HBD K-Way

The older I get, the more I can feel the difference between noise and nourishment. This birthday special is me taking a real breath, naming how far I’ve come, and choosing gratitude without pretending the past didn’t get heavy.

We talk about restoration after hard losses, a major career promotion, and why I’m intentionally limiting my time in chaotic online spaces. If you’re a creator, a music head, or just someone trying to protect your peace, you’ll hear the through-line: the platforms reward the loudest mess, but that doesn’t mean you have to build there. I’m focused on curating a real community rooted in R&B, hip-hop, black mental health, and respect for the culture.

To make it concrete, I go back to the blueprint. We break down the Swing Mob era under Devante Swing and how camps like that helped shape Timbaland, Missy Elliott, Ginuwine, Tweet, and more. Then we jump to the Soulquarians and Electric Lady Studios, where D’Angelo’s Voodoo era shows what happens when artists protect the room and keep outsiders from watering down the work.

From there, I address the cultural circus we’ve normalized online, including the ugly misogynoir that shows up when people claim they love black music but disrespect black women. We also unpack India Arie speaking on Young Miami’s “Spend It” and the deeper question underneath it: what are we rewarding, and who pays the price? I close with a personal story about how close life can get to the edge, then lighten it up with a rant on modern birthday etiquette that you’ll probably relate to.

If this hits, subscribe, share it with your tribe, and leave a review so the right listeners can find us.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:17

Peace, peace, peace. What is going on? What is going on? My good people, welcome back to another edition of the Heavy on the RB podcast, a special episode, as you guys can

Birthday Gratitude And Restoration

SPEAKER_00 0:30

hear, from the festive black cultural phenomenon, the song by the great Stevie Wonder, the GOAT. Happy birthday. This is a special birthday episode for your boy Kway, man. I am extremely grateful to be here. So, yeah, man. Uh, I wanted to kick it off on something positive before we get into the mess. Because you know it's a lot of that shit this past week, but man, nonetheless, I'm I'm grateful to be back as your host, your proprietor, your creator of the heavy of the RB, heavy on the RB podcast. Damn, I can't even get my own my own shit straight. And cruising with Kway. Appreciate all the new listeners. Um, if you are a first timer here, man, this is a uh a space where I talk about the rhythms and the blues of life. So allow me to just man reflect and and give thanks. Um, as this is uh depending on when you're listening to it, it is either my birthday or a few days before my birthday or my birthday eve. So, man, um if you check, if you check in the calendar, my born day is July 8th, that's Wednesday. Um, I'm sure y'all have this before then, but live from uh Martha's Vineyard. I don't know. Um a lot of people knew I was there, but um, you know, fourth black Martha's Vineyard is a is a is a thing and it's uh it's a it's a place to be, man. Um perfect. Ain't really got too many complaints. I'm gonna leave that there. Uh, but nah, man, if you know me, you know I could be a grump. I could be a bit of a grump. I could find things to gripe about, uh shit, just about anything. But as I sit here, um, you know, on a few days before my birthday, I'm forcing myself to lift my head up from the grind, the um the hard work, and just and I'm taking a deep breath and uh I'm just practicing some pure unfiltered gratitude because if I'm being completely honest with y'all, man, the restoration is real. If you've been following the pod, you understand that uh a few years back I packed up my life and moved to a brand new city, like fell on some incredibly hard times. I had to start over uh completely from scratch. When I tell you I had nothing but a casserole dish in the clothes to my name, like I was down to my dick and balls, man. Like on everything, man. Like I didn't have nothing. Um, in just navigating the deep, heavy loss of of the women in my life, you know, that being a ex-wife and the mother and uh grandmother and aunt, it was just like, man, how do I piece this back together? So um, you know, it was it was tough, but man, I just try to move with integrity. It's a it's a daily battle to be outstanding, um, to be an outstanding black man, you know, that my parents raised me to be and prayed for me to be, especially when you're looking at the world and it feels like they constantly trying to pull you in a different direction um and attract you to some bullshit, like I'm a flyer or something. But man, neither here nor there. Um I just I thank God I look at the turnaround. This past Friday, your boy um was blessed with a major promotion in my career. I know that's gonna come with a lot of responsibility, so my my time on the internet may be limited. Um, in fact, I think I'm going to do that myself and make it limited uh so I can, you know, just be better at my career. And and man, just being uh shit, 15, 16 weeks out from marrying the love of my life, my best friend, the coolest chick I ever met. Um, you know, and just realizing the people that I love are still here, my values are still intact, I'm locked in. Um, my life has been redeemed and restored in ways that I couldn't even imagine when I was down in the valley, you know what I mean? So I know I still got a long way to go, but today I'm pausing and taking appreciation just for the fact, like how far I've come. Um, and that's the blueprint of this podcast, Heavy on the RB, where we talk about the rhythms and the blues of life. Um, this show is built on soul, on resilience, and on finding beauty in the rhythm of the journey. Because I think that's the most important part is the journey. Um, I mean, let's be real, the internet will have you thinking that your value is tied to streams, likes, and views, or media clicks. But um, I don't know. I just think that the platforms are designed to reward. Um, how can I say this? Like, uh I think platforms are designed to reward the loudest, most chaotic voice in the room while it slows down and suffocates uh the people who are actually trying to build something real. So we've been conditioned to think that a community means thousands of people in a chaotic chat server um shouting over you know different internet points or in in YouTube live chats or shade room chats. That's not community, man. That's just the echo chamber of anxiety, if you ask me. So, in honor of my birthday reset, man, um I ain't letting none of the toxic nonsense into the building today. Life is too fucking short to waste energy in chaotic spaces that don't align with my vision in this year. Um, so far, we at halftime. It's July. We in Q Q3, we got six months until um the new year. So, you know, this this right here is just about strictly aligning myself with in and curating my community, you know what I mean? And that's what I'm gonna talk about today. So I'm looking to build exclusively with like-minded creators, um, RB mental health base that uh, you know, treat in hip hop and uh and and treat the culture with respect, and they leave the chaotic noise behind. So, man, I'm just I'm celebrating the camps tonight, the collectives and the music that uh kept us alive. And and with that being said, man, let me go ahead and get a little birthday jingle in for myself.

