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The FBI and Black Musicians (Conspiracy! The Show Legacy Collection) · Conspiracy! The Show

0:00
Speaker 1: Hey everybody, This is Adam, host of the podcast you're
0:03
Speaker 1: about to listen to. Just a heads up. This is
0:07
Speaker 1: another episode from the Conspiracy The Show Archives. We originally
0:12
Speaker 1: recorded this in March twenty eighteen, way before David Spade
0:16
Speaker 1: murdered Connor. This episode is about the FBI and their
0:19
Speaker 1: notoriously shady treatment of black musicians. I decided to release
0:24
Speaker 1: it this week for a couple of reasons. One, we
0:27
Speaker 1: talk a.
0:27
Speaker 2: Little bit in this episode about the book Drugs as
0:31
Speaker 2: Weapons against Us the CIA War on Leftist Musicians by
0:35
Speaker 2: John Potash. We've talked about that book a bunch on
0:38
Speaker 2: this podcast actually, and next week John will be a
0:42
Speaker 2: guest on the podcast, so be on the lookout for that. Also,
0:46
Speaker 2: we kick off.
0:47
Speaker 1: This episode talking about Meek Mill. He's a rapper FYI,
0:52
Speaker 1: and there's a documentary about the very thing we mention
0:56
Speaker 1: about him on this show coming out later this week.
0:59
Speaker 1: It's called Free Me, and you should for sure watch it.
1:02
Speaker 1: But until all that happens, travel back in time to
1:06
Speaker 1: March twenty eighteen and listen to Connor and I talk
1:09
Speaker 1: about the FBI and black musicians. Such fun times. Thanks everybody,
1:15
Speaker 1: we love you. Let's get to the show.
1:27
Speaker 3: Welcome to Conspiracy the Show with your hosts Adam Todd
1:33
Speaker 3: Brown and Connor mix Paving.
1:49
Speaker 1: So all right, I guess we'll start over. Hey, everybody,
1:53
Speaker 1: Welcome to Conspiracy the Show. I'm Adam Todd Brown, I'm
1:56
Speaker 1: Conomy Sped And we definitely didn't just do that already.
2:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're The renovations here at the Unpop Studio have
2:04
Speaker 3: have thrown a little monkey ranch into the opening. But
2:06
Speaker 3: here we are.
2:07
Speaker 1: They are wreaking some havoc, but we're powering through. How's
2:10
Speaker 1: it going, man, going?
2:11
Speaker 3: All right? It's tired. Which is the best way to
2:15
Speaker 3: discuss conspiracy theories, I think is after a long night.
2:19
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, for sure. I think by the time this
2:21
Speaker 1: goes up, you are on the road, I.
2:25
Speaker 3: Think, so, yeah, probably, yeah, I'll probably.
2:27
Speaker 1: We'll be very close to it.
2:28
Speaker 3: So, so if you're up when I'm sleeping on a
2:30
Speaker 3: Greyhound bus with Keith Carey and Tom guys, just eating
2:34
Speaker 3: like gas station protein bars I stole in the in
2:36
Speaker 3: the middle of nowhere.
2:37
Speaker 1: Oh, touring is fun.
2:39
Speaker 3: Oh it's a good time. Man.
2:40
Speaker 1: Yeah. I had to take a nine hour bus ride
2:44
Speaker 1: somehow from Minneapolis to Chicago. It took nine hours, oh
2:47
Speaker 1: overnight after I had a show in Minneapolis, and man,
2:51
Speaker 1: I smelled so fucking bad. Oh yeah, about halfway through
2:55
Speaker 1: that bus trip, I was I felt like a real
2:58
Speaker 1: disservice to the people around me.
3:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've I've taken some pretty nuts of greyhounds. The
3:04
Speaker 3: the worst one, my first one I took was twenty
3:06
Speaker 3: four hours to Portland both ways, and I fucking on
3:11
Speaker 3: the way back. This dude gets on and he's wearing
3:13
Speaker 3: like just like he just looks like a feral human being.
3:16
Speaker 3: And he's got a box at hammers, like a cardboard
3:18
Speaker 3: box full of liquor and hammers, and he just starts
3:20
Speaker 3: putting placing the hammers around his area, like one on
3:24
Speaker 3: the window, he's got one in the cup holder, he's
3:26
Speaker 3: got one of the seats, you know. And he just
3:28
Speaker 3: like gets off and doesn't get back on. And it
3:30
Speaker 3: was like, does anyone know where he went? And I
3:32
Speaker 3: was like, oh, he went that way, but I'm not
3:33
Speaker 3: gonna tell him that. I want to say, actually, this dude,
3:35
Speaker 3: and then he goes in his box and he's like, yeah,
3:37
Speaker 3: this guy had like a little like plastic jug of
3:39
Speaker 3: you know, the knob Creek whisky, or whatever, and he
3:42
Speaker 3: just like takes this box of hammers and fucking booze
3:45
Speaker 3: and just throws it out and was like, all right,
3:47
Speaker 3: too too on our way.
3:48
Speaker 1: I didn't know.
3:49
Speaker 3: The one the best one ever is when this guy
3:51
Speaker 3: he's kind of like he's kind of slow. I guess
3:53
Speaker 3: like he wasn't like he was just kind of like
3:56
Speaker 3: a like a dumb guy. And he like he's like
3:59
Speaker 3: getting off and he's got like twenty bucks for food,
4:01
Speaker 3: and like we get off with this like little travel
4:03
Speaker 3: plaza and there's like a McDonald's at a subway and
4:05
Speaker 3: a taco bell, you know, and a Checkers or whatever,
4:08
Speaker 3: and he's like looking, he's like overwhelmed by the embarrassment
4:11
Speaker 3: of options. He's like do I fucking do I?
4:13
Speaker 1: What do I do?
4:13
Speaker 3: And he he can't decide where to eat and he's
4:15
Speaker 3: like thinking about it and talking out loud to himself
4:17
Speaker 3: about it for like ten minutes while everyone's like getting
4:19
Speaker 3: off and going and we all get food. We get
4:21
Speaker 3: back in the bus, he's sitting near me and again
4:22
Speaker 3: he's not there, and they're like, way know where he went?
4:24
Speaker 3: And I feel kind of bad and I was like, yeah,
4:25
Speaker 3: I don no, no, he's getting food or whatever. They're like,
4:27
Speaker 3: we gotta go. I mean, we have to leave. So
4:30
Speaker 3: we pull out into the street and then he comes
4:32
Speaker 3: running up with two hot dogs and then he's running
4:35
Speaker 3: and as he's run, he's running in front of the
4:37
Speaker 3: bus in traffic, trying to stop it and get back on.
4:39
Speaker 3: And as he's running and banging on the bus with
4:41
Speaker 3: his hot dogs, his pants fall down.
4:43
Speaker 1: So he's just like pants lives with too.
4:46
Speaker 3: He drops like one of the hot dogs, you know,
4:48
Speaker 3: and he's he's just like ah, and the way they
4:50
Speaker 3: fucking open the door and they're like, dude, you can't
4:52
Speaker 3: be doing that, and he's like he's trying to get
4:54
Speaker 3: his odd dog and chip back. It was fucking it
4:56
Speaker 3: was sad man I was. I was on one in
4:59
Speaker 3: uh in Oklaho Ho that had fucking straight up neo
5:02
Speaker 3: Nazis on the bus. It was like a it was
5:04
Speaker 3: a very mixed bus, just like you know, like the
5:07
Speaker 3: culturally and like there's a little bit of everybody, but
5:10
Speaker 3: there was a contingent of straight up Nazis on the bus.
5:14
Speaker 1: Nice.
5:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, they were, uh, they were pretty close to me
5:17
Speaker 3: and they.
5:17
Speaker 1: Just yeah, yeah, touring is always tense, but at least
5:22
Speaker 1: we're not black musicians touring in the forties and fifties.
5:25
Speaker 3: Connor, I'll say.
5:26
Speaker 1: That's what this episode is about. What a fucking great
5:29
Speaker 1: segue that was? That was?
5:30
Speaker 3: That is? That is you really put in your ten
5:32
Speaker 3: thousand hours of podcast.
5:33
Speaker 1: I didn't even write that down. You just fucking just
5:36
Speaker 1: riff that ship. Yeah, that just came to mind.
5:39
Speaker 3: We usually prescript the entire show and then I, yeah,
5:42
Speaker 3: I just write three words of Alex shoones and then
5:44
Speaker 3: you know, Astrisk trails off half heartedly Asterisk you know.
5:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know if people realize that, but it's true.
5:51
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is not only the research, but the rehearsal
5:54
Speaker 3: process takes weeks.
5:56
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, it's like an episode of SNL but harder.
5:59
Speaker 3: Yeah, I can't. It's only five dollars a month. I mean,
6:01
Speaker 3: I'm really really killing myself doing this.
6:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's a lot of fucking work and we
6:06
Speaker 1: should stop, probably, but let's power on through this episode.
6:10
Speaker 3: I mean, nothing else. People got to know what's going
6:11
Speaker 3: on with Meek Mill. I'm all right, exactly, seg that
6:14
Speaker 3: ship right back in and by the way, welcome to
6:16
Speaker 3: Music Month.
6:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it was going to be Courtney Love Month.
6:20
Speaker 1: But yeah, we we chickened out. But we do have
6:23
Speaker 1: two Courtney Love related episodes coming soon.
6:26
Speaker 3: We got Courtney Courtney Love Fortnite.
6:29
Speaker 1: Yes, with special guest Travis Clark from the Heart Shaped Pod.
6:32
Speaker 1: Yeah podcast, So let's talk about the FBI and black musicians.
6:36
Speaker 3: Yeah, let's some more light fun this.
6:40
Speaker 1: As you you referenced not too long ago, you mentioned
6:43
Speaker 1: Meek Mill. This was going to be an episode just
6:47
Speaker 1: about freeing Meek Mill. Yeah, because there it's not the
6:51
Speaker 1: problem is it's not even a conspiracy. What's happening to him?
6:54
Speaker 3: Oh no at all.
6:55
Speaker 1: No, it's just one person who is the judge in
6:58
Speaker 1: his case, who's a woman, I forget her name, but
7:02
Speaker 1: she is really making his life. Hell yeah, he's in
7:07
Speaker 1: prison right now. I think he's got Judge Drake. I
7:11
Speaker 1: think he's got like four years, and she sentenced him
7:15
Speaker 1: to four years in prison, even though the prosecution and
7:18
Speaker 1: his probation officer both recommended no jail time. And there's
7:23
Speaker 1: all these allegations that she's been pressuring him to sign
7:27
Speaker 1: with a local Philadelphia music manager named Charlie Mack and
7:32
Speaker 1: leave Rockefeller Records. And she also at one point suggested
7:37
Speaker 1: he do a cover of On Bended Knee by Boys
7:41
Speaker 1: to Men and give her a shout out at the end.
7:45
Speaker 3: So this is like fucking like that movie where she
7:48
Speaker 3: kidnaps the writer the Stephen King book kind of yeah,
7:52
Speaker 3: like that, but with a rapper where they're just like, oh,
7:54
Speaker 3: I got you under my thumb here, I really want
7:57
Speaker 3: to hear you do this work with this record label.
8:00
Speaker 1: And somehow she's been getting away with it for years,
8:03
Speaker 1: like what that book called misery.
8:06
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, misery.
8:08
Speaker 1: Yeah.
8:08
Speaker 3: On the plus side, it's been a while since we had
8:10
Speaker 3: a good rap album recorded over.
8:11
Speaker 1: The phone, that's true, not since the No Limit days. Yeah, yeah,
8:15
Speaker 1: have we had a really quality album? Yeah, it's order
8:17
Speaker 1: just from the jail house.
8:19
Speaker 3: That's always fucking great jack.
8:21
Speaker 1: I think that's what they call the phone in prison,
8:23
Speaker 1: Oh the jack, I think, so, oh, okay, something like that.
8:27
Speaker 1: I've never been to prison, but I've listened to my
8:30
Speaker 1: rap songs.
8:30
Speaker 3: Hey, ay Adam of your Wife's on the jack I'm
8:34
Speaker 3: playing check.
8:35
Speaker 1: Is Is that how prison phones work? People call you?
8:38
Speaker 3: I think so.
8:38
Speaker 1: Yeah.
8:39
Speaker 3: I think it's like being at a bar in the
8:41
Speaker 3: eighties where it's just like, hey, Hey, Peta, your fucking
8:44
Speaker 3: your daughter's on the line. Hey, yeah, I'm not here.
8:47
Speaker 3: I just left.
8:48
Speaker 1: So yeah, we were we were going to talk about
8:50
Speaker 1: Meek Mill, but I don't think there's enough there for
8:52
Speaker 1: an entire episode. But people should definitely look into that
8:57
Speaker 1: case because it is kind of a travesty of justice.
9:00
Speaker 1: I free film. Yeah, never heard of Meek Mill's song,
9:03
Speaker 1: and all I know of him is the Drake thing
9:06
Speaker 1: and Drake just dominating him via Twitter, yeah, and disk tracks.
9:11
Speaker 1: But it's a crazy case and he probably should not
9:14
Speaker 1: be in prison.
9:15
Speaker 3: No, And I like some Meek Mill tunes. I mean
9:17
Speaker 3: there is one that we used to play at Old
9:19
Speaker 3: Navy when we were stalking sure morning, and uh, nothing
9:23
Speaker 3: funnier than just like a bunch of Old Navy employees
9:25
Speaker 3: at five in the morning getting turned up to like
9:27
Speaker 3: dreams and handcuffs or whatever.
9:29
Speaker 1: That's it's called that I'm picked. Yeah that that should
9:32
Speaker 1: be an Old Navy commercial.
9:34
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was like, why don't we play this in
9:36
Speaker 3: the store during business out? I think this would be
9:40
Speaker 3: a better vibe because it's just like soft rockets, just
9:42
Speaker 3: how you move khakis. It's like the mathematically least noticeable
9:46
Speaker 3: music that they've cooked up for old Navy radio, you know.
9:50
Speaker 1: Yeah. And the the way one really clear indication that
9:55
Speaker 1: what's happening to Meek Mill is a travesty of justice
9:59
Speaker 1: is the the FBI launched an investigation on his behalf, Wow,
10:04
Speaker 1: which we're gonna we are going to get into the
10:08
Speaker 1: history of the FBI and black musicians, and it is
10:12
Speaker 1: rarely them intervening on behalf of someone else. It's usually
10:16
Speaker 1: them going, uh uh oh, that black guy's selling records,
10:20
Speaker 1: let's start following him. Yeah, So let's get into some
10:25
Speaker 1: of the more famous example and but also there there
10:28
Speaker 1: is the one other really notable instance that we talked
10:31
Speaker 1: about previously, which was the FBI investigating Tupac and Easy
10:37
Speaker 1: E for possibly having been the target of extortion plots
10:42
Speaker 1: by the Jewish Defense League, Which I think we talked
10:45
Speaker 1: about that on an episode of this show. If not,
10:49
Speaker 1: we definitely should. I mean, that sounds like something that
10:52
Speaker 1: we would have talked about. I know we talked about it.
10:55
Speaker 3: Get how they got tangled up with the Jewish Defense League,
10:57
Speaker 3: I mean, was that like the.
10:59
Speaker 1: Man the FBI files make it seem like sug Night
11:03
Speaker 1: was working with the Jewish Defense League.
11:06
Speaker 3: Man, just like the sug Night, Like I want to.
11:08
Speaker 3: I just wish I could be a fly in the
11:10
Speaker 3: wall in like one of the sug Night Legion of
11:12
Speaker 3: Doom meetings where he's just like a right, have got
11:14
Speaker 3: the Jewish Defense League and then like you know the Bloods. Yeah,
11:18
Speaker 3: the Bloods. We've got waste management for Greater Sacramento, and
11:23
Speaker 3: uh yeah, we're gonna take down you know, I don't
11:26
Speaker 3: know what's a dude, I can't think of it. I'm
11:28
Speaker 3: trying to who's to blow the whistle? Guy? Too Short?
11:30
Speaker 1: But too Short?
11:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, Yeah, there we go. I got it.
11:35
Speaker 1: I think I saw recently that like ace, like sexual
11:39
Speaker 1: misconduct allegations came out against Too Short, and it's like, no, really,
11:44
Speaker 1: have you ever heard every song he's ever released?
11:47
Speaker 3: Do you know what?
11:49
Speaker 1: Because his trademark is just really drawing out the word bitch.
11:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, he did it. He hopped on the My buddy
11:57
Speaker 3: Jamal Johnson is a rapper, and he did a song
12:01
Speaker 3: with the guy, and then they cut him off and
12:02
Speaker 3: they put Too Short on the remix, and I was like, oh,
12:04
Speaker 3: that's cool.
12:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, if you're going to be replaced by anyone, yeah,
12:09
Speaker 1: I mean I'm replaced by a legend who can barely wrap.
12:12
Speaker 3: I just like the degrees of separation between myself and
12:15
Speaker 3: too Short or getting shorter, because until then the biggest
12:18
Speaker 3: cashier I had was opening for Afroman one time in Corona.
12:23
Speaker 1: Well, now what that also means is I'm sure the
12:26
Speaker 1: FBI has looked into too Short, which means they've probably
12:30
Speaker 1: by the two or three hot method that yeah, surveillance
12:33
Speaker 1: communities use, They've probably looked into you and me.
12:36
Speaker 3: Oh, I had a thing come up. We're so like,
12:39
Speaker 3: so there's a there's like some kind of writing gate,
12:43
Speaker 3: Like you know, no Trump did the grid Iron Dinner
12:45
Speaker 3: and a buddy of mine was working for another guy
12:48
Speaker 3: that was going to write jokes for him for the
12:49
Speaker 3: grid Iron Dinner, and he was like, would you want
12:52
Speaker 3: to do it? You know, they're gonna have to do
12:53
Speaker 3: a full background checked on you, and if then if
12:55
Speaker 3: you pass all the hay up and you can just
12:57
Speaker 3: send in some jokes and you might use something, you'll
12:58
Speaker 3: get whatever X amount of dollars. And I was like, yeah, sure,
13:01
Speaker 3: because I would love to just send in the worst
13:03
Speaker 3: possible jokes and oh yeah yeah, and just try to
13:05
Speaker 3: set them up the bomb and just take that money.
13:09
Speaker 3: But uh, I got no email, so I assume I did.
13:11
Speaker 3: I guess I didn't pass the background check. But there's
13:13
Speaker 3: a few days where it's like, it's funny knowing that
13:14
Speaker 3: the FBI is like literally looking at my tweets right now,
13:18
Speaker 3: or maybe they didn't even go that far. I have
13:19
Speaker 3: no idea, but yeah, I was. I was contacted about this,
13:22
Speaker 3: and I was like, oh, of course, and if I
13:24
Speaker 3: get to meet oh yeah yeah. Keeping me and Keith
13:26
Speaker 3: talking about this, I was like, oh, we got to
13:27
Speaker 3: meet him, I would for sure like like like nut
13:30
Speaker 3: nut nut scrape, you know, with the handshake hand and
13:33
Speaker 3: then just give him like a big ball sweat handshake.
13:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, you have to, you have to.
13:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, hypothetically, that was all a joke. I'm not trying
13:39
Speaker 3: to contaminate the president with my nuts.
13:44
Speaker 1: So let's talk about what I love about the list
13:47
Speaker 1: of musicians we're going to go through that the FBI
13:50
Speaker 1: has opened files on in the past. There's some of
13:54
Speaker 1: the most innocuous names you can imagine.
13:57
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, Starry King Cole, oh the evil net King Cole.
14:05
Speaker 3: And he had one kind of sexually suggestive number about
14:09
Speaker 3: it being cold outside and other than that, seems to
14:11
Speaker 3: be a pretty upstanding citizen.
14:13
Speaker 1: And it's worth noting that most of these investigations happened
14:17
Speaker 1: as part of the co intel Pro program, which is
14:21
Speaker 1: a really infamous FBI program where they just kind of
14:24
Speaker 1: monitored everybody who seemed like they might ever get into
14:28
Speaker 1: any kind of leftist related shit in this country.
14:32
Speaker 3: That kind of sounds like a company that would make megablocks.
14:34
Speaker 1: Uh, co intel Pro, Yeah, yeah, kind of. We could
14:39
Speaker 1: do probably four episodes on co intel Pro. It's basically
14:42
Speaker 1: the MK Ultra of surveillance.
14:45
Speaker 3: It was a massive So you're photographed near a donkey,
14:49
Speaker 3: that means you're a communist.
14:50
Speaker 1: Right, And they would follow people for a year, Like
14:53
Speaker 1: the FBI must have just had unlimited resources back in
14:58
Speaker 1: the day.
14:58
Speaker 3: Oh, it's one of the certain things where you just
15:00
Speaker 3: have a blank check, like yeah, and if it's like
15:03
Speaker 3: for under the guise of national security, they're just like well, yeah,
15:07
Speaker 3: I mean, I don't know if you play this record backwards,
15:09
Speaker 3: he's telling you to like rape people. So we got
15:11
Speaker 3: to go, like, you got to spend a trillion dollars
15:13
Speaker 3: and get a bunch of dudes with like square headed,
15:16
Speaker 3: fucking haircuts to be like, it looks like he's having
15:19
Speaker 3: an affair, whatever the fuck it is.
15:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, so yeah, Nat King Cole was one of the people.
15:24
Speaker 1: Oh I and one thing I left about cointelpro In
15:27
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty four, they mailed Martin Luther King Junior a
15:31
Speaker 1: letter and suggested he commit suicide. So that's what kind
15:34
Speaker 1: of government program we're dealing with. This is not a
15:38
Speaker 1: group that intervenes to make sure sug Knight's not jabbing
15:42
Speaker 1: black musicians with aids needles. Yeah, they are. They're there
15:46
Speaker 1: to watch and try to bring people down if they
15:49
Speaker 1: can so, Nat King Cole. There's a nineteen fifty seven
15:52
Speaker 1: FBI file that includes a memo written directly to j
15:56
Speaker 1: Edgar Hoover, and interestingly enough, it's written by Mark Feldt,
16:01
Speaker 1: who was deep throat in the Watergate scandal, which we
16:05
Speaker 1: found out years and years later, and he sends this
16:08
Speaker 1: memo to j Edgar Hoover basically saying, I met with
16:12
Speaker 1: one of my top informants and he told me quote,
16:17
Speaker 1: his most pressing problem at the moment is Nat King Cole,
16:21
Speaker 1: who is presently the featured attraction at the Sands Hotel.
16:26
Speaker 1: And now that's what I mean by unlimited resources, Like,
16:28
Speaker 1: we have so many people in our pocket in the
16:32
Speaker 1: surveillance community that they're just like watching Nat King Cole, Like, yeah,
16:36
Speaker 1: I bet they'll be fine if I dedicate some time
16:39
Speaker 1: to this.
16:39
Speaker 3: If you're paranoid enough, if you can look at anybody
16:41
Speaker 3: and decide that they're a part of some conspiracy. Yeah,
16:45
Speaker 3: I mean, if this is your job to just find
16:47
Speaker 3: something after a while of not finding something, you're just
16:51
Speaker 3: gonna make something right, you know, you're just gonna be like,
16:54
Speaker 3: I don't know, I don't trust him, Like.
16:57
Speaker 1: Well, it's like people say, if you follow if a
16:59
Speaker 1: cop follows a car long enough, they'll find a reason
17:02
Speaker 1: to pull it over. Yea, like any minor thing. And
17:06
Speaker 1: but we we find out from the FBI files that
17:10
Speaker 1: what they were concerned about when it came to Nat
17:12
Speaker 1: King Cole was that the hotel he was performing at
17:16
Speaker 1: in Vegas had recently started letting black musicians stay in
17:20
Speaker 1: the same suites as white musicians, so they had become desegregated.
17:26
Speaker 1: And this is why the FBI, like for them, was
17:30
Speaker 1: up in arms because at the time, segregation was the
17:34
Speaker 1: way America worked.
17:36
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's like you're it's so it's so so stupid,
17:38
Speaker 3: Like you're the headliner of this residency in Vegas and
17:41
Speaker 3: you're like, but you gotta you gotta stay in the
17:43
Speaker 3: east wing of.
17:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, imagine that. It like it had to have been
17:47
Speaker 1: like that for years and years and years before that. Yeah,
17:49
Speaker 1: that's and it's not like Nat King Cole was the
17:51
Speaker 1: first really famous black musicians. So think of all the
17:54
Speaker 1: names that probably had to sleep in a fucking boiler room.
17:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, and they're like everybody, they're just going back to
18:01
Speaker 3: a cot, you know.
18:02
Speaker 1: Someone throws a bag over their head and carries them
18:04
Speaker 1: back down to the basement.
18:05
Speaker 3: While some fat prop comic is just like up in
18:08
Speaker 3: a penthouse doing blow and he's just like, ah is
18:10
Speaker 3: the life?
18:12
Speaker 1: Oh fuck the fifties, man, Yeah, what a horrible time.
