Latest / The Breakfast Club / INTERVIEW: Simone Amelia Jordan Talks Tell Her Shes Dreamin, Hip-Hop, Iggy Azelia, Israel & Gaza + More

Transcript

INTERVIEW: Simone Amelia Jordan Talks Tell Her Shes Dreamin, Hip-Hop, Iggy Azelia, Israel & Gaza + More · The Breakfast Club

0:00
Speaker 1: Wake that answer up in the morning, The Breakfast Club.
0:05
Speaker 1: Morning everybody.
0:05
Speaker 2: It's DJ n V, Jess Hilarius, Charlamagne the guy. We
0:09
Speaker 2: are the Breakfast Club. Laura la Ross is filling in
0:11
Speaker 2: for Jess, and we got a special guest in the building.
0:14
Speaker 2: We have Simon Amelia Jordan. Welcome back.
0:17
Speaker 3: Oh, thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here.
0:20
Speaker 3: I haven't been here in eight years.
0:21
Speaker 1: Years long time.
0:22
Speaker 4: I did The Breakfast Club's first photo.
0:24
Speaker 5: Shoot one of our think that was our first official
0:28
Speaker 5: photo shoot for a big brand.
0:30
Speaker 4: It was Doctor j J and you dressed as the
0:33
Speaker 4: movie The Breakfast That was a long time ago.
0:37
Speaker 1: What made you feel like we were right for that? Like,
0:39
Speaker 1: what was the vision for Doctor Jay's just in the moment?
0:42
Speaker 4: Oh, you know, well, I remember Angela.
0:46
Speaker 3: When you just started the show twenty eleven. That's a
0:51
Speaker 3: lot over a decade ago now. It was so exciting.
0:55
Speaker 3: The show was so exciting, and we wanted to work
0:57
Speaker 3: with you guys to model for the website. I mean,
0:59
Speaker 3: you're obviously natural models. So and I forget the characters
1:03
Speaker 3: that you took from the movie.
1:05
Speaker 4: You were Judd Nelson. I felt, Yeah, I can't remember
1:10
Speaker 4: the photos I.
1:11
Speaker 3: Was looking for them online, but like that was a
1:13
Speaker 3: time when everything wasn't online, so I think they've kind
1:16
Speaker 3: of disappeared into the ether somewhere.
1:18
Speaker 4: But it was a great photo.
1:19
Speaker 1: Shoo you had on somewhere. I can't remember where did
1:22
Speaker 1: they go in.
1:22
Speaker 3: The sauce or something. I think they went somewhere those photos,
1:26
Speaker 3: but it was a.
1:26
Speaker 4: Great photo shoot. It was very cute.
1:28
Speaker 6: How did you know early on though, that like the
1:29
Speaker 6: show was going to be oh, you know what I mean,
1:31
Speaker 6: like you came to get them, like, yeah, it was magic.
1:34
Speaker 3: I mean they all were such individuals and had their
1:36
Speaker 3: own flavor and brought something special to the mix.
1:39
Speaker 4: New York was so excited at the time about the.
1:42
Speaker 3: Show, so we knew that, like we wanted to get involved,
1:46
Speaker 3: and for me as the content director Doctor Jay's, it
1:49
Speaker 3: was a no brainer to get the brands that we
1:51
Speaker 3: sold onto these guys.
1:52
Speaker 4: Because they were about to be everywhere And.
1:54
Speaker 2: Look at them now, you know, what is your thought
1:58
Speaker 2: process or what do you think about these of stores
2:00
Speaker 2: now because there's so many closing down since you were
2:02
Speaker 2: with Doctor Jast, Like I said, they're closing a bunch
2:05
Speaker 2: of stores. I think foot Action the athlete's foot is
2:08
Speaker 2: about of here. There's so many stores now that are
2:10
Speaker 2: not doing well, So what are your thoughts on that?
2:13
Speaker 3: Well, everything's changed, right. I was at Doctorj's dot com
2:17
Speaker 3: kind of at the height of like the quote unquote
2:20
Speaker 3: urban fashion wave and being a kid from the other
2:23
Speaker 3: side of the world, we used to wear fake versions
2:27
Speaker 3: of the brands because they weren't available in Australia, and
2:30
Speaker 3: that's why I reached out to doctor Jay's in the
2:33
Speaker 3: first place, because everyone was rocking fake baby fat and
2:36
Speaker 3: fake apple bottoms and I was like, no, I think
2:38
Speaker 3: we need to step our game up. So I reached
2:40
Speaker 3: out to doctor Jay's to advertise in my magazine that
2:43
Speaker 3: I had in Australia, which was the first on sale
2:45
Speaker 3: hip hop and R and B magazine inspired by the
2:48
Speaker 3: Source and inspired by Vibe, and so.
2:51
Speaker 4: We developed a relationship that way.
2:53
Speaker 3: Then they hired me to come to New York and
2:55
Speaker 3: work for them, and I saw the wave of those
2:58
Speaker 3: brands crashing and burning and now into a point where fashion.
3:03
Speaker 4: Is all over the place. Right in terms of the
3:06
Speaker 4: style that we wear.
