00:00 SPEAKER_00 What I try to get at is I have realized the songs that I write at times have been trying to reach my hand across the aisle, so to speak. And let's have some common ground and just hopefully have people consider life is short. What we have is precious. Why do you want to be an asshole?
00:30 SPEAKER_01 Yo, yo, yo, yo. Welcome to this special edition of Slap the Power, live from Holland. That's right. I find myself on this gorgeous, gorgeous Sunday in this beautiful open-air theater in Holland. I'll put some pictures up on the webs. You'll see it. This week I'm going to be interviewing one of my favorite human beings who represents possibly one of the greatest artists I know, one of the most musical people I know, who does live in Florida, who does play music and speak to, I would think it's safe to say a primarily red audience. And so the interview this week is going to be with the one and only Mr. Ronnie D. Some of you who might know him from the interwebs, and if you don't, there's going to be all kinds of information on his art and him in the interview. So there's going to be all kinds of ways to get a hold of him there. The subject this week is going to be something that's near and dear to my heart, which is the immigrant song. My mother is Cuban. I associate with the immigrant hustle, the immigrant lifestyle. My relatives that I knew on my Cuban side came over in the boat lifts. My earliest memories of childhood was tent city in Miami and getting to meet my relatives for the first time. And my cousin, Mamacito, he was in jail for protesting Castro. And that's how he was able to come to this country with nothing but the clothes on his back and to watch him and his family. You know, they built businesses and boats and jet skis and houses and everything. It's the true American dream. And yet at the same time, Southern Florida now has become a hotbed for strongman authoritarian uprisings in a way of trying to assemble power. It's done in this way that is fascinating to me on how people can vote for, say, a Donald Trump or a Ron DeSantis solely on the issue of trying to put down the other or trying to make anybody else who isn't like what Ron DeSantis and his people want. It's pseudo-fascism and it's fascinating to me. But I wanted to preface this interview with a little bit of information to kind of tell you why we're doing this as well. Ronnie is also a second generation immigrant kid. I remember not having anything, all of us kind of being in one room, but we were happy to have each other. And there was just so much of a hustle culture of a, okay, well, we'll just work for it culture that I think has been lost, that I think is great about the immigrant experience that needs to be lifted up. I think in our country, we talk about immigration as being a problem. What is really the problem? And why is it not a good idea for artists to be able to talk about these things? And so I think that's bullshit. And that's why we're here today. And I just wanted to kind of pop some figures when we were getting prepared for this interview. We just tripped over a lot of things. And so I want to sort of preface the interview with this, with some of these facts. And hopefully it'll help you guys sort of give some context for why we're doing this episode. In a single day, over 6,000 migrants are apprehended trying to cross the border. That's 2 million apprehensions a year. Okay, that's a lot. It's only going to get worse. The number of family units apprehended while trying to cross the border has increased by 300% compared to just last year. So that's why this is important. The pace at which this is going to keep increasing is unprecedented. Waves of large migrant groups have become common. Back in 2021, at least 70 groups of 100 people or more attempted to cross the border. And the government has lost track of more than 85,000 children who have entered the U.S. without a guardian since 2021. Most migrants arriving at the border require medical assistance, mostly due to what they endure in their journey to the U.S. For example, one in three women, one in three women are sexually assaulted on the journey to the border. I always say this, you know, we experienced this in Europe when we were touring in Europe and whether it was Syrian refugees or refugees from northern Africa. When climate change or the war on drugs or just the war in general comes for you and your kids. If a guy showed up with a machete on my front door talking about it, we needed to pay fealty to the drug lords. I'd grab my wife and kids and walk my ass to Texas or Arizona, too. So I think it is not only is it economically sound for us to sort of entertain the idea that we need a solution for this problem. It's necessary from a just sheer humanitarian standpoint between global warming and the failed war on drugs. It's only going to get worse on our southern borders. And so border agents spend 75 percent of their work time providing humanitarian relief like feeding people, setting broken bones and delivering babies. If you can believe that from 2012 to 2019, over 85000 people caught by border patrol were Mexican. And from 2019 on, this percentage decreased to 20 percent. And that's because there's been a dramatic increase in apprehensions of people from countries like Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba. These countries are overrun by organized crime, gang and drug trafficking, violence and human trafficking. And