18:17
Speaker 1: And so yeah, that was It seems like the FBI
18:20
Speaker 1: is just kind of an agent of not change. Like
18:25
Speaker 1: their main role in society is to make sure America
18:30
Speaker 1: stays exactly as it is. And sometimes they win and
18:33
Speaker 1: sometimes they lose and they adapt, but that always seems
18:37
Speaker 1: to be their main goal, is making sure everything stays
18:41
Speaker 1: as it is. Yeah, kind of, I mean it might
18:45
Speaker 1: be different now. I mean it's I'm sure these are
18:50
Speaker 1: way different times for the FBI, having the president being
18:55
Speaker 1: in such an adversarial position.
18:57
Speaker 3: I mean, I imagine it's a situation where they're like,
19:00
Speaker 3: let's hold on to the level of independence and power
19:04
Speaker 3: we have, and then when we see an opening, let's
19:06
Speaker 3: try to, you know, slide the Patriot Act under the
19:09
Speaker 3: door and right, come on.
19:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, because they.
19:13
Speaker 3: Just hold on to that, you know, and wait for
19:14
Speaker 3: another opportunity.
19:16
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, it's it's uh, it's creepy, but it also
19:20
Speaker 1: makes me kind of want to work for the FBI.
19:22
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like there's never been a who's okay they wanted
19:26
Speaker 3: the FBI. You got everybody's emails, who who's your who's
19:29
Speaker 3: your guilty play? Like who are you? Just like I
19:31
Speaker 3: want to see what cheer is like googling, you know,
19:34
Speaker 3: like who do you look for?
19:35
Speaker 1: Oh, I mean Trump obviously, but I don't know. I'd
19:41
Speaker 1: like to see what Wilmer Valderrama's up to, Like he
19:45
Speaker 1: just he just fucks everyone in Hollywood does and I
19:49
Speaker 1: want to know why.
19:50
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, you just want to want to read his
19:54
Speaker 3: text messages and what his game is, Like I.
19:56
Speaker 1: Want to see what he's saying to these women to
19:59
Speaker 1: bridge the g between that seventies show and now when
20:02
Speaker 1: he's done absolutely nothing.
20:04
Speaker 3: But I mean, I guess he kind of hasn't really
20:06
Speaker 3: had that big thing.
20:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean he's a handsome dude, he's the guy. Yeah,
20:10
Speaker 1: no denying that.
20:11
Speaker 3: For me, I think it's like I want to read
20:13
Speaker 3: all of Glenn Danzig's yelp reviews. I want to find
20:16
Speaker 3: out what he's up to on porn Hub. Okay, I
20:19
Speaker 3: want to. I want to see like group ons he's purchasing.
20:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, i'd be down to see anyone's porn history.
20:25
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, that.
20:26
Speaker 1: Would be fine with me. And I'm down with anyone
20:29
Speaker 1: seeing my internet porn history because I don't really fuck
20:31
Speaker 1: with internet porn. I know.
20:32
Speaker 3: I was shocked to find this out. I'm pretty open
20:34
Speaker 3: about my my probably too open about my the porn
20:38
Speaker 3: that I watch on mean boys and yeah. I'll get
20:40
Speaker 3: tweets sometimes and be.
20:41
Speaker 1: Like, how the fuck did you?
20:42
Speaker 3: Oh that's right? Yeah yeah, or people will try to
20:44
Speaker 3: make fun of me and I was like, I told you,
20:46
Speaker 3: it's yeah, you didn't discover a secret here.
20:50
Speaker 1: That's why I was When I was writing for Cracked especially,
20:53
Speaker 1: I was so open about writing about really awful things
20:56
Speaker 1: I've done, like smoking crack.
20:57
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, He's like, I'm not going to have someone.
20:59
Speaker 1: Fucking find that out and reveal it ten years later
21:01
Speaker 1: and try to embarrass me. Fuck that. I no, no,
21:06
Speaker 1: fuck it.
21:07
Speaker 3: Yeah.
21:08
Speaker 1: So let's talk about another really dangerous, threatening, legendarily menacing
21:15
Speaker 1: musician that the FBI followed, and that's Louis Armstrong.
21:20
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, man.
21:21
Speaker 1: The guy who sang, what a wonderful world?
21:23
Speaker 3: What's in those cheeks? Probably refugees.
21:28
Speaker 1: He for most of his career was completely apolitical, didn't
21:33
Speaker 1: dabble in politics, didn't speak out about it. But when
21:36
Speaker 1: the Brown versus Board of Education thing happened, which was
21:40
Speaker 1: the big lawsuit about desegregation, and eventually like the military
21:44
Speaker 1: gets called in, it was a whole thing.
21:46
Speaker 3: Yeah.
21:47
Speaker 1: He said this to a reporter in the midst of
21:49
Speaker 1: that it's getting almost so bad a colored man hasn't
21:53
Speaker 1: got any country. And then he also criticized Eisenhower for
21:57
Speaker 1: being two faced and having no guts. Harsh words, very
22:02
Speaker 1: harsh faced, no guts.
22:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've said worse things about people that have done.
22:08
Speaker 1: Nothing exactly, but that was enough to get the FBI
22:14
Speaker 1: on his tail. He had also at this point agreed
22:17
Speaker 1: to tour the Soviet Union as a cultural ambassador for
22:20
Speaker 1: the United States and backed out of that. This is
22:24
Speaker 1: another quote. The way they're treating my people in the South.
22:27
Speaker 1: The government can go to hell.
22:29
Speaker 3: Oh man, I'll tell you what. The president can kick rocks.
22:34
Speaker 3: Whoa Louie, Louie, tone it.
22:39
Speaker 1: Down, he drew.
22:44
Speaker 3: That's one that ever we could do. But it's still
22:46
Speaker 3: fun to do.
22:47
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, super fun and I hate I've mentioned on
22:50
Speaker 1: this show before that I can only listen to that
22:53
Speaker 1: song if it's accompanied by scenes of utter devastation and destruction,
22:58
Speaker 1: Like anytime I see it sentimental shit, I'm like, fuck you,
23:02
Speaker 1: I what a lazy choice.
23:03
Speaker 3: But I want to see like Fukushima, like yeah, and
23:06
Speaker 3: shit like that.
23:07
Speaker 1: Every time there's famine under that, I'm like, yeah, that's
23:09
Speaker 1: the good choice.
23:10
Speaker 3: See. I like the Jay Ramone version is good.
23:13
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, that's an interesting cover.
23:15
Speaker 3: It's a fun one. That's a good that's a good
23:17
Speaker 3: song for a movie.
23:18
Speaker 1: Yeah. So the the FBI, interestingly enough, didn't really even
23:23
Speaker 1: have to investigate Louis Armstrong for doing this, because, according
23:26
Speaker 1: to their files, as soon as it happened, he was
23:29
Speaker 1: speaking to a local news reporter. And this is the
23:32
Speaker 1: forties or fifties or I think it was fifties. Yeah,
23:35
Speaker 1: and he was speaking to a local news reporter. And
23:37
Speaker 1: this was way pre internet obviously. So as soon as
23:41
Speaker 1: this news story hits the local press, people start clipping
23:47
Speaker 1: clipping it out of the newspaper and just mailing it
23:49
Speaker 1: to the FBI.
23:51
Speaker 3: Who are these nerds? I hate you nerds that just
23:53
Speaker 3: like like, oh, like like I'm gonna find FCC violations
23:57
Speaker 3: and say yeah in like oh this said they said jackass,
24:01
Speaker 3: but it wasn't clearly the referring to a donkey. So
24:03
Speaker 3: you better find k rot like you fucking nerds with
24:06
Speaker 3: nothing better to do than just like do the government's
24:08
Speaker 3: job for them, the thing that you're supposed to be
24:10
Speaker 3: paying them to do, or what the stupid thing they
24:12
Speaker 3: shouldn't even be doing, and you're just clipping newspapers to
24:15
Speaker 3: get with these. It's like you get a break on
24:18
Speaker 3: your taxes every time you out a black musician for
24:21
Speaker 3: having an opinion. You don't get like a voucher or rebate.
24:24
Speaker 3: You don't the troops are going to protect your house
24:27
Speaker 3: extra hard. It's fucking stupid.
24:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's crazy, stupid, but that was the fucking climate
24:33
Speaker 1: back then, they said. Even some of the letters went
24:36
Speaker 1: so far as to say, hey, this guy might be
24:37
Speaker 1: a communist just because he was upset that the government
24:41
Speaker 1: didn't want to let black kids into the same school
24:43
Speaker 1: as white kids.
