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SLAP the Power
SLAP the Power - a dynamic new show from SLAP the Network that aims to weave artistry into advocacy through the raw power of music, comedy, movies, visual arts, and beyond.
Hosted by world touring musicians Rick Barrio Dill (@rickbarriodill @vintagetrouble) and Aja Nikiya (@compassioncurator), join them as team with musicians, comedians, actors and artists of all angles and try to chop up some of todays most troubling topics, but with a fat side of chocolate cake and incredible silliness.
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SLAP the Power
Authentic Storytelling and Community Unity in Film with Omar Cook
Award-winning filmmaker and CEO of 24-7 Live Culture Enterprises, Omar Cook, joins us to share his secrets to producing high-quality films on a shoestring budget. From his latest projects, including the sequel to "LA Undercover" and the buzzworthy "Black Spartans," to his ambitious 12-book series, "The Billionaire Book Club," Omar provides an insider look at the creative process behind compelling storytelling. We also introduce our exciting new segment, "Two Truths and a Slap," and touch on controversial topics like the potential return of the draft and Justice Alito's comments on godliness in America.
AMAZON
Compassion Kind
PATREON
SLAP the Power is written and produced by Rick Barrio Dill (@rickbarriodill) and Aja Nikiya (@compassioncurator). Associate Producer Bri Coorey (@bri_beats). Audio and Video engineering and studio facilities provided by SLAP Studios LA (@SLAPStudiosLA) with distribution through our collective home for progress in art and media, SLAP the Network (@SLAPtheNetwork).
If you have ideas for a show you want to hear or see, or you would like to be a featured guest artist on our show, please email us at info@slapthepower.com
Our target audience has been Black America and really telling stories that really kind of resonate with them and that they can relate to in some type of way For us, you know, we knew that crime drama was kind of big right now at this time especially with shows like Power and Snowfall.
Speaker 1:So, we knew that we could put something out that was going to reach them right now and that was LA Undercover. You know, you can't go wrong with a crime, with a cop movie, right. So we did that and that kind of grabbed our fan base a little bit right now and now we really want to be able to tell the stories that we want, you know.
Speaker 2:What we call slap today. Alright, alright, the world may not need another podcast, but it could definitely use a Huge slap in its face. That's right. Welcome to Slap to Power, the show where we bring artists together who use their powers for progress. I'm your host, rick Barrio-Dill, and I am Maya Sykes. On the show today is the draft back, maya, you know the house tells is the draft back?
Speaker 3:You know, the House tells us that the draft is back and they did it on the low low.
Speaker 2:On the low low. That's right.
Speaker 3:I don't know if y'all were paying attention. But on Friday that passed. Now will it pass? The Senate is what we need to know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well we'll talk about that a little bit later. We also have one nine Supreme Court justices. Justice Alito says America must return to a quote place of godliness in a secret recording, which is fine, but we're going to unpack that.
Speaker 3:We're going to unpack that, but wait, but wait though. Separation of church and state. Okay, I'm done, I'm done.
Speaker 2:I'm done. That's cool. Back by popular demand, we're going to do two truths and a slap. It's our new segment where we go over three ridiculous realities together that either Maya or myself have never heard and we try to determine which one is a slap in the face. And a little later we'll slap the topic with climate again, but first in studio today. It's been a long time coming. We've been trying to make this happen. Omar Cook he is a 31-time award-winning filmmaker. Listen.
Speaker 2:He's the founder and CEO of 247liveculturecom. This is an amazing media company that we're going to get into more and more, but he's a man of a lot of trades and he's also extremely handsome. Welcome to the studio, Omar Cook.
Speaker 1:Omar, thank you for coming in, man, I appreciate that intro man. Hey, it's a blessing to be here with all you guys. Yeah, let's go Well, thank you for making the time that Right, that's right.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I know we've been trying to get this for a little while. For the people that may not know, introduce yourself and talk about what you got going on. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. What's up, family? I'm Omar Cook, like he already said. You know, I'm a filmmaker, actor, stuntman and CEO of my own company, 24-7 Live Culture Enterprises, a black entertainment and media company that's pretty prevalent right now, making some movies, several podcasts and whatnot and positive black news, something that's very much needed in today's society.
Speaker 2:So that's, more so what my?
Speaker 1:focus is Also an author. I just released a 12-book series. That's on Amazon right now called. The Billionaire Book Club.
Speaker 2:You make me realize I don't get up early enough. I feel like I'm slacking on my pants.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man.
Speaker 2:Omar makes me realize I got to get up earlier, but that's good.
Speaker 3:12 books 12 books dog, my goodness.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. And for those I know this is an audio medium, but for those that can see it, there's a choice shirt you got on today, Absolutely.
