:23Speaker 1: a little bit more insight into the goings on politically
- 0:27Speaker 1: in this country and to give a voice to the
- 0:29Speaker 1: activist element that moves to create a better day to
- 0:36Speaker 1: day life for black and brown, marginalized, impoverish communities, et cetera.
- 0:41Speaker 1: What was the inspiration for starting the show? Really, it
- 0:46Speaker 1: was twenty twenty, you know, folks getting out on the
- 0:48Speaker 1: street and protesting. You know, let us know that there
- 0:52Speaker 1: was a gap in there was a gaping hole in
- 0:55Speaker 1: the media space. Yes, I remember that. Anyway, tell me
- 1:02Speaker 1: more about the gaping hole. No, no, I'm not going
- 1:04Speaker 1: to tell you about that. You should talk about that anyway.
- 1:08Speaker 1: There was a gaping hole in the media space. Sure, sure,
- 1:10Speaker 1: and in the media space. You know, uh, we are
- 1:16Speaker 1: both DJs and broadcasters. I'm talking to you like you
- 1:19Speaker 1: don't notice. You got to tell everybody else for people
- 1:21Speaker 1: who don't know Rams is like my best friend in
- 1:23Speaker 1: the entire world, best man on my wedding. Yes, you
- 1:25Speaker 1: know I've known Kevin since he was three years old. Yes,
- 1:29Speaker 1: so the reason bootleg keV is all into hip hop,
- 1:31Speaker 1: this is true. It's all him. It's all his fault.
- 1:33Speaker 1: It's literally his fault, his fault. We used to play
- 1:36Speaker 1: guys when we were little, you know, little toys, not
- 1:39Speaker 1: play with guys. That was what you called it. You
- 1:42Speaker 1: called it guys guys like action figures, action figures. Yes,
- 1:46Speaker 1: so lifelong friend, that's friend. But but yeah, that in
- 1:51Speaker 1: the media space, there wasn't anyone talking about what was
- 1:54Speaker 1: going on in the streets, no one giving a voice
- 1:55Speaker 1: to the movement, no one talking about, you know what
- 1:58Speaker 1: explaining the concepts defund police. How do we you know,
- 2:01Speaker 1: create programs to kind of mitigate you know, economic you know,
- 2:05Speaker 1: instability and and and you know, bring just an activist
- 2:09Speaker 1: element to the to the airwaves. We was just if
- 2:12Speaker 1: you would have turned on the radio at the time,
- 2:13Speaker 1: it was just rapping and dancing and singing and fashion
- 2:16Speaker 1: and there. It was just very like, uh, you know,
- 2:19Speaker 1: obviously in radio there's not a lot of uh, time
- 2:22Speaker 1: or space to really dive into those conversations right and
- 2:26Speaker 1: outside of service level things, right. And so that's exactly
- 2:29Speaker 1: what we pushed back against because you know, it's it's
- 2:33Speaker 1: one thing. Q Q says it a lot better, but
- 2:36Speaker 1: I'll try to get you started. It's one thing to
- 2:39Speaker 1: you know, profit from black culture because you know, a
- 2:41Speaker 1: lot of folks at the top, they didn't really look
- 2:43Speaker 1: like the community that who's culture. Mostly nobody at the
- 2:46Speaker 1: top there you go, mostly mostly exactly, So a lot
- 2:49Speaker 1: of them people were benefiting from it, but they didn't
- 2:52Speaker 1: really have a vested interest in whatever outcomes took place
- 2:55Speaker 1: on the street. And we fought against that, uh, that balance,
- 3:01Speaker 1: and so you know, yes, we take a moment, we
- 3:03Speaker 1: turn the songs off, we turn the music off, we
- 3:05Speaker 1: have conversations. We educate not just black and brown people,
- 3:08Speaker 1: but everybody who communities right, anybody listens to hip hop.
- 3:11Speaker 1: We figured they can be an ally to black and
- 3:13Speaker 1: brown communities. They need to understand the conversations and struggles,
- 3:16Speaker 1: the challenges. And then by having those conversations long form
- 3:20Speaker 1: in spaces where people are because it's hard for folks
- 3:22Speaker 1: to seek out programs like ours if you're we don't
- 3:25Speaker 1: seek out you know, Vietnamese program and no disrespect, but
- 3:29Speaker 1: I don't feel like it's creative for me. So I
- 3:31Speaker 1: don't expect you know, non black people to seek out
- 3:34Speaker 1: what would be considered black programming. They don't feel like
- 3:37Speaker 1: it's for them. So by putting it in the media
- 3:39Speaker 1: space where hip hop music can consume, black culture is consumed,
- 3:43Speaker 1: it feels, in our opinion, feels a little bit more
- 3:45Speaker 1: accessible for our listeners. And so this is how we've
- 3:48Speaker 1: been able to connect with you know, radio stations around
- 3:51Speaker 1: the country, listeners around the country. It's also available in
- 3:53Speaker 1: podcasts form, sure, absolutely absolutely, So you know we've been
- 3:58Speaker 1: doing that. We've been doing in since then. Of course,
- 4:01Speaker 1: the Black Information Network, which is a subsidiary if I
- 4:04Speaker 1: Heeart Media, has reached out and they've kind of tapped
- 4:07Speaker 1: on us to kind of expand the show, and then
- 4:10Speaker 1: I do a podcast for them as well. So it's
- 4:12Speaker 1: been it's been a wild ride, but you know, making
- 4:15Speaker 1: some proper How do you feel like it's like in
- 4:18Speaker 1: terms of just like filling in the space that is
- 4:20Speaker 1: missing that there were there wasn't anything sort of care
- 4:24Speaker 1: to the issues or you know, I think your guys's
- 4:28Speaker 1: mission before and I don't know why. You know, obviously
- 4:31Speaker 1: there's I'm sure in certain markets there's like one off
- 4:34Speaker 1: some people who do like shows like this but aren't
- 4:36Speaker 1: necessarily trying to take the national approach to it. So
- 4:39Speaker 1: the interesting thing, keV, is that our initial push wasn't
- 4:43Speaker 1: for us to do a show. So it's hard to
- 4:45Speaker 1: tell the story and leave that part out. We didn't.
- 4:48Speaker 1: We weren't trying to jump, you know, in front of
- 4:50Speaker 1: the mic or in front of the camera. Just make
- 4:52Speaker 1: sure your mike's turned down a little to tell the story.
- 4:56Speaker 1: And yeah, we just thought somebody should, right. So when
- 4:59Speaker 1: we first at that first meeting with the PD, it
- 5:01Speaker 1: was like, hey, you know, we got some unrated space
- 5:05Speaker 1: overnight that's running. Are you talking about that at the
- 5:07Speaker 1: Beat Arizona, Yes, sir, that's now the Bounce. That's now
- 5:13Speaker 1: the Bounce. That's weird. The reason they changed their name
- 5:15Speaker 1: because well they were also owns the Beat trademark, so
- 5:21Speaker 1: there's that what Yeah, Rams just owns the Beat, so
- 5:26Speaker 1: they had to change the whole situation. But and we
- 5:28Speaker 1: can talk about that too, But we were in the streets, Kevin,
- 5:32Speaker 1: you noticed more than more than a lot of people
- 5:34Speaker 1: when everything was happening in twenty twenty, a lot of
- 5:36Speaker 1: people were outside with their skids, with their families, like, listen,
- 5:40Speaker 1: there's some things that are going on that have been
- 5:42Speaker 1: going on for so long and we just kind of
- 5:45Speaker 1: collectively all over it. Yeah, for sure, but the way
- 5:47Speaker 1: that it was covered on television, even on some broadcast
- 5:50Speaker 1: media was just not that, you know, call people rioters
- 5:52Speaker 1: and protesters, I mean not protesters, but rioters and looters
- 5:56Speaker 1: instead of protesters. So Rams is his idea was, listen,
- 6:00Speaker 1: there's some people out there whose voice only goes as
- 6:03Speaker 1: far as a bullhorn. It would be cool if we
- 6:05Speaker 1: can just have them come on the radio and have
- 6:08Speaker 1: a place where they can say their piece and tell
- 6:09Speaker 1: their story. And we got some unrated time overnight that's
- 6:13Speaker 1: running what Don't Drink and Drive ads or something where
- 6:16Speaker 1: we could you know, talk about that. And the station
- 6:18Speaker 1: was initially like, yeah, that'd be a great idea. Yeah,
- 6:21Speaker 1: we should put something together. And then a month went by,
- 6:24Speaker 1: and then a couple months went by, and then a
- 6:26Speaker 1: few months went by, and just in the spirit I think,
- 6:30Speaker 1: in the spirit of follow up, Ram just went and
- 6:32Speaker 1: had a meeting with you know, I'll let you say
- 6:35Speaker 1: the gentleman's name, Adrika RPD. At the time, Hey, remember
- 6:40Speaker 1: that thing we talked about that everybody said would be
- 6:41Speaker 1: a good idea? Are still to do that? And there's
- 6:46Speaker 1: so many things they could have said back to us
- 6:48Speaker 1: keV that we would have just had to take on
- 6:50Speaker 1: the chin and run with, like, Hey, you guys, great idea,
- 6:53Speaker 1: we don't want to do anything divisive. Hey guys, wonderful
- 6:58Speaker 1: concept you guys talked about, but we don't really do
- 7:00Speaker 1: political in this space. Had they said something like that,
- 7:04Speaker 1: we'd thought it was BS. But but we could have
- 7:07Speaker 1: took that on the chain. What they said, or what
- 7:09Speaker 1: he said, more specifically, was we don't want to do
- 7:13Speaker 1: a black show. Wow. And the reason why that part
- 7:17Speaker 1: of the story is important because Civic Sipher now seems like, Hey,
- 7:21Speaker 1: those guys had a great plan and they ran to
- 7:23Speaker 1: play and it worked. That's not what happened. We pitched
- 7:26Speaker 1: an idea to the station they told us as initially okay,
- 7:30Speaker 1: and this is at the time, I mean still is
- 7:33Speaker 1: a hip hop station, Yes, but it's a hip hop station,
- 7:37Speaker 1: a hip hop station that plays nothing, nothing but black music.
- 7:40Speaker 1: That was in Phoenix, Yes, My charge was that, you know,
- 7:44Speaker 1: a station that plays seventy percent black artist and one
- 7:48Speaker 1: hundred percent black music should also align itself be an
- 7:52Speaker 1: ally to a community in need where we're hurting. You know,
- 7:55Speaker 1: people are dying. We're coming together. We're trying to change
- 7:58Speaker 1: so that we can create a better path forward for
- 8:00Speaker 1: our children. Right my father, what's fred Rico doing now?
- 8:04Speaker 1: Sell in real estate? Like every other bum ass PD
- 8:06Speaker 1: out there, they can't get a job. Man. Look, I
- 8:08Speaker 1: haven't kept up. I will say this because it's important
- 8:11Speaker 1: to say it. I talked to Fred, he wished me
- 8:14Speaker 1: well on my journey, and I will leave it there,
- 8:16Speaker 1: but I would want to say this too. Let me
- 8:18Speaker 1: let me say this because you know, for folks that
- 8:20Speaker 1: aren't familiar with Civic Cipher, you know it was talking
- 8:23Speaker 1: about you know, keV listening to my CD books. After
- 8:28Speaker 1: Fred and I had our meeting, I don't think I
- 8:30Speaker 1: don't even think you know this. You have to bear
- 8:33Speaker 1: in mind, I've been a radio broadcaster my whole adult
- 8:36Speaker 1: career up to that point, and when I decided to
- 8:39Speaker 1: resign after that meeting, I had to come to terms
- 8:44Speaker 1: with the fact that I might never broadcast again, and
- 8:47Speaker 1: that's a lot to come in terms with because in Phoenix,
- 8:49Speaker 1: you know, I was kind of you know at that time,
- 8:51Speaker 1: especially for people who don't know you. You decided to
- 8:54Speaker 1: resign after they said we're not going to put the
- 8:57Speaker 1: show on that he said, ramses, I don't want to
- 8:59Speaker 1: know way that they said it. I don't want to
- 9:01Speaker 1: do a blow. I had to do it the way
- 9:02Speaker 1: they said it, right. So I wrote my resignation letter,
- 9:05Speaker 1: but I addressed it to the city of Phoenix because
- 9:08Speaker 1: the Phoenix had given me my ratings, Phoenix had kept
- 9:12Speaker 1: me on the air across multiple stations and so forth.