SPEAKER_02 6:36

I ought to be low again anyone who takes the fan Adam your celebration on the without mine that they ought to be the time that's because of time just a lot of that's just what it's just about to be.

SPEAKER_00 7:31

Alright, alright, alright. We are back. We are back, man. Um I appreciate everybody that is tuning in and has tuned in and supported your boy. Uh the various things that I got going on, whether it's the podcast or it's um uh daybreak where I play the music that inspired whatever week's episode that was. Uh also cruising with K Way, driving around the city of San Diego, uh showing some of the good views and playing some of the good tunes. So, man, I'm I'm I'm just in a very appreciative mood today because honestly, like my birthday kind of snuck up on me. I've had my head down and I've worked and I've worked and I've worked some more and and you know, I'm checking off all these things that I put on my vision board in December. I mean, um, you know, losing the weight, getting a promotion. Uh graduated last June and um still gonna take my graduation pictures. I just didn't take them last year because I didn't, I didn't like how I looked, um, quite frankly. So um, but yeah, man, I just kept my head down. I was like, you know what? Uh for once in my life, I'm gonna I'ma just I'ma pause and I'ma just reflect and and and thank God for the the restoration and and the redeemed part of my life. And uh yeah, so here we are, man. I wanted to talk about today, um, as I talked about in my opening monologue, just about finding my tribe, you know. I think that I think what happened was I wanted

Finding Your Tribe As A Creator

SPEAKER_00 8:59

to create, but I didn't necessarily know how to do it. And I think the hardest part is getting started. So I just got started, and now that I'm in the thick of it, I'm navigating my way through all of this, and I just see like a lot of stuff that I don't really like, align with or agree with. Um, but it ain't my place to just be in in you know um established journalists or or rappers' comments and telling them you know who they are and what they aren't to me. That's not something that I do, you know. I may say uh uh you know a few things here on my pod on my platform, but I'm not the person that I I couldn't just you know I'm saying, like get into a back and forth, you know, and and not saying no names because we already know what happened this past week. It don't even need to be rehashed. It was for me, it got to a place where it went too far. I think banter is cool. I could roast with the best of them, you know. I could send folks home crying, that don't bother me. I think what does bother me when we when we start taking it somewhere it don't need to go with like inciting violence or livelihoods or um you know pitting people against each other. Like I'm I'm out, I'm tapped out. And it made me go back and do some research, man. And and I think one of the most important things about finding your tribe is um it starts with you. It starts like we are, you know, I've I've always said this on my podi, whether you listen or you're or is this your first time, that our our lives are just mere movies and we're all our dish auditioning for the eternal role. And you gotta ask yourself, um, would God like the movie that I'm making? If not, you can change it because you you are the producer, you're the main actor or actress, you you you you curate everything. Um, so just asking myself, does God like the movie that I'm making? Um, I had to like kind of just audit, you know, audit some things. And I went back and researched and and I was like, man, back in the day, there used to be entire camps, right? So the swing mob era, uh, the basement crew, which was like the early 90s, that was from 90 to