so, again, why is this happening? It's happening because US drug policy or the so-called war on drugs is partially to blame for sparking violence in Latin America countries and driving a huge surge of migration to the US. The US used foreign aid and military assistance as leverage to force Latin American countries to man the front lines on the war on drugs. But this is the this is the fallout from that failed war on drugs. In countries like Colombia and Mexico pushed drug traffickers into Honduras, Venezuela, Cuba and El Salvador. And these countries are now overrun by gangs, cartels and violence. The drug war displaced but didn't eliminate the problem. And research shows that about 85 percent of the violence experienced in Latin America is related to drug trafficking. Eighty five percent. So this drives vulnerable populations to the US. Like I said, you know, if I was in Syria and I was a farmer and all of a sudden we've been farming for hundreds of years in my family, but global warming or war comes and just kills our farmland, I'm going to have to pick up my family and walk my ass to Turkey or to Germany. And so by making these countries, especially in our hemisphere, dangerous and virtually unlivable, the drug cartels have created an incentive for people to flee. And this in turn means more clientele for the human smuggling business. So here's the real big question, right? Again, it's horrible and it's huge. But why should we care? We should care because the illicit drug market continues to fund violent groups in Central and South America. And the war on drugs hasn't reduced drug use. It's actually increased it. Despite its efforts, Mexico remains the leading source of heroin and meth for the American market. And Mexican cartels are the main suppliers of cocaine, heroin and other narcotics to the US. So after 50 years of the war on drugs, drug abuse continues to rise in our country and every year about 70,000 people die from overdoses. Not only has the drug war failed, but it has harmed millions of innocent people. These people were displaced from their countries and now seek refuge in the US. There is a gray area. There is an Overton window where we can as a country. I don't care if it's not red, it's not blue, it's an immigrant song. That's why I think it's up to artists to talk about this, to bring it to the forefront, to put it into the zeitgeist because it's going to be the issue where we're going to need to vote on this and we're going to need to be prepared because it's only going to get worse, especially if we don't do anything. So I want you to check the interview, check what Ronnie and I talk about. Hopefully you enjoy some of it. Hopefully you get a laugh. Okay, so what can we do? There's actually things that we can do. Number one, it's going to be to vote. And number one, it's going to be to talk to people about these things. It's not just a football and we can't just say, hey, you know, don't let them in because number one, it's not economically sound. It's not humanitarian. It's not the American way. It's not the European way. And we also need to be dealing with facts that work economically speaking. If we give people a leg up, if we give them a hand and we assimilate them into society, the economic data shows that it actually grows the economy. It builds the economy. So we need to think about a solution that is in the middle where we can do something because doing nothing does not work. It's never going to work to do nothing. Right. So what can we do beyond that? We can support border angels, which conducts water drops in the desert. It supports migrant shelters on the border on the borders and it helps free asylum seekers from detention and provides legal representation to vulnerable children. You can donate volunteer to host a fundraiser for them or purchase anything from their online shop to help fund their operations. We'll put some information about border angels in the show notes. And last support races, which is our AIC ES. It's the refugee and refugee and immigrant center for education and legal services. And they provide free and low cost legal services to underserved immigrant children, families and refugees. You can donate. You can host a fundraiser, pledge your birthday to support their work, donate your airline miles, round up your Lyft fair as a gift and more. And so, again, I think it's especially important because there's a there's just a love and a work ethic as a second immigrant child that I feel is worth sharing. And it's worth enlightening people on and it's worth talking about. And in addition to putting it into our art, I think we can put it into our conversation and our discourse and we can make a difference with some small things. Yo, yo, yo, yo. Welcome to Slap the Power. Special, special guest today. This is a special episode from the road. I am just beyond excited to have one of my favorite human beings on planet Earth, one of the most musical people I know. You and Ty Taylor are number one. And so and it is a tremendous honor to have the one and only the musical superstar, Mr. Ronnie D with me on the show. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. My girl, Maya, is out. I'm looking forward to when she is back. But in the meantime, I am here in beautiful, beautiful Holland, actually in Harlem, Holland, which did you know this, Ronnie?
10:54 SPEAKER_00 That there is an actual real Harlem. That's beautiful. You can holla from Harlem in Holland.