- 9:14Speaker 1: But I did make one phone call before I posted that,
- 9:17Speaker 1: and I called you, and you were in Mexico at
- 9:20Speaker 1: the time with your wife, and I read that to I.
- 9:22Speaker 1: Remember I was crying, Yeah, I was, because you imagine
- 9:25Speaker 1: when I got to the house you were still crying. Yeah,
- 9:27Speaker 1: the emotion that goes into that. And I didn't know
- 9:29Speaker 1: what was coming next. But I read that letter to you,
- 9:31Speaker 1: and you was like, there's no way you can write that.
- 9:33Speaker 1: And I posted, posted, yeah, posted it and then got
- 9:36Speaker 1: shared when viral the trades picked it up, you know,
- 9:39Speaker 1: everyone picked it up, and then PD started reaching out
- 9:42Speaker 1: around the country saying, hey, we'd like to carry that show.
- 9:45Speaker 1: And then of course the podcast partnership with iHeart helped
- 9:48Speaker 1: blow it up even more. And you know, then the
- 9:51Speaker 1: other shows that I that I ended up doing it
- 9:53Speaker 1: just led to sort of this snowball effects. So we
- 9:57Speaker 1: had to create that on the spot. When these people
- 9:59Speaker 1: started out, there was no show. The show didn't exist.
- 10:03Speaker 1: We just had an idea. But you know, Ramsey's initially
- 10:07Speaker 1: resigned both of us from the beat, like okay, we
- 10:10Speaker 1: don't work here no more, and then called me and
- 10:12Speaker 1: told me, and of course right, but just he was
- 10:15Speaker 1: that compelled, he felt that strong in that moment, like,
- 10:18Speaker 1: imagine looking at for the cameras, imagine looking at him,
- 10:23Speaker 1: We're not going to do a black show on the
- 10:26Speaker 1: hip hop station. Like it's a crazy thing to say,
- 10:28Speaker 1: he loud to me, especially you know what I'm saying.
- 10:30Speaker 1: So that decision kind of made it self care and
- 10:34Speaker 1: then it was time to get to work, Q I
- 10:36Speaker 1: need you to commit to doing this with me. I
- 10:38Speaker 1: don't know what it's going to become, because you know
- 10:40Speaker 1: it's worked out now we might top of the year,
- 10:43Speaker 1: we might be on almost seventy stations. So it's worked
- 10:46Speaker 1: out now. So it seemed like we had a plan
- 10:47Speaker 1: and we ran to play like nah, it was just
- 10:50Speaker 1: the station made a decision for us. We don't want
- 10:52Speaker 1: to do a black show, made the choice for us.
- 10:55Speaker 1: What happened after that, they just kind of came together.
- 10:57Speaker 1: So if you believe in God or the universe, or
- 10:59Speaker 1: you know, whatever your belief system is, that's kind of
- 11:02Speaker 1: where those thanks go. Because we had no idea and
- 11:05Speaker 1: our minds were never going to work in radio again
- 11:07Speaker 1: because Ramses's letter burned the station down. He named names.
- 11:11Speaker 1: It was very it was very very specific, but had
- 11:14Speaker 1: to be done in that way, you know. But but
- 11:16Speaker 1: we figured, okay, once this is published, I don't know
- 11:20Speaker 1: how we're gonna do, you know, as far as the
- 11:22Speaker 1: career thing after this. So once you the letter goes viral,
- 11:27Speaker 1: did they ever Like they never even replied to it
- 11:30Speaker 1: or try to. I had a brief line of communication
- 11:34Speaker 1: to the general manager of the station, because you know,
- 11:37Speaker 1: we're at a point Paul Holton, Okay, what's the other
- 11:42Speaker 1: guy's name? Is always there? The the other old old
- 11:44Speaker 1: dude that's been there forever, Michael Michael Malice, Oh yeah,
- 11:48Speaker 1: he was going by. Okay, okay, so Michael wasn't involved,
- 11:50Speaker 1: but anyway, Uh yeah, I had a brief line of
- 11:52Speaker 1: communication because we're going back and forth in the newspaper
- 11:55Speaker 1: and in the trades. You know, they're saying it's this,
- 11:57Speaker 1: I'm saying it's that, you know what I mean, And
- 11:58Speaker 1: of course they have to spend it, have a whole
- 12:00Speaker 1: business to protect, so they don't mind reframing the conversation,
- 12:04Speaker 1: the narrative around. They even try to get somebody else
- 12:06Speaker 1: to do the show. Yeah, yeah, I think they hired
- 12:09Speaker 1: Cedric Sabalo. Shout out to said that's my guy, but
- 12:11Speaker 1: they hired him to do it. And then I think
- 12:14Speaker 1: it was like Jackie Morales is another name out in Arizona.
- 12:17Speaker 1: Some folks to try to pick up the slack because
- 12:19Speaker 1: the community had since charged that station with hey, you
- 12:22Speaker 1: should be doing what this guy resigned about, you know
- 12:25Speaker 1: what I mean. So you know, everybody ended up winning again.
- 12:30Speaker 1: I kept a brief line of communication open with Paul.
- 12:32Speaker 1: I still believe Paul to be, you know, friendly with me,
- 12:35Speaker 1: but obviously because of where he works, in the situation circumstance,
- 12:38Speaker 1: he probably can't talk to me. And I Honestly, I
- 12:40Speaker 1: believe that a lot of those people really had good intentions.
- 12:43Speaker 1: Was just one person who made the wrong decision at
- 12:45Speaker 1: the wrong time and said it the wrong way to
- 12:47Speaker 1: the wrong person. Because I've been I was the president
- 12:50Speaker 1: of the Black Student Union in college INAACP at BSU.
- 12:53Speaker 1: This isn't new to me. I've been on this path
- 12:56Speaker 1: for my life trying to make sure everything is fair
- 12:58Speaker 1: and equal. Because you know, we reached me and u keV.
- 13:01Speaker 1: We reach heights from playing with toys as a little kid.
- 13:05Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. We reach heights wed never
- 13:07Speaker 1: thought and you know, for me, obviously it comes with
- 13:10Speaker 1: an additional charge for you too. You've been really late
- 13:12Speaker 1: about that, but it comes with a charge of Okay.
- 13:15Speaker 1: Now we have to make sure that people that don't
- 13:17Speaker 1: make it to this height, we're doing right by them.
- 13:21Speaker 1: We're making the world a little bit better placed, a
- 13:23Speaker 1: little bit more accessible, and you know, helping change the
- 13:26Speaker 1: narrative so that you know, we leave a legacy that's
- 13:28Speaker 1: not just we make some bread. Hey, what up, y'all?
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- 14:42Speaker 1: Las Vegas. Let's get back to the interview. So how
- 14:45Speaker 1: did you end up? So you ended up buying the
- 14:47Speaker 1: name the Beat trademark it? Yeah, in what? In what capacity?
- 14:51Speaker 1: Because there's I mean a lot of radio station So
- 14:54Speaker 1: there's like the major companies that own the Beat. Sure,
- 14:57Speaker 1: so there's there's Uh, it's funny because I'm learning all
- 15:00Speaker 1: this stuff on the fly. In fact, I got a
- 15:02Speaker 1: funny story to tell you about trademarks. But so there's
- 15:05Speaker 1: a way you can trademark a name locally, like in
- 15:09Speaker 1: a state, and then there's a way that you can
- 15:12Speaker 1: trademark something federally, and it's basically protecting a brand or
- 15:15Speaker 1: a name or a concept or something like that. So
- 15:19Speaker 1: I didn't have to do too much anything. And the
- 15:22Speaker 1: truth be told, we have a friend, we all three
- 15:25Speaker 1: of us have a friend named C who trademarked it
- 15:27Speaker 1: for me in my name and gave it to me
- 15:29Speaker 1: as a gift. Just sad. Listen, man, since you resign,
- 15:32Speaker 1: I went ahead and trademarked that for you to beat,
- 15:35Speaker 1: or just one one to beat. So the next time
- 15:37Speaker 1: that that name is heard in Arizona. It'll be because
- 15:39Speaker 1: you owned it. And he was like, listen, if you
- 15:41Speaker 1: want a radio station, we can talk about buying you
- 15:43Speaker 1: a station, you know, getting you some placement or whatever.
- 15:46Speaker 1: So you know, it's just it's just being real friendly,
- 15:48Speaker 1: you know what I mean. But I do own the name,
- 15:50Speaker 1: so no one else can use it in terms of
- 15:51Speaker 1: the federal trademarks. Is that why they changed their name.
- 15:55Speaker 1: They changed the name because the backlash from their black employee,
- 15:59Speaker 1: who's the most tenured, who had the most you know,
- 16:02Speaker 1: clicks on the website, you know what I'm saying, had
- 16:04Speaker 1: resigned in such public fashion over allegations that they weren't
- 16:07Speaker 1: being fair to the community. They were just taking money
- 16:11Speaker 1: and not giving anything back. And that was my charge. Listen,
- 16:14Speaker 1: if you're not a black person, but you partake in
- 16:17Speaker 1: black culture, the way I say it is, we don't
- 16:19Speaker 1: mind if you eat from our table, just make sure
- 16:22Speaker 1: you save us a seat. I think that that's more
- 16:24Speaker 1: than fair, more than fair charge to anybody who partakes
- 16:27Speaker 1: in black culture and uses it to make money. Just
- 16:30Speaker 1: imagine that these are human beings who actually have to
- 16:33Speaker 1: live and die in order to these stories to exist.
- 16:35Speaker 1: And we don't want to live this. We weren't just
- 16:37Speaker 1: born to die and sell dope and you know, struggle.
- 16:40Speaker 1: That's not fair and if you are profiting off of
- 16:43Speaker 1: that pain, you know what I'm saying. If we asked
- 16:45Speaker 1: for a seat at the table, we only asked for
- 16:46Speaker 1: thirty minutes initially in the middle of the thirty people.
- 16:50Speaker 1: And it didn't even have to betes a week. And
- 16:53Speaker 1: it didn't even have to be us on the station.
- 16:55Speaker 1: It could have been anybody else. We would have just
- 16:56Speaker 1: made sure that we got the guest book, you know
- 16:59Speaker 1: what I'm saying. So that's been my charge. But you know,
- 17:02Speaker 1: after that backlash, the station rebranded. Yeah, they had to
- 17:06Speaker 1: make some changes. Are they aware every time you google
- 17:09Speaker 1: one on one one that beat the story came up first.
- 17:12Speaker 1: Are they aware that you're on that now? They will
- 17:14Speaker 1: be after they hear this. I didn't have no reason
- 17:16Speaker 1: to stunt on nobody, you know what I'm saying. I'm
- 17:18Speaker 1: trying to do good, good work, and I believe now
- 17:20Speaker 1: those people they learned a lesson. I never I've worked
- 17:22Speaker 1: with them for a long time. They weren't bad people.
