Latest / We Talk Back / AfroFuture with Abdul Karim Abdullah

Transcript

AfroFuture with Abdul Karim Abdullah · We Talk Back

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: We're just two unapologetically black women with an opinion who
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: talk back.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: What's up, y'all?
• 0:11
  Speaker 3: Thank you for tuning in for a new episode of
• 0:13
  Speaker 3: We Talk Back, a show dedicated to.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: These niggas and you hoes.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: And it's your girl, AJ Holiday.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: What is that?
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: I don't know. What's up, girl? Y'all, it's Tam Bam.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: I love y'all. Thank y'all for tuning in again. We've
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: missed y'all since last Thursday. How was your weekend, girl? Rainy.
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: It was rainy this weekend, but I did manage to
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: get out the house, put my face on, took a.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: Goddamn gummy, and didn't really make it out the house.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Damn, because of the gummy?
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: You and your little gummy situation, because I remember just
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: a couple weeks ago, you had another gummy situation. Are
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: you a gummy addict now? I don't know. I like
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: deep sleep.
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: Me and my homegirl said we was going to make
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: some t-shirts that say I love to lay down. Cause bitch,
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: when I tell you, I love.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: To lay down.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: Don't let me lay down. I had my mind made up.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: I was going out.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: I laid down with a face.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: Full of makeup.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: Well, let me tell you what I did on Friday.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: I biked 16 and a half miles in 45 minutes.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: That's the most I've ever done. The most I've ever
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: done in that 45-minute session. I was getting it. What
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: kind of bikes they got? Is it Schwinn?
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: Schwinn bikes?
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: I don't know, girl. Who do you go to? I
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: go today. Cycle Bar. Oh, yeah.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: They got Schwinn bikes.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So I go there. I'll go today at 530.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: I love it. I love spin class. I love spin too, girl.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: That is my new favorite shit to do. And then
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: after that, I saw Lil Baby. It was random. One
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: of my friends from Capitol, he was here with Baby,
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: and was like, come out, I got a ticket for you.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: So I went to the show. And I walked past
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: all my old niggas up to the front, right up
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: to the stage. I'm like, excuse me. Excellent. Excellent. I
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: literally had to walk past one of my old niggas
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: with some girl. And they was standing in the aisle.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: I was like, excuse me. Move, bitch. I didn't say move, bitch,
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: but that's how I was. That's the energy I had.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: That's the energy? Yeah. Oh, that was so excellent.
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: Ain't nothing like a future flex. Like, you get the
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: flex of the nigga right quick.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: Mm-hmm. And that's really all, because it did rain. So
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: after that, I just kind of chilled for the rest
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: of the weekend. I mean, I went to work, of course.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: But after that, I just chilled. Nothing else. Just a
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: little quick flex on these hoes. Pussy-ass hoes.
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: Listen, we're going to start Stupid Internet News off with
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: a song.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Go ahead. You don't know the pain that I feel.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: That's not Stupid Internet News. It's not, but it is news.
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: You're taking a love for granted, and you.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: Just want to see it your way. This is a delay. Y'all,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: rest in peace. To our good sister.
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Irish from 702. You know, her sister passed away
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: in 2008 from kidney failure. Her twin sister. And now
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: they're saying she passed.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: I don't know why.
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: They just said she was battling some disease for a while.
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: I love 702, man. That was one of my favorite groups.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: The girl groups.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: 702, Black, Jade, SWV, all of them from that time, man.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: What happened to Black girl groups? I don't know.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: Destiny's Child killed them.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we missed it. We missed it. We missed them.
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So rest in peace to her.
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: So now, yeah, Jeezy.
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: Let's get the Jeezy ass right quick.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: Jeezy and Jenny Mai are now getting a divorce after
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: two years of marriage.
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: And one baby later.
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: My, my, my.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: And he filed for divorce. Now, you know, they always.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: Like to say, oh, it's always the woman doing the paperwork. Ta-da-da.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: Jeezy's sailing.
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: I'm about to get the fuck up out of here.
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: She must have been in there. She was calling him
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: the N-word. I really believe she was in there calling
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: him the N-word when she got mad. Did you see
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: that video that resurfaced of her talking about her anger
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: issues and how she didn't realize she had anger issues
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: until she got with Jeezy? Because you were with white
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: men and they probably was lit and you talked to
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: them crazy.
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: Mm-hmm.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So now you got a black man who like,
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: chill out. That video of her talking about how she
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: has dark meat on the side but white meat keeps
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: her mean and lean. I really think that there's a
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: big part of her that felt like getting with Jeezy
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: was her dating down. And she probably gave him that
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: type of energy when she was mad. You think so? Like,
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: I settled for you.
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: No, ain't no way you think you settled for Jeezy.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: If dark meat is on the side and white meat
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: keep her mean and lean, then she thinks... That's a fucking...
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: Slave owner, white bitch kind of complex kind of energy. Like,
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: I'll go sneak down to the slave hut and fuck
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: the slave, but I'm with my white husband. I could
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: never be with one of them.
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: And, you know, I was trying to point that shit
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: out when they first got engaged.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: Like, I'm trying to figure out, has this nigga not
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: seen this?
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: Like, y'all didn't see this, and now the video.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: Has resurfaced, and she actually said that live on The Real. Mm-hmm.
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: That black men are essentially a side item. Like macaroni
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: and cheese or black-eyed peas.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: Well, wait. Macaroni and cheese is very good.
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: But you're not just eating just that for dinner.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: I would. I would.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: So, I also saw this other document.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: I mean, sorry.
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: I also saw this other post where this girl had
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: the actual document through the court.
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: So, Jeezy filed for divorce June 15th. Now, you can
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: go to her page.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: Right before Juneteenth. She wants to call her a nigga
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: on this 14th, and you're like, you know what? It's June.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: It's about to be Juneteenth, and I'm not doing this
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: no more.
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: So, you know, she recently, she was posting videos. Even, like,
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: for Father's Day, she posted him a video. He had
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: a book just come out. And, you know, she posted
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: in the caption, my husband, da-da-da-da. Like, so, to me,
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: she's been trying to save face.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: We don't know why. Or maybe trying to save their marriage,
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: you know? She probably want him as her husband still.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: You never know.
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: You know, I hate that. I hate to see another
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: black child without their dad in the home. Because, I mean, essentially,
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: that is a black baby.
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: So.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: I hate that for them. But did we not see
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: it coming?
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: It's almost like they think they're going to get treated
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: different from different races of people. This is an archetype
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: of a type of person. It doesn't have any color
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: to it. So we don't know why they're not together,
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: but I think that black men assume that other groups
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: of women, other cultures, are going to be just totally different,
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: going to let you do what the fuck you want
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: to do, going to always shut the fuck up. And
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: it's just not true. That's a personality trait. You don't
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: know what you're going to get from anybody.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying?
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: But black women are seen to be like the most
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: hard to get along with, the most argumentative, always.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: Got an attitude.
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: We got a lot of shit to have an attitude about, okay?
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: But we still stay with y'all ass for a very
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: long time. But if a black man is filing for
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: divorce from your ass, I need to know why. I really,
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: really want to know why. And I ain't never been
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: that invested.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: The woman files, not the man, so. I think she's sickening.
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: She kept sickening energy over the damn internet but I
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: don't know maybe we'll see some more about this story
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: later on to actually understand why but they do have
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: a prenup they got the prenup actually the day before
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: they got married and one may say that she might
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: be able to dispute it maybe she'll say she did
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: it she signed it under duress because it was just
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: the day before she's supposed to get married who knows
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: we'll see what happens.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: Though well good luck to both of them Speaking of
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: more breakup news, Tiana Taylor and Iman Shumpert are separated.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: They're not divorced, but they've been separated for a minute now. Apparently,
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: according to Tiana, she posted on social media that it
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: was a lot of conversations going on and she just
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: wanted to clear the air that they didn't break up
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: over infidelity, that they had other issues in their marriage
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: and that was the reason for their departure. But they
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: co-parent well and they're still best friends. So maybe they'll
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: come back together one day. I don't know. Who knows?
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: They were married for seven years, together for ten. I
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: like them as a couple. I like him. I know, y'all.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: This bitch slid in his DMs last night and don't
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: send it to me. Hey, big head.
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: Send that nigga a voice memo.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: Girl, do that nigga a week. I know them DMs.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: Both of them DMs blew up. Both of them. Hell yeah.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: You know, Tiana got the ladies at it, niggas, okay? Right.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: Both of them, her DMs. Oh, goodness. You know what?
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: I don't know in my spirit, and I'm probably wrong,
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: and forgive me if I'm wrong, but I just feel
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: like Tiana Taylor and Lori Harvey... have, like, a thing.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: Like a... In a relationship thing? Not in a relationship, but, like,
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: we're best friends, we have fun together, but we also
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: might fuck every now and then kind of thing. Why
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: would you think that, though? Just because of how they be, like,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: hugged up on each other when they out. I never
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: really even knew they hung out. I didn't see them
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: hanging out. But maybe I'm wrong, you know? Who am I,
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: you know? Have y'all... But, I mean, they be like,
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: you know. I feel like that's a fantasy in your mind.
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: See?
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: Sorry if I'm wrong.
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: Nah bitch I think it's all in your mind man
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: they probably be rubbing them.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: Abs together not them rubbing abs It's sickening, man. What
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: else happened, girl?
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: All right, so Halle Berry is pissed at Drake.
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: So apparently her people reached out to his people and
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: vice versa, wanted to use her image for his album.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: Artwork.
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: And she said, hell to the motherfucker, nah. And this
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: nigga still took it upon himself and used her image.
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: And she feels like that's like a real life slap
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: in the face. Fuck you, girl. I'm going to do
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: what I want. So apparently they went to Getty Images,
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: who owns the image. Which I just, I hate that.