11:07 SPEAKER_01 But one of the things with the show, as everybody knows, we want to blend artistry with so many things are kind of on the edges. And we have so much an overton window. I believe that we all actually agree on we just happen to be shuttled into these algorithmic teams, these red and blue and red and blue teams. And myself being from California, Ronnie being from Florida, there's an issue that's particularly near and dear to my heart just as a matter of raising the awareness on things. And that is what we would call the quote unquote border. Right. You know, Trump and his wall and there was all kinds of things on how to deal with it. But for for the better part of 30 years, it's basically been used as a political cudgel and there's no real solution. And it's only getting worse and shamefully, shamefully, shamefully. And I know whether it be in Florida and the situation you're dealing with, there's sort of anti-immigrant sentiment that's going there, sending people from Texas to Martha's Vineyard, you know, what for a political stunt or? Wow, it's right. I wanted to explore this from an artist perspective because Ronnie, much like myself, is, you know, from we will say we'll call ourselves second generation immigrant children. And see that. See, see, see, see. So please, while I got you here, go ahead and set it up a little bit. I know the story, but, you know, the Bronx boy and your your can you tell everybody your sort of second immigration, your second generation immigrant story, especially from an artist standpoint, because your whole family is just, you know, musically,
12:46 SPEAKER_00 you have to be musically gifted, you marry into the family. Thank you. Well, my grandparents moved here from Italy. Hey, go figure. Hey, hey, hey. And my grandmother, I believe, was pregnant at the time, and they went through the full, get their passport stamped, Tony to New York. And Joseph and Anna, Dina, Cola had to stay on Ellis Island in the quarantine. And they got in and raised 10 children. My father's father passed away young. So all 10 children were born. But my father was maybe six or seven years old. And then a single Italian immigrant mom that barely spoke English. And now my father's 10 brothers and sisters, some are deceased right now, but they all achieved the American dream of being happy and healthy and having a family and a solid foundation for the rest of the family, have a huge, wonderful Italian family all over the world, mostly New York, New Jersey and Florida.
13:56 SPEAKER_01 But I got to most of it through music. Yes, that's the family business's music. Yes, you're burying the lead, Rodney.
14:07 SPEAKER_00 Yeah, thank you. My dad rock star in the 1960s and set it all up. We all ate a lot of meals off my dad's records, both as a placemat and financially. And us all growing up in the band. And it was always immigrant values that governed how we ran our business, whether it be music or a pizza shop or whatever. But it was we came from nothing. We appreciate what it is to have nothing. So therefore we're going to be on time is late. You'll be early. You'll be dressed. You will suffer and you will look like you're enjoying it. And you'll be looking good the whole time you're doing it. Because for us to be here and this again was the moral values and fortitude with which I was taught. For us to even be here right now, we overcame incredible odds that you have no idea. So you better do the right thing. So we have to do twice as good as the privileged to get half the amount of respect. So that was the thing that weighed heavily. Got to do twice as good to get half the respect. I got to practice twice as hard to get half as good as the perception of these guys. Why? But that is why we stayed so hard in the rehearsal space, so hard in the woodshed. Why they didn't suffer any fools. So that's how we grew up.
15:48 SPEAKER_01 Directly because of our immigrant status when we arrived here. Which is incredible because I do, you know, those that know me, knows my mom's Cuban. And the relatives that I do know and consider family, the Barrios side of things, came over on the boat lifts. And it was fascinating because my cousin was in jail for protesting Castro. So I probably know where I get some of that from. But it's interesting to me to come over with nothing. You know, I remember literally the opening scene of Scarface is the caricature of what I remember as a kid. And for them to achieve the house, the boat, the businesses, jewelry businesses, we are Cuban. But nonetheless, the American dream. And it fascinated me because it's just a level of hustle that was always sort of baked in to my experience as well. And as I moved out to California and the difference in the politics, you see the net result. And we have, you know, we generally have a lot of problems with homeless. But this episode is on immigrants and from our, mostly from our southern border, because we are in a systemic triple storm right now that is going to affect your children. You know, that is affecting, it's going to affect the generation that's of coming of voting age right now. They're very wise and they're in tune to a lot of the information that I don't know. You know, in our country, it's used as a political football, but nothing ever really kind of gets done. And the reality is we're going to have to address this most likely at the ballot box, which means everybody should have, should be armed with the information. And as artists, it's tough for us because you're not going to put a bunch of facts into a song, you know, right? Yeah. What are you going to do? And yet at the same time, I think we have a couple of songs on this record and I'm seeing this tour when we play them, especially over here, Ty sets up Hala Hala and he sets up Repeating History from the genesis of where those came from, which was out of George Floyd and the pandemic and how everything just turned so quickly. Yes. I wanted a big, the only real big issue that comes out of the right, it seems, is, you know, what to do about the problem at the border, the problem at the border. And I can only think about that coming from an immigrant perspective. And then now as an artist shining it back on to people and getting to experience that, that's what I always call touching the hand of God. And I feel like that. I like that. Yeah, because it's full circle, right? You see people that are here in Europe that they don't deal with the American politics, but they feel George Floyd. They felt when that happened, they felt the protests, they feel the division, you know, that that is that sort of and we're running into the way that power is being assimilated all over the globe now is nationalism in a lot of ways. You know, we have it with Christian nationalism in our country and and there's there's different types of nationalism. We're in Slovakia the other day and they have a slightly different kind of, you know, racism is in all kinds of forms. And I'm interested in for you. You're in Florida. You obviously are in DeSantis territory and you have a chance to charm and to influence a lot of people. And I'm sure you talk to a lot of people that come from a completely different perspective than, you know, us crazy lefties.