- 17:25Speaker 1: They just made a bad call again. But you know
- 17:27Speaker 1: they've since done a couple of things. The shows. They're
- 17:29Speaker 1: committed to making things right, so I don't want to
- 17:31Speaker 1: like keep beating up on them. But I got to
- 17:34Speaker 1: tell the story how it went. So if I say
- 17:35Speaker 1: your name in the interviews, because that's how it happened.
- 17:38Speaker 1: So yeah, man, But you know, for now, I'm focused
- 17:41Speaker 1: on making sure that we have conversations that are dedicated
- 17:46Speaker 1: to healing, you know, conversations dedicated to you know, giving
- 17:50Speaker 1: insight into what different people's experiences might be like, trying
- 17:55Speaker 1: to create more empathetic allies. We feel like we'll find
- 17:59Speaker 1: allies for the plight of black and brown people in
- 18:03Speaker 1: the spaces where we broadcast and you know podcast as well,
- 18:07Speaker 1: and we need to give them insights so that when
- 18:09Speaker 1: they go home for Thanksgiving and they sit in their
- 18:11Speaker 1: uncle's presence or their dad's presence, they know how to
- 18:15Speaker 1: have conversations that will show that, Okay, there's a different
- 18:18Speaker 1: way of looking at this, pops, you know what I'm saying.
- 18:20Speaker 1: These people actually have some other you know what I'm saying,
- 18:22Speaker 1: And so we lean on a lot of great thinkers.
- 18:24Speaker 1: I never thought I was a DJ. I never thought
- 18:27Speaker 1: i'd be in this position, you know, we both were.
- 18:29Speaker 1: You know, he was djiling for the Phoenix Suns. You
- 18:30Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. So who's to say, you know
- 18:33Speaker 1: what tomorrow holds. But when the call comes and you're
- 18:36Speaker 1: the only person holding the ball, what do you do?
- 18:38Speaker 1: You run with the ball. So you know, that's how
- 18:40Speaker 1: we ended up, you know here, and to piggyback off
- 18:44Speaker 1: of that, we've done our best to grow it even
- 18:46Speaker 1: more so again I mentioned to be in daily podcast,
- 18:49Speaker 1: making sure we have platforms to tell these stories. But Q,
- 18:53Speaker 1: hopefully I'm not putting your business out there. But he
- 18:55Speaker 1: recently acquired Hip Hop Weekly, the media imprint. Yes, that's
- 19:00Speaker 1: that's his now, and you know he can, you know,
- 19:02Speaker 1: tell stories how they deserve to be told, and you
- 19:06Speaker 1: shaping it up. Don't let me speak for you. No,
- 19:08Speaker 1: I mean, we were planning to relaunch Top of the
- 19:10Speaker 1: Year and a bunch of people that we know and
- 19:12Speaker 1: a bunch of people we don't know, freelancers, journalists, photographers
- 19:16Speaker 1: and up and coming artists will have a space that
- 19:19Speaker 1: kind of always existed but didn't have the light that
- 19:21Speaker 1: it deserved. So just kind of rebranding that magazine because
- 19:25Speaker 1: Hip Hop Weekly is like kind of like a you know,
- 19:27Speaker 1: it's it's uh, would you say, it's kind of like
- 19:29Speaker 1: the tabloid version of like it's kind of like Hollywood Unlocked,
- 19:34Speaker 1: but in a magazine form. Yeah, kind of before all
- 19:36Speaker 1: the all that existed, Yeah, for sure. So and it
- 19:39Speaker 1: was still in print, like it'd be next to like
- 19:41Speaker 1: US Weekly, Yeah, you know all that. So coming back
- 19:43Speaker 1: to the digital space with something that was a printed magazine, right,
- 19:47Speaker 1: and really creating a new platform for not just creators,
- 19:52Speaker 1: but artists that will not when the artists are creators,
- 19:54Speaker 1: but not just the people who capture the stories, but
- 19:57Speaker 1: the people that create them. So you know, branding and relaunching,
- 20:01Speaker 1: you know, doing covers again, like really giving people something
- 20:04Speaker 1: to read. And yeah, because the covers prior, I think
- 20:07Speaker 1: it was very like it was like a bunch of
- 20:10Speaker 1: stuff going on on the cover. I mean you said
- 20:11Speaker 1: it, it it was just like how if you go see
- 20:13Speaker 1: US Weekly magazine at the grocery store. Now like a
- 20:16Speaker 1: bunch of headlines. We're trying to do more classic covers.
- 20:19Speaker 1: As I say, the headline. Really it's a little harder
- 20:22Speaker 1: to the Internet. It's like it's like harder to keep
- 20:25Speaker 1: up if you're printing because by the time it gets printed,
- 20:27Speaker 1: who knows how the story's changed. Yeah, especially if the
- 20:31Speaker 1: Kanye shit. Like every other day, we record our show
- 20:34Speaker 1: a day ahead of time, and it's like Jesus, I
- 20:37Speaker 1: can't even fucking we can't even keep up with all
- 20:40Speaker 1: the wild shit happening. Speaking of that, you own white
- 20:43Speaker 1: Lives Matter, indeed, yeah, so uh so for people who
- 20:48Speaker 1: don't know. So this is the other part. You you
- 20:51Speaker 1: technically own the term white Lives matter, the trademark. That's
- 20:56Speaker 1: a federal trademark that applies to the whole United States.
- 21:01Speaker 1: So yeah, if you were to go and look it up,
- 21:03Speaker 1: it's owned by Civic Cipher LLC. We acquired the trademark
- 21:07Speaker 1: from an individual in our orbit who procured that and
- 21:14Speaker 1: then also filed for All Lives Matter federally because they
- 21:18Speaker 1: weren't trademarked funnily enough. And so this person did that
- 21:24Speaker 1: and wanted to ensure that the right people would benefit
- 21:27Speaker 1: from those sayings, and we ultimately ended up acquiring it
- 21:33Speaker 1: through our lawyer Morris. So now we are the deciders
- 21:37Speaker 1: of who profits from those terms white lives matter and
- 21:42Speaker 1: all lives Matter. So if you ever see any individual
- 21:46Speaker 1: selling that shirt, it's either illegal or they had to
- 21:51Speaker 1: come down to our street and knock on our door
- 21:54Speaker 1: and we had to negotiate the terms of that cell.
- 21:58Speaker 1: So when are you assuing Kanye West. Well, if Kanye
- 22:02Speaker 1: West or any other person decides to sell because he
- 22:06Speaker 1: hasn't sold any he hasn't sold those yet, right, and
- 22:08Speaker 1: so he decides to sell something, you know he will
- 22:12Speaker 1: either have to get clearance or he has to face
- 22:15Speaker 1: our trademark attorneys. Because I saw he was just giving
- 22:17Speaker 1: away the shirts and skid row. He was just passing
- 22:20Speaker 1: him out the homeless through that. And then that's that's
- 22:21Speaker 1: totally fine. But in terms of profiting off of a
- 22:24Speaker 1: statement that is intended to dilute the significance and the
- 22:33Speaker 1: thrust of a statement as affirming as black lives matter,
- 22:38Speaker 1: the right people should decide who gets money off of that,
- 22:41Speaker 1: who gets money off of that? Exactly, if you wanted
- 22:43Speaker 1: to affirm for yourself that white lives matter in your
- 22:46Speaker 1: own path through life, that is your right you can make.
- 22:49Speaker 1: You can paint it on your shirt, no one can
- 22:51Speaker 1: stop fight. But if you as soon as you want
- 22:52Speaker 1: to sell it, you are infringing on Civic Cipher LLC's
- 22:57Speaker 1: federally protected trademark and you will be suedow. Yes, you
- 23:02Speaker 1: can look at us any lawsuits yet. No, no, no,
- 23:05Speaker 1: we just sent out seas and desists to people that
- 23:06Speaker 1: were selling bootleg versions of that stuff. Oh I didn't
- 23:09Speaker 1: send them out the lawyers, did we know, we're not lawyers.
- 23:11Speaker 1: Somebody sent was selling fake white Lives Matter shirts. Oh yeah, yeah,
- 23:14Speaker 1: yeah people so and then the ausest matter to Once
- 23:17Speaker 1: that comes back, you know, the cnds go out and
- 23:19Speaker 1: then you know, if you ever do see a person
- 23:21Speaker 1: selling them again, they came and they knocked on our door.
- 23:25Speaker 1: We worked it out, or we choose to donate that
- 23:29Speaker 1: money whatever. If we choose to donate that to certain
- 23:33Speaker 1: organizations or whatever, then that is our right and we
- 23:36Speaker 1: can decide how that money gets spent, and hopefully it
- 23:38Speaker 1: will be for the betterment the communities most impacted by
- 23:42Speaker 1: folks likely most likely to wear those shirts. So you know,
- 23:47Speaker 1: there's your catch. Twenty two. We learned from Byron Allen
- 23:51Speaker 1: that you you want to own the game, not the
- 23:54Speaker 1: game piece, and so and just again, some fortunate sequence
- 23:58Speaker 1: of events took place and ended up with sort of
- 24:02Speaker 1: the hot topic of the day, this white Lives Matter thing,
- 24:04Speaker 1: and you know, you can look it up yourself. You'll
- 24:07Speaker 1: see Civic Cipher Studios address. Everything is all there, right, Yeah,
- 24:11Speaker 1: what are your thoughts on just everything, Kanye from the
- 24:14Speaker 1: last two weeks or so, It's been a rough two weeks.
- 24:17Speaker 1: I'll let you jump on that. It's been a lot. Started.
- 24:20Speaker 1: It started with the White Lives Matter thing, which it
- 24:22Speaker 1: was like, Okay, this guy's I felt like he was
- 24:25Speaker 1: just trolling for the wrong reasons, real hurtful. Yeah, but no,
- 24:28Speaker 1: accually got some interesting thoughts. Drink Champs interviews, Wild Wild, Yeah,
- 24:37Speaker 1: Kanye West is kind of the leader of a really
- 24:40Speaker 1: really interesting movement right there. There's a time in the
- 24:44Speaker 1: last several years where group think, right right, being contrarian
- 24:51Speaker 1: to group think is being accepted as intelligence. If I
- 24:56Speaker 1: just think the opposite of what everybody else is thinking,
- 24:58Speaker 1: then I'm gonna just show everybody how how on top
- 25:01Speaker 1: of it. I am no research, no studying, no information,
- 25:05Speaker 1: just whatever everybody seems to be saying, say the opposite.
- 25:09Speaker 1: I'm going to say the opposite, and I'm gonna show
- 25:10Speaker 1: you guys how freethinking I am right, which isn't irresponsible
- 25:15Speaker 1: if you just work down the street at Panda Express.
- 25:18Speaker 1: And that's just what you want to get off your chest.
- 25:20Speaker 1: But when you have this stature and the influence of
- 25:22Speaker 1: someone like mister West, he's probably the most influential human
- 25:25Speaker 1: being ever, it's grossly irresponsible. Yeah, and if you've noticed,
- 25:30Speaker 1: he's developed a bit of a zealot following, where in
- 25:33Speaker 1: their minds he can't do or say anything wrong, even
- 25:36Speaker 1: if it's blatantly and fagrant, flagrantly untrue. We can't agree
- 25:41Speaker 1: on what's facts anymore. I think people are just more
- 25:44Speaker 1: likely to forgive Kanye because they love his music so much. Yeah,
- 25:47Speaker 1: there's that, and they love his shoes and they But
- 25:51Speaker 1: I feel like that only goes so far. And I
- 25:53Speaker 1: think he might have hitten that. He might he might
- 25:55Speaker 1: have hit that wall of like people. He has some
- 25:57Speaker 1: people with him, though, keV that want to also be
- 26:00Speaker 1: viewed as leaders of the in the free thought space.