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: I hate that somebody can sneak, take a picture of
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: you or even if like you actually pose for a picture.
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: And because they took the picture, my image no longer
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: belongs to me. My likeness isn't mine.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: No, I get that.
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: So Drake has her covered in slime.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: She doesn't want to be depicted in that way. Well,
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: I mean, Nickelodeon slimed her. It was Nickelodeon who slimed her.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: It wasn't Drake. But I can understand why she's upset,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: but I can also understand why it's like Is it
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: really a big deal? Is it really a big deal?
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: Why'd you even ask me if you was going to
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: do what the fuck you wanted in the first place?
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: Why ask me? As a, as a, um, what's the
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: word I'm looking for? As a cancer? No, just as
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: a consideration for you. That is why I asked, but
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: the image don't belong to you. So I asked you
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: to be kind, but really I didn't have to ask
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: you anyway. And that's basically what drinks people. The same.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: By using it. And I doubt Drake even knew. I'm
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: sure if Drake knew that she said no, he probably
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: would have been like, all right, let's find something else,
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: you know?
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: Nah, he probably really wanted to use that image. Fuck
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: how she feel.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: Or maybe it's his people. Like, get that image for me.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: And they got it. Listen, Drake have so much trouble
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: anytime he do anything. Remember he did the Vogue? And
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: Vogue sued him for using a fake Vogue magazine. Yeah.
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: Yes, because why are you doing what the fuck you want? Like,
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: why are you doing that? You can't do what you want.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: Drake can't do what he want. I mean, you can.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: I bet if me and you took a Vogue magazine
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: and posted pictures with it, wouldn't nobody give a fuck.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying? Yeah, until we got real big. Yeah,
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: it's just because it's him. My poor baby. Girl, bye.
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: This bitch be defending bullshit because it's Drake.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: My man, my man, my man.
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: So Tyler Perry is in the news, okay, for his
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: thoughts on women, okay, black women in particular. He says,
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: in our society right now, no, let me start, let
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: me read the full thing. He said, a lot of women,
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: especially black women, and I might get in trouble for
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: saying this, but I will, and he carries on. He says,
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: in our society right now, black women are making a
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: lot more money for the most part than black men.
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: If you could find love if that man works at
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: whatever job and is a good man and is good
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: to you and honors you and honors the house and
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: honors his wife and does what he can because his
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: gift might not be your gift and that's okay that's
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: not uh he says that's not somebody that's beneath you
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: that's somebody who came to love you at your worth
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: so he's basically saying you know meet people where they
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: are um.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: And he adds and says, as long as he's.
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: Secure in himself to know that, excuse me, and he says,
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: as long as he's secure in himself to know that, yeah,
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: she makes most of the money, all I can pay
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: is a light bill. As long as she's comfortable enough
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: to say, I'm going to cover the mortgage and all
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: the other stuff, that's fine.
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, that's fine, right?
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: But do you think that most men are able to
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: rest in that position because it's an unnatural position?
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: You know, I can't say that most men aren't. I
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: know I have a friend who left her husband because
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: he just wasn't earning as much as her, right? He
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: just wasn't.
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: As ambitious?
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, as ambitious or earning as much money as her.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: But he loved her dirty draws. He didn't step out
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: on her. They had fun together. He was a good
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: father to their kids. He just did all the things
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: except that. And she left him. And she left him.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: They separated for many years. And then she went back.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: She went back to him because she was like, I
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: had to realize that what he provided was greater than money.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: What he provided me was greater than money. I went
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: back outside and I couldn't find that kind of love
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: that I had with my husband. I couldn't find it. So,
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: I mean, I guess it's just about where your value lies.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: You know, what's more important to you? Is it things
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: or is it having someone who can really love you? Absolutely.
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: So my only the only drawback I see, right, the
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: only issue I see with what he said was I
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: just don't really like when people get on public platforms,
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: especially being somebody as big as he is.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: And then singles out black women collectively and generalizing situations
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: because majority of black women are in the trenches with
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: black men. And when I say like we might be
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: making more, we might be making less. But nonetheless, we
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: are with a black man.
• 15:27
  Speaker 4: Right. So.
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: I feel like we're the only group of women where
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: somebody's constantly telling us, y'all need to bring your standards down.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: Well, I think we're the only group of women in
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: this country that make more than our male counterparts. I
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: don't even think that's true. I don't even think it's true.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: You think white women are making more than white men? No, no, no.
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: I don't think that black women are making more money
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: on a greater scale than black men. I come from
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: a corporate setting. So I know that black men, and
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: that's just my small sample size, right? The black men
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: had higher positions and they were higher earners. So I
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: don't think I haven't seen any statistics to to to
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: prove that.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: I know black women come with more debt.
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: I've actually looked at those statistics because we talk about
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: higher education and stuff like that. Your man might have
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: never went to college. He started a trucking company making
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: half a million dollars. You got half a million dollars
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: in student loans. you know what I'm saying so it
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: just I don't know where the stats come from that
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: people like to use but I think he generalized a
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: lot of things in the statement he made and I
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: just want black men to talk to other black men
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: right because I always say this black women we talk
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: to each other.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: But we talk to each other but we also talk
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: to men so it's not fair to tell men that
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: they can't talk to women when we sit on our
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: show and literally talk to men all the time on
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: what they need to do and what they should do
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: you know So how can we say that?
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: I feel like when we talk about it, really, when
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: I start talking about men, I really be thinking about
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: men that I've dealt with or the type of man
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: that I want. I don't really be trying to generalize like, oh,
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: all y'all niggas need to lower y'all standards.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: I don't say no shit like that.
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: That's really what he's saying on a public platform.
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: And we are not Tyler Perry. Tyler Perry is a
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: huge personality. I don't think he's saying lower your standards.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: He said if this man is providing all the things
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: except for money. But that's a given, though. That's a given.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: You don't think that's a given? I think it's a given. No,
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: because look at the status of our relationships in our
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: country right now with black people. If that was a given,
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: then things would be better, don't you think?
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: So you think that black women collectively need to lower
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: their standards?
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: No, I don't think nobody should lower their standards. I
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: just don't think you should base your relationship solely on money.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: That's all I'm thinking.
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: But look at the economy right now, right? And I've
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: never been in a relationship that I based solely on money.
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: Ever.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: Right? But....
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: The more you start loving men because you fucking love them,
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: you start reflecting like, maybe I should start focusing on
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: the money. Most women aren't focusing on the money. So
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: for him to make a blanket statement like that is
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: just not true. And I feel like we might verbally
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: say that, but that's not really how we live in
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: our lives.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: I know you know a bitch taking care of a
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: man right now. I do. I can't think of nobody
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: I know. I do. I don't know nobody taking care
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: of no man, but I do know women who make
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: more than their men, you know. Does that count as
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: taking care of them? If they make more? If he's
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: just paying the light bill like he just suggested? He
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: was wilding with just the light bill. He was wilding
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: with that statement. But, I mean, I feel like I
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: know people who, you know, they have their dynamic that works.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: And their man is not the breadwinner. They are, you know.
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: So.
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: And I envy their relationship. It's beautiful. They're happy. They
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: look like they're having fun. They out on boats. And
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: she probably footing a lot of the bill, you know.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: But everything else is just immaculate for them. From the
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: outside looking in, I don't know, you know, for sure.
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: So how you said if the man is comfortable in
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: that position, but oftentimes men aren't comfortable in that position.
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: They want to be able to provide.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: So if you can get one that's not an ego
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: about you making more money than them and not trying
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: to make you feel bad for having a higher education
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: or earning more, then it's cool. But I think a
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: lot of problems, I don't think it comes from like
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: a woman Debo in a situation. It's because that's not
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: a natural position for a man. He wants to be
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: the one doing those things. And that's why you'll see
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: like and I hate to use celebrities, for example.
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: But this is like the best reference for most people.
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: You'll see they were with this one wife and they struggled, struggled, struggled, right?
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: and then when they get on they marry what they
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: really want right so I don't think we should be
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: suggesting struggle love to black women because no other culture
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: gets that.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: Look at the passport.
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: Bros they go out the country so they can get
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: somebody who costs less basically.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but with celebrities, the majority of us are not
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: going to be celebrities, right? You know, the majority of
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: people are not going to be celebrities. So that's like,
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: you're going to get what you get. You're going to
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: date on your level, and that's probably going to be
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: your level for most.
• 20:25
  Speaker 4: Of your life.
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: For the rest of your life, exactly. I feel like
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: black men are hypergamous.
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: I don't feel like black men really date down how
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: they suggest black women to date down.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: No, I think so. Black men are hypergamous, man. Black
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: men will find a woman that he like ringing up
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: shit at Target and marry her because of who she is.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: Women aren't typically going to pick up a man from Target.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: No shade on Target workers. I love y'all and I
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: love Target. But, you know, a successful woman. What's that
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: discount like? Going to pick up the guy working the
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: register at Target. She want him doing more. And he
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: might be the best nigga for her. You know what
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: I'm saying? I think that's what Tyler Perry trying to say.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: You at home lonely because he work at Target. But
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: I don't feel like he has to say that.
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: I feel like women are oftentimes dating somebody that's not
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: on a level. Especially in the black community. So why
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: are you trying to reiterate that? We trying to get
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: out of that. So how do we get out of that?
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: Do you see what I'm saying? You talk to the men.
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: So the men know the standard.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: But maybe grow together, perhaps? In your 20s, absolutely grow together.
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: Y'all both for real, for real in the trenches.
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: When you find yourself so single in your 30s and 40s,
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: you're really looking for somebody, not so much a growing,
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: like merging. When you have what I got, what can
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: we do to make this bigger? But if we always
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: starting at ground zero together, You still at ground zero.