19:55 SPEAKER_00 I am related to some of those people. So that's thank God my family strong enough so that we don't we're not divided over the politics of it all. It's funny how some of the direct descendants of the people that immigrated are now on the other side, which it's it I am befuddled by these things. But with that being said, thank goodness, we don't argue about it in the house. We all have enough respect for our elders and for humans, which it really comes down to a human. Okay. Can we disagree on stuff but still be okay and love each other? Yes, we can. So we have that respect in the house family dinners as such. What I try to get at is I have realized the songs that I write at times have been trying to reach my hand across the aisle, so to speak, and let's have some common ground and just hopefully have people consider life is short. What we have is precious. Why do you want to be an asshole? That's a big one. And the most important thing is if I can have people consider doing the right thing just one more time in their day,
21:11 SPEAKER_01 the right thing is pretty obvious. Yeah. People do wake up. It's interesting because some of the most effective times that I find when we're playing is the speaking before the songs, right? You know, and it's almost like the influence of the DJ used to have. I was always fascinated by that, right? I like that. It's the setup of the song. It used to be, you know, coming, taking you out of a song and landing you on the ground and then picking you back up and taking you to the next song. And when Ty will put a room in the palm of his hand with the setup of the story on, you know, how many brothers got to go down, how many sisters on the ground crying, please, you know, how many times we got to go around before we stop repeating history. And it's, you know, he's got a line in there about, you know, his dad talking to him about how his grandfather was freed from slavery. And I can't help but being one of these kids that I loved the music of the came out of the civil rights era. And then I was born into a time where I thought it was behind us. Right. And I never thought my cousin, Romance, he thought I was referring to earlier, you know, he's there, you know, they're red in southern Florida and he was in jail for protesting Castro. And that's how he came, was able to come to this country and get the opportunity that he didn't get the hand up. It was a different time, you know, and there was a hand up that was available. But now, because of the failed war on drugs, because of, you know, systemic economic inequity, and because of our heinous policies at the border, we are not dealing with a problem that's only getting worse. Climate change is one of the things that's going to displace more migrants than anything on planet Earth that's coming up in the next decade. We're going to have to deal with millions of people moving because of just if you and I talked about this earlier, like if there was some guy showing up to my house with a machete talking about, you know, I have to pay fealty to the drug warlords, I would grab my kids and I would. We out. Yeah, we out. Yeah, we out. 2,000 miles too, right? Yes. We were touring during the whole pre-Brexit thing and there were immigrants that were jumping on the back of our bus to sneak onto the ferry, you know, to be able to, and they were just riding on the bus trying to get in. And, you know, Obama brought up this good point the other day. It was everybody was concerned. They were glued to the television about the submarine. And, you know, earlier the day before, 800 migrants died off the coast of Greece. The only difference is the five guys that went down in the sub were white and rich. The 800 were brown and not, and I can't not help. That's the genesis of the show. That's one of the things that I like to explore is how, as artists, we can make it more powerful than just in the music because what is reaching across the aisle, that's why I like to tie with, it's the setup before the song. Yes. Then has the room, you can hear a pin drop. And then when the song goes, it feels like, okay, now that's moving the needle. Do you, how do you deal with that? Because I know you and I know, you know, the don't talk about religion, don't talk about politics. As an artist, you can't help but use that. Of course, of course. You know, and how do you feel about, you know, extending beyond the song, extending beyond the lyrics that you're hoping that they get?