Speaker 3:Respect. It is very quality. That's right baby, you know what it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, thank you for coming in. One of the reasons I wanted to have you in was number one lift up. You've got so many good things going on on 24-7 Live and we've been talking for a while and I know you're in the process of a second movie and I know there's a lot that we can't talk about. We kind of do offline. We're trying to figure something we can work together, but, um, how is that going? Are you? You're in where you're in a part, you're in a sequel, right?
Speaker 1:yep, so uh, we've got our sequel to a movie that's already out on amazon right now, which is la undercover. La undercover, look it up, go to amazon.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, no, it's fucking great okay, this is the thing that I like to do. I sometimes go on Amazon Prime and I just look at what the independent things are, because people are really coming up, and one of the things that I have to compliment you on was the production value. Yes, the production value was so well done. And I wanted to ask as a new company with not, you know, not the same resources as a major studio, how do you pull that off?
Speaker 1:Whew, that's a good question. I would say it's been outside of the norm of how we usually produce movies in the industry here. So, really, how LA Undercover came about, I wanted to do something that showcased our skills as filmmakers. With my team, we had put out several short films in 2022 that hit the circuit and we won a lot of awards 31 of them apparently.
Speaker 3:You know news counting right. You should definitely check this out because it was really well done and I was very impressed that this got done on like a shoestring budget. This got done on like a shoestring budget.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I actually was in Atlanta shooting another movie called Black Spartans, which is supposed to be coming out sometime I don't know when, cool name. But I was out there and I came home and I told my business partner, adonis Armstrong hey bro, let's just shoot a movie real quick, you know, just throw it on Tubi, you know that type of deal, so we can kind of get our names out there. Um, so we ended up writing the script in within a week, um, and we ended up actually casting a lot of our friends you know it was a passion project uh, getting them on board, um, and then we actually found filmmakers, uh from, or cinematographers from, the la film school, so they were all students. You know they're all students. So, yeah, um, we put this project together literally within three weeks and shot it, so probably from the end of October 2022 to the end of November 2022 was when the project was finished. Wow.
Speaker 2:Ladies and gentlemen, that is how you do it. That's how you do it. That's why you listen to Slap the Power Exactly. Stuff like that. That's how you do it Exactly.
Speaker 1:So utilizing your friends, utilizing your network and what's around you, and not necessarily having to network up, but literally networking across. And that's literally how we got it done. We did everything in-house edited, wrote, produced and self-distributed. We found, obviously, a worldwide distribution company with Bondi and Buffalo 8, and they signed us to a deal and the rest is history.
Speaker 3:So I have a question just with that. It seems like this is now the future, where people are doing more in-house things and finding distribution. But distribution is the great barrier. How do you break the distribution ceiling? Because it seems like it's a bit of a tough climb. So can you elaborate on how you went about that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, for me. I had to connect with an agent already with one of my reps that connected me through several companies. So once the project was done, they pretty much took it and pitched it to several different companies.
Speaker 2:And it speaks for itself, right? I mean, that's the thing, it's dope.
Speaker 1:So we had several deals on the table literally by January. Wow, I mean, that's the thing, it's dope. So we had several deals on the table literally by January, wow, okay. So they would move pretty fast for us. And once we got in the door, you know.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Are you looking to do stories that you specifically develop in-house, or are you looking for writers? How do you find the content that you want to do?
Speaker 1:All of our content has been produced in-house so far, but I definitely would like to do some best-selling novels, that type of deal, some true stories, maybe some biographies. I definitely would like to do some musicians' lives that type of deal.
Speaker 3:So I'm open.
Speaker 2:I'm really open. Nice, we know a couple, we do there we go. Nice, we know a couple, we do there, we go. Absolutely Now is it a situation where, of all the sort of slash things that you consider yourself, you know CEO, writer, you know producer, what do you? What probably gives you the most joy, if you had to say the most?
Speaker 1:Man? That's a good question. To be honest, I really enjoy all of it. The biggest part for me is just being able to control my own day and control my own time and control my own creativity. You know, being an actor being an actor is fun, but you know, a lot of times when you're're an actor, you're given roles or you're given lines. Yeah, um, for me, being able to control what I say, um, and be able to tell my own stories is a major, major deal for me. Yeah, um, so I really just value freedom, um and freedom of creativity.
Speaker 1:So whatever that looks like, whether it's acting, writing, producing um or just running on business, you know, I think that all just falls into being a creator. So I would probably just say I'm more of a creator than anything. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Now, who is your target audience? Because you're young and you're black. Is that who you're going for, or who are you specifically looking to talk to?
Speaker 2:With the movies that they're working on now. Or you mean, yeah, yeah, yes, with the content that you're working on now.
Speaker 3:Or you mean yeah, yeah, yes, with the content that you're putting out, yeah, definitely, I would say.