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: And I got to work with you? Why are we
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: asking black women to do that?
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: It's a rat race and it sucks, Kenny. What the
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: fuck you want? A fucking medal? What movie is that?
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: I don't know. Babysitter's Club. Whatever, y'all. I'm lying. Don't
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: tell mom the babysitter's dead with Christina Applegate. Why I'm
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: going to know that? Why wouldn't you know that? It's
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: a cult classic.
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: Y'all listen. Okay, so today's guest.
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: Today's guest is the CEO of Afrofuture.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: Y'all going this year?
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: We going.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: Yes, formerly known as Afrochella. Yeah. It's lit. We going.
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: Y'all stay tuned.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: All right, y'all, listen.
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: So today's guest is the CEO and founder of one
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: of the world's largest festivals, Afrofuture, formerly known as Afrochella.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: Y'all welcome Mr.
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: Abdul Kareem Abdullah to We Talk Back.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: Yay, thank you for coming on. We excited.
• 23:11
  Speaker 4: Hey, I'm excited, too. I'm excited to be here with
• 23:14
  Speaker 4: you guys.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: Listen, we trying to come party. I'm just going to
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: get that out there. We trying to go to Ghana
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: and party, period. Everybody going, I see.
• 23:23
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, it's very exciting.
• 23:24
  Speaker 5: You know, I mean, the year of return sparked, you know,
• 23:27
  Speaker 5: a lot of emotion in people and definitely has attracted
• 23:30
  Speaker 5: a lot more people to come to Ghana to, you know,
• 23:33
  Speaker 5: to one, celebrate, like you said, turn up, but also
• 23:35
  Speaker 5: just kind of reconnect with people, you know, understand a
• 23:39
  Speaker 5: different narrative than what you've been taught, you know, or
• 23:41
  Speaker 5: what you may have known before. You know, it's a
• 23:43
  Speaker 5: great opportunity to kind of build that bond and build
• 23:45
  Speaker 5: that bridge as well.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: So talk to us about how you guys started with this,
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: because this was at least six or seven years ago
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: when y'all started.
• 23:55
  Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely.
• 23:57
  Speaker 5: Ghana's home for us, and like most African countries, a
• 24:01
  Speaker 5: lot of people tend to travel back home in December
• 24:04
  Speaker 5: to see family, to see friends, to celebrate. It's really
• 24:08
  Speaker 5: just kind of like a two-week, three-week long festival, depending
• 24:11
  Speaker 5: on how long you have the ability to stay. And,
• 24:14
  Speaker 5: you know, when I was going back, I just realized
• 24:17
  Speaker 5: that it wasn't a lot of Americans there.
• 24:19
  Speaker 4: And, you know, at the time, there was still a
• 24:20
  Speaker 4: lot of, you know, cultural wars.
• 24:23
  Speaker 5: And, you know, we wanted to be able to kind
• 24:25
  Speaker 5: of have change the direction from, you know, here's appropriation
• 24:29
  Speaker 5: to like education and inviting people back. It just so
• 24:32
  Speaker 5: happened online that three years later would be the year
• 24:34
  Speaker 5: of return, right? So when I was going, my friend,
• 24:37
  Speaker 5: my partner and I were going back and forth to Ghana,
• 24:40
  Speaker 5: and we just kind of started bringing friends and recording
• 24:42
  Speaker 5: our experiences. And then that channeled into us doing events
• 24:46
  Speaker 5: in New York City. Eventually, we were just kind of
• 24:49
  Speaker 5: in the swing of things, and we knew that we
• 24:51
  Speaker 5: needed a way to kind of get people to speak
• 24:53
  Speaker 5: to each other. Because we would party all night and
• 24:55
  Speaker 5: sleep all day in Ghana during December, because everybody's on holiday.
• 24:59
  Speaker 5: And we wanted to change that a little bit, bring
• 25:02
  Speaker 5: more day-type events, get more people speaking to each other,
• 25:05
  Speaker 5: and see what we could build as far as creativity
• 25:07
  Speaker 5: with the people who were doing some amazing work underground already.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: So you were living in the States. You were living
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: in the States and just going back to Ghana in December.
• 25:17
  Speaker 5: Yeah, so I grew up in Ghana. I went to
• 25:20
  Speaker 5: school there for eight years. I came back here to
• 25:23
  Speaker 5: the U.S., went to high school, went to college. And then, yeah,
• 25:26
  Speaker 5: we would go back annually. Now I go back multiple
• 25:30
  Speaker 5: times a year, but we'll go back annually to Ghana
• 25:33
  Speaker 5: in December and just really tap in with all the
• 25:35
  Speaker 5: folks and friends from all over. the world and family
• 25:38
  Speaker 5: from all over the world that comes back home to
• 25:40
  Speaker 5: kind of celebrate that holiday season.
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: So are y'all never planning to have the, well, now
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: Afro future in the States, in America at any point?
• 25:50
  Speaker 4: I mean, it's not our goal.
• 25:53
  Speaker 5: We'll probably have some type of experience that, you know,
• 25:56
  Speaker 5: really markets and encourages people to come back to the continent.
• 26:00
  Speaker 5: But our goal is around building the resources on the continent,
• 26:03
  Speaker 5: building away on the continent.
• 26:05
  Speaker 4: Again, people don't want to come to the continent. That's
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: a part of our goal, that tourism, right?
• 26:10
  Speaker 5: I mean, I think before us, you know, there have
• 26:12
  Speaker 5: been several efforts in different times, you know, where people
• 26:16
  Speaker 5: have come back to Africa, but not in as much
• 26:18
  Speaker 5: en masse as we have been able to kind of
• 26:20
  Speaker 5: channel through Ghana. So we want to continue to educate
• 26:23
  Speaker 5: people by encouraging them to come to the continent and
• 26:26
  Speaker 5: not just Ghana, but all the countries around the continent,
• 26:29
  Speaker 5: look at the opportunities that exist, you know, Africa is
• 26:32
  Speaker 5: the youngest continent in the world, you know, in the world,
• 26:34
  Speaker 5: you know, by 2050, one in four people will be African,
• 26:38
  Speaker 5: you know? So that means there's a lot of jobs
• 26:40
  Speaker 5: that are going to be created. Industry is going to
• 26:43
  Speaker 5: be coming to Africa. You know, we're going through a
• 26:44
  Speaker 5: whole industrial revolution.
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: I love it.
• 26:46
  Speaker 5: And I think black people, black people should, should be
• 26:49
  Speaker 5: a part of that industrial growth, right? We should be
• 26:51
  Speaker 5: able to kind of dispel those narratives that separate us and,
• 26:55
  Speaker 5: and find ways to come together and build with each other.
• 26:58
  Speaker 4: So.
• 26:59
  Speaker 5: That's some of the work that we're doing on the continent.
• 27:00
  Speaker 5: Not just us, but across the continent, all the people
• 27:03
  Speaker 5: that are building these similar properties.
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: So in 2017, y'all had your first one. And you
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: and your homeboy was just sitting around. You was like, man,
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: let's throw a big-ass party. How did y'all come up
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: with the idea?
• 27:16
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so it's funny because... We were doing events in
• 27:22
  Speaker 4: the U.S.
• 27:22
  Speaker 5: And we were very successful because Afrobeats was very niche
• 27:28
  Speaker 5: at the time.
• 27:28
  Speaker 4: It wasn't on radio.
• 27:30
  Speaker 5: So I remember the first time I ever heard an
• 27:32
  Speaker 5: Afrobeats song on radio and how it made me feel.
• 27:35
  Speaker 4: So we would do events and we had big numbers.
• 27:38
  Speaker 5: People were flying from over the states to come to
• 27:39
  Speaker 5: our parties because unlike now, it wasn't as popular when
• 27:43
  Speaker 5: we were doing it. So we had a lot of
• 27:46
  Speaker 5: audacity and decided to go to Ghana and just kind
• 27:48
  Speaker 5: of throw a party.
• 27:49
  Speaker 4: And it didn't do well. the party, the first one
• 27:51
  Speaker 4: we ever did didn't do well. So it was just
• 27:55
  Speaker 4: kind of, for me, it was a silver lining because
• 27:58
  Speaker 4: I saw something else.
• 27:59
  Speaker 5: I saw that there was a lot of amazing talent
• 28:01
  Speaker 5: that were performing and that they were performing hard despite
• 28:05
  Speaker 5: the event not going as planned. And I wanted to
• 28:07
  Speaker 5: kind of tap into that talent and be able to
• 28:10
  Speaker 5: understand it more. So I knew that we had to
• 28:12
  Speaker 5: kind of move away. In addition to that, So many
• 28:16
  Speaker 5: people that are coming to Ghana in December are doing
• 28:18
  Speaker 5: amazing things no matter where they are, right? Whether they're
• 28:21
  Speaker 5: in the States, they're record label execs, they're creative geniuses,
• 28:25
  Speaker 5: they're scientists, they're doctors, they're nurses, you know, not only
• 28:29
  Speaker 5: in America, but in London and Berlin and Japan and Australia.
• 28:34
  Speaker 5: So it just, I felt like it was a disservice
• 28:36
  Speaker 5: to the people on the continent who were doing some
• 28:38
  Speaker 5: amazing things, not to be able to tap in with
• 28:41
  Speaker 5: some of these people when they came to the continent.
• 28:44
  Speaker 5: And we knew that the festival would be able to
• 28:46
  Speaker 5: kind of bring that energy around what we were trying
• 28:50
  Speaker 5: to do. So that's how the idea for the festival came.
• 28:53
  Speaker 4: But it took some time to kind of figure out
• 28:55
  Speaker 4: what it was going to look like, where it was
• 28:56
  Speaker 4: going to be, how it was going to feel, and
• 28:59
  Speaker 4: how we were going to pay for it. So, yes. Right. Yeah, exactly.