3:07
Speaker 3: Anything goes now there's no there's no and the style
3:10
Speaker 3: used to reflect the streets.
3:12
Speaker 4: Right and so that has all changed.
3:14
Speaker 3: But it is a it's a it's a tough day,
3:17
Speaker 3: everything shutting down, whether it's fashion.
3:19
Speaker 4: Or even coming back to New York.
3:21
Speaker 3: You used to be able to grab a bike at
3:22
Speaker 3: any time of the night. But I think it was
3:25
Speaker 3: like after ten pm and the restaurants I used to
3:27
Speaker 3: go to it all shut down. So I think COVID
3:29
Speaker 3: had a lot to do with that too.
3:32
Speaker 1: Perhaps if you warn some most.
3:36
Speaker 3: Photographer, I'm an immigrant. We get the job done. What
3:42
Speaker 3: can I say?
3:42
Speaker 4: Author, Yes, like you, I'm trying to get on your level.
3:47
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've always I think I've got undiagnosed ADHD as
3:50
Speaker 3: they say. I've always been driven by hip hop in
3:54
Speaker 3: everything that I do, which hasn't been easy coming from
3:57
Speaker 3: a country where hip hop isn't respect Did that much?
4:01
Speaker 4: Tell us about that?
4:02
Speaker 2: Tell us about growing up in Australia with hip hop?
4:04
Speaker 1: How big was it easy?
4:08
Speaker 4: It started way before Iggy? She says she wasn't a
4:13
Speaker 4: part of the problem. Well, you know, it's funny. When
4:16
Speaker 4: I met Iggy.
4:16
Speaker 3: I did Iggy's first on camera interview for Doctor J's
4:19
Speaker 3: dot com, and I initially thought, I'm not gonna like
4:22
Speaker 3: this girl because she kind of represents everything that I
4:24
Speaker 3: have fought against my whole career.
4:27
Speaker 4: Yeah, a pretty white girl.
4:29
Speaker 3: Coming in and like I wanted to know how genuine
4:32
Speaker 3: she was and authentic to the roots of the art
4:34
Speaker 3: form and paying respect towards black and brown founders. But
4:38
Speaker 3: I felt very I've got this like Mama vibe, and
4:40
Speaker 3: I felt very protective over her when I met her,
4:43
Speaker 3: and then obviously her career skyrocketed and we didn't keep
4:47
Speaker 3: in touch.
4:47
Speaker 7: But I was about to say, like she was, she
4:51
Speaker 7: she loved what she did, she loved and whatever the
4:55
Speaker 7: feedback and response to that was is out of her control, right,
4:58
Speaker 7: But she genuinely loved what she doing.
5:01
Speaker 4: So growing up in Australia with hip hop is it's tough.
5:05
Speaker 3: We have our incredible First Nations Aboriginal community who embraced
5:11
Speaker 3: it from very early on. I'm Lebanese background, like a
5:14
Speaker 3: lot of Arab Australians embraced it very early on, but
5:18
Speaker 3: we never got the respect. It was very similar to
5:21
Speaker 3: the States, but our minorities are even smaller. We're like
5:24
Speaker 3: smaller minorities in a majority white country and so it
5:28
Speaker 3: never got the respect that it deserves. It still doesn't
5:30
Speaker 3: to this day get the respect that it deserves.
5:33
Speaker 1: Even there, like they don't have their own scene there.
5:36
Speaker 3: Well, funnily enough, it has a very small scene, but
5:39
Speaker 3: it's run.
5:40
Speaker 4: By white people still.
5:42
Speaker 3: And coming back after living in New York for a
5:45
Speaker 3: decade and achieving what I did and ended up at
5:48
Speaker 3: the Source magazine becoming the content director when I came
5:51
Speaker 3: home because I.
5:51
Speaker 4: Got very sick.
5:52
Speaker 3: I got Crohn's disease and got really sick trying to
5:54
Speaker 3: keep up with the Joneses in New York for ten years.
5:57
Speaker 3: So came home and everyone was like, Oh, you're going
5:59
Speaker 3: to be the top of it when you get home.
6:01
Speaker 3: You're gonna get every job. You'll beat the radio stations.
6:04
Speaker 3: I still don't get. The doors are still closed to
6:07
Speaker 3: me because the only hip hop and R and B
6:09
Speaker 3: radio station in Australia has only two live shows and
6:12
Speaker 3: both are hosted by blonde white women.
6:15
Speaker 4: Wow. Yeah, so then you see it. No, that's up
6:20
Speaker 4: to opinion.
6:21
Speaker 3: But I will say, like, you know, not throwing affirmative
6:27
Speaker 3: action or anything like that.
6:28
Speaker 4: In the mix. Are they deserving is the question? Are
6:31
Speaker 4: they deserving?
6:32
Speaker 3: Because like I said, our Aboriginal community, we have so
6:36
Speaker 3: many talents that really should be. We've got a really
6:39
Speaker 3: multicultural community there that isn't represented in the art form,
6:43
Speaker 3: which is pretty insane.
6:45
Speaker 4: So yeah, I felt more accepted here.
6:49
Speaker 3: I felt more accepted when I got to New York.