- 26:04Speaker 1: And they think that by again just bucking the trend,
- 26:08Speaker 1: whatever I'm contrarian about in my circles and on Instagram
- 26:12Speaker 1: and on Twitter, I can be viewed as free thinking
- 26:16Speaker 1: and of a higher level of intelligence just by saying
- 26:19Speaker 1: the opposite of whatever is popular. Accepted opinion, even when
- 26:23Speaker 1: popular accepted opinion is based on fact. I'm just going
- 26:27Speaker 1: to say the opposite so I can show you guys
- 26:29Speaker 1: how woke and learn it I am. And he's the
- 26:33Speaker 1: leader of that school, really really is. As you can see,
- 26:38Speaker 1: I think he's with trying to come across as a leader.
- 26:42Speaker 1: It's it's pretty wild. Well because technically he is a leader.
- 26:45Speaker 1: The problem is is he doesn't carry himself like he
- 26:48Speaker 1: has those responsibilities. And like you know, I think that
- 26:53Speaker 1: some of the anti Semitic shit he's saying is crazy,
- 26:56Speaker 1: so hurtful, it's just wild and so like he said,
- 27:00Speaker 1: he had said something like Jewish people have controlled Black
- 27:06Speaker 1: voices for so long and if you if you feel
- 27:11Speaker 1: that way, can't you just say, black people, it's time
- 27:16Speaker 1: we start controlling our voices without mentioning, without mentioning another. Absolutely,
- 27:21Speaker 1: especially when you're the self proclaimed richest black man in
- 27:25Speaker 1: the history of the United States, you, sir, can absolutely
- 27:30Speaker 1: create that space where we own our own stories, our
- 27:33Speaker 1: own voice, and our own platform. Like even with the
- 27:36Speaker 1: Trump thing, like I understood what he was trying to do.
- 27:42Speaker 1: He was trying to push the line that says, hey,
- 27:44Speaker 1: the Democratic Party had been taking advantage of black voters
- 27:47Speaker 1: this whole entire time. Let me show y'all you don't
- 27:49Speaker 1: have to. Like when he really explained it out, I
- 27:52Speaker 1: was like, well, I get the what he's trying to do,
- 27:55Speaker 1: but the way he did it, you can do that
- 27:57Speaker 1: without all. You could just say it or you could yeah,
- 27:59Speaker 1: you could say it without looking like you're fucking you're
- 28:02Speaker 1: hugg Like he looked like a kid who met his
- 28:05Speaker 1: favorite celebrity. I mean he called the guy a father figure,
- 28:08Speaker 1: like his dad, Like come on, dude, Yeah. And so
- 28:10Speaker 1: I think like Kanye is just very He's just very
- 28:17Speaker 1: The way he communicates what he thinks to be right
- 28:21Speaker 1: is just so short sighted and it's just very. Like
- 28:26Speaker 1: it's like, dude, like like the White Lives Matter thing,
- 28:28Speaker 1: he's like, I think he what did he say? He
- 28:30Speaker 1: said Black Lives Matter was a scam. There I ended it.
- 28:34Speaker 1: And it's like, you could be very you know, critical
- 28:40Speaker 1: of Black Lives Matter the organization as Kanye West, yes,
- 28:44Speaker 1: and be and point out a lot of shit, but
- 28:47Speaker 1: what is the point of doing that while also putting
- 28:51Speaker 1: on a shirt that says white Lives Matter. I want
- 28:53Speaker 1: to add to that though, because you know, I hear
- 28:56Speaker 1: a lot of that stuff, you know, but for someone
- 28:59Speaker 1: in that position, you have to bear in mind that, well,
- 29:03Speaker 1: there's a bunch of different there's a bunch of different
- 29:05Speaker 1: Black Lives Matter organization. Let me let me say this, okay,
- 29:08Speaker 1: So I come from the tradition of so my teacher,
- 29:12Speaker 1: doctor Camille Westerb. Yeah, you know her. Shout out doctor Westernburg,
- 29:15Speaker 1: shout out doctor Westerberg made sure that I learned what
- 29:20Speaker 1: movements look like, what struggles look like, you know what
- 29:22Speaker 1: I mean. So we learned from the panthers, We learned
- 29:25Speaker 1: from you know, all these these organizations, these individuals with
- 29:30Speaker 1: groups and movements around them, you know, the Stokelyes, the Baldwin's,
- 29:34Speaker 1: James Baldwin, all these folks, right, and these folks that
- 29:38Speaker 1: had contrarian opinions that ran against what was popular in
- 29:43Speaker 1: the country at the time. And you know, people used
- 29:47Speaker 1: every trick in the book to frame folks as being this,
- 29:51Speaker 1: that or the other, right, just because you know, these
- 29:54Speaker 1: are information wars, right, it's a matter of influencing public opinion.
- 29:58Speaker 1: If you can make doctor King look like the most
- 30:00Speaker 1: evil human being who ever lived. Most when doctor King
- 30:03Speaker 1: was like most people opposed his views. Most Now it's
- 30:07Speaker 1: all good because he's been rebranded. Right. So I take
- 30:11Speaker 1: when people talk bad about BLM the organization, I take
- 30:15Speaker 1: that with a grain of salt. I also add to
- 30:17Speaker 1: it that BLM has done a lot since Trayvon Martin
- 30:20Speaker 1: died in twenty twelve. Right, It's been around since then, right,
- 30:23Speaker 1: And they've done a lot of good things. And every
- 30:25Speaker 1: organization deserves to be able to grow up. You know,
- 30:29Speaker 1: the Kennedys, the great American family, they got their money.
- 30:32Speaker 1: They got their start in prohibition. In Prohibition, I mean
- 30:36Speaker 1: they were selling illegal products in the United States of America.
- 30:39Speaker 1: That's how they got their money. We're able to attain
- 30:41Speaker 1: political status in this country. And you know they say
- 30:46Speaker 1: most every fortune is built on the back of the crime,
- 30:49Speaker 1: or something like that. There's a popular saying, which I
- 30:52Speaker 1: don't believe necessarily that BLM has done anything criminal. They've
- 30:57Speaker 1: just done things that perhaps most folks don't agree with
- 31:01Speaker 1: in terms of how things should be spent. Based on
- 31:04Speaker 1: what I've read, they haven't like robbed any banks or
- 31:07Speaker 1: killed any people or anything. Yeah, I just think that
- 31:08Speaker 1: there's a lot of criticism, a lot of the victims
- 31:12Speaker 1: that have obviously been highly publicized that has fueled their
- 31:18Speaker 1: movements or have not reaped the benefits. Sure, and so
- 31:22Speaker 1: where there's a lot of the higher ups in Black
- 31:25Speaker 1: Lives Matter who are millionaires now that weren't millionaires prior,
- 31:28Speaker 1: you're saying the same thing as me. So in terms
- 31:30Speaker 1: of your opinion on how they spend money, you know
- 31:33Speaker 1: it's not illegal, Like you said, they're not criminals, right,
- 31:35Speaker 1: So who's to say? But you know, I know this.
- 31:38Speaker 1: When Kanye West to be so critical of something without
- 31:41Speaker 1: giving it context, without knowing himself, without having walked in
- 31:45Speaker 1: those shoes, I feel like that's kind of a tough
- 31:48Speaker 1: I remember reading a story about BLM, and I don't
- 31:51Speaker 1: want to act like the great defender of Bilim, but
- 31:52Speaker 1: I just don't hear the other side of it in
- 31:54Speaker 1: the media. And because I've seen this in history, again,
- 31:57Speaker 1: I take it with a grant of salt. But the
- 31:58Speaker 1: other side of this is one of the stories that
- 32:01Speaker 1: I've seen was BLM bought a house, a mansion, something
- 32:05Speaker 1: like this. I was framed and then I had to
- 32:08Speaker 1: do some investigation because obviously we do the show, I
- 32:10Speaker 1: have to ever talk about it. Yeah, I did some investigation,
- 32:13Speaker 1: and the way BLM was looking at that purchase was like, no,
- 32:16Speaker 1: this was a facility. We have to have a place
- 32:19Speaker 1: that's protected where they can't put bugs on the wall
- 32:21Speaker 1: and tap stuff. We can't be renting a place. We can't,
- 32:24Speaker 1: you know, we have to have something with a gate.
- 32:25Speaker 1: We have to with certain requirements where we can house people,
- 32:28Speaker 1: you know whatever. And this place afforded us all of
- 32:31Speaker 1: these things that we needed. And so this was a
- 32:34Speaker 1: reasonable purchase for a business like our, or for a
- 32:37Speaker 1: movement organization like ours, and for anyone else that had
- 32:41Speaker 1: an opinion prior to reading that article, they would look
- 32:45Speaker 1: at it like, oh, okay, of course these black people
- 32:47Speaker 1: got this money and now they're spending it. They're throwing
- 32:50Speaker 1: parties or whatever. And that's the way the article framed it.
- 32:52Speaker 1: But when you dig it one layer deeper, ask one
- 32:55Speaker 1: person a question, and you get a little bit more context,
- 32:58Speaker 1: you're like, Okay, that makes sense. It's entirely reasonable and
- 33:01Speaker 1: it's not this nefarious operation. And so again, Kanye West
- 33:05Speaker 1: or whoever else who has been critical, but you know,
- 33:07Speaker 1: this is the person we're talking about right now. Him
- 33:10Speaker 1: saying these things again is very hurtful. Because it's very
- 33:12Speaker 1: easy to support someone black if you're the same Kanye
- 33:17Speaker 1: West who goes on the news and says, George Bush
- 33:19Speaker 1: doesn't care about black people. If these are my people
- 33:21Speaker 1: out here, When my people go in the store, they
- 33:23Speaker 1: say that they're looting. But when it's white people that
- 33:26Speaker 1: go into the store. This is about Katrina, him talking
- 33:28Speaker 1: about when white people go in the store, they're getting
- 33:31Speaker 1: supplies because they're desperate. When my people go in the store,
- 33:33Speaker 1: Kanye West said that, and then he said George Bush
- 33:35Speaker 1: doesn't care about black people. I remember watching that. I
- 33:38Speaker 1: remember watching that. So if that's the same person who
- 33:41Speaker 1: can give a little bit of grace, an understanding and
- 33:44Speaker 1: context to a conversation for him to then take it
- 33:47Speaker 1: all away from BLM who's been active on the street.
- 33:50Speaker 1: I haven't seen Kanye West in any protests, clearly, clearly
- 33:53Speaker 1: not the same person though, But you're sure, But you
- 33:56Speaker 1: know I'm holding him to that standard that he set
- 33:58Speaker 1: for himself. Right, I've seen since twenty twelve, I've been
- 34:01Speaker 1: at the library right with these people, in small little
- 34:04Speaker 1: meetings with doctor Westernberg. Because I'm the person on the
- 34:08Speaker 1: radio in my city. Hey, we gotta stop the interview.
- 34:10Speaker 1: Real quick to tell you about our partners at odd
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- 35:11Speaker 1: and the podcast at the same fucking time. Let's get
- 35:14Speaker 1: back to the interview, and there's like, there's very like
- 35:17Speaker 1: localized chapters. Ye. So there's like a Black Lives Matter LA.