The Swing Mob Blueprint

SPEAKER_00 10:57

95, might have been 91. And the architect of that was uh Devontae Swing of Jodice. And um he he after he blew up um you know off of uh was it uh Forever My Lady in 1991, um, and then he wanted to build like a musical fortress, right? So um he he rented out a house, a studio, uh Dolly uh Day Day Leon, I think it was called Da Leon Studios in Rochester, New York, like kind of like upstate-ish. So he brought like 20 unnamed hungry artists from Virginia, Ohio, Jersey, uh, Kentucky, uh, not Ohio, Kentucky, and um isolated basically them from the industry, and they and and just forced them to grind. And and the tribe that he built in that basement in like '93-ish, it was uh it was a young guy named Um Uh Timothy Zachary Mosley, and that's Timberland. And he was on the NPC making beats, doing it back then. Missy Elliott was writing hooks with, she was in a group called Sister at that point in time. Genuine was laying like crazy vocals back then. Then you had Static Major from Player. Static is is behind some of our biggest hits uh that that we love as a culture. You know, like just take Lil Wayne um Lollipop, for instance, and then you had Tweet. Back then she went she went by uh Sugar, and she was writing her melodies and and just doing that research. I think the takeaway that I got is they all shared a living space. They ate together, they caught vibes. I'm sure they argued and had disagreements, um, but they all came together and then they shaped Jodice's Diary of a Mad Man in '93, there's their sophomore album. And you know, they didn't have that sophomore jinx because I mean, I said, I don't know, man. It's uh it's a debate, it's a debate, and I'll let y'all argue amongst yourselves in the comments, but uh do you have Diary of a Mad Man um by Jodice um over their first album, uh Forever My Lady? And for me, God damn it, how would I do this to myself? Uh shit. I don't know. I think I'm gonna go with Forever My Lady, even though Diary of a Mad Man had Cry for You, Fiend, Uh, My Heart Belongs to You. Um, what else did they have on there? Uh shoot, they had a joint with Red Man. Um, I forgot the name of it. And then I know Timberland and Missy was on there somewhere, but for me, Forever My Lady, like, damn, that album is just like classic. I think, I think Forever My Lady Um probably has the best start to an album, maybe besides GNX. The first uh I don't know, five songs, stay, come and talk to me. Forever My Lady, I'm still waiting, you and I, like right off the rip. The first five out of 13, what five out of 12 is crazy. Like, so, anyways, I digress, man. Y'all know I can go on and on about RB is one of it's it's it's my favorite thing to do, connect music uh to the tunes. But, anyways, um, so they had success with that. Um, all those people came together, um, and then uh, and then you know, the other hotel, the show, the after party in the hotel in '95. That was another banger. So when the industry didn't understand Missy or Timberland's like, you know, style, uh, Missy's forwardness and her lyrics about you know her sexuality and her being a um a thicker, darker skinned woman, and how they tried to box her out, you know, unfairly. And and Timberland's kind of like uh his sinks, you know, the way he used to use his uh uh I think it's called syncopation is the technical term. So the way that he would use those beats and you know, just little things like birds humming or or chirping or or uh the squeak of a shoe. If you just go back and listen to Aliyah's production, it is some of the like the the most intricate sounds um that you could think of. But I I say all that to say Devontae, he he just told them to block out the noise, and this is documented in interviews that he said. Um, and that tight circle, it birthed like the late 90s sound. When you just think of of genuine, and there there was a there was a debate at one point in time, and I've always been the person that is like on the unpopular side, not like when it comes to like to politics and shit like that. Um, you know, I'm I'm I'm betting on black at all times. Um, I'm not with the red, I'm not, especially what today's red is. So just to make that clear, but I've always if you like Gatorade, I like Power Raid. If you like iHop, I like Denny's. Most people like Michael Jackson, I love Prince. I love them both, but I just think you know, for me, Prince is uh the end all be all. So saying that, there was a time where Gene Wine and Usher were looked at as like the two, you know, top-tier RB guys. I always lean towards Gene Wine because Unpopular P early in his career. I thought I thought Gene Wine danced better than Usher. If you just go back and look at the pop lock and the freestyles, um God, is it the So Anxious video where he's taking he's doing the dance break uh with the broom? Um, I can't remember which video it is. Um, you know what? Let me y'all know I'm I'm gonna look some shit up in me a pod. I should have had this, um, but I don't. Uh let's see where he was dancing with the broom. That is uh none of your friends' business. Uh not so anxious. Um yeah, I mean, and that and that's a that's that's a scene from the movie Breaking, you know what I'm saying? So and then I just uh the music, I mean, same old G, Pony, um, that first album, 100% genuine, uh, number one fan, uh, so anxious. It was just like, man, it's classic, you know what I'm saying? Then growing up in those jeans. I remember, and this is crazy. I probably shouldn't have been listening to this, and I'm probably gonna sound like a hypocrite, especially when I get into talking about young Miami uh a little bit later in the show. But man, I remember my first high school party, and I was always like just a chill person, you know what I'm saying? Like uh square adjacent. Because I mean, like I did I didn't really get into much trouble, but I wasn't beyond not getting caught, if you know what I mean. So I'm chilling, and there was a um the first time I ever got like a dance or got danced on was to in those jeans at a house party. Um and yeah, let's just say that was interesting. That was a that was an interesting uh changing of the guard, as as or you would say. So, anyways, man, I'm probably saying too much. My fiance gonna kill me. Uh yeah, man. Genuine, he was he was that guy for me, but going back to just all those people being in the same group, the same click, and how they all went on to have their collective um uh well individual brand success. Tweet at tweet had bangers, like everybody was just dope. So that's one of them. And then another era that I identified with is the Soul Quarians. A lot of people don't even know the Electric Lady era. I think that was like right after the the Devontae swing, because this was like '96. Around that