• 29:05
  Speaker 4: So my partner, you know, but he's a big supporter.
• 29:08
  Speaker 5: Like, you know, when we were finally ready and I
• 29:10
  Speaker 5: just kind of knew where I wanted the event to happen,
• 29:14
  Speaker 5: you know, how I wanted to shape up.
• 29:16
  Speaker 4: When I told him, he didn't hesitate.
• 29:17
  Speaker 5: Like the same day we had the venue booked, we
• 29:19
  Speaker 5: had about seven months to plan the first one. You know,
• 29:22
  Speaker 5: I think that no matter how, you know, if you
• 29:24
  Speaker 5: have an idea or you have something good to put
• 29:27
  Speaker 5: into the world, you just have to kind of put
• 29:28
  Speaker 5: it out there. And like the world will galvanize around
• 29:31
  Speaker 5: you to kind of build it and accelerate.
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: So how would you say the festival has evolved since
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: its inception?
• 29:40
  Speaker 4: Oh, yeah. I mean, well, you said before it was,
• 29:43
  Speaker 4: you know, Afrocella was and, you know, Afrofuture is, right?
• 29:47
  Speaker 4: I think that what we learned in our journey to
• 29:49
  Speaker 4: kind of invite people to Africa was that, one, there
• 29:52
  Speaker 4: has to be a lot of education around people who
• 29:56
  Speaker 4: were interested in visiting the continent. It's not just You know,
• 29:59
  Speaker 4: tourism on the continent is not what it is in
• 30:01
  Speaker 4: the Caribbean. It's not what it is in Europe. It's
• 30:04
  Speaker 4: very brand new, right? Even to each other, right?
• 30:07
  Speaker 5: Within the continent, people have not visited each other's countries
• 30:11
  Speaker 5: because of, you know, we don't have, it's not as
• 30:13
  Speaker 5: easy to kind of hop on a flight and go
• 30:15
  Speaker 5: to LA like it is in Africa. It's not as
• 30:19
  Speaker 5: easy to do that because you might have to leave
• 30:21
  Speaker 5: the continent to go to another country on the continent,
• 30:24
  Speaker 5: you know, just kind of the way the countries are
• 30:26
  Speaker 5: set up. or you might need a visa to go
• 30:28
  Speaker 5: to another country on the continent, which was asinine.
• 30:31
  Speaker 4: But, you know, that's what happened.
• 30:32
  Speaker 5: So really, you know, our ability to kind of bring
• 30:35
  Speaker 5: people together was a goal for us in putting this together.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: So, all right, I might, this is going to sound ignorant,
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: but let's roll with it, okay? So the continent of Africa,
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: you have several countries. So it's 54 countries. So it
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: wouldn't be similar to like, you know how in the USA,
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: we're going to different states, right? So with the different countries,
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: you would need like a visa to go to every country,
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: or you couldn't just travel to different countries in the
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: continent without it.
• 31:11
  Speaker 4: So with your American passport, you can probably visit more
• 31:14
  Speaker 4: countries than a citizen of Somalia can visit countries on
• 31:18
  Speaker 4: the continent.
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: Really?
• 31:21
  Speaker 5: Yeah, you might be able to, you can get into
• 31:23
  Speaker 5: South Africa. But a citizen of Nigeria needs a visa
• 31:27
  Speaker 5: to get into South Africa.
• 31:28
  Speaker 4: Your American passport will get you into South Africa.
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, why is that?
• 31:33
  Speaker 4: Because of neocolonialism.
• 31:35
  Speaker 5: A lot of people don't understand this, but like, you know,
• 31:37
  Speaker 5: a lot of African countries recently, you hear about the
• 31:40
  Speaker 5: coup d'etats happening in Mali.
• 31:42
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I love it.
• 31:44
  Speaker 5: You know, it's just people fighting back, right? You know,
• 31:47
  Speaker 5: the internet is educating us. You know, there's a lot
• 31:51
  Speaker 5: of things that we need to learn and unlearn about Africa.
• 31:55
  Speaker 4: You know what I mean?
• 31:56
  Speaker 5: And, you know, just kind of how you're surprised that
• 31:59
  Speaker 5: your American passport can get you in an African country
• 32:01
  Speaker 5: and an African one, an African passport can't get into
• 32:04
  Speaker 5: that country.
• 32:05
  Speaker 4: It's just the way, you know, the powers that be
• 32:07
  Speaker 4: have set up, you know, you know, the world.
• 32:10
  Speaker 5: And the hope is that we can untangle that and
• 32:12
  Speaker 5: we can, you know, encourage more black people to kind
• 32:15
  Speaker 5: of learn about each other. Like we need to learn
• 32:17
  Speaker 5: about each other in order for us to build with
• 32:19
  Speaker 5: each other. You know what I mean?
• 32:20
  Speaker 4: So, It's unfortunate, but that's what it is right now.
• 32:25
  Speaker 5: But there's a new, I just kind of feel like
• 32:27
  Speaker 5: if I'm going to say the bad side, I should
• 32:29
  Speaker 5: say the optimistic side as well. Like there's a new
• 32:32
  Speaker 5: trade agreement that the African Union has adopted. It's called
• 32:35
  Speaker 5: the AFCFTA, which is the Africa Free Trade Agreement. And
• 32:40
  Speaker 5: the hope is that we can get more, I guess,
• 32:43
  Speaker 5: cooperation amongst the African countries to do more trade with
• 32:47
  Speaker 5: each other and to also, you know, you know, reduce
• 32:52
  Speaker 5: barriers between people being able to get from country to
• 32:56
  Speaker 5: country without.
• 32:57
  Speaker 4: Visas and things of that nature.
• 32:58
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it is very easy for you as an American
• 33:01
  Speaker 5: to go, you know, within the states than it is
• 33:05
  Speaker 5: for African countries to go within.
• 33:06
  Speaker 4: The African countries.
• 33:07
  Speaker 5: But, you know, on most maps, a lot of people,
• 33:10
  Speaker 5: they draw Africa smaller, but most oil continents can't fit
• 33:15
  Speaker 5: on the African continent.
• 33:16
  Speaker 4: That's how it is.
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: Right, right. It's never to size. What would you say
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: is the greatest hardship of building something like this? Because this,
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's grown really, really huge. What would you
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: say was the greatest hardship of building it so far,
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: thus far?
• 33:30
  Speaker 4: I mean, I would say there was a lot of
• 33:31
  Speaker 4: learning on the job for us.
• 33:35
  Speaker 5: And, you know, I think we also scaled very fast.
• 33:39
  Speaker 5: You know, we went from 4,700 people year one to
• 33:42
  Speaker 5: 12,000 year two to 60,000 year three. Last year, we
• 33:44
  Speaker 5: did 31,000, you know, so. we haven't been able to
• 33:52
  Speaker 5: match the amount of scale we have to the amount
• 33:54
  Speaker 5: of money we've been able to raise. So that has
• 33:56
  Speaker 5: been a difficult process, right?
• 33:58
  Speaker 4: Being able to kind of make it make sense for
• 34:01
  Speaker 4: all the people who are coming to the event.
• 34:04
  Speaker 5: But thankfully we've been able to kind of make lemon
• 34:06
  Speaker 5: out of lemonades, lemonades out of lemon. And, you know,
• 34:13
  Speaker 5: we've been able to kind of put on a very
• 34:14
  Speaker 5: successful event, you know, it's attracting people from all over
• 34:17
  Speaker 5: the world, celebrities.
• 34:19
  Speaker 4: And, artists and talent, and it's been going pretty well.
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: Do you get to enjoy it, or are you just
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: running around like a chicken with your head cut off
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: for the whole time because you're working? Or do you
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: actually get to enjoy what you create?
• 34:32
  Speaker 4: Yeah, for the first couple of years, I didn't enjoy it.
• 34:34
  Speaker 5: The only way I knew the experience was through the
• 34:37
  Speaker 5: feedback I was getting from people. And that was really
• 34:39
  Speaker 5: the fuel that motivated me to keep going. How people
• 34:44
  Speaker 5: felt about it, how it impacted their lives. Some people
• 34:47
  Speaker 5: brought their whole families. their mothers, their wives, their kids.
• 34:52
  Speaker 5: And just kind of seeing how it affected other people
• 34:54
  Speaker 5: was something that kind of encouraged me, you know, because
• 34:56
  Speaker 5: in the first couple of years of a business, you're
• 34:58
  Speaker 5: not really seeing, you know.
• 35:00
  Speaker 4: And also we had a very small team. You know,
• 35:03
  Speaker 4: we've since expanded our team.
• 35:05
  Speaker 5: So last year and the year before were the first
• 35:07
  Speaker 5: years that I got to actually experience it with people
• 35:10
  Speaker 5: and walk through the entire field while people are enjoying
• 35:13
  Speaker 5: it and watching, hearing them talk and just, you know,
• 35:16
  Speaker 5: people watching it.
• 35:18
  Speaker 4: It's an incredible experience. It's an incredible experience.
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: What would you say is your favorite, absolute favorite part
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: of the festival? So I can know where I need
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: to be when I go.
• 35:31
  Speaker 5: My favorite part of the festival, obviously like the different
• 35:34
  Speaker 5: photo moments and interactive moments that people get to enjoy
• 35:38
  Speaker 5: on the field and watching them interact with, with them.
• 35:41
  Speaker 4: I think that is really, really cool. I think also
• 35:44
  Speaker 4: just kind of watching, you know, People connect.
• 35:48
  Speaker 5: I've seen engagements happen on our festival field. I've seen
• 35:53
  Speaker 5: married couples come out because they met at our festival field.