25:08 SPEAKER_00 If you hope they take the time to kind of look at them or look at them on Spotify, you know, how do you look, how do you view that? Well, action speaks louder than words. And my goal is to be able to look in the mirror and be happy with who I see and who I am and have my kids be proud of me and be an example for them. Like, again, my father, mother, immigrant relatives, grandparents, great grandparents are and were. And I try to watch, you know, very carefully what I divulge about my personal self to the kids until they're ready for it.
25:53 SPEAKER_01 You know, the too much information is also going to be something that's going to hamper our future, I think, not help it. You mean, so, well, first off, you were talking about your kids?
26:06 SPEAKER_00 Yes, my kids and kids in general. But that's how I extend my art. Pardon me. That's how I extend myself beyond just being a guy singing about, you know, these are precious times. Let's get all together. Let's do. Let's change the world, man. Right. We have to put that into action. We have to be that person, be the person that we want to be. And that's what I do.
26:31 SPEAKER_01 Yeah. I mean, I love that. That's kind of what I'm trying to square that circle with the show is, okay, I think we're way more alike than we are different in so many things. And especially getting to travel the world like we do, it's so fortunate because, you know, we reference this all the time. Maya and I do that, you know, I don't even think 40% of America, less than 40% of America has a passport, I believe. Ah, I believe it. So how, you know, there's just a perspective that gets broadened. And when we get to do this, when we're so fortunate to be able to do this, but then on top of that, as artists, you get to feel the effect of touching someone and changing their lives for as kind of hokey as that sounds. And that's what I want to explore with the show is through art, artistry. How do we raise awareness on that Overton window where we're more alike than we are? You know, there's things that we have in common. And from an immigrant perspective, again, I think this is going to be one of the key issues coming up in the power battle for all the chips and marbles in the game. It's kind of one of those issues that is it's very important to people, especially people on the southern border, because climate change is, you know, in a single day over 6000 migrants are trying to cross into our country 6000 and that's 2 million apprehensions a year. Yes. And so that's only going to probably double and triple. We can't yell at Hunter Biden's laptop and not actually get it the real problem because that is a that is a it's a humanitarian thing. It's economically. We've kind of figured out how to how to try and deal with it in California, probably better than a lot of places. But, you know, our borders massive and Spanish is, you know, you kind of almost have to know Spanish to live in Los Angeles. Yeah, because we know it. But but it's also most people are like, you know, especially coming from Florida. It's like you speak language. You get out. You know, that's right. And and that I feel like as an area where we have to figure out how to on the edges heal the divide, you know, and that's that's why I'm interested in exploring this. I bash on Florida all the time and I did it on our first episode. I took a giant dump on Florida, but it was it's out of love. It really is. But it's also out of curiosity because like you said, actions speak louder than words. There is a lot of I think there's a lot of information that we can help share as artists and we can't make we can't make, you know, statistical videos and make music that interests people. Right. That's how do we cross almost music with John Oliver? How do we cross, you know, to me music with your Bill Mars and things like that? That's what's again Green Day. You know, they got to do the theme music for Bill. But I'm talking next level the next, you know, the next level. How do we do it? First of all, you were you don't you didn't want to say, you know, but having your having someone like Joey D is your dad and getting to look from, you know, like from the Bronx and getting to come at it from this always be grateful for what we had. You know, I think that's that's something that we all share. Yet it seems kind of lost. It's a it's a thing where I'm fearful you're going to take what I have.
30:13 SPEAKER_00 So there's a different feeling in the air for sure. The last I don't know, maybe 10, 15 years slowly, but surely getting more intense outside, shall we say. Yeah. And it's going to pop. The bubbles going to burst. There's going to be a Renaissance. Hear me. Mark my words. There's going to be a artistic Renaissance where art is going to have such a hold over the public consciousness again. There's so many distractions right now. Yeah, but there is going to be a Renaissance AI taking over the world like the Matrix that is not going to happen. The people are still going to need their 10,000 hours as we have spoke about and just no matter how intense it might get. I have faith no matter how long it takes that people are going to do the right thing. This country was built on the backs of immigrants. If it was not for immigrants, and I know this firsthand, New Orleans would be a mold covered swamp. The immigrants bailed us out literally with buckets going into the worst situations like my grandparents and great grandparents work jobs that nobody wants to work for hardly any money. My uncle shoveled coal in the basement of a giant tenement building. That's all he did all day long all night long shoveled the coal sat there by the by the heater the boiler whatever it was. Yeah, there's going to be a Renaissance art is going to change the world. We as artists we're grassroots. But look what has nourished the world for this entire Millennium is the grass and the animals eat the grass and we eat the animals and so on. It's a beautiful symbiotic synergistic circle. I sound crazy right now to a lot of people, but I don't care. Yeah, we're going to be able to change the world with one song with one piece with one poem with one podcast. We can do this. Yes.