24:44
Speaker 3: You're singing about a better world. You gotta be a community, yeah, exactly.
24:48
Speaker 1: So what's really interesting about this is we mentioned that
24:51
Speaker 1: Louis Armstrong was mostly just not political for the entirety
24:56
Speaker 1: of his career. Yeah, but at the time this incident,
25:00
Speaker 1: when it happened, the FBI had already been following him
25:03
Speaker 1: for ten years. What they've been keeping tabs on him.
25:07
Speaker 1: They had a huge file built up just basically on
25:10
Speaker 1: the grounds that he was a popular black musician and
25:14
Speaker 1: in a position that he could possibly at some point
25:17
Speaker 1: start influencing people for the better or something like that.
25:22
Speaker 3: Yeah, and they're like, oh, he's got a platform. Yeah,
25:25
Speaker 3: I are like, keep an eye on this one.
25:27
Speaker 1: Yeah. It's so fucking weird. I mean, it's not weird,
25:30
Speaker 1: Like I wonder what it was.
25:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, who knows.
25:34
Speaker 2: Uh.
25:34
Speaker 1: Duke Ellington another, I've never a musician, I've never associated
25:39
Speaker 1: with government zoo threatening to bodgers deserve. Yeah, there's what's
25:46
Speaker 1: interesting about this, and this is from an article on
25:51
Speaker 1: It's a really a fascinating article on the Jazz Times. Yeah,
25:55
Speaker 1: called the FBI's Disturbing History of uh Surveilling Black Music
26:00
Speaker 1: something like that. Everyone should go read it because it's
26:02
Speaker 1: it covers a lot of ground as far as the
26:05
Speaker 1: FBI tailing jazz musicians in the forties and fifties. And
26:10
Speaker 1: they point out that the Duke Ellington FBI file is
26:15
Speaker 1: like a beat by beat alternate history of his life
26:19
Speaker 1: because it starts in nineteen thirty eight, which that year
26:23
Speaker 1: he met fellow musician Billy Strehorn, which is a historic
26:28
Speaker 1: moment in his progression as a musician, and that's what
26:32
Speaker 1: most historians would note about that year. The FBI file
26:36
Speaker 1: only notes that that year he performed for the All
26:39
Speaker 1: Harlem Youth Conference, a progressive gathering that was also attended
26:43
Speaker 1: by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt in nine a trouble maker
26:48
Speaker 1: exactly in nineteen forty three.
26:51
Speaker 3: Did I ever tell you, speaking of first Ladies, I
26:53
Speaker 3: ever told to serve by my magician friend in Michelle Obama?
26:56
Speaker 1: No, please, do I.
26:57
Speaker 3: Have a magician buddy? I want to name him, but
27:00
Speaker 3: he uh so, you know, it's a good story being
27:05
Speaker 3: a magician. Yeah, I mean maybe. Actually, I don't know
27:08
Speaker 3: a jot. I don't know if he I don't know
27:09
Speaker 3: how public he is with his story. He told me,
27:11
Speaker 3: and he's like, Okay, in the morning of this one
27:14
Speaker 3: day he had this one day, we're in the morning,
27:15
Speaker 3: he performed for this gathering of like adult babies, like
27:19
Speaker 3: like grown ups that like just like dress like in diapers,
27:22
Speaker 3: and yeah, like fucking like, you know, they wanted to
27:24
Speaker 3: watch a magic show and they're pretending to react like
27:26
Speaker 3: kids and then they like fuck and stuff. Right, very creepy.
27:30
Speaker 3: He tells me that the guy who paid him literally
27:32
Speaker 3: shit his pants while he was paying him for the gig,
27:35
Speaker 3: all right. And then later that evening he performs at
27:38
Speaker 3: a benefit in the Hollywood Hills attended by Michelle Obama.
27:42
Speaker 3: In the same twenty four hour period, the same day,
27:45
Speaker 3: the same sunrise, he fucking performs for a man who
27:49
Speaker 3: shit himself while handing him to check and the first
27:51
Speaker 3: Lady of the United States.
27:53
Speaker 1: That is insane.
27:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's that's that's showbiz, folks.
27:56
Speaker 1: I want to meet that guy now.
27:57
Speaker 3: He's a great dude.
27:59
Speaker 1: So also in nineteen forty three, going back to Duke
28:03
Speaker 1: Ellington's alternate timeline, this is the year he forms one
28:06
Speaker 1: of the most famous iterations of his band and it's
28:10
Speaker 1: a really historic year for him, and the only thing
28:13
Speaker 1: in his FBI file for that year he appeared at
28:16
Speaker 1: a tribute to Negro Serviceman concert how dare you?
28:21
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're gonna try to get the Tuskegee Airman some
28:24
Speaker 3: Thiland hall, you know, and they're like I do.
28:29
Speaker 1: The next year, which was the year one of his
28:31
Speaker 1: most famous albums was released, the FBI file notes that
28:35
Speaker 1: he performed at a benefit to ban poll taxes, which
28:38
Speaker 1: I want to look into these more. They were.
28:42
Speaker 3: Oh right, come on.
28:45
Speaker 1: They poll taxes were apparently a surcharge that local communities
28:50
Speaker 1: would use to keep black people from voting.
28:53
Speaker 3: Doesn't sound like something that, Yeah, that sounds like present.
28:57
Speaker 1: Conspiracy theory nonsense to me. And so he performs at
29:02
Speaker 1: a benefit to ban those and the FBI doesn't like that.
29:08
Speaker 1: And at one point in Duke Ellington's career, he's asked
29:14
Speaker 1: by an interviewer why he never did anything in the
29:19
Speaker 1: name of civil rights or social justice, and he got
29:22
Speaker 1: really angry and walked out of the room and then
29:25
Speaker 1: came back and was like, I've done all of these things,
29:27
Speaker 1: I do all these benefit concerts. I've done so much.
29:30
Speaker 1: And it's I guess not ironic. It's fitting that the
29:34
Speaker 1: only people paying attention were the FBI, Like they have
29:38
Speaker 1: a detailed history of all his activism and at the
29:42
Speaker 1: end of his career, black people are like, why didn't
29:44
Speaker 1: you do anything?
29:46
Speaker 3: And he's like, what the full white people that hate
29:48
Speaker 3: me noticed? Yeah, I fucking I would love to see
29:52
Speaker 3: this for any famous person or any anything like you
29:54
Speaker 3: know of in twenty and you know, to two thousand
29:58
Speaker 3: and six, Amasti Brown started working for Crack after he
30:01
Speaker 3: smoked crack, you know, just like every everything that like,
30:04
Speaker 3: you know, every like noted like you know, after you know,
30:07
Speaker 3: with the Camille Nan Johnny was was nominated for another
30:10
Speaker 3: the same.
30:10
Speaker 1: Year that he you know, killed a kid, like just like, yeah,
30:16
Speaker 1: I wonder it would.
30:17
Speaker 3: Have been funnier with examples.
30:18
Speaker 1: But you know, I wonder how many people we know
30:20
Speaker 1: that have FBI files. I don't know man on them.
30:24
Speaker 3: I wonder.
30:25
Speaker 1: I still wonder.
30:26
Speaker 3: Jeff Ross has played golf with Trump, so someone's definitely
30:29
Speaker 3: like googled him. Yeah, and he'll remember my name like
30:33
Speaker 3: eighty five percent of the time. So I don't know
30:35
Speaker 3: if I could say I know him right. Maybe some
30:38
Speaker 3: of the fucking cracked guys. Yeah, I could definitely see
30:42
Speaker 3: them being like they're trying to I don't know, red
30:44
Speaker 3: pill these kids into being communists with the picture based listicals.
30:48
Speaker 3: Maybe me, I don't know, that would be cool.
30:50
Speaker 1: I want to see it.
30:51
Speaker 3: Yeah, dude, ten years on FBI the official sponsor of
30:56
Speaker 3: Conspiracy the show.
30:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, how long do I have to wait before I
30:58
Speaker 1: can just file a Freedom of Information Act and requests
31:01
Speaker 1: that I don't know.
31:02
Speaker 3: I almost feel like that would be kind of like
31:03
Speaker 3: it's like googling yourself, you know, like it might be
31:06
Speaker 3: kind of hurtful, Like, oh.
31:07
Speaker 1: Man, yeah, I don't know if I want to see
31:08
Speaker 1: it that it would be.