• 35:58
  Speaker 5: And those testimonials kind of keep it going. And also
• 36:01
  Speaker 5: just kind of seeing how people react to Ghana. One
• 36:07
  Speaker 5: of the coolest things I felt was that Ghana is
• 36:10
  Speaker 5: so safe as a country. You know, I was walking down,
• 36:13
  Speaker 5: I was driving my car. And as I was driving
• 36:16
  Speaker 5: my car, I look out my window to the left
• 36:19
  Speaker 5: and I see two of my friends from Brooklyn, New York,
• 36:22
  Speaker 5: walking the streets of Accra, like, you know, in the
• 36:25
  Speaker 5: middle of the city. And that was such a proud
• 36:28
  Speaker 5: moment for me because it was just kind of like, yo,
• 36:31
  Speaker 5: they walking down, they walking down Accra like it's Flatbush.
• 36:34
  Speaker 4: Like, you know what I mean? I felt like I.
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: Was right there.
• 36:37
  Speaker 5: Trying to kind of see them just walking there. breathe
• 36:41
  Speaker 5: about it you know so you know there's so many
• 36:44
  Speaker 5: amazing things to do in Ghana whether it's if you
• 36:46
  Speaker 5: want a club you can party all night to the
• 36:48
  Speaker 5: morning you know people literally there are viral videos of
• 36:52
  Speaker 5: people on the beach at 8 a.m you know people
• 36:54
  Speaker 5: you can do that but there are so many cool
• 36:57
  Speaker 5: restaurants you know there's so many you know educational activities
• 37:02
  Speaker 5: that's happening on the ground there's so many you know
• 37:06
  Speaker 5: sites to see places to visit Once you come there,
• 37:10
  Speaker 5: for me, it's the beaches.
• 37:11
  Speaker 4: I love to drive. There's a beach at Blue Lagoon.
• 37:14
  Speaker 4: It's about two and a half hours away from Accra.
• 37:17
  Speaker 4: It's so serene. It's quiet. It's private. It's clean.
• 37:22
  Speaker 5: You know, it's one of my favorite places to go
• 37:24
  Speaker 5: when I just want to hear myself in the ocean,
• 37:26
  Speaker 5: the ocean hit. You know, I think it's just like
• 37:29
  Speaker 5: one of the best places in Accra, for sure.
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: So, Abdul, you be dancing? Can you dance? You don't
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: go to the club?
• 37:38
  Speaker 4: I'm a New Yorker, man. You know, you got to
• 37:41
  Speaker 4: be able to do a little one-two step. You can't
• 37:44
  Speaker 4: be stiff. I don't want to be painting on a wall.
• 37:47
  Speaker 4: I was a part of the Lil Shake era.
• 37:49
  Speaker 5: I got a little shake in, did a little 5,000,
• 37:53
  Speaker 5: toe-off a little bit.
• 37:54
  Speaker 4: You know, I grew up pretty good. And, you know,
• 37:57
  Speaker 4: when it comes to the Afro Beats, I can do
• 37:59
  Speaker 4: a little shake-a-shake. I can do a little Zunku. You
• 38:02
  Speaker 4: got a little something.
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: A little two-step.
• 38:04
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, a little shoulder work. I got it all.
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: A little shoulder work.
• 38:10
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 38:12
  Speaker 3: So at the end of the 2022 Afrocella, you guys
• 38:16
  Speaker 3: announced that the festival would not be returning. I know
• 38:19
  Speaker 3: a lot of the festival goers are probably upset, but
• 38:23
  Speaker 3: now we find that the name of the festival has
• 38:26
  Speaker 3: just changed now to Afrofuture.
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: Let's talk about what's going on with that.
• 38:31
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Afrocella was and Afrofuture is, you know, not only
• 38:36
  Speaker 4: did we feel internally that it was time for us
• 38:38
  Speaker 4: to kind of grow into our, uh, step into our
• 38:41
  Speaker 4: big boy pants as far as shoes and what we
• 38:43
  Speaker 4: wanted to tell as far as the storytelling component, we
• 38:46
  Speaker 4: knew that the future is Africa and we want our
• 38:49
  Speaker 4: festival to be synonymous with that as far as the
• 38:51
  Speaker 4: connectivity of the bridge that's being built between, um, the
• 38:55
  Speaker 4: diaspora and the continent. You know, we don't have any issues, uh,
• 38:59
  Speaker 4: with the other team.
• 39:00
  Speaker 5: We just really was just kind of standing our ground
• 39:03
  Speaker 5: as far as, um, what we felt like we deserved
• 39:06
  Speaker 5: and who we were. You know, eventually we was able
• 39:09
  Speaker 5: to come to an agreement.
• 39:11
  Speaker 4: And that's why we exist how we exist now as FFuture.
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: Well, I like it. Can you tell us, like, what's
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: the lineup for this December?
• 39:20
  Speaker 4: It's coming up. I mean, we have a deal to
• 39:23
  Speaker 4: do an exclusive release, but it's definitely coming up within
• 39:26
  Speaker 4: the next week or so. So you all will get
• 39:28
  Speaker 4: that information. But it's going to be pretty exciting in
• 39:31
  Speaker 4: the past. Last year, we had Burnin' Boy headline alongside
• 39:35
  Speaker 4: Fireboy and a few other exciting acts.
• 39:38
  Speaker 5: In 2021, we had Wizkid, we had Ari Lennox, and
• 39:41
  Speaker 5: a few others. So this year is going to be
• 39:44
  Speaker 5: nice short of that. It's going to be pretty amazing.
• 39:46
  Speaker 3: What do you think about Burnin' Boy seeing it... That
• 39:49
  Speaker 3: we don't have any culture over here.
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: Black Americans.
• 39:52
  Speaker 4: I think what he meant and what he said are
• 39:56
  Speaker 4: two different things. You know what I mean? But, you know,
• 39:59
  Speaker 4: I think it was all up to interpretation.
• 40:01
  Speaker 5: Like I said earlier, we definitely need to learn more
• 40:05
  Speaker 5: about each other's cultures and understand each other's perspectives.
• 40:09
  Speaker 4: And I think that would inform how we should speak
• 40:12
  Speaker 4: on or about each other.
• 40:14
  Speaker 5: You know, so, yeah, there's a lot of education on
• 40:17
  Speaker 5: both sides of the spectrum that needs to be had
• 40:19
  Speaker 5: in order for us to kind of stop these little
• 40:22
  Speaker 5: cultural wars that continue to kind of perpetuate.
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: What's your background? Is your background, like, where'd you go
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: to school for?
• 40:28
  Speaker 5: I went to school, funny enough, for bio, psychology, and
• 40:33
  Speaker 5: I public health.
• 40:35
  Speaker 3: He know exactly what to say in it yeah he
• 40:37
  Speaker 3: know how to like word that shit real good like
• 40:40
  Speaker 3: yeah i ain't getting.
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: Into that with y'all so i'm gonna be.
• 40:43
  Speaker 4: Like i'm just saying like you know i'm trying to make.
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: Sure politically correct no it's.
• 40:50
  Speaker 5: Not even politically correct it's really just kind of like
• 40:53
  Speaker 5: you know i feel like i'm always going to stand
• 40:55
  Speaker 5: on my ground up on the bronx like you know
• 40:57
  Speaker 5: what i mean that's what we do but it's just
• 40:59
  Speaker 5: kind of like you know I take the approach of
• 41:02
  Speaker 5: education more so than I take the approach of controversy.
• 41:05
  Speaker 5: You know, I think that, you know, controversy is obviously
• 41:07
  Speaker 5: what sells and that's what a lot of people love
• 41:09
  Speaker 5: and enjoy. But I personally feel there's opportunity for us
• 41:13
  Speaker 5: to kind of educate each other.
• 41:14
  Speaker 3: So what kind of stuff like on the ground at Afrofuture,
• 41:18
  Speaker 3: what kind of educational and empowerment initiatives is Afrofuture involved in?
• 41:24
  Speaker 4: Amazing.
• 41:26
  Speaker 5: So we do a lot of things. outside of the festival.
• 41:29
  Speaker 5: A lot of people know the festival because that's where
• 41:31
  Speaker 5: the enjoyment is. But even at the festival, there's opportunity
• 41:34
  Speaker 5: for you to engage with different cultural troops that we
• 41:37
  Speaker 5: bring onto the field, different artists and talents that we
• 41:40
  Speaker 5: bring onto the field that are also there. The muralists
• 41:44
  Speaker 5: and the painters and even some of the vendors have
• 41:47
  Speaker 5: a lot of stories to tell. And those connections are very,
• 41:50
  Speaker 5: very important to us. Off the field, we have an expo.
• 41:54
  Speaker 5: The expo is an opportunity for us to kind of
• 41:56
  Speaker 5: foster that dialogue So whether it's in music and education
• 42:00
  Speaker 5: around music and entertainment, we have that. We've done that
• 42:03
  Speaker 5: in partnership with our favorites, something like YouTube, TuneCore, AudioMac.
• 42:09
  Speaker 5: We've done several panel discussions, meetups, and those kind of
• 42:13
  Speaker 5: things with them. We've done poetry events, whether it's given
• 42:18
  Speaker 5: creators an opportunity to kind of tap in with each
• 42:20
  Speaker 5: other and tell their story from a poetry perspective. Last year,
• 42:24
  Speaker 5: we introduced Black Health Connect, which was an opportunity for
• 42:27
  Speaker 5: health professionals in the diaspora to connect.
• 42:29
  Speaker 4: I thought that was really cool. That was one of
• 42:31
  Speaker 4: my favorites.
• 42:33
  Speaker 5: We've had conversation around agriculture and food and how we
• 42:38
  Speaker 5: connect around food and what opportunities.