Speaker 1:my target audience right now is literally between 18 and 45.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:That's a good target audience right there. Our target audience has been Black America and really telling stories that really kind of resonate with them and that they can relate to in some type of way. For us, you know, we knew that crime drama was kind of big right now at this time, especially with shows like Power and Snowfall.
Speaker 1:So, we knew that we could put something out that was going to reach them right now and that was LA Undercover. You know, you can't go wrong with the crime, with the cop movie, right. So we did that and that kind of grabbed our fan base a little bit right now and now we really want to be able to tell the stories that we want, you know.
Speaker 3:You know, the thing that I thought was really interesting about LA Undercover was that it looked at the relationship between black people in LA with the police in a very specific way that you don't see. How important is it to tell that narrative, especially in today's climate.
Speaker 1:Man, major, major, you know. Obviously police relations with you can even just say the black community has been a huge thorn, you know, over the past decades. You know what. I'm saying and I think there is there has to be some type of connect between that police community and the black community you know realistically, because you know there's a lot of issues that have arose over decades you know, between those two parties and just being able to show a different landscape.
Speaker 1:Like a cop that looks like you know like us Right and and goes through those types of scenarios that these people are going through Right. So I wanted to show what it would actually look like from that landscape you know from from the eyes of so-called criminals.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:So I think that was a dope point of view and I I got that kind of point of view from the movie In Too Deep with Omar Epps, how he was able to play that character and also jump back into the cop role, because there's two sides to every story.
Speaker 1:There is the cop perspective and there also is the other perspective of the young black targeted people that are going through these things. So I like to look at things from different angles. Right, Some people might just look at things from saying, oh, he's a drug dealer, he's this, but why is he a drug dealer?
Speaker 2:Right right.
Speaker 1:What are his circumstances that pushed him to there? Some people are just bad people, but some people really just get caught up in bad situations, exactly no-transcript, but it's.
Speaker 3:I mean, it's a weird coin, right? Because on the one hand, you have people who are literally driving over an hour and a half away to police communities that they don't know anything about, but on the other hand, they aren't being paid enough to live in the communities that you know that would need policing, that you know that would need policing.
Speaker 3:So there's this dichotomy of you know people who are living in these communities who can no longer afford their own housing because they're being kicked out by developers, right, and the police, who are supposed to basically make this area safe for developers, but they don't know these people at all. There's a huge disconnect, and the one thing that I loved about that film is it wouldn't have gone down had the officer not had a community tie. And that's a story we don't hear anymore, absolutely.
Speaker 1:One quick fact there about that is the community that we shot it in. We actually lived there, yeah right. So we actually told a real story of where we were, and that's a key point that you're right. You know, some of those cops really aren't in tune with the community.
Speaker 3:They don't know anything about it and I think that's a huge difference. A friend of mine, his dad was a cop and he was telling me that because he's been retired, he actually just passed away. So, mike Bennett, I'm thinking of you and your dad, but Mike was telling me about his dad that his dad was saying this very same factor. He was like back in the day, I knew all the major drug dealers, I knew all the major gang leaders, and when things got too hot I could come to them and be like, hey, look, yeah Right, because I knew them all. I lived, you know, I lived 16 blocks away. So these are all people I know.
Speaker 3:Now you go these areas, nobody knows anybody. And half these shootings he's like I think that they're happening because people are shooting first and asking questions later because of fear. They're not because of a lack of knowledge, they're just being like, well, I'll just write on a report later, rather than really investigating and investing in the community that would service this kind of relationship. So I think it's highly important to be having these kinds of conversations, because we stopped, we just started yelling at each other and saying, either defund the police or we're pro-police, but we haven't really gotten into the nuances of why these communal relationships have broken down, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, one thing that we did leave out in this movie, which we will be touching in the sequel Ah, Just a little you know A little candy
Speaker 3:for you. Okay, a little touchback, right.
Speaker 1:Is you know a little conspiracy about? You know about how maybe the police is making some of these things happen? Yes, you know maybe, how do some of these drugs end up in the communities? Let's talk about it. So are we on the cover. Two, on the way.
Speaker 2:That's right, that's how you do it. That's how you do it. I want to touch on something, but I got to make sure I don't forget I would be remiss. My mom's, one of my mom's favorite shows is All American. How was your time like kind of like working on that? And I want to make sure so my mom's like ask him about All-American.
Speaker 3:I appreciate that too, because one of my first licensed songs was on All-American Okay, okay.
Speaker 1:Man All-American has been an amazing experience for me, man. It really was my deep dive into the industry. I really wasn't working in the industry like that. I was playing football. Around 2019 was when I was playing football. From 2019, around 2019, that was when I started playing ball, Because you were a professional ball player.