- 35:21Speaker 1: There's a Black Lives Matter Phoenix Mester, It's a Black
- 35:23Speaker 1: Lives Matter. So all of those are very like separate
- 35:27Speaker 1: from I think. I think, I think you can't just
- 35:30Speaker 1: paint the whole thing with one brush. But I do
- 35:33Speaker 1: think that in the same way we're talking, like Cannice
- 35:35Speaker 1: Owens is capitalizing off of everything she's looking at it through,
- 35:38Speaker 1: I think a lot of people are doing it on
- 35:39Speaker 1: the other side too. Sure, Sure, I listen, that's it's
- 35:42Speaker 1: not impossible that these things because I know this. I
- 35:45Speaker 1: just talked to Killer Mike. So I call Killer Mike
- 35:47Speaker 1: and I'm like, yeah, where I donate my money? And
- 35:48Speaker 1: if Killer Mike tells me, don't donate it there, donate
- 35:51Speaker 1: it here, I'm like, cool, Listen. I just talked to
- 35:54Speaker 1: doctor Camille Westenberg, and I tell you what. If somebody
- 35:57Speaker 1: comes down my street and says, hey, we would like
- 35:59Speaker 1: to acquire the federal trademark to create and produce and
- 36:03Speaker 1: sell anything that says white Lives Matter on it, I
- 36:07Speaker 1: know that the NAACP is ready and willing to receive
- 36:10Speaker 1: a check from Civic Cipher lerc You know what I'm saying.
- 36:12Speaker 1: And then I know some people, like you said, there
- 36:14Speaker 1: are local chapters, the people that I've seen do the work,
- 36:16Speaker 1: the people that inspired Civic Cipher. There's a woman named
- 36:20Speaker 1: Zara Tacola. You know, I love her that she's my shiro.
- 36:23Speaker 1: You know what she's doing. She has a five oh
- 36:26Speaker 1: one C three. They do grassroots work in Arizona, and
- 36:31Speaker 1: you know nationally, she has a national profile. I would
- 36:33Speaker 1: love to donate money to her because I believe in her,
- 36:36Speaker 1: you know her. I was going to say, if people
- 36:38Speaker 1: want to help out, how do they vet where they
- 36:41Speaker 1: should put their money. Well, you can start by donating
- 36:45Speaker 1: the Civic Cipher. You can get civiccipher dot com because
- 36:48Speaker 1: we are on it. I've risked my whole career to
- 36:51Speaker 1: bring some like I was the man I was doing
- 36:53Speaker 1: my thing. You know what I'm saying, keV, I'm telling
- 36:56Speaker 1: you like I got to convince you. But you know
- 36:58Speaker 1: we was there together, right, But yeah, I'm I'm I.
- 37:02Speaker 1: We have a segment on our show called Baba Become
- 37:06Speaker 1: a Better Ally, right. It's it comes from one of
- 37:09Speaker 1: the African languages means father as well, so sort of
- 37:11Speaker 1: a reference to like guidance or whatever become a better
- 37:14Speaker 1: ally and that segment we often talk about the NAACP right,
- 37:20Speaker 1: So it's the oldest, most established organization that that moves
- 37:26Speaker 1: in such a way to try to create more opportunities
- 37:29Speaker 1: and more political strength for impoverished communities Black and brown.
- 37:35Speaker 1: You know, I do believe we we do believe in
- 37:37Speaker 1: unity between all marginalized groups of people. So you'll see me.
- 37:39Speaker 1: You're hear me say black and brown a lot. But
- 37:42Speaker 1: I also mean, you know, our AAPI brothers and sisters,
- 37:45Speaker 1: I mean our Native brothers and sisters, Indigenous brothers and sisters,
- 37:50Speaker 1: our l g B, t q I A plus brothers
- 37:52Speaker 1: and sisters. Anybody nailed it. If you were born, if
- 37:55Speaker 1: you feel like you were born with a strike against you,
- 37:58Speaker 1: and you want to join a movement where love is
- 38:00Speaker 1: at the center of the conversation, where we are trying
- 38:02Speaker 1: to make sure everybody has a voice and it's heard
- 38:05Speaker 1: and it's protected, and there's equality as far as we
- 38:10Speaker 1: can take that, then that's the movement that you want
- 38:12Speaker 1: to be on. And we didn't ask to be in
- 38:15Speaker 1: this position again, you know, with all these stations carrying
- 38:17Speaker 1: our message around this whole entire country. But now that
- 38:20Speaker 1: we're here, there's an even greater responsibility to be true
- 38:24Speaker 1: to it. And you know, if they bury my son's
- 38:26Speaker 1: carry me on my last day and they bury me
- 38:28Speaker 1: in the ground. And the last thing I did was
- 38:30Speaker 1: record an episode of Civic Cipher, I'd still say this
- 38:32Speaker 1: was a life well lived. Has there been anything because
- 38:36Speaker 1: I know you guys were doing some conversations about like
- 38:39Speaker 1: the vaccine and obviously there's a lot of hesitancy within
- 38:42Speaker 1: the you know, black and brown community to get the vaccine. Sure,
- 38:47Speaker 1: it turns out a lot of the hesitancy was maybe
- 38:49Speaker 1: well warranted. Maybe I I never found that to be
- 38:56Speaker 1: true in the the the studies that I've done well.
- 39:01Speaker 1: I was going to ask, like, if you guys do
- 39:02Speaker 1: an episode on something and then kind of like the
- 39:05Speaker 1: facts evolve, Oh yeah, we have. It's beyond revisiting, because
- 39:12Speaker 1: that's important. Out we were wrong, we have he say that.
- 39:16Speaker 1: I think that's important too, because a lot of people
- 39:18Speaker 1: wouldn't do that. I want to say before we move
- 39:20Speaker 1: on with Lives Matter, right, before we move on from that,
- 39:27Speaker 1: Black Lives Matter is a statement that is true, that
- 39:32Speaker 1: is true, correct, and a lot of the reason why
- 39:36Speaker 1: you know RAMS did not go back and forth. I
- 39:37Speaker 1: don't do a lot of the apologizing or explaining on
- 39:40Speaker 1: behalf of the organization because Kevin Quentin and Ramses can
- 39:45Speaker 1: be scrutinized, Our LLCs can be scrutinized, our companies can
- 39:50Speaker 1: be scrutinized and be wrong and make mistakes. Black lives matter, period,
- 39:54Speaker 1: as a statement is true. So I don't even have
- 39:59Speaker 1: to talk about dot org right, right, and all of
- 40:03Speaker 1: the other lives matter statements came just to oppose the
- 40:09Speaker 1: statement black lives matter. Yeah, I was just talking to
- 40:13Speaker 1: Akon about it, and that's what I was saying. I
- 40:14Speaker 1: was like, you know, the origin of this was because
- 40:16Speaker 1: obviously black lives don't matter as much as everyone else
- 40:19Speaker 1: is correct. So it's like, black lives matter as a
- 40:22Speaker 1: statement is one true, and Kanye's got to be smart
- 40:27Speaker 1: enough to realize the connotations that white like white lives matter.
- 40:34Speaker 1: No one was saying that, but now they're saying it
- 40:36Speaker 1: to combat an obvious The same with black eyes on
- 40:41Speaker 1: the matter, the same with all lives matter. It was
- 40:43Speaker 1: those statements were born just to oppose the statement black
- 40:47Speaker 1: lives matter, not to oppose the organization or anything wrong
- 40:51Speaker 1: that they did. Right. So that's why it hits the
- 40:55Speaker 1: way that it does, because we know where those statements
- 40:58Speaker 1: were born from, why they were even created, why people
- 41:01Speaker 1: say them. They say them to stand in opposition to
- 41:05Speaker 1: the statement that black people's lives are important and that
- 41:09Speaker 1: they're worthy of existing, worthy of equality. You know, during
- 41:13Speaker 1: breast cancer Awareness Month, we don't argue that multiple sclerosis
- 41:18Speaker 1: is also worth talking about. We don't do that when
- 41:20Speaker 1: it saved the wells, we don't talk about well the
- 41:23Speaker 1: birds aren't migrating like. We don't do that with anything else,
- 41:27Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So the reason why I
- 41:29Speaker 1: get so disappointed and passionate and angry about it is
- 41:32Speaker 1: because of what you said. He's smart enough to know that,
- 41:36Speaker 1: and still rides this horse of really not just division,
- 41:42Speaker 1: but intentional attention mongering for statements that are flagrantly opposed
- 41:51Speaker 1: to something so simple in its nature. Right, if you're
- 41:54Speaker 1: such a free thinker, how come if we check the
- 41:58Speaker 1: boxes on the points that you make, they line up
- 42:02Speaker 1: so accurately and in such perfect alignment with white supremacist agendas,
- 42:07Speaker 1: with aligning yourself with people like homegirl who for the
- 42:12Speaker 1: dollar get on the mic and say anything with dude
- 42:16Speaker 1: in the red hat, like you can make your free
- 42:19Speaker 1: thinking statements without having to then attach yourself to things
- 42:24Speaker 1: that are so opposed to our children being able to
- 42:27Speaker 1: go to school and be okayum, you know what I'm saying.
- 42:31Speaker 1: That's why I get so passionate and upset about it.
- 42:34Speaker 1: My kids are black and Mexican and you wearing the
- 42:37Speaker 1: MAGA hat for the dude whose whole campaign was build
- 42:40Speaker 1: a wall to keep Mexican people out, like dog are
- 42:42Speaker 1: really fam So George Bush hates black people, it doesn't
- 42:47Speaker 1: care about black people, and that was your stance, but
- 42:49Speaker 1: now white lives matter and you know you're trolling. And
- 42:53Speaker 1: then on the very very wild Drinks you know drink,
- 42:57Speaker 1: he tripled down on his anti Semitic rhetoric Like really, bro, Yeah, yeah,
- 43:03Speaker 1: it's rough, especially to me. To me, the craziest Kanye
- 43:06Speaker 1: ship was the George flood ship, bro. And for what Yeah,
- 43:10Speaker 1: and then your your source material on that is a
- 43:13Speaker 1: Canvas owned documentary the lady who's been so she's gone
- 43:17Speaker 1: out of her way since the man died to tell
- 43:19Speaker 1: us how awful he was, as if that makes the
- 43:22Speaker 1: fact that the man killed him Okay, right, it doesn't
- 43:27Speaker 1: matter all Like they say, all lives matter. Yeah, well
- 43:32Speaker 1: so does the guy who had a drug problems live
- 43:34Speaker 1: matter who has a bad criminal. That's all I'm saying.
- 43:37Speaker 1: All lives matter, until do they all lives are immigrants
- 43:41Speaker 1: or prisoners or convicts and criminals. That's I'm glad you
- 43:46Speaker 1: said that, because you know, people we feel like, especially
- 43:49Speaker 1: on the show, we feel like people deserve a little dignity.
- 43:51Speaker 1: We don't feel like anybody is simply the worst thing
- 43:53Speaker 1: they've ever done. People deserve to be forgiven. We're not
- 43:57Speaker 1: the biggest fans of cancel culture, you know what I mean,
- 44:00Speaker 1: Because there's people who make mistakes, make honest mistakes, right,
- 44:03Speaker 1: and you know, if we condemn everyone who makes a
- 44:09Speaker 1: mistake to you know, the margins of society, then they're
- 44:13Speaker 1: just going to find community within each other and then
- 44:15Speaker 1: we bolster the opposition. Hey guys, we got to stop
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- 46:07Speaker 1: That's it. There's some stuff that you know, you have
- 46:10Speaker 1: to learn. And you know when we're talking about uh,
- 46:15Speaker 1: Candice Owens and Kanye West and those people, that those
- 46:19Speaker 1: things break down their entire argument, you know what I mean.