• 42:41
  Speaker 4: We've done things about beauty. About 64% of our audience
• 42:43
  Speaker 4: are women. So we tend to kind of also like
• 42:46
  Speaker 4: to try and have conversations around women. Last year, we
• 42:48
  Speaker 4: were able to collaborate with this company out of Berlin.
• 42:53
  Speaker 4: called CurlCon, and we had conversations about beauty and starting
• 42:57
  Speaker 4: a beauty business. And right now we're empowering beauty brands
• 43:02
  Speaker 4: from the continent, like Topicals, like Amicole, that are doing
• 43:08
  Speaker 4: some amazing work in the space, and we want to
• 43:10
  Speaker 4: be able to highlight them and highlight the ingredients that
• 43:13
  Speaker 4: they use from the continent. So whether it's like food
• 43:17
  Speaker 4: activations and discussions around food as well, Some of the
• 43:20
  Speaker 4: opportunities that we dig into last year, we were able
• 43:23
  Speaker 4: to collaborate with Modern Black Girl and we ran a
• 43:28
  Speaker 4: pitch competition.
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: Oh, I love that.
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: I love Modern Black Girl.
• 43:32
  Speaker 5: To kind of like tap in and win a prize
• 43:35
  Speaker 5: to kind of help their businesses. We want to expand
• 43:39
  Speaker 5: and have conversations around tech, around business opportunities. around diaspora dialogues,
• 43:45
  Speaker 5: what are our perspectives as men from a diaspora point
• 43:49
  Speaker 5: of view as American, from a British point of view,
• 43:52
  Speaker 5: from a British, a Black American, what are the different
• 43:56
  Speaker 5: perspectives of men?
• 43:57
  Speaker 4: What is our tone? How do we differ? How do
• 43:59
  Speaker 4: we have similarities in terms of mindset? Same thing around
• 44:04
  Speaker 4: women and wellness and how can we speak to each
• 44:06
  Speaker 4: other and understand each other's perspectives? Anything that brings connectivity
• 44:11
  Speaker 4: and fosters education amongst the diaspora, some of the work
• 44:14
  Speaker 4: we do in the expo. And then with our music museum,
• 44:18
  Speaker 4: we tend to take the music.
• 44:20
  Speaker 5: Off of the screen and off the sound and really
• 44:22
  Speaker 5: put it in the museum focus. Because, you know, I
• 44:25
  Speaker 5: may say an artist that you guys, I'm sure you're
• 44:28
  Speaker 5: familiar with the song, but you probably don't know the
• 44:30
  Speaker 5: name of the artist. And that's like that for a
• 44:33
  Speaker 5: lot of Afrobeats artists and artists from the continent.
• 44:36
  Speaker 4: If they're not part of the big three.
• 44:38
  Speaker 5: or they haven't done a collaboration maybe with a Selena
• 44:42
  Speaker 5: Gomez or something like that, most people probably won't know
• 44:45
  Speaker 5: who they are. And we want to change that because
• 44:48
  Speaker 5: we want to make sure that this sticks to your
• 44:50
  Speaker 5: soul as far as the music and the movement that
• 44:53
  Speaker 5: we're having.
• 44:54
  Speaker 4: And really what it takes is the education. We grew
• 44:57
  Speaker 4: up with hip hop. I watched Mac DVDs. I read
• 45:01
  Speaker 4: the blogs. I know this was my culture, right?
• 45:06
  Speaker 5: So I follow artists from when they was a mixtape
• 45:08
  Speaker 5: artist to now they're like, you know, a world-renowned artist.
• 45:12
  Speaker 5: Like French Montana, I remember him as a cookboy on
• 45:15
  Speaker 5: Smack DVD and now to see him as a superstar.
• 45:19
  Speaker 5: I follow that story. Most of us here in the U.S.
• 45:21
  Speaker 5: haven't had that opportunity with Afrobeats artists. So that connectivity
• 45:26
  Speaker 5: is important.
• 45:26
  Speaker 4: So our museum allows us to be able to create
• 45:29
  Speaker 4: an experience like that for artists and dig deeper into that.
• 45:33
  Speaker 4: So we do a lot of those kinds of things.
• 45:35
  Speaker 5: And obviously we give back, you know, a lot of
• 45:37
  Speaker 5: people say why we don't highlight that because we don't
• 45:40
  Speaker 5: want Africa to be associated with charity. We want people
• 45:44
  Speaker 5: to associate us with industry and to highlight some of the,
• 45:48
  Speaker 5: you know, the people on the ground doing the damn thing.
• 45:52
  Speaker 4: There's a lot of people.
• 45:53
  Speaker 5: On the ground doing a lot of amazing things and
• 45:57
  Speaker 5: finance and tech and science and creativity.
• 46:02
  Speaker 4: And, you know, in fashion, you know, so, you know,
• 46:05
  Speaker 4: how do we highlight those people? That's what's more important
• 46:09
  Speaker 4: to us. Yeah, there's give back. There's an opportunity, you know,
• 46:12
  Speaker 4: if you want to donate sneakers.
• 46:14
  Speaker 5: We have a whole day with the kids and paint
• 46:16
  Speaker 5: and rebuild their school or provide them with food for
• 46:20
  Speaker 5: the day and for the year as well. You know,
• 46:22
  Speaker 5: we do those kind of things. What we're trying to
• 46:25
  Speaker 5: do is encourage people to come back. tapping with people
• 46:28
  Speaker 5: doing some amazing things and let's let's work together to
• 46:31
  Speaker 5: create opportunities.
• 46:31
  Speaker 3: Absolutely that's so cool i'm thinking about i want to
• 46:34
  Speaker 3: get my uh citizenship in ghana do they still have
• 46:37
  Speaker 3: that program when they're offering black americans to come over
• 46:40
  Speaker 3: there and get a piece of land and and uh citizenship.
• 46:45
  Speaker 4: Yeah absolutely you could come you can get residency and
• 46:47
  Speaker 4: then after a while once there is amnesty they do
• 46:50
  Speaker 4: the entire citizenship together but you start with residency i
• 46:53
  Speaker 4: know a few people who have gone through that process
• 46:56
  Speaker 4: and have started several businesses around Indana specifically.
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: That's dope. So let me ask you this. As a novice,
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: because I want to come, what date would you say
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: would be the best dates to come? From this date
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: to this date would be the best opportunity to get
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: a real experience.
• 47:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 47:14
  Speaker 5: The only thing I often feel guilty when I tell
• 47:16
  Speaker 5: people to come before Christmas. So we tend to tell
• 47:21
  Speaker 5: people to come in the 26th. then leave the 4th.
• 47:25
  Speaker 5: Those are the days where we're having the majority of
• 47:27
  Speaker 5: the activations. But it's really on and popping all December
• 47:31
  Speaker 5: and mostly throughout January. There's always something to do. But
• 47:35
  Speaker 5: the busiest part is the 26th to the 4th. Those
• 47:39
  Speaker 5: are the times where I will encourage a lot of
• 47:41
  Speaker 5: people to come in and tap in. After the 4th,
• 47:45
  Speaker 5: it's still fun. There's a lot less people You know,
• 47:48
  Speaker 5: it's calmer. You get to do a lot more relaxing stuff,
• 47:51
  Speaker 5: but it's still a good time.
• 47:52
  Speaker 4: Ghana's a good time any day of the week that
• 47:54
  Speaker 4: you go. Yeah, yesterday was crazy in Accra.
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: What happened in Accra yesterday?
• 48:01
  Speaker 4: We had an event that we call My Piano and
• 48:03
  Speaker 4: Brunch that we started in the pandemic.
• 48:06
  Speaker 5: And it's a pretty exciting experience. So, you know, even
• 48:09
  Speaker 5: yesterday was a sold-out event. So, you know, Accra is
• 48:12
  Speaker 5: always popping. Anywhere you go on the continent, you can
• 48:15
  Speaker 5: have an amazing time. You know, it's just really about
• 48:18
  Speaker 5: going and seeing yourself there.
• 48:21
  Speaker 3: So my concern is vaccinations. What type of vaccinations you
• 48:25
  Speaker 3: got to have, if any, to go to Ghana?
• 48:29
  Speaker 5: I think just the kind of the basics, the stuff
• 48:32
  Speaker 5: that's on your yellow card, the yellow fever, the mumps.
• 48:36
  Speaker 5: But even that, I believe the yellow fever has been
• 48:37
  Speaker 5: updated to be taken off. You just want to make
• 48:40
  Speaker 5: sure that you're vaccinated against any of those deadly diseases.
• 48:44
  Speaker 4: You no longer need the COVID vaccine.
• 48:47
  Speaker 5: Well, you should have a COVID vaccination to come to Ghana,
• 48:50
  Speaker 5: but you no longer have to provide a PCR test
• 48:53
  Speaker 5: or anything of that nature to.
• 48:54
  Speaker 4: Come into Ghana.
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: Me and her ain't got no husband or no kids,
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: so we can come before Christmas, honestly. We can come early.
• 49:03
  Speaker 4: I'll tell you right now, y'all have a blast.
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: In terms of cost, is this an experience that the
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: average American can, Black American or any race of American
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: can come have? Or do we gotta wait till 2025
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: and get our chips together?
• 49:18
  Speaker 4: No, no, no. It depends on where you are in life.
• 49:20
  Speaker 4: and also when you're booking, right?
• 49:22
  Speaker 5: We give a lot of different opportunities for people to
• 49:26
  Speaker 5: be able to kind of pay their trip over time.
• 49:28
  Speaker 4: You don't have to buy it all at once.
• 49:30
  Speaker 5: Yes, the most expensive part of this trip is the
• 49:35
  Speaker 5: flight there.
• 49:36
  Speaker 4: That's the biggest hurdle.
• 49:38
  Speaker 5: And then also maybe sometimes depending on how you stay
• 49:41
  Speaker 5: or the luxury you want to have once you stay there.