Speaker 2:We were going to put that in, but we don't have that much time.
Speaker 3:He was a professional ball player man In between writing his 12 books. Writing his 12 books or directing his films.
Speaker 2:That's right. It must get up very early in the morning, Omar.
Speaker 1:It's crazy because, like 2018, I was actually coaching at LA Valley College football and I got a message from Game Changing Films which does like the Hollywood football stunts or sports stunts you know, that type of deal. They wanted me to audition for a role on Ballers to do some football stuff, and I turned them down. I'm not gonna miss work to do an audition.
Speaker 1:I wasn't even an actor at the time, right. So next year I ended up signing with the San Diego Arena Football Team and I played the season in the spring. And then, right after the season, they reached back out and they just casted several of my teammates and we all got on ballers, right. So I did the episode. It was dope. It was dope to see the rock in that episode.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was one of the Kansas City Chiefs players on there and then going through the wardrobe, literally going through wardrobe. The cast and director for Game Changing was like hey, we've been trying to get at you for a minute. We want to use you for All-American 2. So I was like, okay, cool, I'm thinking this is going to be one episode. You know that type of deal, and so I showed up to set, you know, did my deal. I was, you know, background blur. You know what I'm saying right, I'm one of the football teams for the episode, right?
Speaker 1:And then they just kept calling me. So one episode led to two, two led to three and three led to four. So by the time I got to the fourth episode, you know, I really started to look around like, okay, guys are making some money here doing this.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And this, this, yeah, and um, this is a dope opportunity. And um, I started to get the acting bug right, so I started to ask questions and I obviously I got those questions answered from you and um, next thing you know, I'm on casting networks, um, and I started to do the, the background circuit, and, uh, I ended up getting on so many different shows and just learning so much and taking that and you know my career evolved from there, but i'm'm still an All-American today. I think it's been over like 30 episodes now.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 1:I've doubled for literally pretty much every major character on there.
Speaker 3:That's amazing.
Speaker 1:Done some stunts.
Speaker 4:It's been a dope experience, that's so cool.
Speaker 1:That's super cool. Check out season six, you know what I'm saying hey, hey, hey.
Speaker 2:And now you also have one of the first things I think we talked about was Highest Level Academy, and you know, we kind of Maya and I created this show to have a sort of ground where artists could also use their power for progress, right? And so tell people a little bit more about that and let me know how's that going.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, so I think it's 2018. I'm'm gonna get my years right, right, so 2018. I co-founded a non-profit called highest level academy, um, with my uh, one of my former arena football coaches, russell shaw um, and we uh came together and built an athletic uh non-profit which basically helps kids and youth to get recruited, helps train them up, mainly focusing on football. So we have several seven-on-seven spring football teams that we do for middle school through high school. We've had several kids over the years go on to you know, play college and whatnot, and we actually just had a kid that was an All-American this past year. He's going on to the.
Speaker 3:University of Washington. Yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so. I love to devote my time going out there in spring and working out with those kids. I used to coach college football, so not being involved in that. That's such a busy life, so being able to at least still be involved in the game and still being able to teach a little bit is big for me, you know, so I enjoy it, it's going well.
Speaker 3:Excellent.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and one of the things I want to do is kind of ask you your partner in 24-7 is Adonis Armstrong, which, by the way, come on, adonis Armstrong, it's the greatest name ever.
Speaker 2:Like I think it's like done, like you're just I mean, it's the greatest name ever ever. Like I think it's like done, like you're just, like it's a wrap. Nobody can come up against his name and stuff like that. But you guys, you guys have been working together for a while and how do you, as somebody who's had three other partners and a bus, you know, and a bunch of other people, how have you found managing and maintaining Because you guys have such a good relationship Getting to kind of work with you guys, even peripherally, from the outside, here you have such a great relationship. How do you maintain that?
Speaker 1:Man well, our relationship goes deeper than business. You know, We've got a brotherhood that type of deal.
Speaker 1:We literally have the same story, you know what I'm saying Same amount of sisters, got four sisters, I got four sisters, that type of deal, a deal. And um, crazy, uh, 2009, um, we went to, uh, southern university, um in louisiana, and we recruited. We recruited to play the same position in football. Wow. And so I can literally remember sitting in the coach's office, like in the summertime, and he was right next to me and the coach was talking to us basically like, oh yeah, you know reason why we want you guys to come and not. You know the recruiting pitch, right, yeah, um, so we ended up going to school together for you know, the first semester and had a couple classes together, whatnot, that type of deal. And you know, we were cool, right, and something happened with the coaching staff. They ended up getting fired and he ended up going and transferring schools and whatnot, and played his football journey somewhere else and we ended up meeting again professionally.
Speaker 1:I was playing in montana, he was playing in south dakota um same position yeah, same position yeah right, so, uh, we ended up playing against each other what's your position?