- 46:22Speaker 1: It's like, there's no grace, there's no nothing. If you
- 46:25Speaker 1: are black, if you're brown, if you had a problem,
- 46:27Speaker 1: if you made a mistake, whatever, it's held over your
- 46:29Speaker 1: head and as though it's now justified for you to
- 46:33Speaker 1: be dead, you know, And that's not the way the
- 46:35Speaker 1: legal system in this country works. That's not the way
- 46:38Speaker 1: it's supposed to things should work. You know. You deserve
- 46:40Speaker 1: to have a full life, make your mistakes and learn
- 46:42Speaker 1: from them. I think obviously, just taking Candice Owns and
- 46:45Speaker 1: Kanye West out of the conversation, I think that the
- 46:47Speaker 1: extreme of each side does extremely wild ship. Yes, sure, sure,
- 46:52Speaker 1: I'll give you that. That is very that just kind
- 46:56Speaker 1: of like turn like every each side turns each other
- 46:59Speaker 1: off in a way that there it removes any new
- 47:02Speaker 1: nuance to any middle ground in reality. Well it's it's
- 47:05Speaker 1: it's two different realities. And it's also like on each
- 47:09Speaker 1: side like common sense is just gone. So it's like
- 47:14Speaker 1: now it's like, okay, where are the conversation's happening for
- 47:19Speaker 1: people to kind of meet in the middle on some
- 47:21Speaker 1: of these issues. And I'm not saying like issues in
- 47:23Speaker 1: terms of like obviously police brutality, everybody should agree that's
- 47:26Speaker 1: fucked up, But there's a lot of ship that like
- 47:29Speaker 1: I would say most people if you were to take
- 47:31Speaker 1: the craziest like wild fucking Trump supporter, and you would
- 47:35Speaker 1: take like you know the wildest No, not you, not you.
- 47:40Speaker 1: I mean like you know, so much further extremes than us,
- 47:43Speaker 1: the wilder. We're much closer to the middle. Yeah, Like
- 47:47Speaker 1: the extreme left ship is pretty wild, and it gives
- 47:50Speaker 1: like the entire left like such a batter is and
- 47:52Speaker 1: the same way that you know, uh, the crazy right
- 47:55Speaker 1: wing people. It just makes uh nuance and conversation almost obsolete.
- 48:01Speaker 1: And in terms of like not being able to I
- 48:06Speaker 1: feel like the tribal aspect of it is so bad
- 48:09Speaker 1: to where it's like, Okay, well we think this over here,
- 48:11Speaker 1: so we think this over here. Like the vaccine thing
- 48:14Speaker 1: to me was like one of those things that was
- 48:16Speaker 1: so crazy because I saw people getting demonized for not
- 48:19Speaker 1: wanting to do something to their own body, and I'm like,
- 48:23Speaker 1: this is crazy. This is not a right wing or
- 48:25Speaker 1: left wing thing. This is a personal decision. So not
- 48:28Speaker 1: I'm vaccinated. But what you said that's important. You asked
- 48:30Speaker 1: us about having to correct. We have to apologize with haste. Right,
- 48:35Speaker 1: if we say something that it's the next show has
- 48:39Speaker 1: to be the first thirty minutes got to be about that, right,
- 48:41Speaker 1: we had we it's required or our show is shit, right,
- 48:45Speaker 1: Like what are you guys talking about this last week?
- 48:48Speaker 1: And it was trash? Y'all never addressed it again, Like yeah, right,
- 48:51Speaker 1: but what you just said is the bar of this
- 48:54Speaker 1: whole thing. The nuance doesn't exist anymore. It's all extreme
- 49:00Speaker 1: or not. When I was a kid and Reagan was
- 49:03Speaker 1: the president, my mom did not agree with his politics,
- 49:07Speaker 1: but her friends at work that did, they weren't beefing
- 49:10Speaker 1: because there's points and platforms that political people campaign on,
- 49:16Speaker 1: and for most of those they're extreme because that's how
- 49:19Speaker 1: they get their BaseT. But in the middle there used
- 49:23Speaker 1: to be shit that everybody agreed was good. Yes, that
- 49:27Speaker 1: does not exist anymore. So you bring up the vaccine.
- 49:30Speaker 1: We're interviewing an epidemiologist, right. She can tell you, without
- 49:37Speaker 1: any hesitation, straight to your face, that we all should
- 49:40Speaker 1: have got vaccinated. That does not mean that one hundred
- 49:43Speaker 1: percent of people that get vaccinated will live long, healthy lives.
- 49:47Speaker 1: But that's how it would be dissected. One hundred people
- 49:51Speaker 1: got vaccinated, seventy of them got sick, passed away, whatever,
- 49:55Speaker 1: And now that's the vaccine's fault, and that's just not
- 49:58Speaker 1: how any vaccine. I think the problem with that back
- 50:01Speaker 1: from yeah, you're right, I think the problem with the
- 50:04Speaker 1: vaccine was that it was introduced as like an end all,
- 50:07Speaker 1: be all, like what you get this, You're good, and
- 50:08Speaker 1: then they kept introducing more shots, and then on top
- 50:11Speaker 1: of that, they were withholding the fact that if you
- 50:14Speaker 1: already had COVID, that it was actually better than getting
- 50:17Speaker 1: the vaccine. Let me let me make sure that I
- 50:20Speaker 1: paint this picture with you, Kevin. Yeah, the political landscape
- 50:24Speaker 1: of the country at that time was that every single
- 50:27Speaker 1: thing that made headlines had to be politicized and sold.
- 50:30Speaker 1: And it still is. That just a problem. So like
- 50:34Speaker 1: to me, like I would I got vaccinated, but I
- 50:38Speaker 1: was like, I'm not getting boosted, like at all. I'm
- 50:40Speaker 1: straight not getting boosted. I've had COVID fucking twice. I'm vaccinated.
- 50:45Speaker 1: I'm good. But my kid who's sixteen, is like, dad's
- 50:49Speaker 1: a trumper, he's an anti vaxxer. And I'm like, what
- 50:53Speaker 1: do you mean, I'm a healthy thirty you're all so reasonable? Yeah, right,
- 50:58Speaker 1: most people aren't reason And I don't know when that
- 51:02Speaker 1: part happened. That's my I think it happened. I think
- 51:06Speaker 1: Trump is who really turned up each side. Now you
- 51:08Speaker 1: see why I don't rock with buddy. Yeah, that's Trump.
- 51:13Speaker 1: Trump definitely did that. And I think that like he
- 51:17Speaker 1: made it to where he made everything tribal, and it
- 51:20Speaker 1: was already tribal, he was already tribal, but he made
- 51:23Speaker 1: it crazy different. Yeah, and and I just think that, like,
- 51:26Speaker 1: uh yeah, I don't know, man, I just we're in
- 51:29Speaker 1: a place where politically, like each side is bat shit
- 51:32Speaker 1: crazy at times. You know, I can I can say
- 51:36Speaker 1: Joe Biden has done some good ship. I don't say
- 51:37Speaker 1: he's done some bad ship. But you should be able
- 51:39Speaker 1: to say that. You should be critical of anybody who's
- 51:42Speaker 1: in charge the problem, especially that scene. You should be
- 51:45Speaker 1: hyper critical, right, Like I voted for Joe Biden. I
- 51:48Speaker 1: also think he's like not a great president. Now, is
- 51:50Speaker 1: he a better president than Trump would have been on
- 51:53Speaker 1: most things? Yes, on the things that are most important
- 51:56Speaker 1: to me. I want to say this too, because you
- 51:58Speaker 1: said something. I don't want the narrative to get out
- 51:59Speaker 1: there the wrong way. Okay, we watched you and me,
- 52:04Speaker 1: we watched the presidential election in twenty sixteen. Yeah, I
- 52:07Speaker 1: voted for Bernie Sanders. Yeah, yes, And I want to
- 52:10Speaker 1: make sure that you said that because you said aiden
- 52:13Speaker 1: your son thought that you might be a Trump or
- 52:15Speaker 1: something like that. Kevin is not a Trump or we
- 52:17Speaker 1: will no, no, no no, no, no no no. I mean
- 52:18Speaker 1: I voted for Joe Biden, and I hate Joe Biden.
- 52:21Speaker 1: Nobody listening might think like that. Listen, Joe Biden was
- 52:24Speaker 1: the worst candidate that the Democrats ran, and I still
- 52:26Speaker 1: voted for his I know, I know, but I want
- 52:29Speaker 1: to make sure people out there listening know that you
- 52:31Speaker 1: never voted for Trump at all. That was no, of
- 52:34Speaker 1: course no. But I just think that like, for example,
- 52:37Speaker 1: like if Trump does something good when he was president,
- 52:41Speaker 1: if he did something good, be like, oh yeah, I
- 52:44Speaker 1: agree with this. That doesn't mean you agree with him
- 52:46Speaker 1: or you're a Republican or you love him, right, And
- 52:49Speaker 1: then it's that part, right, it's people subscribed to him,
- 52:56Speaker 1: the person, right, it's the leader who couldn't It's like
- 52:59Speaker 1: the it's like the Kanye shit. But just you know,
- 53:02Speaker 1: for white people, I had people like DM and me
- 53:04Speaker 1: in defense of this. They met No. I'm like yo,
- 53:07Speaker 1: I'm like yo, I know you and your kids crazy.
- 53:09Speaker 1: You're upset with me because I said something about this man.
- 53:12Speaker 1: That's true that you've never met, that doesn't care about you,
- 53:15Speaker 1: that you don't know, like people really really subscribe to
- 53:19Speaker 1: him on like a zealot. I think that the Trump
- 53:21Speaker 1: thing got so out of hand that it got everyone
- 53:24Speaker 1: else so much out of character that now if you're
- 53:28Speaker 1: on the conservative side of the aisle, now you can
- 53:32Speaker 1: point at the other aisle and be like, well, you
- 53:35Speaker 1: guys did this. You guys purposely like the Hunter Biden
- 53:40Speaker 1: shit is kind of like a black eye on media
- 53:42Speaker 1: because they purposely withheld a real story collectively Twitter, Facebook,
- 53:49Speaker 1: New York Times came out in admitted it. It's and
- 53:52Speaker 1: like the left shouldn't be doing that, right, we would
- 53:55Speaker 1: we know one should be doing nobody. But what I'm
- 53:57Speaker 1: saying is like Trump was so crazy that it really
- 54:00Speaker 1: felt like if he gets re elected, we don't know
- 54:03Speaker 1: what's going to happen, it can get bad. That it
- 54:07Speaker 1: made everyone else stooped to his level. Yeah, and now
- 54:13Speaker 1: everyone's hands are dirty. Yeah, now that on the right,
- 54:17Speaker 1: once he showed that there was no line he wouldn't cross.
- 54:21Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying. So it's like now it's like, Okay,
- 54:24Speaker 1: I mean I hope that obviously, you know, there's somebody
- 54:29Speaker 1: who runs besides Joe Biden. That's you know, younger and
- 54:34Speaker 1: more able. What up, y'all, We gotta stop the interview
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- 55:38Speaker 1: get back to the interview. What you think about Gavin Newsom.
- 55:41Speaker 1: I think I lived here and it was terrible. So
- 55:43Speaker 1: I don't know, man, I don't think. I don't I'm
- 55:45Speaker 1: not sure Gavin Newsom will be the guy gotten Yeah, yeah, yeah,
- 55:48Speaker 1: for sure. But Gavin Newsom also like destroyed like most
- 55:51Speaker 1: small businesses in California, Like all the restaurants I was
- 55:54Speaker 1: going to, they're all closed, and it was all kind
- 55:57Speaker 1: of and you look like Florida's death rates were not
- 56:01Speaker 1: any I think if it's a Newsom verse DeSantis, Newsom
- 56:04Speaker 1: is gonna have a hard time in that debate. Well,
- 56:08Speaker 1: I would like it to be one of the things
- 56:10Speaker 1: that I will say. I would rather it be them
- 56:12Speaker 1: too than Trump and who yes, yes, as long as
- 56:15Speaker 1: Trump is not in the cards. Literally anything else more damaging.