• 49:44
  Speaker 5: But you can definitely go there on a pretty steep
• 49:47
  Speaker 5: budget because once you're in town, your money goes a
• 49:49
  Speaker 5: long way. The dollar is a very great currency to
• 49:52
  Speaker 5: have on the continent. It goes a long way. Unless
• 49:56
  Speaker 5: you're out there trying to live like a king, you
• 49:59
  Speaker 5: should be fine. The biggest hurdle you're probably going to
• 50:03
  Speaker 5: face is your flight and accommodation, but Everything else is
• 50:07
  Speaker 5: nominal compared to the amount of money that you have.
• 50:09
  Speaker 5: So we have a relationship where they're affordable. It gives
• 50:14
  Speaker 5: people an opportunity to be able to kind of pay
• 50:16
  Speaker 5: their trip over time and spread the payments. We also
• 50:20
  Speaker 5: have a travel agent on hand as well, Mo Travel.
• 50:25
  Speaker 5: She also allows for people to be able to pay
• 50:27
  Speaker 5: this over time so we can reduce that burden for people. But,
• 50:31
  Speaker 5: you know, I don't know anyone that has spent the
• 50:35
  Speaker 5: money to come to Ghana that has given us bad
• 50:37
  Speaker 5: feedback about their experience or their experience, like what it
• 50:42
  Speaker 5: meant to them to be in Ghana, right? You know,
• 50:44
  Speaker 5: even if they didn't like anything else, they just kind of,
• 50:47
  Speaker 5: you know, that experience of being in Africa and going
• 50:50
  Speaker 5: to the continent for the first time changed a lot
• 50:53
  Speaker 5: of people's lives, at least the feedback that we've gotten.
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: Okay, well. Send me Mo's number so I can call
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: her and get my shit together because I'm coming this year. Right.
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: They take after pay? American Airlines takes after pay, you guys.
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: Or Klarna or one of those. So you can get
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: your ticket like that.
• 51:12
  Speaker 5: You know, we're looking at some airline discounts. You know,
• 51:16
  Speaker 5: in the future, we're trying to do charter planes as well,
• 51:20
  Speaker 5: which will kind of help us reduce the cost. Seems
• 51:23
  Speaker 5: like they're trying to stop black people from coming to Africa, man.
• 51:26
  Speaker 4: Every year, they keep increasing the price.
• 51:31
  Speaker 3: That's why I was asking you about the festival ever
• 51:34
  Speaker 3: being in America because I understand empowering Africa for sure,
• 51:39
  Speaker 3: but we can look at other groups of people. I'll
• 51:42
  Speaker 3: say the Asians for an example. Asian people, they empower
• 51:45
  Speaker 3: their people wherever they are. It's not about really doing
• 51:50
  Speaker 3: this here and then sending money back or sending the
• 51:52
  Speaker 3: resources back.
• 51:53
  Speaker 2: It's about us taking over all shit. You know what
• 51:56
  Speaker 2: I'm saying?
• 51:57
  Speaker 4: Absolutely. 100%. So last year and this year, what we
• 52:02
  Speaker 4: started doing is taking our show on the road. So
• 52:05
  Speaker 4: between Ghana and December, we do a lot of activities
• 52:07
  Speaker 4: leading up to December. And so creating experiences here in
• 52:13
  Speaker 4: the U.S. So for instance, or in Europe. So this
• 52:16
  Speaker 4: year we've done a lot of stops. We started off
• 52:19
  Speaker 4: in Cote d'Ivoire, which is in Abidjan. Then we went
• 52:22
  Speaker 4: to Paris. We went to London. We came back to L.A.
• 52:26
  Speaker 4: We did New York earlier this summer.
• 52:29
  Speaker 5: We have an event coming up with WhatsApp and DoorDash
• 52:36
  Speaker 5: at Nike, Battle of Jollof Rice.
• 52:38
  Speaker 4: You guys are invited. It's going to be pretty exciting.
• 52:42
  Speaker 4: It's a basketball game and a Jollof Rice competition. So
• 52:46
  Speaker 4: we create experiences throughout the year. preparing people for Ghana.
• 52:52
  Speaker 4: We even went to the Kentucky Derby this year and
• 52:54
  Speaker 4: created an experience there. So we're definitely touching our audiences
• 52:59
  Speaker 4: in the different markets that we do.
• 53:01
  Speaker 5: But as the festival exists, we create about 1,500 jobs
• 53:05
  Speaker 5: for people when people come to the continent. We are
• 53:08
  Speaker 5: able to accomplish, one, the goal of getting people who
• 53:12
  Speaker 5: have long wondered about the continent, giving them a way
• 53:15
  Speaker 5: that is consumable for them to come to the continent
• 53:19
  Speaker 5: and encouraging that. We're able to create opportunities for people
• 53:22
  Speaker 5: on the ground. We're able to build connections as far
• 53:25
  Speaker 5: as people who are coming and the people on the ground.
• 53:27
  Speaker 5: So there's so many positive things that we are accomplishing
• 53:31
  Speaker 5: by doing it on the continent that just doesn't make
• 53:36
  Speaker 5: sense to leave. And also, just to kind of put
• 53:38
  Speaker 5: it in context, the world is fighting for Africa right now.
• 53:43
  Speaker 5: Like Russia, China, and America are fighting for influence in Africa.
• 53:48
  Speaker 4: Black people.
• 53:49
  Speaker 5: need to be at the center of that, and we
• 53:51
  Speaker 5: need to be able to tap in as well. If
• 53:53
  Speaker 5: all of these superpowers are fighting for Africa, they know
• 53:56
  Speaker 5: there's an opportunity there. And for me, the opportunity should
• 53:59
  Speaker 5: first be with Black people, and not just Black people
• 54:01
  Speaker 5: on the continent, but Black people in the diaspora. So
• 54:04
  Speaker 5: the Caribbean, the Americas, Europe, Asia, wherever you are, tap
• 54:08
  Speaker 5: in with people on the continent. How can you support them?
• 54:11
  Speaker 5: How can you invest in them? How can you work
• 54:13
  Speaker 5: with each other to kind of do something?
• 54:15
  Speaker 4: That's some of our goals.
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: Right, and get in front of the white man. Always.
• 54:24
  Speaker 4: Yeah, they're going to get theirs, but we got to
• 54:26
  Speaker 4: get ours too.
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: That part, that part. Where's the Jollof Rice competition at?
• 54:31
  Speaker 4: So this year is going to be at the Nike HQ.
• 54:34
  Speaker 4: Everybody can't get in.
• 54:36
  Speaker 5: So, you know, it's going to be, you know, it's
• 54:39
  Speaker 5: invite only, but we got space for you guys to
• 54:42
  Speaker 5: pull up and enjoy yourself. It's a pretty great experience.
• 54:46
  Speaker 5: We've had a lot of amazing players. The game was
• 54:48
  Speaker 5: actually competitive. Jadena has played in the past. Rosgold, who
• 54:53
  Speaker 5: used to be a player, she's played. We've had a
• 54:55
  Speaker 5: few semi-pro players play on the team. So it's been
• 55:00
  Speaker 5: pretty exciting. It's co-ed, so a woman has to be on.
• 55:03
  Speaker 4: The court the whole time. But they're good, too, and
• 55:07
  Speaker 4: they're dope, and they ball out. It's a pretty great experience,
• 55:11
  Speaker 4: and we have an after-party. It's vibes.
• 55:15
  Speaker 5: So we have an after-party at Musica. So it's going
• 55:17
  Speaker 5: to be a very nice, you know, two weeks. Nigerian
• 55:20
  Speaker 5: Independence is October 1st. So we're going to be celebrating
• 55:23
  Speaker 5: up until the.
• 55:24
  Speaker 4: 8th of October.
• 55:26
  Speaker 2: So this is in New York, you're saying?
• 55:28
  Speaker 4: This is in New York, yes.
• 55:31
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, I'm trying to pull up. Absolutely.
• 55:35
  Speaker 4: Pull up, please.
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: You said Jalaf Rice and you had me. You had
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: me at Jalaf Rice, okay?
• 55:43
  Speaker 4: Jalaf Rice champion. The Jalaf Rice that we use. It's
• 55:48
  Speaker 4: our cry restaurant. We have two locations in Harlem and
• 55:51
  Speaker 4: one in the Bronx. But they are two-time champions this year.
• 55:54
  Speaker 4: They get to defend it for the three-peat. So I'm
• 55:56
  Speaker 4: pretty excited for them. You know, hopefully Nigeria can come
• 56:01
  Speaker 4: with some heat.
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: We're going to see what happens, and I'm going to
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: taste all of it, and I'm going to tell you
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: which one I think should win. I've only had Joloff
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: one time. Really?
• 56:11
  Speaker 4: Really.
• 56:12
  Speaker 3: The food is so damn spicy, man. I like to
• 56:14
  Speaker 3: be able to enjoy my food. I cannot enjoy my
• 56:17
  Speaker 3: food if I'm sweating and my mouth is hot the
• 56:19
  Speaker 3: whole time.
• 56:20
  Speaker 2: Baby, I just be.
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: Eating it and wiping my nose because my nose start
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: running because it's so hot. But that's okay, baby. Just
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: wipe my nose and keep going.
• 56:31
  Speaker 4: That's definitely Nigerian Jalop. 100%.
• 56:34
  Speaker 3: So what do you hope the attendees take away from
• 56:37
  Speaker 3: Afro Future? from the Afrofuture experience and what are your
• 56:42
  Speaker 3: aspirations for the future of the festival?
• 56:46
  Speaker 4: Absolutely.