Soulquarians And Creative Sanctuary

SPEAKER_00 18:40

time, it was weird. Um, you know, uh hip-hop ran everything. I mean, Pac was was huge, you know. And then uh in 26 when he passed, I think we were all looking for a reset. And and to me, around that time, like after after Pac and Big pass, it was like Neo, so a lot of people gravitated towards that. A lot of people became one with the earth and started hugging trees, or I shouldn't say became, I think it got more popularized. So around 962 out 2002, you had a uh a cat named D'Angelo and Quest Love, and and they teamed up together and and they locked out Studio A in the uh in the Greenwich Village of all places, which um you know it is now now known as Electric Lady Studios, and it was all it was built by Jimi Hendrix, so it had you know hella um hella history, and and they did that to create an album called Voodoo by D'Angelo. Um rest in peace to him, man. Um he is uh truly missed him and Angie Stone to have them pass uh months within each other and them share children together. It is um, I don't know, it's Lord. When I get to talking about this and you realize who's not here anymore, it's like god damn, man, what is going on? Um, anyways, um, so yeah, so you know, and and everybody knows how great voodoo is. I mean, from Devil's Pie to send it up, send it on, um Spanish joint, untitled, you know, where he was trying to tease all the ladies, but you know, I always fast forward that part. Great song though, great stroke music, if you know what I mean. Uh yeah, so um that that's that birthed the um the accumulation of Quest Love to like jam and his band, The Roots. And they they stayed for years, they burned through over like 200 reels and analog tape, and they formed the tribe. Um, um, the foundational members were all Aquarius star signs. Now, don't get me into explaining all that shit. I don't know nothing about astrology. I told a girl once, um, yeah, let's let's cool it on astrology talk because I'm more I'm more interested in your therapy notes, and she was highly offended. Um, I don't know, maybe I was wrong, maybe I wasn't, but I want to see how crazy you are. I'll share mine, you know what I'm saying? Like, what's your therapist say about you? Um, but anyways, it was Quest of Love, D'Angelo, um, the the late great legendary producer Jay Dilla. Um, and and then the uh uh J JP uh James uh uh Poiser and um and they and they were also joined by Erica Badu, Common Balau, most deaf, to live quality, even though I don't fuck with to live right now. Uh, I'm never gonna diminish his contributions to music, and it was just an incredible ensemble of like talent. If you just listen to it or just go back, I mean, come on, dog. Jay Diller, Common, but Lau Most Deaf to Lib D'Angelo Quest Love, and so the roots fall under that black thought. I mean, probably our greatest, I would say literally I don't even want to get into that. He's one of the goats. I'll I'll leave it there. I'm not about to, yeah. I'm not about to uh open up that Pandora's box. Anyways, they held like an overlapping jam session. So imagine you in this studio while then while D'Angelo is in like room one, room A, uh doing voodoo, Erica Badu is down the hall recording Mama's gun, mama's gun down the hall with incredible, incredible body of work. And then Common is across the hall from her, working on like water for chocolate. And they use 60 drum kits and 50 guitar uh bassline riffs, and it was just like a lot of soul, it kind of almost felt uh black Harlan Renaissance-ish. And um, and and and they just like they they digitized the sound over uh commercial radio and it broke through. And you know, if an executive or outsider tried to give notes, they were kicked out. It was like very much we the gatekeepers of this, we're doing something new, we don't give a fuck about what you say. This is our sanctuary. Go take that shit down to um 99 gym somewhere. Like, nah, this is where this is where soul is. We own some 106.7. All my naptown fans know what I'm talking about. So, yeah, man. I go back and and I think that's what I'm trying to accomplish. I want to find my tribe. I want to I want to connect with uh you know like-minded individuals that love the art of music, and not just like the bars and the controversy shit, but like the the the scents that are used, the the keys, um, you know, G, like whatever, whatever key you're playing in, um, the samples, like going back to the original. I want to I wanna connect with uh that's my that's my tribe, you know what I mean? Like in it's it's hard trying to cultivate that, but I'm on a search. So anybody that is like-minded in that area like me that cares about good music, um, uh black people and mental health, man. Um, you know, like yeah, I would love to connect with somebody like Elsie. She's doing her thing out here in the interview space. Um, and and the way that she breaks down music is like none other. So um man, shout out to her. Y'all go check her out. She is on YouTube. Um her baby king interview is amazing. Her her her interview with uh with Momo Boyd uh is a is amazing. Um, just to name a few. So yeah, man, she's dope. But you know, I I know it it's it's a slow burn. Um, this is this is slow cooker. This ain't microwaveable um entrees that I'm trying to do. What I'm trying to cultivate and what I'm trying to accomplish is not a TV dinner. This is a uh a slow burn, and um I just gotta keep at it. So for me, uh moving on to uh segment two, as I glance at my notes, I want to talk about curation over chaos in the cultural circus. So anytime somebody arguing