Speaker 3:I played safety okay yeah, hit.
Speaker 1:You know, uh, headhunter yeah yeah um, and then, uh, after that, uh, we, uh, I was. I came back to la. You know, he went on the same journey that I did. He did the college football coaching I did. He did college football coaching route as well after his football journey. And one day I was literally just on a random short film set and I was. It was my first short film actually and he just happened to be the lead actor, you know what I'm saying shut up right.
Speaker 1:I didn't even know he was out here, so I was like, oh, what's up, bro? Or acting yeah, yeah so, or acting right. So we connected again on that set. It was like, oh wow, what a random occurrence, right.
Speaker 2:You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:So then the pandemic hit and it gave us an opportunity to move in together as roommates, and I had already kind of already put 24-7 out there in 2018. So this was around 2021, right, and us being together doing the same thing, acting auditions you know we're literally doing the same exact thing, right? So we thought it was fitting to literally just join forces and do it that way and become a duo. So really, you know, he was bought in the same way that I was and believed in the vision the same way that I do, and him already having that sports mindset and sports background. His work ethic matches mine and drive. Where's his 12 books?
Speaker 2:Where's his 12 books? Oh, he's got some books too. He's got some books.
Speaker 1:Donald's got some books, yeah he actually just wrote a book called Directing Actors. Okay, he's got some books too. He's got some books.
Speaker 2:Donald's got some books, yeah he actually just wrote a book called Directing Actors. Okay, there it is.
Speaker 3:Sorry sorry, you know.
Speaker 2:I was going for the joke, man. He's like no, he got books.
Speaker 1:man, we got to represent the brand no, he got books, he got books. He got those too.
Speaker 3:That's my boy man. You know what like the way you've succeeded is finding that brotherhood and really relying on it, and I feel like that's been a key to longevity in this business for a lot of entities, Like we know each other through a couple of different entities and that's how we've come together for this. So I love that narrative of when you find the people of your tribe. They never go away from you, and that's how we come up together.
Speaker 2:Of course you saw him on that movie set.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, Because it was going to happen anyway.
Speaker 2:Right, right, right yeah.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Yeah, I definitely think that finding the right people to believe in your vision is extremely important, you know, because we can only go so far by ourselves.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:I can do a lot by myself, but really, I mean, if you really want to take things to the next level, you got to have a team.
Speaker 3:Exactly.
Speaker 2:I mean that's for Slap the Power.
Speaker 2:It was always one of those things where, early on, we didn't have enough juice as a band for any individual in the band to kind of really, and as we sort of grew collectively, the band had so much more power than any of us individually, right, and it became you're starting to figure out about, about power, because ultimately I I mean I hate to kind of synthesize it to that, but it really it's there's a, there's a thievery of power.
Speaker 2:That's, that's been, that's going on right now underneath our eyes. And one of the things that concerns me the most is I understand, I understand we can, we can, we can get on a side diversion about the choice that's going to be coming up in november, but you do have a a thing where, like biden in a lot of key battleground states, is down with black and brown men uh, specifically 30 points in a lot of those than he was in 2020, which that's everything. That's the entire election. So if you're like, oh okay, the guy with 34 felony counts, the guy who's gotten rid of women's right to choose, he's not going to make it, it's like no, no, actually, with the electoral college right now, if the election were to be held today. This is a situation where nobody has done more to probably take rights away with respect to the systemic racism that has come from him and I'm surprised with the stop and frisk that black men you know.
Speaker 2:Would want yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like the stop and frisk alone. I was like y'all remember that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what do you think Y'all remember the Jay-Z song.
Speaker 3:Right Okay, what do you think Y'all remember the Jay-Z song? Right Okay.
Speaker 2:Especially after doing movies like you're doing, where you're kind of, you are making statements of you know power from the inside and from the different perspectives. How do you see your role as a media company these next five months, specifically Because there's no denying there's a different reality for us as an authoritarian country, versus say what you want about Joe Biden, but you know something that would still be relatively a democratic Right yeah, no that's a good question.
Speaker 1:Um, I definitely have already thought about that too. Um, where we're going to be positioned over the next few months with this election coming up, um, and one of those things that we wanted to do was, uh, educate our people on the actual voting process. You, know, so that they can understand what they're voting for Absolutely so providing different information and tips that they can, you know, utilize. You know, Politics is a crazy game that a lot of people really don't understand, you know.
Speaker 3:I think less and less we're being taught the tools to be able to listen to a candidate say from this person's rhetoric, I digest these five points and these either resonate with me or they don't. People are just picking up taglines and saying I like that tagline better than this tagline. So we're not being taught to disseminate information. We're also being taught to not be able to get into a room and have a just, civil discussion with a person who may have an opposing viewpoint from you and still be able to have a cogent and civil conversation. We're moving away from these ideals and I think it's by design.