6:50
Speaker 3: I was like, these are my people. This is home
6:52
Speaker 3: because I'm a hustler obviously, like you.
6:54
Speaker 4: Said, I've got a million a million gigs. And that's
6:57
Speaker 4: what the story of the book is about.
6:58
Speaker 3: It's about like ch seeing your dreams even though you
7:01
Speaker 3: get all these doors closed in your face. It's my
7:03
Speaker 3: love letter to this music genre that I think a
7:07
Speaker 3: lot of people forget has changed the world, and it's
7:10
Speaker 3: changed the world in so many ways.
7:12
Speaker 4: And I've always been.
7:16
Speaker 3: Very vocal about paying tribute to its black founders, and
7:21
Speaker 3: a lot of people don't do that enough, I think.
7:23
Speaker 4: So that book is the love letter to.
7:25
Speaker 1: That fearest form hip hop brings people together.
7:28
Speaker 4: Oh, in its purest form.
7:30
Speaker 3: It has taught me and so many other kids around
7:33
Speaker 3: the world to be proud of myself too. Like I
7:37
Speaker 3: recognized the pro black consciousness when I was a kid
7:41
Speaker 3: in the late eighties, and I'm like their self empowerment
7:45
Speaker 3: made me feel pride in being Middle Eastern at a
7:47
Speaker 3: time when stereotypes were rampant, and I was really being
7:52
Speaker 3: taught by the movies I was watching in the media.
7:54
Speaker 3: I was saying to hate myself and to think of
7:56
Speaker 3: myself in a negative way. And I'm like, no, no, no, public,
8:00
Speaker 3: you're telling me fight the power, you know. So I
8:03
Speaker 3: can't even begin to describe what black people in the
8:06
Speaker 3: United States have done for marginalized kids around the world
8:10
Speaker 3: in terms of our own pride.
8:12
Speaker 2: What did your family think about when you when you
8:14
Speaker 2: found out this love for hip hop? Because even in
8:16
Speaker 2: the States here when hip hop first came around, everybody
8:19
Speaker 2: thought it was gonna.
8:19
Speaker 1: Be fatty, They thought it was gonna be quick. They
8:21
Speaker 1: thought it was just some hippie hopper.
8:23
Speaker 2: What was your family like?
8:23
Speaker 3: My family loved it like I was raised by a
8:25
Speaker 3: single mother and she and by my grandmother too, so
8:30
Speaker 3: very matriarchal family. And my mom loves hip hop like
8:35
Speaker 3: my mom, I think reckon. My mom's a rebel, so
8:37
Speaker 3: she recognized that kind of rebellious fight the power instinct
8:41
Speaker 3: that it has. And I started rapping at nine. That's
8:44
Speaker 3: the first chapter in the book. But I very quickly
8:46
Speaker 3: realized that was not my role, and so.
8:50
Speaker 1: Do you think he was. I was as.
8:56
Speaker 5: Sure, I think I.
8:56
Speaker 4: Should drop a mixtape.
8:57
Speaker 3: Well, that's another thing, Like women's empowerment has been in
9:00
Speaker 3: a really big theme in my career. I did an
9:02
Speaker 3: all female mixtape back around those days twenty eleven called
9:06
Speaker 3: Woman on Top with really early verses from Iggy. Rhapsody
9:09
Speaker 3: was on there, really early. I had a rebox sneaker
9:12
Speaker 3: come out in twenty twelve where we did this freestyle
9:15
Speaker 3: thing and it's on YouTube, and like it's a really
9:18
Speaker 3: young Rhapsody and who else was on their typ Phoenix
9:23
Speaker 3: like all these female rappers Brianna Perry at the time.
9:26
Speaker 4: And yeah remember Brianna, Yeah, and.
9:28
Speaker 3: Like so many because to me, like and especially championing
9:32
Speaker 3: black women for me was very important too. Like I'm
9:36
Speaker 3: very respectful of the culture, and I know that I'm
9:38
Speaker 3: a guest in the culture, but I also know that
9:41
Speaker 3: I have something to contribute as an international kind of
9:44
Speaker 3: representative of it too.
9:45
Speaker 5: Yeah, what inspired you to go from doing like I
9:49
Speaker 5: guess hip hop journalism and writing a whole memoir.
9:52
Speaker 3: Well, I've always been very careful about telling the stories
9:56
Speaker 3: that I feel black journalists should tell. So I'm like
9:59
Speaker 3: I can tell memoir because it's my story, right, So
10:03
Speaker 3: I thought that would be a good place to start
10:05
Speaker 3: on a book journey. And I had always thought about
10:09
Speaker 3: writing my memoir, but I thought my story was so
10:11
Speaker 3: singular and very rare that it might not connect to
10:15
Speaker 3: a lot of people. But as I was writing it,
10:17
Speaker 3: I'm like, oh my god, there are a lot of
10:18
Speaker 3: themes here that, especially for young women. I'm talking about
10:23
Speaker 3: like racism, classism, sexism, being groomed as a teenager because
10:28
Speaker 3: I wanted to be on radio and I wanted to
10:29
Speaker 3: be a journalist so badly, getting taken advantage of by
10:33
Speaker 3: an older guy in the industry who was dangling carrots.