Curation Over Chaos Online

SPEAKER_00 24:46

or you know into it with each other, I always say, Man, that ain't my monkey, that ain't my circus, or that ain't my clown, that ain't my circus. That ain't got nothing to do with me. Um, I'ma stand up for what I believe in, I'ma stand up for the right side of right. But what I'm not about to be doing as I continue to say week in and week out, is going back and forth with motherfuckers that don't even have an avatar picture, or I don't even know. So, like for me, what's been heavy on my mind this week is um as I as I as I begin to tie my personal journey right into the state of the culture we're consuming. I think lately I've had to make some conscious decisions of protecting my peace and staying away from certain online spaces. And hell, I may never reach the heights that some people aspire to be, but that ain't what I'm after for. You know what I mean? I don't care again to have like crazy thousands of followers, it would be nice, it would be cool, you know. If you can make a living off this doing what you love, then that ain't a job no more. You know what I'm saying? That's that's that's that's pure bliss. But like I said last week, at what cost? I mean, because let's be real, when you look at a digital community and you realize it's just like a literal uh rotation of of uh different live chats, and it's rehashing the same exact stale arguments in every uh chat room or chat space or comment area or comment space, it's just like the for me, it's just like the ultimate sign that I've kind of outgrown some of the uh the panty and bullshit, and it's incredibly draining to pour your energy, time, and creation to a space only to look around and realize it's an echo chamber of people chasing internet drama rather than supporting each other's growth. Um, now for those that are in it for the organic growth, um, man, shout out to y'all, and I'm extremely proud of y'all. Like, Miss Hummus just went over 1,000 subscribers on YouTube. That's incredible. And I I literally pray for her, pray for God to cover her in her mental space because man, the shit that I've seen this week, a lot of it was unwarranted. And as I said in Justin's chat, man, this whole thing with you know old boy and the other old boy creator. To me, I was more upset that people were focusing on, you know, the whole aspect of well, how do you feel about Kendrick? And it's like, nah, fam, push that to the side. You call this black woman a bitch multiple times, and we didn't spend no time on that. And it's like, okay, what what I saw was what I saw in the chats, it just revealed how many non-black people love black culture but hate black women. The shit that I seen in that in those in those chats were egregious, and that was some of the things that I wrestled with. Like, you know what? I think I'm gonna just um I'm gonna fall back. I don't want nothing to do with this because these aren't the kind of people that I would build with. If you if you could say the things that I've seen about Michelle Obama, about black women, um, about black creators, and then in in in the same breath try to pit two black women creators against each other, but you love our black music, I don't I don't understand that. You can't be a fan of Kendrick Lamar and hate black women or have some of the views that you have. So, like, who are you? You don't have a profile picture. Like, who the fuck who the fuck are you really? So I just had to push that to the side, man. Um, like I said, there's a lot of things that I'm not uh I don't care to be a part of or condone um anymore. And that and that was one of the things. And so, you know, seeing that you know you can outgrow some things, um, and I think for me, what I what I realize is when you're putting out a premium product and only two or three people actually show up for your content because the rest of the circus is there for the drama. I think the for me, I realize like the lack of support don't reflect my talent, and it shouldn't reflect yours if you're in the same space. It tells a deeper story about our society and where we are. We've been conditioned to give our energy to the noise instead of the substance. I didn't write the rules to the game, I'm just playing it. That's just how the fuck it is right now, and we are seeing this play out on a massive scale in the music right now, in in the creator content space. A lot of people were shocked recently when to me, one of the GOATs of R Neo Soul RB, um, legendary Miss India R, who I love her music because she pours into herself and she pours into

India Arie Versus Scam Anthems

SPEAKER_00 29:17