Speaker 3:Because the more you can fraction people on this side or this side, the easier they are to manipulate and control.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. I definitely can see that part of it too. One thing I've noticed about actually running a media company is the attention spans of the generations you know what I'm saying?
Speaker 2:Yeah, sure.
Speaker 1:And what people want to focus on right. So, like we say, our target audience is 18 to 45, right. I can see a huge difference between 18 and 30, and then 30 to 45.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sure.
Speaker 1:So even just some of the tactics that are by the candidates right.
Speaker 3:Yeah right.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I'm not here endorsing anybody.
Speaker 2:No, not yet We'll get them.
Speaker 1:I can speak to both sides of what they are doing right. One thing I noticed one was Kamala Harris was going to do a gun seminar, a gun safety seminar, with Quavo you know right.
Speaker 1:So I think, that's interesting, you know, because obviously you're choosing Quavo because he resonates with a, you know right. So I think that's interesting, you know, because obviously you're choosing Quavo because he resonates with a certain audience, right, and a certain target, you know right. So if you're not really hip to it, you're going to just buy into that. Oh, it's Quavo, he's endorsing Kamala.
Speaker 3:Whereas I would much. I mean not that. I'm against that, but I think it would be so much better if they had done it with Killer Mike.
Speaker 3:He's more of an advocate for that, and because he disseminates the argument in a way that it like, in a way that these groups would understand, but he's found a way to digest the argument. I don't know that Quavo has that same, and no disrespect to Quavo. I don't know that Quavo has that same, and no disrespect to Quavo. I don't know his political prowess or what he can digest and disseminate to the masses. You know Quavo could surprise us all.
Speaker 1:But you got to think also, like you know, disrespect anyone right, but you know, if I'm listening to certain lyrics and I'm listening to certain things that you're putting out, you know what makes me think that what you're? About to put onto. This seminar is valid now, because I just feel like you'll be like Cracking up, it's things like that, right.
Speaker 3:This entire demo. I just want to be like Lamp up, stay. I just want to be doing that.
Speaker 1:The entire time. We just want to be doing that, we just want valid, we want valid conversations and we want real things to come about this election.
Speaker 2:Gold sneakers $400 sneakers as a play, where he says this makes me cool with the black community.
Speaker 1:It's so.
Speaker 2:Disingenuous and at the same time, there's like Because he's shameless, there's a version where he sat, just because he's shameless, right, there is a. There's a version where he sat there the other day and they were talking about section eight housing. He had two black people on the stage so that he could get the shot. That was close to him. They panned around the room. Wasn't black person in the room? Okay, but he's talking about nobody's done more for section eight housing than mia, you know I built. I built these places. Yeah, you did stuff for section eight housing, motherfucker.
Speaker 3:Nobody's talking about the bigger argument is that you're attaching Section 8 housing to a black face when, overwhelmingly, the people who live in Section 8 housing are white people. Yeah, Overwhelmingly the people that receive welfare are white people, passing off this narrative of black and brown people as the face of poverty and as the face of degenerative poverty.
Speaker 3:That will be of danger to you when the reality we're looking at numbers see, like this just kind of goes back to numbers again yeah you can say, and I don't understand how you can just allow this to come out of your mouth, but then the lay person doesn't go okay, well, let me check out what he's saying. And that's the disconnect is that the lay person is no longer saying hey, yo, I call bullshit because it's a very easy statistic to look up that the people who benefit the most from welfare affirmative action section eight white people people you know why?
Speaker 3:because they still are the majority of this country so you still can't keep selling me this lie that you know these immigrants are taking your jobs and they're making it unsafe for you, when the numbers don't reflect that and it's I.
Speaker 2:It's incredibly, just disingenuous to now be leading with. Well, I'm a convicted felon, so I can relate. Black people will relate to me a lot better because I'm a convicted felon and it's so on its face. It's so bad, but we've baked in to Trump a certain degree of ridiculousness that we give him a pass. This is the thing that I'm concerned about. Is you give that guy a pass long enough and put him back in power, and now you've got a problem because he's never leaving.
Speaker 3:But we baked in a certain amount of ridiculousness about Joe Biden, which is why we don't give him a pass. So it's one of these things of who controls the narrative, and that's what I think it's really coming down to these days which I think is all the more reason why we're in media in the first place, because 98% of the world's communication is run by four companies. So how do we get any kind of opposing view? Is one even possible these days?
Speaker 2:We got to make it. That's why we make it here.
Speaker 3:We cook it up in the kitchen.
Speaker 2:That's what we got to do, Well we could be talking.