10:35
Speaker 3: Like these things happened to.
10:36
Speaker 4: Women in the industry. They're very prevalent.
10:40
Speaker 3: And so as I'm telling this story, I'm like, wait
10:43
Speaker 3: a minute, these themes are going to resonate. So I
10:45
Speaker 3: kept forging ahead. I entered a contest actually during COVID.
10:49
Speaker 3: It's called the Ritual Prize for Writers, and I thought
10:52
Speaker 3: I'm not going to win this because publishing, again, like
10:55
Speaker 3: every other industry in Australia, is very white. They're not
10:58
Speaker 3: going to understand the story. I ended up beating like
11:01
Speaker 3: almost a thousand entries and I won the ritual prize
11:05
Speaker 3: and then they offered me the book. Deal has shared Australia,
11:08
Speaker 3: and the book came out in Australia about a year
11:10
Speaker 3: ago and it's just come out just this week in
11:14
Speaker 3: the States. So I think there's a lot in there
11:17
Speaker 3: for fans of hip hop and people that are living
11:20
Speaker 3: between cultures to.
11:22
Speaker 6: Relate to a lot of you mentioned the grooming. Yeah,
11:27
Speaker 6: when did you realize that that wasn't what was supposed
11:29
Speaker 6: to be happening. I think there's that moment where you're like,
11:32
Speaker 6: this is not I don't have to do this.
11:34
Speaker 4: Absolutely.
11:35
Speaker 3: I got myself in a very sticky situation as a
11:37
Speaker 3: teenage girl with an older man who I didn't pick
11:41
Speaker 3: up on the signals, and I thought he was just
11:43
Speaker 3: encouraging me to work in radio and train me. But
11:47
Speaker 3: I narrowly avoided a very serious situation there. I think
11:50
Speaker 3: that's why I was able to write about it.
11:51
Speaker 4: In the book.
11:52
Speaker 3: There was another situation when I was working at another
11:55
Speaker 3: radio station here in New York and we had mystical
11:58
Speaker 3: come in and it's funny, this is pre me too.
12:02
Speaker 3: So this is a time when as women in hip hop,
12:05
Speaker 3: we had so few opportunities to be on radio to
12:07
Speaker 3: be the male's sidekick and shout out to DJ Green Lantern,
12:12
Speaker 3: who I was on the show with him, and he
12:14
Speaker 3: said to me.
12:15
Speaker 4: Like I don't want to talk. He's like, I want
12:17
Speaker 4: to play the music. I'm going to let you host
12:19
Speaker 4: the show. And I was like Invasion Radio, yeah, thank you.
12:23
Speaker 3: I needs to put people on the spot and like yeah,
12:26
Speaker 3: it was a great show, thank you. And so we
12:29
Speaker 3: had this situation where you know, this guy at that point, mister.
12:32
Speaker 4: Wold had like a rap sheet literally of.
12:34
Speaker 3: Offenses, but in hip hop in those days, we didn't
12:38
Speaker 3: really we knew, but we didn't know. It was like
12:40
Speaker 3: if you go back to people that were probably in
12:42
Speaker 3: media during the Aliah R. Kelly days, they knew, but
12:44
Speaker 3: they didn't want to talk about it. And so he
12:47
Speaker 3: made some very vulgar comments to me when I was
12:52
Speaker 3: just sitting like this at the desk, and I felt
12:55
Speaker 3: extremely uncomfortable, but I didn't want to make a scene.
13:00
Speaker 3: I didn't want to be difficult. I didn't want to
13:03
Speaker 3: throw him under the bus anymore. I felt very protective
13:06
Speaker 3: of the talent that I interviewed to So you're grappling
13:09
Speaker 3: with all of that. But then when I wrote the
13:11
Speaker 3: book years later and I reflected on it, I thought,
13:14
Speaker 3: I'm so proud of the young women today who, for
13:16
Speaker 3: the most part, call things out straight away, and that's
13:20
Speaker 3: because other women have paved the way for that. And
13:23
Speaker 3: I felt in that time I wasn't as vocal about
13:27
Speaker 3: a situation that I should have been. So I think
13:29
Speaker 3: we've come a long way from that, but these things
13:33
Speaker 3: still happen. Right, women are being more vocal, but it
13:35
Speaker 3: still happens. So I hope through the book, without being preachy,
13:40
Speaker 3: young women can learn some lessons as they move ahead
13:43
Speaker 3: in their careers.
13:44
Speaker 5: Why the title tell her she's And then also every
13:47
Speaker 5: chapter has a dream.
13:48
Speaker 4: Yeah.
13:49
Speaker 3: I realized when I was writing the book that dreaming
13:52
Speaker 3: was a very prevalent theme in my life. Like I
13:54
Speaker 3: even went through my old magazines that I had issues
13:56
Speaker 3: that I had edited, and I was speaking in the
13:58
Speaker 3: editor's letter about chase this dream, that feel that felt
14:02
Speaker 3: impossible as a kid from the other side of the
14:04
Speaker 3: world to come to New York and work in hip hop. Yeah,
14:08
Speaker 3: dreams have been really prevalent in my life. My mother
14:10
Speaker 3: was a dreamer, is a dreamer. She wanted to be
14:13
Speaker 3: in the circus. God bless her her whole life. But
14:16
Speaker 3: my grandmother was very salt of the earth, you know.