India India to me is the quintessential um uh black affirmation music. Um, man, she some of some of her best songs to me is just like yo, when she started off the song One Shot to Your Heart, like, man, nobody has the ability to hurt you like your kin. Come on, man, like or your friends, like uh man, I love Indy R. Um, from I Am Not My Hair to Um, you know, just the curation of music that she's developed and pouring, pouring into black love, especially, which is a lane that is like hellavoided right now. But, anyways, um, you know, she she stepped out and and and well, she stepped up, should I say? My apologies, Miss R. You stepped up and you called out Young Miami's new track, spend it, which I still ain't heard because I refuse to listen to it. And just judging by the chatter and the commentary around it, it's probably not something I would listen to. I ain't never listened to a sexy red song. That ain't my cup of tea. And I don't want to sound like the old man get off my block, because yeah, I listened to to Ludacris growing up, lick lick, lick, lick, lick you from your head to your toe. I mean, but I'm not 10 anymore, I'm not 12. You know what I'm saying? And this is probably some of the same critiques that our parents was having. And and the thing with young Miami to me is different. So when you have rapper A or B or C coming out trying to condemn Indy R and saying, you know, we grew up on such and such kind of music, that doesn't make it right. Now I understand the internet is gonna do what they're gonna do and try to reduce India RE to hating, but there's no need to hate, she's an accomplished woman within her own right and in two different lanes. And I would dare to say uh Indiri has accomplished way more. So I think people were looking at this wrong. She's not a hater. NDRE is not a hater, she's not critiquing young Miami as uh another black sister that um you know has I can't even say talent. I'm not gonna say that. Another young black sister, I'll leave it at that. Um she's actually saying, like, if you if you look at what she says, she's saying it runs much deeper than that. Look at what the song's actually saying, it is literally encouraging, celebrating, and glamorizing scamming, robbery, and forgery. And if you hold the mirror up to black culture in a way that it has shifted and what has going on, it's basically encouraging poor black people to steal from other poor black people, or middle cat middle class black people to steal from other middle class black people because we know the top 1% ain't gonna be affected by this, and it exploits other poor, but like it it's it's it's just it's all wrong, man. Exploiting all of that, and it's the society is just gravitating towards it, it's dancing to it, it's turning into a viral trend. Nobody's looking at it from that perspective. So, me personally, I don't think India R was hating, I just think she was set shedding a light on a different perspective, not on another black woman, but like, damn, this how far we've come. This this is this is the bar because it ain't the 90s, like where you could have um, you know, you could have trick daddy and trina, uh you know nan, but you can also have TLC waterfalls. Um, you know, you could have Tupac Changes, and then you can also have Tupac fuck the world. Like there was a there was just different parody. You could have uh uh arrested arrested development people every day, and you could have Snoop Dogg Bitches Ain't but hoes and tricks. We had our choice of what to listen to on any given day. Hell, in any given 10 minutes, you could listen to the roots, Snoop Dogg, DMX, Tupac, Angie Stone, NDRE, all of them, you know what I'm saying? Early, but it's a lack of that right now. We gotta go back to even push forward, and that is I think what's going on. It's it's it's holding up a mirror, like I said, to the cultural shift. Where we are, we're actively encouraging our people to demean, still, and put each other down. And I just think like when you look at it and who was steering the ship, this is the most important piece for me. The the the rot makes perfect sense. We're rotting away because this is the same young Miami who was heavily tied to Diddy, she was his woman, whatever that means to him. The same woman who sat idly and watched monstrous, nefarious things that that man did to women for for uh I don't know if it was years or or or months, but it was a while. And we literally watched this man beat the absolute shit out of Cassie on on uh hotel security footage, clear as day, in 1080p, 4K, 8k, whatever the fuck ever we saw, the shit everybody did. And yet, even after all of those convictions, she still decided to stand by his side, and she even wrote a character letter to the federal judge pleading for leniency, looking the world right in the eyes, and saying, Judge, that's a good man.