Speaker 3:To add, we could talk a long, long time because you're a very fascinating person, but I do want to make sure that we've given you the opportunity to tell all of our viewers where to find you all about your upcoming projects and what's next for you.
Speaker 1:Cool. Well, you guys can follow me personally on OmarCook underscore. That's my Instagram and Twitter.
Speaker 2:My mom's already all over it too, man.
Speaker 1:She's smashing that. Then you can follow our main accounts 24-7 Live Coach on Instagram. On Twitter, 24-7 LC. You can follow us on TikTok Threads, facebook any pretty much major platform that you guys have. We have several different accounts that are subdivisions of that as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you get on 247liveculturecom and you can go down the rabbit hole in the best way. You guys have so much good stuff there.
Speaker 1:We've also got, obviously, LA Undercover 2, which is going to be dropping towards the end of sometime this fall.
Speaker 3:Nice.
Speaker 1:And we've got another project, Sounds of the Streets, that we're producing. That's going to drop this fall as well.
Speaker 2:Excellent.
Speaker 1:That one's coming too. That's going to be dope. It deals with fentanyl, the fentanyl crisis.
Speaker 2:Oh wow, so you've got to come back and talk to us on that one, absolutely.
Speaker 4:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:We've been trying to work up a what's the pens where we do like a pen.
Speaker 3:Narcan.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the Narcan pen kind of things where we make sure everybody, any of our friends that are partying anywhere, it's like, make sure you have one of these on hand. My friend, a young lady that I used to babysit, but now she's grown and she goes by the DJ name Hades and she's doing really, really well in the electronic music scene but she was the first person that told me about the Narcan thing and she made me get pens. And because of her just telling everybody that she knew about this and I'm talking about like seven years ago she started on this campaign.
Speaker 3:And just making sure you know right before the pandemic okay, I saved a kid wow, that's amazing.
Speaker 1:I mean that has to be a great feeling I was just.
Speaker 3:It was one of those things where you are grateful to god for putting all the things that you needed in because I just saw kids yelling, being like somebody call an ambulance, our friend, friend, our friend and I just happened to run over because of the club I was coming out of working in and I saw the kid and I was like this looks like a fentanyl overdose and I was like what'd he take?
Speaker 3:And they were like we don't know, and I just I literally had the pen in my bag and I was like I think he's having an overdose.
Speaker 1:You were the angel for the day, and I gave the pen to the bouncer.
Speaker 3:The bouncer put the pen in and we revived the kid and he lived.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow.
Speaker 1:That's bigger than anything.
Speaker 3:I think that it's very, very important for these voices to be happening in the black and brown community because it's very specific to say Savannah is a white girl who was noticing this amongst a white community and trying to tell white children, but she was also vehemently trying to get to black and brown communities but wasn't being heard because it was still being seen as not a black and brown problem.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and it's a problem that's affecting a lot of communities.
Speaker 3:And that was her point and she was trying to make that point seven freaking years ago. But it's interesting that what her point and she was trying to make that point seven freaking years ago. But it's interesting what it took. You know what I mean, yeah.
Speaker 2:Well you are so fascinating. Yes, that's a lovely person. Yes, and we're going to be doing something. We're going to be doing a little slap and warn and Adonis combo. We're trying to work on something. Yes, but that's another one of those teasers. Te. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but thank you, omar.
Speaker 3:We're just dangling these little carrots for you because we like you. That's right, that's right.
Speaker 2:Stay tuned here at SlapThePowercom. You'll make sure to. We'll have all links, everything for Omar as well.
Speaker 1:Thank you, Omar Cook, for coming through. Slapthepower man.
Speaker 3:Yes, omar Cook underscore I appreciate it being here. Yeah, hey, I had to do it like that.
Speaker 1:We talk about underscore up in here. Thanks brother, Absolutely Thank you.
Speaker 4:Hi, I'm Anjali Bhimani and I'm Julia Bianco and we are so excited to be bringing you our new creative baby, the Character Select podcast. I've wanted to save the world since I was four. There has been no character like him up to that point, and there really hasn't been a character since Every episode of Character Select. We we're gonna be taking fantastic video game performances and talking about what makes them tick, what makes them exciting as players, as performers, as sound designers, as casting directors. That was, I feel like I've been ambushed.
Speaker 4:I don't even have a podcast to talk about a video game. So there's a big old love fest here. That's how we start this and you're just gonna have to deal with it. Recognized by the 2013 edition of the Guinness World Book of Records, gamers Edition, as the most prolific female video game voice actor in the world, you know it's a special project when you hold on to the people you created it with.