14:19
Speaker 3: She raised seven kids on her own.
14:20
Speaker 4: Basically and worked three jobs.
14:24
Speaker 3: And so I had the really kind of down to
14:27
Speaker 3: earthness of my grandmother mixed with the dreaming of my mom,
14:30
Speaker 3: and I think that made me able to achieve those dreams, right,
14:33
Speaker 3: because you can't have dreams without work ethic. And also
14:36
Speaker 3: in Australia, there's a very famous.
14:38
Speaker 4: Movie called The Castle.
14:39
Speaker 3: It's a very Australian movie, and there's a very famous
14:42
Speaker 3: Australian saying, and it's tell him he's dreaming, which is like,
14:46
Speaker 3: you know, tell him his dream and it's very it's
14:48
Speaker 3: very awker Australian, which is like you're having yourself on right,
14:51
Speaker 3: Like you can't be serious, It'll.
14:52
Speaker 4: Never you're bugging. That's exactly what it is. That's right,
14:56
Speaker 4: Thank you for the translation, you're bugging. And so female life,
15:02
Speaker 4: I made it feminine.
15:03
Speaker 3: So I made it tell her she's dreaming because my
15:05
Speaker 3: whole career I've been told this will never happen, you know, like,
15:09
Speaker 3: who are you to think that you're gonna get there?
15:11
Speaker 3: And I grew up reading the source and I ended
15:13
Speaker 3: up being the content director of my favorite magazine ever.
15:17
Speaker 4: So I achieved those dreams and I'm very proud of that.
15:19
Speaker 1: What's left?
15:20
Speaker 2: What are you still dreaming about? What do you still
15:22
Speaker 2: want to accomplish? If anything at.
15:24
Speaker 3: All, I am dreaming of moving into. I've shifted into
15:29
Speaker 3: more of a mental role, so that's very important to me.
15:33
Speaker 3: As we can see with the book. Ah, my heart
15:37
Speaker 3: is kind of still in New York, which is tough.
15:40
Speaker 3: I feel like I'm living in two places.
15:42
Speaker 4: I feel like I.
15:43
Speaker 3: Belong here career wise, but now I'm married and I
15:46
Speaker 3: have a six year old, beautiful daughter. Shout out to
15:48
Speaker 3: my beautiful family. I think they're listening online from Sydney.
15:51
Speaker 4: I don't know what time it is right now the Australia. No,
15:54
Speaker 4: my husband's from New York, but I met him in Australia. Wow. Yeah,
15:58
Speaker 4: life is crazy.
16:00
Speaker 3: I lived in Harlem for ten years. He's from Harlem,
16:02
Speaker 3: and I met him when I moved back to Australia.
16:04
Speaker 2: What the hell was he doing in Australia.
16:06
Speaker 3: He had jobs there, like he used to play basketball.
16:10
Speaker 3: But he lived in Australia for a long time. He'd
16:13
Speaker 3: lived there like fifteen years when I met him, and
16:15
Speaker 3: so yeah, life is you never know what's around the corner.
16:19
Speaker 3: But for me, next, I'm kind of open to whatever
16:21
Speaker 3: happens next. Like I'm consulting and mentoring and I'm writing more.
16:27
Speaker 3: Actually have an essay coming out soon. Yeah, I'm writing
16:31
Speaker 3: about hip hop and Palestine.
16:33
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, so.
16:36
Speaker 3: Yeah, I know we talk about it, Charlemagne and I,
16:39
Speaker 3: which I appreciate how open minded you are about everything.
16:43
Speaker 3: And I just want to give you a special shout
16:44
Speaker 3: out on air for even allowing me to come up
16:46
Speaker 3: because I disappeared from the scene for so many years.
16:49
Speaker 3: And you know a lot of people forget people. They
16:52
Speaker 3: leave the messages on read and you did it.
16:54
Speaker 5: Yeah, thank you said, and your photos in the book man,
16:59
Speaker 5: so like, yeah, your photos.
17:01
Speaker 4: In the book.
17:02
Speaker 3: So yeah, I'm writing an essay and I'm very passionate
17:04
Speaker 3: about hip hop started as an art form to be
17:11
Speaker 3: the voice of the voiceless, right, the voice of the oppressed.
17:13
Speaker 3: And I feel like there are a number of artists
17:16
Speaker 3: that are speaking out and you've had them up on
17:18
Speaker 3: this show, but I feel like we could be doing
17:20
Speaker 3: a lot more. And hip hop's biggest stars are very
17:25
Speaker 3: loudly silent.
17:26
Speaker 4: So I'm trying to unpack that.
17:28
Speaker 2: Yes, that's a conversation. We've had a lot of pay
17:30
Speaker 2: that some of the biggest celebrities haven't said anything. Yes,
17:33
Speaker 2: And you know, for some people, they don't get into politics,
17:36
Speaker 2: they don't know, they don't understand it. What's your thoughts
17:37
Speaker 2: on it?