31:11
Speaker 3: The thing you wouldn't You would have totally forgot that
31:13
Speaker 3: you did. That they would have taken it in.
31:14
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, for sure.
31:15
Speaker 3: It wouldn't be something you'd be proud of.
31:16
Speaker 1: The shoplifted gummy bears from a super X in nineteen
31:19
Speaker 1: ninety three, I did.
31:21
Speaker 3: And again in.
31:24
Speaker 1: And again in twenty seventeen. So let's talk about Jimmy Hendrix. There.
31:29
Speaker 1: There's also some stuff about Max Roach, but that was
31:32
Speaker 1: just he was a really famous bebop drummer, Yeah, and composer.
31:35
Speaker 3: Fucking great name.
31:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, Max Roach, that's a fantastic name. And what's interesting
31:40
Speaker 1: Horn you could act, you could do. That is a
31:42
Speaker 1: versatile name. What's interesting about his file is at one
31:45
Speaker 1: point someone suggested he might be a member of the
31:48
Speaker 1: Black Panther Party, and the file clearly says that they
31:51
Speaker 1: immediately considered that to be not true, but they still
31:55
Speaker 1: sent two agents to his house in the middle of
31:57
Speaker 1: the night to interview him. They like fire, allowed his acquaintances,
32:01
Speaker 1: interviewed them and kept a file on him for ten years.
32:04
Speaker 3: Nothing worse than being interviewed by the government in the
32:07
Speaker 3: middle of the night. Yeah, anywhere, I am answering quick,
32:10
Speaker 3: I don't know, man, fucking I guess maybe I did that,
32:13
Speaker 3: you know.
32:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I figure they do it that way on
32:17
Speaker 1: purpose to you know, catch you off your toes, and yeah,
32:20
Speaker 1: who knows. They also followed Jimmy Hendrix, which was really
32:24
Speaker 1: interesting because and I didn't know this about him, He
32:27
Speaker 1: actually spoke out in favor of the Vietnam War pretty frequently.
32:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, and.
32:33
Speaker 1: Was very critical of the Black Power movement. So with
32:38
Speaker 1: Jimmy Hendrix, it was just kind of, yeah, someone could
32:41
Speaker 1: change his mind at some point, we better keep tabs
32:43
Speaker 1: on it.
32:44
Speaker 3: Even still, he was trying to play their game.
32:46
Speaker 1: Yeah.
32:47
Speaker 3: Well he was in the Army for a little bit.
32:49
Speaker 1: Yeah he was, and in the Isley Brothers for a while.
32:53
Speaker 3: Yeah. He's the touring tour with the Isisley Brothers.
32:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, so that's kind of the the older musicians. The
33:00
Speaker 1: The FBI is famous for keeping tabs on. There's also
33:04
Speaker 1: the Fuck the Police letter. Do you remember that? You
33:06
Speaker 1: probably weren't even born at that time.
33:09
Speaker 3: When was this ninety three?
33:10
Speaker 1: I think it was eighty nine, No, yeah, I wasn't around.
33:13
Speaker 1: It's famously depicted in the NWA movie Straight out of Compton.
33:19
Speaker 1: There's the scene where they get the letter. And I
33:21
Speaker 1: remember this like I saw NWA in concert with ice Cube.
33:25
Speaker 3: Yeah.
33:26
Speaker 1: I was twelve years old, so I'm old as shit,
33:28
Speaker 1: but that means I got to see NWA in concert absolutely,
33:32
Speaker 1: And I remember this FBI letter.
33:34
Speaker 3: The original non holographic members.
33:37
Speaker 1: I remember this FBI letter happening so fucking vividly because
33:41
Speaker 1: there had never been anything like NWA in music at
33:46
Speaker 1: that point, and it was such a big deal, Like
33:50
Speaker 1: everyone listened to NWA.
33:52
Speaker 3: It was like.
33:52
Speaker 1: Rappers Delight and Thenwa Yeah. And at the back end,
33:58
Speaker 1: I think it was eighty either eight or but I
34:00
Speaker 1: believe it was eighty nine because it was when ice
34:02
Speaker 1: Cube was still in the group. They get a fucking
34:04
Speaker 1: letter from the FBI and it the letter was addressed
34:08
Speaker 1: to Guy Mong Manganiello. I'm sure that's wrong, Manjohnniello Mazzarella.
34:18
Speaker 1: He was the national promotions director for Priority Records. He
34:22
Speaker 1: gets this letter from the goddamn FBI. A song recorded
34:26
Speaker 1: by the rap group NWA on their album entitled Straight
34:29
Speaker 1: Out of Compton encourages violence against and disrespect for the
34:33
Speaker 1: law enforcement officer, and has been brought to my attention.
34:38
Speaker 1: I understand your company recorded and distributed this album, and
34:42
Speaker 1: I am writing to share my thoughts and concerns with you.
34:45
Speaker 3: This is nothing better than when someone writes very formally
34:47
Speaker 3: about something that is not that you know right in
34:51
Speaker 3: his piece, you know eight no joke, mister Racken says
34:55
Speaker 3: he ain't no joke and he how is this microphone smoking?
34:58
Speaker 1: I don't know say this is the second paragraph, advocating
35:03
Speaker 1: violence and assault is wrong, and we in the law
35:05
Speaker 1: enforcement community take exception to such action. Violent crime, a
35:10
Speaker 1: major problem in our country, reached an unprecedented high in
35:13
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty eight. They're leaving out that that's when the
35:16
Speaker 1: CIA started pumping crack into LA seventy eight law enforcement
35:20
Speaker 1: officers were feloniously slain in the line of duty during
35:24
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty eight.
35:25
Speaker 3: Oh, they also monitored feloniously slain. He was a basist.
35:30
Speaker 1: That would be such a great fucking jazz name.
35:32
Speaker 3: Feloniously slain.
35:35
Speaker 1: Four more than in nineteen eighty seven. Okay, that's not
35:39
Speaker 1: a huge I doubt that was rap music. Law enforcement
35:45
Speaker 1: officers dedicate their lives to the protection of our citizens,
35:48
Speaker 1: and recording such as the one from NWA are both
35:51
Speaker 1: discouraging and degrading to these brave, dedicated officers. Music plays
35:56
Speaker 1: a significant role in society, and I wanted you to
35:59
Speaker 1: be aware of the bey's position relative to this song
36:02
Speaker 1: and its message. I believe my views reflect the opinion
36:06
Speaker 1: of the entire law enforcement community.
36:09
Speaker 3: It's not Christopher Dorner.
36:13
Speaker 1: This is signed by Milt r Allaric, the Assistant Director
36:19
Speaker 1: Office of Public Affairs of the FBI.
36:21
Speaker 3: Dude, if I ever get a letter like that, I'm
36:23
Speaker 3: getting it blown up and turned into wallpaper.
36:26
Speaker 1: Yeah. One of my favorite things is when people get
36:28
Speaker 1: cease and assist letters and just like post them on
36:30
Speaker 1: their website like fuck you, sue me. Yeah, yeah, that's
36:33
Speaker 1: always fun.
36:34
Speaker 3: Dude. That makes my dick so hard, it's fucking awesome.
36:36
Speaker 1: And NWA kind of did that after they got this letter.
36:40
Speaker 1: There's you've seen Straight out of Compton, right, Yeah, there's
36:42
Speaker 1: that scene which really happened where they had a show
36:46
Speaker 1: in Detroit and the police told them beforehand that they
36:49
Speaker 1: were not to perform straight out of Compton or they
36:52
Speaker 1: would all be arrested. And they performed straight out of
36:55
Speaker 1: Compton and the police fucking storm the stage and arrested
36:58
Speaker 1: them and like a riot out. But good for them. Yeah,
37:02
Speaker 1: they're still fucking doing it.
37:03
Speaker 3: I mean that's the way to go. I mean, what
37:05
Speaker 3: are you gonna not do the big song, you know,
37:08
Speaker 3: yeah and have everyone hate you and then the police
37:11
Speaker 3: like you after you already said fuck them on a record, like.
37:15
Speaker 1: And this was really an example of the FBI kind
37:18
Speaker 1: of overstepping their bounds.
37:21
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean you know, you're just sending a letter
37:23
Speaker 3: to say like, hey, we don't like this. You know,
37:25
Speaker 3: it's like like a rank Like what are you implying here?
37:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, because any it's almost scarier than just getting a
37:35
Speaker 1: visit from the FBI. Yeah, like a letter that just
37:39
Speaker 1: kind of implies that the entire FBI has signed off
37:42
Speaker 1: on this, as opposed to just one agent taking an
37:45
Speaker 1: interest in it and coming to ask some questions.