Speaker 2:Careers are born by being in the right place at the right time where you can't control the right time, but you can control the right place. Okay, before we go, a little housekeeping, real quick. Slap Studios LA is proud to announce not only have we moved to new studios in Beverly Hills check out the new photos at slapstudioslacom but we also have our first co-production with our new partners and we're over the moon to announce Gambling Mad with Norm Chad. Norm and Chad he's kind of the reason I used to love listening to poker. He's hysterical. He's a legend. They're going to probably put a star on the Walk of Fame for the man, so we're really proud to have him here. So make sure to check out Gambling Madwoman, norm Chad, anywhere you get your podcasts and what else.
Speaker 3:Also check out. That's it, that's All. Their new season is underway and it's looking like it's going to be really, really fun and really in depth, so I've been really loving the new episodes and the teasers that I've seen thus far.
Speaker 2:Yes, and we were just talking to Casey the other day about all the plans coming up, so make sure to check that out. That's it, that's all. And also we have a new show called Character Select. It's about the video game space, where these amazing voiceover actors recreate their sort of iconic roles and talk about the sort of stresses and difficulties in navigating a comment-filled world where everybody can be as rude as possible. So make sure to check that out for some therapy. And Omar Cook I mean, how about that guy?
Speaker 3:Oh, he's delightful. He's just such a light. It's such a privilege to be able to sit down with him.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, just what a special talent. Look forward to having him back again. And before we get out of here, maya, we're going to, by popular demand, we're bringing back Two Truths and a Slap. I should say, bring it back. It just started. We're running again Two Truths and a Slap, and this week it's on me and there are three headlines. Now I know you're pretty astute, you stay on top of the headlines, okay, but I want you of the three. It's my understanding you are not aware of any of these. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to tell you three headlines lately and you tell me which one is there's. Two of them are true and one of them is a slap. So you tell me which one is all right, you ready.
Speaker 2:Okay, all right, cool I'm terrible at this. You're not terrible at it, all right. So the first one is Chiquita. The banana company was found liable for financing a paramilitary group. So basically they are the, you know the.
Speaker 3:But that's how they actually started.
Speaker 2:So that tracks. Okay, that's interesting. Okay, number two fox is pushing a debunk. Claim that biden will sit during the debate. Okay, which is. Which is which is great. And number three justice alito agrees in a secret recording that the us should return to a quote place of godliness. Of all three of those, what do you think a, b or C would be a slap in the face?
Speaker 3:I feel like C is definitely true.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:Because that was the one where he agreed to godliness.
Speaker 2:Now he's a Supreme Court justice and there's separation of church and state.
Speaker 3:No but he's kind of giving me non-separation vibes lately.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:So I'm going to go with that, is true, uh-huh. So I'm going to go with that is true. The other two, that's hard because, okay, the Chiquita Banana Company basically started as a banana revolution by this one dude who became known as the Banana man. I don't know that. A lot of people know that, but basically he started a puppet government in Honduras to get bananas.
Speaker 2:The Banana man? Uh-huh Yo, I learned that on Drunk History, so you should definitely be watching Drunk History reruns if you're not and then, okay, fox is making a.
Speaker 3:I feel like the Fox one would be true too, because it just sounds Foxian yeah. It sounds okay, so I'm going to go with. Those are the two true ones, the Fox one and the Justice guy.
Speaker 2:It's a trick question. They're all true, because they're all ridiculously slapped from the faces. Maya, it was a trick question, yeah when you need a paramilitary group.
Speaker 3:I thought that the, but that again, if y'all this is where history will help you okay, the man who started the Chiquita Banana Factory did it by first making a banana right Republic hence the name in Honduras. So he basically co-opted the Honduran military to basically co-opt them to give him control, and then he promised them kickbacks, and that's how the Chiquita Banana Company initially started.
Speaker 2:I mean the Biden thing, too, about sitting during debate. First of all, I've heard who cares. I mean the Biden thing, too, about sitting during debate. First of all, I've heard who cares. I mean exactly, I don't care if he's upside down, it's like, just do it he could be on one of them, little scooter things to get old people around.
Speaker 3:He could be on a kick and go. I don't care. Like, whatever Like. Why is this? And the fact that you were distracting the country with who's standing, who's gonna sit down instead?
Speaker 2:It's not a good faith argument.
Speaker 3:It's just stupid. It's not even a good faith argument. Now we're in levels of stupidity I'm telling you. We're just like one year away from watering the crops with Gatorade and it's so frightening.
Speaker 2:Well, you heard it there, but reach out to us, let us know what your most concerning slap is from this past week, and you know. Thanks again, maya. It was a fun one. Thank you for coming on down. Thank you, guys for listening. We appreciate it and we'll see you next time. Bye.
Speaker 3:Slap the Power is written and produced by Rick Bariodil and Maya Sykes. Associate Producer, brie Corey Audio and Visual 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 any ideas for a show you want to hear or see, or if you would like to be a guest artist on our show, please email us at info at slapthepowercom.