17:38
Speaker 3: I think art is political, and I think that when
17:40
Speaker 3: we're watching a live stream genocide that it's not hard
17:45
Speaker 3: to say I just want innocent people to stop being killed.
17:49
Speaker 4: It's deeper than that, but on a very basic level.
17:53
Speaker 3: As an Arab woman, I feel like we're not humanized
17:56
Speaker 3: enough and I would like to see my people be humanized.
18:00
Speaker 3: And I'm inspired by natur like Nat Turner's rebellion. Like
18:04
Speaker 3: when I say I learned about black history through hip hop,
18:07
Speaker 3: I learned about black history. So I think that more people,
18:13
Speaker 3: it wouldn't be happening if more people stood up and
18:15
Speaker 3: said something.
18:16
Speaker 4: And really, they're asking us to use our voices. That's
18:18
Speaker 4: all they're asking for. Please use your platform, Please use
18:20
Speaker 4: your voice.
18:21
Speaker 3: So this essay it might ruffle a little feathers, but
18:24
Speaker 3: you know, I feel like we get one life on
18:27
Speaker 3: this earth, and if I don't use that to kind
18:29
Speaker 3: of I'm privileged, and I feel like I should use
18:32
Speaker 3: that privilege for the greater good.
18:35
Speaker 1: What do you think about the language surrounding it?
18:37
Speaker 5: Right, because you hear politicians they all say the same thing,
18:40
Speaker 5: acknowledge what happened on October seventh, which we all can
18:42
Speaker 5: agree with, traversy, and then they say the hostages have
18:46
Speaker 5: to come home and then it can be a ceasefire.
18:50
Speaker 1: What do you think of that language.
18:52
Speaker 3: I think that we have to acknowledge that before October seven,
18:56
Speaker 3: there are thousands of Palestinian hostages that are in jail
19:02
Speaker 3: under no charges at all, men, women, and children. Yes,
19:06
Speaker 3: and that never gets spoken about. I think we have
19:08
Speaker 3: to acknowledge that Gaza has no control by land, air
19:12
Speaker 3: or sea. I think there are many factors that have
19:17
Speaker 3: dehumanized this population for decades that we're not taking into.
19:22
Speaker 4: Account prior to that operation on October seven.
19:28
Speaker 3: And so I think when we speak about this issue,
19:30
Speaker 3: and again I'm not Palestinian, I am Lebanese and Israel
19:35
Speaker 3: is constantly at war with Southern Lebanon two, so I
19:38
Speaker 3: do have a vested interest in this, but it's a
19:41
Speaker 3: human issue and I just think that if you keep
19:46
Speaker 3: sending bombs to a population.
19:50
Speaker 4: How is it going to stop?
19:52
Speaker 3: Like, I just think the narrative doesn't make sense, and
19:55
Speaker 3: we're being gas lit very much at the moment, and
19:57
Speaker 3: I think people need to understand there are a lot
19:59
Speaker 3: of peop people in pain right now.
20:02
Speaker 2: So what do you think about what the US is
20:03
Speaker 2: doing As far as saying, like Charlamage said, we want peace,
20:07
Speaker 2: we despert sending millions and Surians to die.
20:10
Speaker 3: I think it's I think it's I was really nervous
20:14
Speaker 3: coming back to the States. But it's not just the US.
20:17
Speaker 3: Australia is complicit to Europe is complicit. It's not just
20:21
Speaker 3: the US, but the US is funding the arms that
20:25
Speaker 3: are committing a genocide and so but I also say
20:29
Speaker 3: on the flip side of that, I have to be
20:30
Speaker 3: really clear. It's happening in Sudan at the hands of
20:34
Speaker 3: Arabs to black people, right, So it's not just Israel
20:38
Speaker 3: that are committing an atrocity. They have the eyes because,
20:41
Speaker 3: as black poet June Jordan said, Palestine is the moral
20:43
Speaker 3: litmus test of the world. And that's why I think
20:46
Speaker 3: our eyes are on it. This is the Holy Land, right,
20:48
Speaker 3: But it is happening in Sudan as well. We all
20:51
Speaker 3: know it's happening in the Congo. If you do your
20:53
Speaker 3: research for different they're like, it's supremacy in all its forms,
20:57
Speaker 3: it's racism in all its forms. And I think that
21:00
Speaker 3: sometimes Charlemagne and I have talked about the Lesser of
21:04
Speaker 3: the evils as well, and a lot of people are
21:07
Speaker 3: hurting and they don't want to hear that lesser of
21:09
Speaker 3: the evils talk, right, So to me, I don't have
21:13
Speaker 3: the answers, but I would just like my people to
21:15
Speaker 3: be humanized at the moment so we can take a
21:18
Speaker 3: step back and really look at what's happening. Because Palestine
21:22
Speaker 3: was a land and it's getting smaller and smaller illegally
21:26
Speaker 3: more of that land is being taken, and so to me,
21:29
Speaker 3: that that is the issue of our time.
21:32
Speaker 1: One question, last question, Yes, you have a picture here
21:35
Speaker 1: with Kalen.