- 56:22Speaker 1: I just think it sucks because, like you would think
- 56:24Speaker 1: Kamala Harris would have taken the opportunity to like be
- 56:28Speaker 1: the next person, but like she's not gonna win. She's
- 56:33Speaker 1: kind of faded to the background. For the truth is,
- 56:36Speaker 1: like I said, these media awards, now that we're playing
- 56:38Speaker 1: this media game, we understand exactly how media works and
- 56:42Speaker 1: how it shapes optics around people. You know, I went
- 56:46Speaker 1: from loving Kamala to despising her, to loving her and
- 56:52Speaker 1: cheering for her to despising her, and I realized looking
- 56:55Speaker 1: back on all that, I'm like, Okay, so when she
- 56:56Speaker 1: got elected, this was great, and then she was like
- 56:59Speaker 1: imprisoning black people's doing that before she got a let
- 57:02Speaker 1: But you know, I'm trying to say, I'm trying to
- 57:03Speaker 1: tell the story about how no, no no, no, I mean
- 57:06Speaker 1: that she becomes the VP, and then it's like, oh,
- 57:08Speaker 1: that's why it's important to have nuanced conversations. And then
- 57:13Speaker 1: this is why there's a show called Breaking Points on YouTube.
- 57:16Speaker 1: It's like a kind of like an old school conservative
- 57:18Speaker 1: young dude and an old school like liberal lady. And
- 57:21Speaker 1: the shows like they just do the news and then
- 57:24Speaker 1: at the end they each give their take, so like
- 57:26Speaker 1: if you want to watch like the their opinion on something,
- 57:30Speaker 1: they'll find one thing to kind of like. But it's like,
- 57:33Speaker 1: like you said, the media is weaponized in such a
- 57:35Speaker 1: crazy way. Now to do they find the middle ground? Yeah,
- 57:38Speaker 1: or they just agree to disagree, But which is Okay?
- 57:41Speaker 1: You were saying something though, the way the media space
- 57:45Speaker 1: is right now in our with with the opportunity that
- 57:48Speaker 1: we have with Civic Cipher, in the conversations that we
- 57:52Speaker 1: can have, we understand that we both kind of share
- 57:55Speaker 1: similar views, but we also recognize that there are other
- 57:58Speaker 1: people we call them brothers and sisters and we mean
- 58:01Speaker 1: that who may not agree with us, but we have
- 58:04Speaker 1: to get a message to them in a meaningful way
- 58:08Speaker 1: that they will receive them. And war fire and Brimstone
- 58:11Speaker 1: is not going to do that. That's why. You know,
- 58:13Speaker 1: it's a topic that I think like people, and I'm
- 58:16Speaker 1: obviously pro choice, but how dare you no? But this
- 58:22Speaker 1: is the thing, right, is like if someone if someone
- 58:25Speaker 1: isn't pro choice, that means that they literally think that
- 58:29Speaker 1: abortion is murder. So if they literally think that, then
- 58:34Speaker 1: you have to respect that they don't want it to happen.
- 58:37Speaker 1: But the problem is is if someone says that they
- 58:40Speaker 1: are against abortion, then they all of a sudden they
- 58:43Speaker 1: hate women, you know what I'm saying. But the problem
- 58:47Speaker 1: is what you said though most of the people that
- 58:49Speaker 1: come out on the other side of it. Because if
- 58:51Speaker 1: I'm going to approach you, let's talk about the vaccine. Right.
- 58:54Speaker 1: If I'm going to approach you as anti vaccine or
- 58:58Speaker 1: pro If I cannot have an intelligent, simple conversation with
- 59:02Speaker 1: you on either side of it, then what am I doing?
- 59:05Speaker 1: And my thing is is I don't even think it's
- 59:06Speaker 1: worth having a conversation with people who are anti abortion
- 59:09Speaker 1: because they literally think it's murder. Yeah, so if you
- 59:12Speaker 1: think something is murder, then I get it. So I
- 59:18Speaker 1: was describing sort of the temperament of our show, and
- 59:21Speaker 1: I think that this point so I appreciate. I think
- 59:23Speaker 1: this point helps us illustrate it. If someone has, like
- 59:28Speaker 1: for instance, you mentioned the vaccine, If someone has an
- 59:32Speaker 1: opinion on what they're going to do with their body,
- 59:34Speaker 1: that sort of thing, we have to respect that, and
- 59:36Speaker 1: I get it. We of course, on the show, we
- 59:38Speaker 1: recommended that you know, community's hardest hit by COVID R
- 59:42Speaker 1: take the vaccine. We had taken the vaccine, We both
- 59:45Speaker 1: had COVID. You know, we understood sort of what we're
- 59:47Speaker 1: up against, and we did our due diligence in terms
- 59:49Speaker 1: of the research right at the time. So making those
- 59:54Speaker 1: recommendations or having those conversations were not necessarily rooted in
- 59:59Speaker 1: someone else's a pressure. Right, we have conversations on our show.
- 1:00:03Speaker 1: You know what I mean. You can have your difference
- 1:00:05Speaker 1: of political beliefs, right, and I'll allow you those beliefs
- 1:00:10Speaker 1: provided they are not rooted in my oppression. So when
- 1:00:13Speaker 1: it comes to the abortion issue, which is a woman's issue,
- 1:00:16Speaker 1: so none of us in theory should be great champions,
- 1:00:19Speaker 1: are great voices in that space. But in terms of
- 1:00:22Speaker 1: we all have women that we love in our lives,
- 1:00:24Speaker 1: and you know, we have platforms, and so we have
- 1:00:25Speaker 1: to kind of walk that line as best we can,
- 1:00:30Speaker 1: recognizing that other people have their opinions on what needs
- 1:00:35Speaker 1: to happen if a woman is pregnant and does not
- 1:00:37Speaker 1: want to have the baby. Those opinions, in theory, they
- 1:00:42Speaker 1: should only exist provided they're not rooted in the oppression
- 1:00:45Speaker 1: of some other group of people. And if you can
- 1:00:50Speaker 1: make the case that I'm pro abortion or I'm sorry
- 1:00:54Speaker 1: pro life, pro life exactly, and women look at that like, well,
- 1:00:59Speaker 1: that decision is rooted in my oppression, that that decision
- 1:01:03Speaker 1: oppresses me, It limits what it is that I can
- 1:01:06Speaker 1: do with my own body. I am a free, freestanding
- 1:01:09Speaker 1: human being endowed with consciousness from those people, though it
- 1:01:12Speaker 1: doesn't matter, it's not just her body, whatever, whatever. But
- 1:01:17Speaker 1: the thing is when we have these conversas I guess
- 1:01:20Speaker 1: what I'm saying is like what we were talking about earlier, right,
- 1:01:22Speaker 1: if like, if someone tells me that their pro pro life, like,
- 1:01:26Speaker 1: I'm not going to just assume that they're a terrible person.
- 1:01:29Speaker 1: But in terms of column is is like if like
- 1:01:32Speaker 1: if if somebody came out and said I'm pro or
- 1:01:35Speaker 1: I'm pro life, right, they automatically get this whole entire right,
- 1:01:39Speaker 1: And then that's what I'm saying. We don't have to
- 1:01:41Speaker 1: write people off. That's politics, but we too though for sure,
- 1:01:44Speaker 1: well let me let me finish. We don't have to
- 1:01:46Speaker 1: write people off for feeling how they feel. But we
- 1:01:49Speaker 1: cannot give equal footing if someone else's opinion is rooted
- 1:01:55Speaker 1: in the oppression of someone else by the nature of
- 1:01:57Speaker 1: our show, because that has been used to a press
- 1:02:00Speaker 1: black people since black people arrived on these shores, that
- 1:02:03Speaker 1: formula that format, and so we buy by the by
- 1:02:07Speaker 1: the virtue of the show that we do the nature
- 1:02:10Speaker 1: of the show. We cannot we cannot do that. So
- 1:02:12Speaker 1: if someone else has a separate opinion, we have to
- 1:02:15Speaker 1: still call them our brothers and our sisters who have
- 1:02:17Speaker 1: a different opinion. We do our best to illustrate their
- 1:02:20Speaker 1: points on our show, and oftentimes those points have value,
- 1:02:25Speaker 1: their credible points, they do not reflect the reality that
- 1:02:28Speaker 1: I mean. Listen, my thing is is if someone's religious, right, yeah, religious, great?
- 1:02:32Speaker 1: One religious is like, yo, I think that the baby's
- 1:02:35Speaker 1: being murdered, So you want me to co sign that.
- 1:02:38Speaker 1: I personally am an atheist. So I don't give a
- 1:02:40Speaker 1: fuck about none of that, you know what I'm saying.
- 1:02:42Speaker 1: I don't care like smoke them as long no, as
- 1:02:45Speaker 1: long as it's a certain obviously, even in a certain range.
- 1:02:48Speaker 1: I think the late term of bridge is crazy. But
- 1:02:52Speaker 1: I just think that like it's like it's it's kind
- 1:02:54Speaker 1: of like back to what I was saying about the
- 1:02:55Speaker 1: vaccine thing, where it's like, yo, like there's nurses who
- 1:02:59Speaker 1: are heroes during the pandemic who got fired because they
- 1:03:03Speaker 1: wouldn't get vaccinated and guess what they were, right, So
- 1:03:08Speaker 1: you're talking about something I don't know about. So there's
- 1:03:10Speaker 1: actual nurses, people who work in hospitals job. I just
- 1:03:15Speaker 1: have not come across that story myself or those there's
- 1:03:19Speaker 1: people who lost their job. Listen, I know that again
- 1:03:22Speaker 1: there's this and this is the point we're making there's
- 1:03:24Speaker 1: credible conversations, there's credible ideas and beliefs on both sides.
- 1:03:29Speaker 1: On the Black Information Network Daily podcast, it's a show
- 1:03:32Speaker 1: that I do every day. I have a maybe twice
- 1:03:34Speaker 1: a week feature that I do. It's called One More Thing.
- 1:03:37Speaker 1: So check that out at bion news dot com or
- 1:03:39Speaker 1: iHeart dot com. You'll see me. I'm the one with
- 1:03:42Speaker 1: the afro next to Katie Curic. Anyway, on that platform,
- 1:03:48Speaker 1: when I do that show, I say something that I
- 1:03:51Speaker 1: believe really works in this space. And this is sort
- 1:03:53Speaker 1: of the temperament we have on Civic Cipher as well.
- 1:03:56Speaker 1: I say, listen, I don't profess to be right. I
- 1:04:00Speaker 1: would love to hear you our listener's thoughts on this,
- 1:04:03Speaker 1: and maybe somewhere in the middle will find our way
- 1:04:05Speaker 1: together forward, our way forward together. Right. And so this
- 1:04:10Speaker 1: is kind of the formula that we have to have
- 1:04:13Speaker 1: bear in mind. On Civic Cipher. We have to take
- 1:04:17Speaker 1: a show that is talking to music programmers and ask
- 1:04:23Speaker 1: them to turn the music off for an hour a week.
- 1:04:26Speaker 1: Sometimes they bury in the middle of the night. That's fine,
- 1:04:28Speaker 1: We'll take it. But we have to convince these people
- 1:04:31Speaker 1: to let us have conversations in spaces where they don't exist.