32:25 SPEAKER_01 Yes, that's fantastic. Well, let's end it there. I'm going to keep pinging you for because the Florida California connection, especially as the fight continues kind of you know, we talked about this. There's a systemic issue that is baked into the Electoral College and into the filibuster that will examine it another time, especially for people out of the country that are trying to that are interested in what is what is all that? But it is a difference between Florida and California and yet you and I are brothers from another mother. So the connection between the two I'm going to continue to be fascinated about how it's going there. You can keep me filled out. I'll be your man on the street. Yeah, here we are running. That guy fighting Mickey Mouse. He's fighting state farm. He's you know, he's got the worst inflation in all the country. It's don't get me started on the insurance stuff going on down here. That's what I'm talking about. I mean, incredible.
33:17 SPEAKER_00 It's climate change based which is also it factors into the same immigrants now back to the climate change thing. I know we're trying to wrap it up, but I don't care. It's the Internet. It's great. I love it. I love it. I might have a guest for you a personal friend of mine and somebody that I'm involved with creatively is a PhD oceanographer. He is on the World Council of Climate Change and he is on the board. I think at Noah that's an OAA for those of you scoring at home. I know what it and he I know what I know. He and I are going to be working on a eight part docu series for you know, that's going to go to charity the profits most of it for and about climate change. So that's all supposed to start shooting in September. So I might need I might see need some bass tracks.
34:12 SPEAKER_01 Yo, yo, how much a boy? Yeah, I got you. I got you know, but we actually we're doing a couple of setups for some episodes on climate change and it's tough because you know, as it's when we make music nobody wants to it's tough to make music that people want to hear that it is kind of on that. And it's it's it's hard to say but it's hard for those words to come out of my mouth. It feels like it should be easier if it should be easier to sing about. You know wanting to protect Mother Earth as I say it as the words come out of my mouth. I feel like there's no way to make that sound good and a minimality, you know, but Mother Earth and things like that, but you know what I'm saying, it's it's it's it feels like it should be something that we should be able to to talk about the problem is that some problems are so big nowadays that we're paralyzed. We're we're led to believe. Oh, well, you know, this is what a green piece is just going to miss spend the money or whatever it is. It's like you wind up arguing about everything but the thing and that's why I want to action action. And it's in the name of song. Yes. Yes. In progress mother. So I appreciate you taking the time and I especially appreciate it. It is 1 30 in the morning here and I love you for this.
35:36 SPEAKER_00 Can we can we have our theme song play which would be Edgar Winters white trash save our planet, you know that one fantastic.
35:44 SPEAKER_01 So I don't you'll have to send all the tune. Yeah. I love you to death. Thank you for thank you for doing this and and I appreciate it. I appreciate you even willing to be to explore into that because I know, you know, you're you're in you're in you're in red country, baby.
36:02 SPEAKER_00 So it is listen. I just I don't want this to go too far. I just I want to be totally serious and I'm going to look up on the screen. I'm going to go right into the camera this time. I'm talking to you people slap the motherfucking power. Hey, there's your fucking moment edit this shit. Oh, slap the motherfucking power slap the motherfucking power. That's what I'm talking about. Save the planet.
36:29 SPEAKER_01 This is that's it bitches. I love you to death. Slap the power. Boom, bitches, bitches. Bye, baby. Slap the power is written and produced by me Rick Bario Dill and by Maya Sykes executive producer Duff Ferguson our senior producer of Sabrina Seward associate producer Brie Corey audio and video engineering and studio facilities provided by Slap Studios LA with distribution through our collective home for social progress in art. Slap the network. If you have ideas for a show you want to hear or see or you would like to be a guest artist on our show, please email us at info at slap the power dot com.