37:48
Speaker 3: Yeah, and like, oh, he got the ok from his department,
37:50
Speaker 3: like this was passed three you know, I read this
37:52
Speaker 3: and all that.
37:53
Speaker 1: It's it's like the official government position is we don't
37:58
Speaker 1: like this song and we're watching you now.
38:00
Speaker 3: Man, that's cool.
38:01
Speaker 1: It is pretty pretty fucking cool. And on the other hand,
38:07
Speaker 1: though things turned out, with the exception of Easy and
38:11
Speaker 1: probably mc rn and DJ Yellow, things turned out pretty
38:15
Speaker 1: well for en Wa. Yeah, this certainly did not derail
38:18
Speaker 1: ice Cube or doctor Dre's career.
38:20
Speaker 3: Yeah. Mc wren, you know he's not doing well because
38:22
Speaker 3: he follows me on Twitter.
38:24
Speaker 1: He does.
38:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, he follows the gazillion people. But I remember, like
38:27
Speaker 3: right after I started my Twitter was like, oh mc
38:29
Speaker 3: wren probably my biggest Twitter claimed the frame is that
38:31
Speaker 3: a fife Dog tweeted at me one time.
38:34
Speaker 1: That's pretty cool.
38:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, before he died.
38:36
Speaker 1: So yeah, the I remember the NWA letter really vividly.
38:40
Speaker 1: It was around the same time or no, it was
38:43
Speaker 1: a few years later that the cop killer thing happened
38:45
Speaker 1: with ice t That was I remember the thing.
38:50
Speaker 3: Maybe this works better than we thought because in the
38:52
Speaker 3: Ice Cube was doing kids movies and.
38:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, Iced Tea is literally a cop now just on television. Yeah,
38:58
Speaker 1: so yeah, maybe they scared. I heard him straight, dude.
39:01
Speaker 3: I mean his fucking his defining performance to me is
39:05
Speaker 3: as a kangaroo man in the movie Tank Girl. That
39:08
Speaker 3: is good. Shit.
39:09
Speaker 1: You haven't I have not seen that much. He's a
39:12
Speaker 1: straight up kangaroo. That's pretty great.
39:14
Speaker 2: Yeah.
39:15
Speaker 1: I've never seen Tank Girl, and I've until right now,
39:18
Speaker 1: never heard anything that made me want to see Tank Girl.
39:21
Speaker 1: But I do want to see Iced Tea as a kangaroo.
39:23
Speaker 3: I think I just saw it because I was a
39:24
Speaker 3: Gorillas fan as a kid, and I was like, what
39:27
Speaker 3: else is Jamie Hewlett Dunne And I was like, wait,
39:28
Speaker 3: is the is this the cop guy from TV who's
39:31
Speaker 3: a kangaroo? And then I was like, this guy had
39:32
Speaker 3: a guy hates these badies as a rapper. Big day
39:37
Speaker 3: for twelve year old me.
39:39
Speaker 1: So the last one. This is really interesting. The Wu
39:43
Speaker 1: Tang Clan, according to FBI files obtained through a Freedom
39:47
Speaker 1: of Information Act request in twenty twelve, the Wu Tang
39:51
Speaker 1: Clan has a twenty eight to one F classification, meaning
39:55
Speaker 1: the FBI sees it as a quote major criminal organization.
40:00
Speaker 3: Well, they're not called honey bees. They're called killer bees.
40:03
Speaker 1: And that's a good point. That's that's interesting to me.
40:08
Speaker 1: I've heard kind of rumors of this before, like investigations
40:13
Speaker 1: into the Wu Tang clan, but now I really want
40:15
Speaker 1: to know. I want to know more. Although I will
40:19
Speaker 1: add that Juggalos also have a twenty eight to one
40:22
Speaker 1: F classification.
40:23
Speaker 3: That's what their march was for. Yeah, some of them
40:25
Speaker 3: had like custody issues, and they're like, I'm a good guy.
40:28
Speaker 1: Custody issues, job issues, like yeah, everything issues. Diabetes, So
40:37
Speaker 1: in uh.
40:38
Speaker 3: Acne, you're going to sleep with face Painton.
40:42
Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety nine, I love this, an FBI agent
40:46
Speaker 1: requested permission to travel to a field office in Allentown,
40:50
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania to learn about what else do you go to
40:54
Speaker 1: Allentown to learn about the Blood Street Gang, of course,
40:58
Speaker 1: in order to compare their operations with those of the
41:01
Speaker 1: Wu Tang.
41:02
Speaker 3: That's like going to Allentown, Pennsylvania to monitor Mexican food
41:08
Speaker 3: could not be old worst.
41:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's so. I mean he had to have a
41:13
Speaker 1: reason for what like maybe the FBI just has a
41:15
Speaker 1: big bloods training center in Allentown.
41:18
Speaker 3: But maybe that's the the steady Steady Mobin from a
41:22
Speaker 3: death certificate I think, or it might be America's most.
41:25
Speaker 1: Wanted Steady Mobin is on Death Certificate.
41:27
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, yeah about just like moving gangs out to
41:29
Speaker 3: the Midwest. Oh yeah, that's uh, that's a good song.
41:32
Speaker 3: That song is called My Summer Vacation.
41:35
Speaker 1: Oh okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a really cool song.
41:38
Speaker 1: It's an interesting song, and it's.
41:41
Speaker 3: Just it's one of he almost like some of those
41:43
Speaker 3: songs in those albums are kind of like sketches almost,
41:45
Speaker 3: you know, where it's just like here's the premise.
41:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, Death Certificate. It's one of my favorite rap albums.
41:49
Speaker 1: The way that album unfolds and the things like he
41:54
Speaker 1: really predicted a lot about what was going to happen
41:57
Speaker 1: in LA and that probably because the FBI pulled them
42:01
Speaker 1: aside and was like, Hey, here's what we need to
42:03
Speaker 1: happen going on in LA over the next few years.
42:05
Speaker 3: So we don't want anyone to say they didn't warn them.
42:07
Speaker 3: So if you play your cards right, you could do.
42:10
Speaker 3: Are we there yet on TBS in ten years exactly?
42:13
Speaker 1: I sometimes wonder about that because there is that big
42:18
Speaker 1: conspiracy which I've never been able to There's it's all
42:20
Speaker 1: based on one website post, so I've never been able
42:24
Speaker 1: to build an episode around it. But there is a
42:27
Speaker 1: conspiracy theory that says in the early nineties there was
42:30
Speaker 1: a big meeting among record label executives and that there
42:35
Speaker 1: were investors in record labels who had money in private prisons,
42:40
Speaker 1: and that in order to make those investments pay off
42:43
Speaker 1: for those people, the music industry had agreed to start
42:46
Speaker 1: pushing gangster rap ooh that rules as a means to
42:50
Speaker 1: fill private prisons. And I love that conspiracy so much.
42:55
Speaker 3: Is in the corner wearing a mask like doctor Doom.
42:58
Speaker 3: Really what it sounds like every time the Fantastic for it. Wait, well,
43:01
Speaker 3: Galactus is back. We got to team up with Doom.
43:03
Speaker 3: It's in her mutual interest and he's just like all right,
43:06
Speaker 3: all right, Yeah, so you're gonna when I run over
43:09
Speaker 3: a guy to parking lot, you're gonna give me a
43:11
Speaker 3: special treatment? Right?
43:12
Speaker 1: Yeah? Of course, of course we war.
43:14
Speaker 3: Mister Knight do. My roommate Ramsey had this saying where
43:17
Speaker 3: every day he was just retweeting an old Shook Knight
43:19
Speaker 3: tweet and one of them was like from twenty twelve
43:22
Speaker 3: and it just says, here's to the night life.
43:25
Speaker 1: I was like, hell, yeah, that's pretty great. Vanessa Gritton
43:29
Speaker 1: met him once, Oh yeah, you're telling me yeah, and
43:31
Speaker 1: took a picture with him and then texted me the
43:33
Speaker 1: picture and was like is I think? She said? Is
43:35
Speaker 1: this Royce the five nine?
43:37
Speaker 3: Did?
43:37
Speaker 1: She?
43:38
Speaker 2: Was?
43:38
Speaker 1: She fucking with you? And I'm like, that guy is
43:40
Speaker 1: clearly like six', Four.
43:41
Speaker 3: Yeah royce is kind of a little.