- 1:04:35Speaker 1: And in doing that, we have to bear in mind
- 1:04:38Speaker 1: that these people's opinions, these oftentimes wealthy white men, their
- 1:04:45Speaker 1: opinions politically may differ from ours. And yet and still
- 1:04:48Speaker 1: they may listen to this show, and we need them
- 1:04:52Speaker 1: to recognize that their opinion is at least being represented.
- 1:04:56Speaker 1: It will be challenged, but it will be represented in
- 1:05:00Speaker 1: we will do our best to represent their opinion fairly,
- 1:05:03Speaker 1: and we will not be unfair. That's just the thing
- 1:05:05Speaker 1: that we do, you know. Obviously, having some sort of
- 1:05:08Speaker 1: conversation is just I feel like we do that as
- 1:05:11Speaker 1: often can we get guests. The troubling thing and I
- 1:05:14Speaker 1: hate to keep saying the word nuanced, but Kevin said it,
- 1:05:17Speaker 1: and it's important. Right. If I'm a fireman and I
- 1:05:21Speaker 1: no longer believe in the science that water puts fire out,
- 1:05:24Speaker 1: I can't be a fireman anymore. If I'm on the
- 1:05:26Speaker 1: clergy and I go to seminary and some sciencest convinces
- 1:05:29Speaker 1: me that parts of the Bible are untrue, then I
- 1:05:32Speaker 1: can't sit on the clergy anymore. If you are a
- 1:05:34Speaker 1: medical professional, doctor, nurse, and you don't believe in the
- 1:05:39Speaker 1: science of medicine, then you probably shouldn't be a nurse anymore, right,
- 1:05:43Speaker 1: your job in that space. Yeah, but the science of medicine,
- 1:05:49Speaker 1: the science of that vaccine has been changed so much
- 1:05:51Speaker 1: on the CDC websites, and there's like monoclonal antibodies and
- 1:05:56Speaker 1: there's a lot of shit that they purposely withheld in
- 1:05:59Speaker 1: some of the states that science wise. If I'm a
- 1:06:03Speaker 1: nurse and I'm like, yo, well, the science says if
- 1:06:06Speaker 1: you have had COVID then you're more safe than if
- 1:06:09Speaker 1: you get the vaccine, then you can practice. So my
- 1:06:13Speaker 1: thing is that they're right. But my thing is is,
- 1:06:16Speaker 1: like with the with the vaccine thing, just you could
- 1:06:19Speaker 1: just go through and look at the way CDC changed
- 1:06:22Speaker 1: their ship from like week to week, so the science
- 1:06:24Speaker 1: changed over and over and over. You can provide data
- 1:06:27Speaker 1: on both sides of that point, and that's wind and
- 1:06:31Speaker 1: boosted and whatever. There might have been some very harmful
- 1:06:34Speaker 1: effects to that with Kevin that were not right. No,
- 1:06:38Speaker 1: And I think that that's why it's like, Okay, like
- 1:06:40Speaker 1: this isn't a one size fits all thing. With the vaccine,
- 1:06:43Speaker 1: it wasn't a one size fits all thing, and that's
- 1:06:45Speaker 1: how it was sold to the people listen. On our show,
- 1:06:47Speaker 1: we said listen. If you are a healthy person, you
- 1:06:50Speaker 1: know whatever, you can make these decisions. If you are
- 1:06:53Speaker 1: a person, if you're elderly, if you're old, no, for sure,
- 1:06:56Speaker 1: then if you have our recommendation have been provided. Though,
- 1:07:01Speaker 1: like in all things, is the choice to do whichever
- 1:07:04Speaker 1: one you that you want it. And there's the difference
- 1:07:08Speaker 1: in saying if you are a person that's at risk,
- 1:07:12Speaker 1: you should get the vaccine versus saying no one should
- 1:07:17Speaker 1: because there might be I also think the person. That's
- 1:07:21Speaker 1: the difference of saying if you're a person at risk,
- 1:07:24Speaker 1: you should get it, as opposed to saying you have
- 1:07:27Speaker 1: to get it. Correct. That's what I said. When you
- 1:07:28Speaker 1: tell people they have to do something, they're gonna be like, wait, what, no,
- 1:07:32Speaker 1: we we had to do that. Listen now at this point,
- 1:07:36Speaker 1: it's it's different from cutting a brake, you know, thirty
- 1:07:38Speaker 1: second break, talking up a ramp into you know some
- 1:07:40Speaker 1: new you know, little baby record or something like that,
- 1:07:43Speaker 1: where you're not talking about the stakes aren't that high.
- 1:07:45Speaker 1: When you're having conversations that are life and death about
- 1:07:48Speaker 1: police killing people, for sure, political political, you can't just
- 1:07:52Speaker 1: have thods you have to. You have to, and then
- 1:07:55Speaker 1: you have to bear in mind that other people have
- 1:07:57Speaker 1: a different vantage point. This is something that I learned,
- 1:08:00Speaker 1: but had to learn even deeper lives doing this show,
- 1:08:05Speaker 1: and we feel like we are setting up a formula
- 1:08:08Speaker 1: and a template, one that will carry into Hip Hop
- 1:08:10Speaker 1: Weekly magazine, one that will carry into other spaces. On
- 1:08:12Speaker 1: the Black Information Network Daily podcast, they told you exactly
- 1:08:15Speaker 1: the temperament that I have. Where listen, somewhere in the middle,
- 1:08:19Speaker 1: we'll find our way forward. Okay, of course, you don't
- 1:08:21Speaker 1: have to be me. I'm not a trump person, I'm
- 1:08:24Speaker 1: not a Conye, you don't have to do it like me.
- 1:08:26Speaker 1: But listen, listen what I'm saying, and cooler heads will prevail.
- 1:08:30Speaker 1: There's reasonable there's logic and reason on this side of
- 1:08:35Speaker 1: the argument. And even if you don't come all the
- 1:08:37Speaker 1: way over, you'll least see if you allow me the same,
- 1:08:40Speaker 1: If you listen with open ears and recognize that I
- 1:08:43Speaker 1: am a human being endowed with consciousness from our common creator.
- 1:08:47Speaker 1: I am just like you. I want my sons to
- 1:08:50Speaker 1: watch me grow old and then bury me at the
- 1:08:52Speaker 1: end of my life. Of course, if you want that
- 1:08:54Speaker 1: and I want that, then we have more in common
- 1:08:55Speaker 1: than we have in one hundred percent of difference. And
- 1:08:58Speaker 1: so you can listen to my vantage point, my perspective,
- 1:09:01Speaker 1: my reality. I can share it with you and then
- 1:09:03Speaker 1: in the middle because I have no problem compromising. This
- 1:09:06Speaker 1: is something black people are very good at, especially in
- 1:09:09Speaker 1: this country's history. Listen, we don't need everything. We don't
- 1:09:12Speaker 1: need it, We don't need much soon. We just need
- 1:09:15Speaker 1: to keep moving in the right direction. We let our
- 1:09:18Speaker 1: brothers and sisters who are in power controlling a lot
- 1:09:20Speaker 1: more than we are at the time, catch up with
- 1:09:22Speaker 1: where we're going. You know what I mean. But we
- 1:09:24Speaker 1: have found our way through a lot of the muck
- 1:09:26Speaker 1: that this country was born out of, and civic cipher
- 1:09:30Speaker 1: I believe continues in that tradition with the help of
- 1:09:34Speaker 1: you know, our listeners, with the help of you know,
- 1:09:37Speaker 1: the people that support us along the way. Kevin you
- 1:09:40Speaker 1: included you know, uh, doctor Westenberg consults with us. Shout
- 1:09:44Speaker 1: out Chris Thompson from the Black Information Network, Shout out
- 1:09:47Speaker 1: Tony Cults from Black Information Network. Shout out you know
- 1:09:49Speaker 1: all the programs around the country that carry our show
- 1:09:52Speaker 1: and the programmers that are flirting with carrying our show
- 1:09:54Speaker 1: as well, you know, we are going to do our
- 1:09:56Speaker 1: best to continue to do right by everyone, and as
- 1:09:59Speaker 1: soon as we learn something new that conflicts with something old,
- 1:10:02Speaker 1: we will address it. And if we learn something new
- 1:10:04Speaker 1: that informs our path forward, we will do our best
- 1:10:07Speaker 1: to guide the folks that listen to us that way.
- 1:10:09Speaker 1: But you need to believe in the heart and the
- 1:10:13Speaker 1: temperament and the tone of the show in order to
- 1:10:15Speaker 1: ride this way with us. But we feel like we
- 1:10:17Speaker 1: are committing our lives to a cause that will make
- 1:10:20Speaker 1: significant changes for all of us, not just black and
- 1:10:23Speaker 1: brown people, but all of us, because we do feel
- 1:10:25Speaker 1: that our brothers and sisters from the Caucasian tribe deserve
- 1:10:30Speaker 1: to learn how to be the best version of themselves
- 1:10:32Speaker 1: right as they possibly can be. They deserve that, and
- 1:10:35Speaker 1: if we can show them what that looks like from
- 1:10:37Speaker 1: our perspective, then we feel like they welcome that too.
- 1:10:40Speaker 1: This is why we're on the air in Massachusetts and
- 1:10:44Speaker 1: you know, shoot Vermont right places that you know what
- 1:10:48Speaker 1: I'm saying, where there's not you know, Mississippi it makes sense,
- 1:10:50Speaker 1: you know Louisiana, you know New Orleans that makes sense
- 1:10:54Speaker 1: at you know, those make sense. But you know places
- 1:10:57Speaker 1: where people are really like, hey, we'd love to carry
- 1:10:59Speaker 1: the show. It's because of those type of people as well,
- 1:11:01Speaker 1: So shout out to them. If you are listening to
- 1:11:03Speaker 1: my voice, you are my sister. If you're listening to
- 1:11:05Speaker 1: my voice and my brother, we are. We are trying
- 1:11:08Speaker 1: to do something here. Support us Civic Cipher dot com,
- 1:11:11Speaker 1: b I N News dot com, hip hopwekly dot com. Well,
- 1:11:15Speaker 1: what's the instagrams for everybody? Hip Hop Weekly? Uh, Civic
- 1:11:19Speaker 1: Cipher and I am qward at Jah. Yeah, there it is.
- 1:11:25Speaker 1: I don't even think I said my name. So you're allowed,
- 1:11:27Speaker 1: you guys. You guys put everything on YouTube too, right, Yeah, yeah, yeah,
- 1:11:30Speaker 1: we're we're revamping the YouTube right now. But by the
- 1:11:32Speaker 1: time you hear this, we'll have a whole new approach
- 1:11:35Speaker 1: to our YouTube because we really want to make sure
- 1:11:37Speaker 1: that we're uh hitting people the way that that we
- 1:11:40Speaker 1: need to on that platform. We we we created a
- 1:11:42Speaker 1: radio show and it's grown beyond borders. Yeah. And if
- 1:11:46Speaker 1: you're out there selling white Lives Matter shirts, you're about
- 1:11:48Speaker 1: to get sued by Morris Just sue Kanye, just do it. No, man,
- 1:11:54Speaker 1: we if we see someone profiting, you know, I gotta
- 1:11:57Speaker 1: feel like he's gonn try to sell those shirts. Well,
- 1:11:59Speaker 1: he's got to talk to us first. Otherwise, I don't
- 1:12:01Speaker 1: think anybody wants to half. We don't want to it first,
- 1:12:03Speaker 1: well listen, we don't want to him to jump off
- 1:12:06Speaker 1: the porch. Listen, we don't want to come see us afterwards. Honestly, Well,
- 1:12:10Speaker 1: there it is. It's an excpher. Appreciate your pulling up.
- 1:12:14Speaker 1: We appreciate you bring boom