21:35
Speaker 2: Have your Kalent had a conversation because I know he's
21:37
Speaker 2: been a big topic of people feel like he should
21:39
Speaker 2: be speaking up more so have you had a comversation.
21:41
Speaker 4: I'm writing about color It in the essay. That was
21:43
Speaker 4: my question.
21:44
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, Yeah, I'm writing about Colet in the essay.
21:48
Speaker 3: I'm writing about a couple others that go to the
21:51
Speaker 3: Middle East to party, make money from other countries in
21:54
Speaker 3: the Middle East. But when it's time to talk about
21:56
Speaker 3: our pain, radio silence. And I think that that's happened
22:02
Speaker 3: with black people for decades now, right, they want our
22:05
Speaker 3: rhythm and not our blues. That's the same, and now
22:08
Speaker 3: we're feeling it. And so I acknowledge all that in
22:11
Speaker 3: the essay, right, And I see Black people say to
22:14
Speaker 3: each other, why should we give a damn about them?
22:15
Speaker 3: They've never given the damn about us? And I acknowledge
22:18
Speaker 3: that too, And I think we have to be very
22:20
Speaker 3: honest and have these honest conversations about everything, and we
22:24
Speaker 3: can't move forward until that. But to your point, yeah,
22:28
Speaker 3: I have reached out to colored people and we've spoken
22:31
Speaker 3: very briefly.
22:32
Speaker 4: I've been told that I'll put that.
22:35
Speaker 3: In the essay and you can read about it. But no,
22:37
Speaker 3: we haven't directly spoken. Everyone has their own journey. I
22:41
Speaker 3: understand that. But as a Middle Eastern person, I know
22:43
Speaker 3: our community are heartbroken at his silence.
22:46
Speaker 5: It's gonna be interesting to see what happens, you know,
22:49
Speaker 5: especially in November with the election, especially in places like Michigan,
22:52
Speaker 5: because yes, the reality is America is always going to
22:55
Speaker 5: fund military. So it's just gonna be interesting to see
22:59
Speaker 5: what happened.
23:01
Speaker 4: What do you think will happen in Michigan.
23:06
Speaker 1: I really truly don't know. I really don't know. I
23:09
Speaker 1: really have no idea.
23:10
Speaker 5: Because even when I think about all the people who voted,
23:12
Speaker 5: you know, uncommitted in the primary, it's a part of
23:15
Speaker 5: me that's like, but if Trump, you're saying it's gonna
23:18
Speaker 5: be worse.
23:19
Speaker 4: I don't know what's worse than genocide.
23:21
Speaker 3: I do know what's worst, And I understand what you're
23:23
Speaker 3: saying because I do understand that there are other there
23:25
Speaker 3: are other issues, right, LGBTQ I rights, abortion, like, there
23:30
Speaker 3: are huge issues on the table.
23:32
Speaker 1: Well that's what I mean when I say it worse,
23:33
Speaker 1: I mean worse for Gaza.
23:34
Speaker 4: Yeah, like, oh, there's no worse for Gaza right now.
23:37
Speaker 4: They can't be. They can't be, they can't be. Like
23:40
Speaker 4: you said, if if what you said is true.
23:42
Speaker 3: Then America unequivocally stands with Israel, which is what Kamala
23:44
Speaker 3: Harris has said unequivocally, then how can they be worse?
23:48
Speaker 3: That change of power will be the exact same thing,
23:50
Speaker 3: so it's just done in different ways.
23:52
Speaker 4: Probably, so I don't know what's gonna happen. I'm not American.
23:55
Speaker 3: I'm married to an American, my daughter is a Jeal citizen,
23:58
Speaker 3: and I'm very vested in I have a you know,
24:00
Speaker 3: I love this country. It's given me so many opportunities.
24:04
Speaker 3: But like it does break my heart. The foreign policy
24:07
Speaker 3: of America obviously affects the world. America is still a superpower.
24:12
Speaker 3: I don't know if it always will be, and I
24:14
Speaker 3: don't know if Americans realize the shift in the view
24:18
Speaker 3: of this country around globally, there has.
24:21
Speaker 4: Been a huge shift.
24:23
Speaker 3: And so but people always say to me, oh, Americans,
24:26
Speaker 3: they only care about America. They don't care about the
24:28
Speaker 3: rest of the world. And I say, as someone who
24:30
Speaker 3: lived here for a decade, until you live here, you
24:33
Speaker 3: don't understand what they're dealing with on a day to
24:35
Speaker 3: day basis. You have to give Americans some grace because
24:38
Speaker 3: there's so much that goes on here that to take on,
24:41
Speaker 3: I mean, I've had conversations with friends to take on
24:44
Speaker 3: some other tragedy is a lot mentally, because dealing with
24:49
Speaker 3: things day to day here is crazy enough. So I
24:52
Speaker 3: get that, but it's good to kind of be aware
24:54
Speaker 3: of what's happening that affects because it's your tax dollars, right.
24:56
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Yeah. The last chapter is don't you it's over
25:01
Speaker 1: break that death.