43:43
Speaker 1: Guy, yeah he's five. Nine, OH i got it right
43:46
Speaker 1: there in the. NAME i forgot how the FUCK I
43:48
Speaker 1: AND i was, like, no That's Shook. Knight are you? Okay,
43:51
Speaker 1: like have you been?
43:52
Speaker 3: Hurt you didn't touch, him did?
43:54
Speaker 1: You? Yeah it was fucking. Crazy uh So. Yeah also
43:59
Speaker 1: the last thing about The wu, tang THE fbi file
44:03
Speaker 1: also knows like.
44:03
Speaker 3: A cigarette case full of age needles just a case
44:06
Speaker 3: he runs into, anybody.
44:07
Speaker 1: Just in his, pocket like a nerd carrion, penn like.
44:10
Speaker 3: Two cigarillos and then a couple like biological.
44:13
Speaker 1: Weapons THE fbi file also notes that THE fbi was
44:17
Speaker 1: contacted by THE nypd requesting that THE fbi pursue federal
44:22
Speaker 1: conspiracy prosecution against The Wu tang organization for drug trafficking and.
44:28
Speaker 1: Execution and that's how it's worded in this, article which
44:33
Speaker 1: is from ps, Mag and it's also about the FBI's
44:38
Speaker 1: history of following black, Musicians so people should go read. That,
44:41
Speaker 1: yeah but that's how they word. It AND i can't
44:43
Speaker 1: tell if they mean drug trafficking and executing people or
44:48
Speaker 1: if execution is just a another drug term That i'm
44:53
Speaker 1: not familiar.
44:54
Speaker 3: WITH i mean. MAYBE I mean What i've seen The
44:57
Speaker 3: Wu tang clan do in the last ten years is
44:58
Speaker 3: Like rihzam made a bad movie and started a subscription
45:02
Speaker 3: based chess. Community like these are, like, yeah drug, Trafficking.
45:07
Speaker 1: Yeah it seems like, elite but who. Knows they're a big.
45:11
Speaker 3: GROUP i, Mean i'm, Sure i'm sure there's like when
45:14
Speaker 3: you get down to the Like boodha monk level by
45:16
Speaker 3: the way if you ever want to watch FUCKING i
45:18
Speaker 3: love like finding like obscurity people that are like tant
45:21
Speaker 3: like famous only because of their association with somebody else
45:23
Speaker 3: and just seeing what they're up. To and You monk
45:26
Speaker 3: was like a. Producer he worked WITH odb and it's
45:27
Speaker 3: a good. Producer and then he's he tried to like
45:30
Speaker 3: start rapping and do his own shit and he's Gotta
45:32
Speaker 3: he's got a fucking music video In brooklyn and it's
45:34
Speaker 3: just the worst shit of all. Time it's just like
45:37
Speaker 3: very clearly using the external mic on THE hd you know,
45:41
Speaker 3: camp you. Know and this little kid.
45:43
Speaker 1: Comes up and he's, like, hey Boot A, Monk you're my.
45:45
Speaker 4: Hero and he's like you got that sixteen, ready and
45:48
Speaker 4: he's like maybe on the next. Album he's like, Yeah
45:51
Speaker 4: and then he just walking around eating hot dogs like
45:53
Speaker 4: On Coney island while he just wraps poorly wearing like
45:55
Speaker 4: an Od he's wearing AN ODB t shirt that he
45:58
Speaker 4: clearly got bootlegged as a friends of Old Dirty. Bastard
46:02
Speaker 4: AND i found His facebook and he just shares like
46:04
Speaker 4: there's like meme recipe, videos nice and we SAY i
46:07
Speaker 4: was up late one. NIGHT i ended up going to
46:08
Speaker 4: the grocery store to make these like fucking breakfast sandwiches
46:11
Speaker 4: THAT i Saw Buddha monk's share a.
46:12
Speaker 3: Video, yeah sh it's so.
46:15
Speaker 1: Great, yeah there's so he's doing good. Work he's all.
46:17
Speaker 3: Right, yeah but there's like there's like eight hundred kilobes
46:20
Speaker 3: and most of them like they're just, like yeah he.
46:22
Speaker 3: Was he actually touched Method man one. Time, yeah he
46:26
Speaker 3: bought him a. Water it's having a. Lot, yeah he was.
46:29
Speaker 3: Busy so he's a killo. Bee.
46:30
Speaker 1: Now, yeah there are some loose affiliations among that organization for.
46:34
Speaker 1: Sure uh BUT i mean either, way no charges wherever.
46:38
Speaker 1: Filed so New Wu tang album coming out, Soon i'm.
46:41
Speaker 3: Sure oh, yeah it's. Good The feds have. It The
46:43
Speaker 3: feds have.
46:43
Speaker 1: The scroll, Album yeah they, have and it's in the.
46:46
Speaker 1: JUDGE i noticed who Ordered screlly to. Forfeit that album
46:50
Speaker 1: Was asian and if you remember The Chappelle, show The
46:54
Speaker 1: Wu tang was drafted by The asian. Community they were
46:57
Speaker 1: a racial. Draft so you really got looks like that
47:01
Speaker 1: finally worked.
47:01
Speaker 3: Out you got you gotta be praying that judge is
47:04
Speaker 3: a couple of big l, tapes you know in the
47:06
Speaker 3: car where he's, like all, RIGHT i, mean this is,
47:08
Speaker 3: like there's no precedent for, this but IF, i IF
47:10
Speaker 3: i use this, RULING i could probably get this album
47:14
Speaker 3: to the streets where it needs to be right.
47:16
Speaker 1: Now exactly Doing god's. Work.
47:18
Speaker 3: Again you got to read that article about this guy
47:19
Speaker 3: who went to a listening. Party we're here fifteen minutes of,
47:22
Speaker 3: it AND i think there were Two Selene dion songs on.
47:24
Speaker 1: It that's. AMAZING i, need, YEAH i need to find.
47:26
Speaker 1: THAT i hope that is. True oh, ME.
47:29
Speaker 3: I mean it's it seemed legit to. ME i mean
47:30
Speaker 3: there's like a small listening, party you, Know god damn.
47:34
Speaker 1: It So so that's our episode about THE fbi And Black.
47:38
Speaker 1: Musicians Music month continues next. Week we're still talking about THE,
47:43
Speaker 1: fbi but more, importantly we're talking about the death Of Elvis,
47:48
Speaker 1: presley the death the alleged death Of, elvis which we're
47:55
Speaker 1: we sound like we're mocking right. Now, yeah but after
47:59
Speaker 1: looking into, It i'm kind of An elvis truth now we.
48:02
Speaker 3: Are we've been, Read we've been FUCKING i don't, know Glitterpill.
48:06
Speaker 1: Twitter, Yeah so, uh come back for that next, week
48:11
Speaker 1: and in the, meantime this is a subscription only, episode
48:15
Speaker 1: so you don't need to subscribe On patreon you already. Do.
48:18
Speaker 1: Baby let maybe go out and give us a good
48:21
Speaker 1: rating and review on iTunes even if you don't listen on,
48:23
Speaker 1: iTunes we still just over.
48:26
Speaker 3: There fucking, yeah won't kill. You it takes a. Second.
48:30
Speaker 1: Yeah and, ALSO i don't know what we have going. On,
48:33
Speaker 1: oh call our voicemail line FIVE o five three at
48:35
Speaker 1: six seven six seven. Seven leave us a, voicemail tell
48:38
Speaker 1: us what show you're calling, about and uh go to
48:41
Speaker 1: onun pops dot. Com four notes from all of our. Episodes,
48:44
Speaker 1: connor what do you got to? Plug, ooh Toy day's coming?
48:48
Speaker 1: Up going To, Wisconsin, Chicago Fort, Wayne, indiana Motherfucking, Pittsburgh, PHILLY, Dc,
48:54
Speaker 1: cleveland And New York, city all in the month Of.
48:57
Speaker 1: April those tickets are all live now on me voye
48:59
Speaker 1: podcast dot.
49:00
Speaker 3: Com go grab, him come hang. Out i'll uh, Yeah
49:02
Speaker 3: i'll talk to you About, UH i don't know. Whatever
49:04
Speaker 3: i'm a nice.
49:05
Speaker 1: Guy, person Nice uh all, right let's get the funk
49:09
Speaker 1: out of. Here, connor say goodbye bye. Everybody goodbye. Everybody
49:13
Speaker 1: we love you
49:19
Speaker 3: People of A you're finaci sure