SPEAKER_01 34:15

He's a good man, Savannah. A good man.

SPEAKER_00 34:20

Bullshit. Think about the level of moral bankruptcy you have to possess to protect a monster, just to protect your access to power. So how can we be surprised when she puts out a song telling poor black people to rob and scam each other? If you will to me, if you will compromise your soul and and back an abuser for a check, of course you're gonna tell the community to destroy destroy yourself for a dollar and participate some shit in you you not even doing no more. You got legal businesses and brands and purses and liquor and shit. I don't know, man. And when you look, maybe some people might hear this and say, uh, oh, he's judging and and you know, decide to unsubscribe, and and you know, maybe some folks won't like it. But honestly, to quote the classic line from the movie Going with the Wind, frankly, my dear, I don't give a fuck. This is what I'm stepping up and in and saying when I'm saying I'm out of the circus. Like, do not let uh an insular unsupportive circle dim the quality of what you are putting together, and that go for me, you, whoever's listening. Like, listen in. If you're a creator out here and you're trying to move on integrity, you trying to put out a premium product, keep your execution sharp, keep your head down and on a forward path. Don't compromise your values just to get views or a crowd that only want to see a fucking circus. I think when Kidrick said keep your head down and work like I do, I felt that on a spiritual level. Because to me, I took that as protect your peace and let the audience that actually deserves your energy find you, and that's what I'm on right now, man. Um, as I move into my birthday and we move into the second half of this year, I just I just I'm appreciative, I'm grateful to be here because if you've been following me, you've been listening to the pod, I've looked death in the