25:02
Speaker 3: Oh, the last chapters don't dream, It's over. It's basically
25:06
Speaker 3: about like you said, every chapter had the word dream
25:08
Speaker 3: in it. It's about never giving up. Like I said,
25:12
Speaker 3: my heart is still here in New York. I'm trying
25:15
Speaker 3: to bring New York to Australia in a lot of
25:17
Speaker 3: ways in what I do. And it's it's easy to
25:21
Speaker 3: say never give up when when you feel like the
25:23
Speaker 3: light is never coming into the darkness. I got very
25:26
Speaker 3: sick with the Crone's disease. I almost died when I
25:29
Speaker 3: got home to Australia. My doctor was like, you are
25:30
Speaker 3: literally life or death. You are killing yourself to like
25:33
Speaker 3: survive in the music industry. Yeah, that's how much I
25:37
Speaker 3: wanted to chase this dream and make it real. But
25:39
Speaker 3: then I realized, like, your dreams can change as you change.
25:43
Speaker 3: And I think that's the lesson of the book, Like
25:45
Speaker 3: you have these dreams that ignite your fire, but as
25:48
Speaker 3: life changes, the dreams change too.
25:50
Speaker 4: Yeah, and you love.
25:52
Speaker 1: That your dreams can change, your dream can change as
25:55
Speaker 1: you change.
25:56
Speaker 3: Yeah.
25:57
Speaker 4: Yeah, And so now I feel like a new burst
26:01
Speaker 4: of energy with the book.
26:02
Speaker 3: And you never know, like I'm up on the breakfast
26:04
Speaker 3: club like it's all come full circle. And I met
26:07
Speaker 3: you guys when this was just starting. Life is crazy
26:10
Speaker 3: and it's so inspiring.
26:12
Speaker 6: How did you do it? Because nowadays, like people are
26:14
Speaker 6: so like it's our culture. Yes, you can't come in,
26:17
Speaker 6: and there's all these think pieces on Twitter. Yeah, how
26:19
Speaker 6: do you like, did you even deal with that when
26:21
Speaker 6: you were first Night in Australia but just here in
26:23
Speaker 6: New York being a hip hop journalist but not being
26:26
Speaker 6: of the culture, right.
26:29
Speaker 3: I didn't really feel that until I got to the
26:32
Speaker 3: Source magazine because that's obviously a venerated hip hop institution.
26:37
Speaker 3: And I had the conversation with the publisher, Londo McMillan
26:40
Speaker 3: when he hired me, and we spoke about that, and
26:42
Speaker 3: he said, I'm actually hiring you because you are aware
26:45
Speaker 3: of your place.
26:45
Speaker 4: And who you are.
26:47
Speaker 3: And he said, some of the staff have said, like,
26:49
Speaker 3: who is this girl, what's her pedigree? We don't know
26:52
Speaker 3: her background. They didn't know all the years that I
26:54
Speaker 3: put into working within the art form, and so for
26:58
Speaker 3: a little minute I felt imposter syndrome, but then I realized, Look,
27:03
Speaker 3: I've never tried to be anybody but myself, and I've
27:07
Speaker 3: always encouraged like I said, like especially young black women
27:11
Speaker 3: like Nihila Simone was my intern at the Source right now,
27:17
Speaker 3: That's what I'm saying. She's on tour with Rhapsody, who
27:19
Speaker 3: I put in the freestyle session.
27:22
Speaker 4: So like, I've always known.
27:24
Speaker 3: My place, and I've always known that I really felt
27:27
Speaker 3: like this culture was not and it is not respected
27:31
Speaker 3: on the level that it should be globally and even
27:33
Speaker 3: within the States probably, but like especially globally.
27:37
Speaker 4: People will go to.
27:37
Speaker 3: The concerts, they love the music, but when it's time
27:41
Speaker 3: to show up at a protest, you know, they don't
27:43
Speaker 3: want to get their hands dirty. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, Like,
27:46
Speaker 3: we can't let black people give us their gifts and
27:49
Speaker 3: not pay that back in every way, and I've tried
27:53
Speaker 3: to do that. So yeah, things have shifted a little bit,
27:56
Speaker 3: and I think rightfully, so I think that conversation is
27:59
Speaker 3: very needed.
28:02
Speaker 4: But I have always tried to be as respectful as possible.
28:05
Speaker 3: In what I do and just contribute because it's a
28:08
Speaker 3: global art form now. I mean it was unleashed into
28:11
Speaker 3: the world from the seventies and I'm a child of that.
28:14
Speaker 3: So I think my duty is to learn the culture,
28:16
Speaker 3: learn the roots, and just stand as much as I can.
28:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, well down under up to our music
28:25
Speaker 2: helped one woman make big dreams come true.
28:27
Speaker 1: Make sure right now.
28:30
Speaker 4: Thank you guys, thank you so much.
28:31
Speaker 1: We appreciate you for joining us.
28:33
Speaker 4: Thank you, Virgo. It was my birthday last week. Thank
28:37
Speaker 4: you and Emelia Jordan. It's the Breakfast Club.
28:40
Speaker 1: Good morning, wake that answer up in the morning. Breakfast
28:43
Speaker 1: Club