• 56:46
  Speaker 5: I mean, I think that my hope is that one,
• 56:49
  Speaker 5: they can build a connection or a relationship with somebody
• 56:52
  Speaker 5: that they meet on the continent. They could be intentional
• 56:55
  Speaker 5: about dispelling any narratives that they may have or that
• 56:59
  Speaker 5: the people around them may have about the continent and
• 57:01
  Speaker 5: how it exists. It's 2023 and people still have a
• 57:04
  Speaker 5: lot of ignorant questions about about the continent with TikTok,
• 57:08
  Speaker 5: with YouTube. And I think it's just kind of like,
• 57:11
  Speaker 5: you know, a lack of effort on their part to
• 57:14
  Speaker 5: kind of really know what's happening on the continent where
• 57:16
  Speaker 5: we are. There's been a lot of disinformation that has
• 57:20
  Speaker 5: existed so that, you know, we don't connect.
• 57:22
  Speaker 4: And now we're trying.
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: To build that bridge to bring us back.
• 57:25
  Speaker 5: So if the hope is that, you know, once you
• 57:27
  Speaker 5: come to the continent, you're tapping, you're familiar with what's
• 57:31
  Speaker 5: happening on the continent, you're familiar with the perspectives and,
• 57:35
  Speaker 5: And as opposed to taking offense, just take an approach
• 57:37
  Speaker 5: of just kind of educating. You know, we really don't
• 57:40
  Speaker 5: know each other. We haven't had any real interactions with
• 57:44
  Speaker 5: each other outside of, you know, the things we enjoy that.
• 57:47
  Speaker 4: Are similar, right? You know, like music, like TV shows
• 57:50
  Speaker 4: and movies and things of that nature. But that's not enough, right?
• 57:53
  Speaker 4: You know, it's like you can like the same movies,
• 57:56
  Speaker 4: but we don't really have an understanding of each other's perspectives.
• 58:00
  Speaker 4: How can we respect each other? You know, so we
• 58:02
  Speaker 4: want to foster that respect. as well.
• 58:05
  Speaker 5: And the hope is to be able to support young
• 58:07
  Speaker 5: people doing amazing things on the continent. How can we
• 58:11
  Speaker 5: tap in with them and how can we work with
• 58:13
  Speaker 5: them and how can we provide each other opportunities? Those
• 58:16
  Speaker 5: are our main goals as far as some of the
• 58:19
  Speaker 5: work that we're trying to do on the continent. And
• 58:22
  Speaker 5: as far as the future, we want to get into
• 58:24
  Speaker 5: more storytelling, more niche storytelling, supporting podcasters on the continent,
• 58:31
  Speaker 5: supporting storytellers on the continent and leveraging them to tell
• 58:35
  Speaker 5: stories about the continent. I think that if you're coming
• 58:39
  Speaker 5: to Ghana, you should be able to watch a movie
• 58:40
  Speaker 5: that gives you a perspective of what it's like for
• 58:43
  Speaker 5: everyday Ghanians. One that is not like the life of
• 58:47
  Speaker 5: the rich or the life of the famous, but one
• 58:49
  Speaker 5: that's like everyday lives of people. I think that we
• 58:53
  Speaker 5: don't really have that yet, so the festival definitely wants
• 58:56
  Speaker 5: to be able to tap into that lane.
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: That's important. Well, I'm excited for the growth of this.
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: I keep seeing, every year, I keep seeing it growing.
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: And this year, it's going to grow even bigger. Because Tanberry,
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: I'm going to be in the building. I promise I'm going.
• 59:10
  Speaker 4: This year yeah yeah nah I've definitely you guys will
• 59:14
  Speaker 4: be my special guests you know we'll have a good
• 59:16
  Speaker 4: time I'll make sure all my spots take care of
• 59:19
  Speaker 4: you guys.
• 59:20
  Speaker 3: And husbands we need husbands we want husbands out there.
• 59:25
  Speaker 4: There's going to be so much to pick from you.
• 59:26
  Speaker 4: I'm not going to be able, they're going to be
• 59:28
  Speaker 4: on y'all too. So don't.
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: Worry.
• 59:32
  Speaker 4: We can pose immediately.
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: Perfect.
• 59:36
  Speaker 4: Yeah, they meet you and they tell you I love you.
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: Oh, darling, darling. You're so beautiful, darling. Yeah, I want
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: all of that. I want all of that. So can
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: you tell our listeners where they can find all this
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: information so they can attend as well?
• 59:54
  Speaker 5: Absolutely, on all of our socials, Instagram, Xthreads, Snapchat, TikTok, Afrofuture,
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 5: Afrofuture Festival. You should be able to find us on
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 5: any of those, even on LinkedIn as well. We're on
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 5: there as well as Afrofuture Festival. You can always go
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 5: to afrofuture.com. That's our website. All of the information is
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 5: there for you.
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 4: And for your pros and cons.
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: All right, you hear that, guys? Afrofuture, y'all. Look for that,
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: because we're going to be there, and it's going to
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: be a great opportunity to connect with Ghanaians and the
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: whole continent. So y'all better come. And husbands.
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 4: Absolutely. Y'all should do a show.
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, let's do it. Absolutely. I'm with that.
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 4: We can set that up for you. I can do
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 4: a show. All right.
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: Let's set that up. Seriously. I'm serious. Don't be giving
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: us no Hollywood. That's the Bronx talking like, yeah, we
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: can do a live show over there. Yeah. For the festival.
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 3: Have y'all incorporated any podcasts with the festival? Like something
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 3: like a live show?
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 5: We've had, we've had a few, we had Noah on
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 5: the podcast last year, um, come through and they did like,
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 5: you know, the backstage interviews as people, um, came um
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 5: came on and off the off the stage uh that
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 5: was pretty exciting uh we've done some live ones uh
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 5: on on you know in our venues as well at
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 5: expo some people have come out and do their live
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 5: podcasts it's been pretty exciting oh that's awesome man.
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 2: Boy there's no real easy way to say this but
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 2: look you're sick.
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: Ain't getting no.
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 2: Simp story from Abdul what we doing.
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah we definitely gotta get a simp story from
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: Abdul you almost got away you almost got away Abdul.
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 4: I was getting away with it too I was getting
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 4: ready to say my.
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: Goodbyes alright so we have a segment of our show
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: called dumb bitch story or simp series and you gotta
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: share a time that you got played by the opposite
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: sex one story and don't don't talk about when you
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: was in the ninth grade talk about something from your adult.
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: Who you flew out the Afrochella? Are you married at all?
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 4: I'm not married.
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: Are you single?
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 4: Not single.
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: In a relationship. So prior to her, what happened?
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so I was like, damn. Yeah, man. Man, you
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 4: guys have to help me reveal the secret.
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: I ain't never revealed it. Go ahead, tell it.
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 4: Oh my goodness. Yeah, you know, it happens to the
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 4: best of us.
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: It happens to the best of us, you know.
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 5: I mean, I was super, you know, super, super, super
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 5: in love, you know, and I just couldn't see past it,
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 5: you know. And unfortunately, she did me dirty, you know,
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 5: with one of my young boys. So, you know, it
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 5: happened to me. It happened to me in college. And
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 5: that was my villain story.
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: That was the beginning of my villain story. See? It'd
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: be one, one bitch. Be ruining a nigga forever. I mean,
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: that was vague, but I guess we'll take it.
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 4: Yeah, come on. Y'all don't want the details of that. Yes,
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 4: we do.
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: Like, did she smash on the homies? What did she do?
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 4: You know, a whole lot of, you know, she just
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 4: kind of, you know, stepped out on me, man.
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: With a friend.
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 4: With my mentee.
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: Did you continue to mentor this person?
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 4: Nah, nah, nah. You know, I put a brownie on. Nah. Nah.
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 4: We all cool now, actually. It's funny.
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 5: It's like, you know, it was very young and, you know,
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 5: I don't actually blame them at all. You know, I
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 5: think that was part of life. It was a lesson
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 5: I needed to learn, too.
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: Right. Well, that was a good way to take it.
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: You still cool with her too?
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 4: Yeah, we're cool. She apologized a couple years ago. It's
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 4: always good.
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 5: I like that my villain stories don't end with me
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 5: being a bad guy.
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 4: They normally come back and apologize.
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: They always do. They always do.
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 4: I ain't telling no villain stories.
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: Tell us the time you was a damn villain. Tell
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: us when you played somebody. Man, I flew out the
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: gun and I put her in the hotel and I
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: ain't see her no time.
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 4: I'm a gentleman, you know.
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 5: I actually don't have any issues with any of my exes, actually. Or,
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 5: you know, people tend to, I tend to have good
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 5: relationships or leave on good terms.
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 4: I try to. make sure it's nice and clean every time.
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 2: I do that. That karma good.
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Karma good is real.
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 4: I don't want anybody crying over me or crying over
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 4: something like that.
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: All right, Abdul.
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 3: Let our listeners know where they can find you at.
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 2: And you pretty much already told us about the festival
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 2: and all that.
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: So what's your socials, where they can tap in with you?
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 4: Oh, absolutely. I mean, I'm on Instagram. I'm on all socials.
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 4: At TheRuler02. T-H-E-R-U-L-E-R-0-2. It's my handle across all of my socials.
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: All right, y'all. That's where y'all can find Abdul. The ruler.
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: The ruler, Abdul. Thank you so much, man, for joining us.
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: We really appreciate you sharing this information with us. It's
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: a good time.
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 4: I appreciate it.
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 2: All right, y'all.
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 3: If you enjoyed this episode, tune in every Thursday on
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 3: the iHeartRadio app or wherever the fuck you get your
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 3: podcast at. This is your co-host, AJ Holiday 2.0 on Instagram.
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: Let's kick it, Tam. Y'all, it's official Tam Bam. I
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: love y'all. Thank y'all for tuning in. Remember to speak now.
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 2: And never hold your peace.