Integrity When Life Gets Dark

SPEAKER_00 36:09

face three times, like real life death situations. And um, I put out a song called Take It There. That was another you know incident where I almost took my life away. If you just go check it out, it's on my YouTube pages called Take It There. I've wrote it, I wrote it a while in college. Um, I arranged the beat, the chords, the the everything, the progression. Only thing that I did was um put an AI voice over my voice because I cannot hold a tune. Um, and I'm never gonna put it on DSPs, it's not for sale. I do respect the integrity of music, but beside all of that, the the the the song is a true story. I almost almost threw my life away in college. Long story short, there was a 6'11, 7 foot nigga at my college uh that was mad um because I decided not to see a girl anymore, and she had left some things over in my house, she came and got on. I don't know why she brought him like I'm some kind of crazy monster, but it was a group of people though. We all kind of hung together, but he got to talking crazy, and this is this is like you caught K Way on the wrong day. I mean, my mom had uh you know just got diagnosed with cancer. I'm new to this school, I transferred from Texas AM. Uh the the the financial aid people are like fucking up my scholarship check where I gotta pay my rent and my bills and things. Um, I'm annoyed. Uh my homeboy just got killed in the club shooting that I told him not to go to. He caught me on the wrong day. I had just had a brand new 380. I'm in this new new school, new city, and he got to talking crazy. And I was like, you know what? Hey, come in here, dog. He came in my house, I shut the door, it was just me and him. I looked this nigga in the eye and I said, What whatever level you want to get on, we can do that. Because right now, I don't have much to live for. And no, man, you know, no, I just came over and make sure she got her club. I said, bro, you are projected to be a top three draft pick. Man, please just take this shit and you ain't gotta hear from me ever again. So, and we never spoke again, and we saw each other all the time around campus, parties, all of that. We walked straight past each other, didn't say nothing. He gave me a look, I gave him a look. But at that moment in time, I was ready to lose it all because I'm not fighting this seven-foot nigga head up. I had the gun right there on the side of the couch, cock loaded, ready and ready. Like I was not playing, I was ready to throw to throw my life away. So that's what the song um reflects. And I say all that to say, like, we when you deal with real life things, like you just don't want to compromise who you are and your values, and you just get tired of just like the the circus, man. I just think we gotta keep the main thing, the main thing, and we have to keep the plot. You know, I think we've lost this thing. We've go, we've we've like veered off the path so far about pushing our culture forward that we've just lost the plot, and it don't matter how many times I say it, only a few people gonna oblige. Most people ain't gonna, you know what I'm saying? They ain't they ain't gonna bother them, but I gotta keep on keeping on, I gotta keep doing what I do. Um, but besides all that, I'm grateful to be here. I've gone through some real shit. My it's it's my birthday, like man, God is good and all the time, God is good all the time, and all the time, God is good.

unknown 39:27

Perfect.

SPEAKER_00 39:27

So, with that being said, I gotta get some gripes off my chest, actually, just one, and it's it's lighthearted, but this goes out to all my family members and and people that are going to wish me happy birthday.

Birthday Etiquette And Real Effort

SPEAKER_00 39:41

So, cues the deep breath. Look, man, before I sign off on this special birthday episode of the Heavy on the RB podcast with KW, it's my birthday, it's my birthday week. I am turning another year older this Wednesday, and I'm beyond grateful. I really am, as I just outlined. But I really, really need to talk about the absolute state of the 21st century and birthday etiquette because it's ghetto as fuck. First off, if you text me HBD on my birthday, don't text me at all. Three fucking letters, you couldn't even give me the vows, nigga. You saving your thumb energy on my born day? Don't do that. If you can't type out hap happy birthday KW or happy birthday my real name, just keep it in your drafts. Don't even send that shit, please. And don't please don't get on Instagram and post a picture of yourself and me, or post a picture of yourself looking clean in the mirror because you just got um some new clothes from the mall to go smoke hookah with other niggas at the club at. Um, and then you put my name at the bottom right corner where you need a magnifying glass to sit see uh to see that shit, and it says happy birthday, Kway, or happy birthday to my brother K Way. Don't don't just save it, bro. Don't even do it. Fam, did you post that to celebrate my life, or did you want an excuse to show off the outfit that you was going to wear to go impress other niggas in? I digress. I I don't know, man. We just used to be a culture in the 90s. If it was your birthday, Stevie wanted to play it on the stereo, which is why I played his at the beginning of the episode. Or at the very least, someone was calling you on the landline to actually sing to you. My grandmother, when she was alive, I have aunts, friends have actually done that or on the answer machine. Now I get a generic balloon emoji and automated calendar reminder notifications from an app I ain't even updated since like 2022. So here it is. So here's my birthday wish. Stop being lazy with the people you care about. If you got a tribe, love on them with some actual effort. Type the words, call the phone, stop shortening the love. That is my great on this very special birthday episode by yours truly, man. Listen, from my mouth to you guys' ears, you already know I appreciate y'all so much. Whether it's five followers or five million, um, hell, even five people commenting is a bit overwhelming for me. And I try to reply to every one of y'all. So, man,

Final Thanks And Closing Mantra

SPEAKER_00 42:23

just keep putting your best foot forward. And you know what I say every week, man. Let's put value in ourselves, let's put value in each other, and we'll have a value society. Peace.