The Reel Critics Network
The Reel Critics Network Podcast: With Reggie Ponder and Kathia Woods"
"Authentic Analysis. Bold and Black Opinions. Cinematic Conversations."
Get ready for movie discussions with The Reel Critics Network Podcast. We're bringing you the best (and sometimes the worst) in film and TV, from a Black perspective. Expect sharp wit, insightful commentary, and unfiltered takes.
The Reel Critics Network
The Reel Critics Network S1 E5: Super Bowl, Captain America: Brave New World, & Sly Lives
In this episode Reggie has to eat crow as Kathia celebrates her Philadelphia Eagles' win in the SuperBowl. On the movie front, both talk about the importance and shortcomings of Captain America: Brave New World. Additionally, while they both loved the documentary Sly Lives, Kathia wasn't totally satisfied.
I'm Reggie Ponder, The Real Critic, and welcome to another edition of The Real Critic's Network Podcast. I'm here with my host, Katya Woods, who is extremely happy, and for those of you guys who are listening and can't see, her attire is specific. We'll save that for a little later, but just know that she's celebrating. Welcome. I'm doing fine. I'm doing fine. So I'm a jump right into one of our segments. The last segment is where we're really going to talk about my predictions, but the first segment, our first segment is what's on my mind. So of course it has to be the Superbowl because we talked about it. But the first part of what's on my mind without getting into who won and all that other type of stuff because that's going to be on our rant and rave section. What's on my mind, and actually I'm going to let you talk about this for me, is because you started in music, you covered music, you still cover music, and what's really on my mind is I need some help, Katya. I really do. And the help that I need, this is no joke. The help that I need is the vitriol that people are put toward Kendrick's performance is epic in my, it's super, excuse the pun, but I was really trying, it's super, and it's coming from all segments white folks, black folks. And I don't understand it. I mean, I really don't understand the hatred. So I'm going to give my what's on my mind as a question to you as a person who follows music and have been interviewing a lot of these people. Maybe you can enlighten us as to why people are saying it was the worst. Super Bowl halftime performance ever that it was lackluster that it just wasn't good. So help me out here
Kathia Woods:lies Haters, you know what? Here's my thing is we first of all, there's a segment of the population that only likes Black culture when it is safe, when it is like very cleaned up and it's very appealing and digestible to white people. I could not believe the amount of people that were like, Oh, when Jennifer and Shakira and Beyonce, I was like, y'all were on the internet complaining about Jennifer Lopez and Shakira. shaking their booty saying that was inappropriate for young girls. You all had a problem with Beyonce, the way she was dressed or when she came out with Coldplay and Bruno Mars and Chita Formation. And she was in the inspired Michael Jackson that it was. woke. But then today you're saying that those performances were acceptable. You're telling on yourself. The thing is, they don't like when we don't dance to their tune. They don't like that. They don't like that. Kendrick said you hired Kendrick Lamar. You're getting Kendrick. You're not getting what you want it to be. And if you've been, for those of us that have been lucky enough to go to a Kendrick show, or you saw his pop up event that was televised, This is not a surprise. Kendrick is very intentional from his mixtape days to his first major project, Mad Kid, Good City, to his last one.
Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic:So I want to jump in here though because I really do buy what, I buy what you're saying here but I'm still confused as to why on both sides of the spectrum. Because yeah, you, there's some white folks that just, in my. In my social media, my, my network of white friends are like, nah, that was not good. That was trash. But also in my network, a number of the black folks are like, He's a fraud. He's not as good as you think he is blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'm just wondering, he had messages and just a lot of things that, that he was trying to say there, but it seemed to have fallen flat for many people. I'm not saying all the people but many people helped me, help me with that.
Kathia Woods:I think it's just, again, we have an older generation of people that still want hip hop from the nineties. The nineties are long and gone. You're not wearing the clothes from the nineties. The music has evolved. This is what we wanted. We wanted the music to be mainstream. We get mad when we have. White rappers doing what we call appropriation and up there shucking and jiving. If it would have been Eminem doing this, you would have had a whole world of problems saying, Hey, Em, you're going too far. But this has been the number one problem from older black folks, from traditional hip hop heads. Oh, we are tired of the trap music. We're tired of the mumble rap. We're tired of guys. Not seizing the moment, right? Not doing anything to push the culture forward. Kendrick is that artist. Kendrick is that artist that is a student of the past that knows hip hop, understands when he comes to New York, he don't talk crazy about New York, that is continuing to push the culture forward. This is what we ask for, and then we're mad when we get it. Like, make it make sense.
Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic:I really like that point that you're making about who has done his study, because a lot of people, I had to learn who Gil Scott Heron was in college, and a lot of people don't know that his initial reference And the beginning reference and the ending reference were all from Gil Scott is that Gil says the revolution will not be televised, but a lot of people don't know. And then at the end, it says, turn your TV off. Yeah. It. It really did show that he's not just out there saying what, I guess, anything that he wants to say, but he's also has studied the word, so to speak. And Gil Scott Heron was the word. If you do nothing else I really encourage people. To go and check out some of Gil Scott here and stuff because I'm really happy that Kendrick did that. So yeah, I, I buy
Kathia Woods:it. It is astonishing that it's, and also the other thing is. We have obviously the MAGA crowd, they don't like black, they want black culture, not from black people, not blackity black, right? So, bunk them. Then we have black people who are in the culture, who have been complaining that all we've gotten is mind numbing music. Trap music, just people talking about chains, turn up, drinking, smoking, being disrespectful to women they're complaining about. I'm like Kendrick is the guy you have a problem with? Kendrick, are we serious right now? Right? And on top of that is If you go to a Kendrick show, right? We know ticket prices being what they are. There's so many white kids, and I love the parents that were like, Hey, it wasn't for me, I didn't get it, but my kids did. They turned the camera on their kids, on their whitey white kids. And their kids are rapping along to everything people are like, well, I'm like, humble, humble. People don't know. Humble. Like, are you serious right now? When I went to a Kendrick show on the last tour, he was on my daughter and I, we were sitting in sections run by white people. They're like, sit down, be humble. They were right there with him. You know what I mean? And I think it's also, I keep saying this. That we get mad when during troubled times, artists are tuned out and they're just like, well, my money's good. Everything is good. We keep asking where are the artists that are willing to talk about what's going on? Where are the artists that are willing to tap in? People had a problem with Beyonce and Lemonade. Oh, it's too political. Where the bops be? Where the bops? Then you have Kendrick who literally out of this beef with Drake Leaned in and loved that he just dropped the album GNX. He didn't do any advertisement I was literally driving my daughter to the airport when she came to visit And I was like, Oh my God, he dropped an album. We immediately like we're fumbling in the car, listening to it because he is now at this echelon of artists where he doesn't have to do the big whoop dee whoo whoop dee whoo. He can just drop a project and we all tune in because we want to know what the next evolution is. And his shows are an experience. Everything is very thought out. Like I went to the J Cole show, right? And 21 Savage was on tour with him. He was, that is boring to me. 21 Savage, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. And very monotone and very just using this much space, right? When J Cole had a bigger stage. I'm like, dude, you want to listen to Kodak black for a whole hour? Where his DJ goes, get it, black, get it black. And he's up there doing whatever and barely rapping. That is what y'all want. I need us to really, we don't want, we don't, here's the thing about it is. You can't complain and say you don't want you want art you don't and also here's the other part that I'm going to say your answer to it is we have a segment of our community black people. I'm talking to you be in your feelings. You don't want your artists to grow. You want the same meal you want mac and cheese 7 days a week. God forbid somebody should throw a lobster in the mac and cheese. God forbid somebody said, We not doing, we not doing mac and cheese this Thanksgiving. We're gonna do something else. So that's really funny. You all don't want your artists to grow. Are you the same person at 50 that you were at 19? I sincerely hope not. And Kendrick is 30 plus years old. He not going to talk about hanging out, drinking and doing that. He's Married with kids. The world has evolved. And if you're not ready to evolve, just say that.
Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic:I I love that. So I'ma make the final comment on our rant and rage so we can move to why people do tune in for us. One of the reasons anyway, is for us to talk about some movies, but it's so funny. I hate when you are talking about me because. At the house, Donna be getting mad, right? Because she be like, you want to have the same meal every freaking night. You don't want nothing different. You want the same thing. Can't we like like spice it up, put something different on the plate. And I'll be like, no I like my chicken nuggets. I could do that. I could do that 24 seven. I really love your analogy because Donna will be like, yeah, that's my husband right there. If you give him the same thing, he'd be fine. But when you try to switch, they'd be like, what's that? What's that? Why can't we have the same thing? So I hear you and in a way, I actually sympathize with people who like what they like, but I, I do sympathize with those folks, but I don't criticize the folks who do like something different. So I think that might be the difference on me. Hey, thanks so much for enlightening us. on this because again, you do cover music and you're hitting the show. So I'm
Kathia Woods:going to tell you what, I am going to the Kendrick show with my daughter, Kendrick and scissor in April here in Atlanta. And we will circle back at the demographic that is at that show, because that's the other thing is white people don't relate. So we will circle back with some pictures.
Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic:I love it. I love it. I really appreciate you, Katia, particularly in this area because I know that you follow this. All right. So our next segment is our movie segment and the first movie that we're going to talk about, which I'll kick it off because I'm gonna let a lot on my ass. Katya to kick off our second movie. But the first movie that I want to talk about is Captain America, brave new world. Now there are so many people who don't want to participate, talk about, be involved in the MCU. I get it. I do. I get it. You're like, nah, those superhero movies are not for me. However this is the one that you should care about. Firstly, it's coming out in Black History Month, and you're probably saying to me why does that matter? Well, for a couple of reasons. The first one is that this is the first. Fully developed film for the new Captain America played by Anthony Mackie. The Mackie is joined by Carl Lumley, who plays Isaiah Bradley, who's a black man who was part of the experimental program to create a new version of Captain America in the 1940s. Tuskegee, the real life Tuskegee experiments where African American men were subjected to unethical medical treatments that had long lasting impact from a health perspective, but also from a social and economic perspective as well. And then the third one is Julius Ona, a black man gets to direct a black man. In the MCU. So just from a historical cultural perspective, you might want to just check this one out, see how he did. So I'm going to leave it at that. Now I'll go into my movie stuff from a movie perspective. This is really about three things in my opinion, and that is redemption, revenge, and renewal. Redemption is for the president who is being played by Harrison Ford. He's trying very, very hard to get his image. To change his image as partially for the world, but mainly for his daughter, because the way he was acting as a general and as a politician before he was president was not that great. And so there's this new resource in the world that he's trying to make a treaty for, and he's hoping that. He can help everybody say, look, we can share this resource, this most valuable resource, as opposed to fight over it. And he's hoping that he can make that treaty happen. So that's the redemption part. The revenge is that Samuel Stearns. He has been, he was being used by the president to help him get the power and the prestige and to get where he is, and he's kind of discarded. He wants revenge, and he is a formidable, he, I he's coming for you. That's all I can say about that. And then finally, there is that renewal, and that is the renewal of this new Captain America. And with this, what we have is we have Sam Wilson charting a new path and saying, here is how Captain, this is the new Captain America. And so all of those three things happen in this film. And I think overall, they did a nice job. But here's my problem. And when I say nice job. The Anthony Mackie ate it up from an acting perspective. I think all the actors did well, including Giancarlo Esposito, Shira, I'm forgetting Shira's, Shira Haas. So I thought they all did a good job there. I thought that the, it looked good on the screen, from the CGI to the set design. And I thought that the action was Marvel worthy. However, unfortunately, the whole does not equal the sum of the parts. Each of these parts were fine individually. But this did not make a iconic movie. It just didn't do it. And maybe the writers were hoping to come back later and really show the power of the new Captain America, but they did this Captain America a disservice, in my opinion. This film should have been all about, everything should have been about how this should be the Captain America, Because it is the Captain America today, but this was just a setup movie. It's a setup movie for some bigger and better things. They missed an opportunity and you only get a one time to make a first impression. And I think that they lost something by making this a setup movie, as opposed to making this. A iconic movie and I put that on the writers. I really do put that on the writers. I, I think that the whole thing was okay, but this did not blow me away. And in fact, it wasn't brave. It wasn't new. And I, I didn't love this world. That's what I have for you, Kathia.
Kathia Woods:He wrote that in my review. I feel like this is a bridge movie. This is a movie that is more or less taking Sam Wilson's Captain America from the small screen to the large screen. Introducing Joaquin Torres as the new Falcon and closing the chapter on Isaiah's story and then embodying the red. That's what I feel like. And I felt like if they wanted to do that, they should have done that in the TV series. And then. Given him a new thing, I think Anthony Mackey's in an impossible position because they're going to be people that are going to have a problem with the fact that a because he is a black man is stepping into Captain America, which has nothing to do with him. That's a day problem. Not a problem. Then there are the people that are forever not going to let him that go forever going to compare him to Chris Evans and not let him be Chris Evans. And want him to be Chris Evans. Again, that's not an Anthony Mackie problem. That's a storyline that the studio decided to pursue. And also Chris Evans was like, I did everything I feel like I can do with this role. I want to be something else. I don't want to play Captain America until I'm 60. I'm in my 40s. I want to be something else and that's I can understand just like Robert Downey Jr. Was like, I don't want to be Iron Man until I'm 60, right? And even Anthony Mackie said, Hey, you got me for two, 10 years. Then once I'm in my fifties, heading to 60, I'm out. So there are some other things in there that don't control him. I feel like we didn't get enough with Giancarlo Sposito as a bad guy. Cause he plays bad guys really well. And I feel like I understand what the movie was doing, but why it was overexplaining it lost its way a little bit. I don't feel as badly about this movie as other people saying that it was a waste of brave men. And we know that there's a group of people that is more about artsy fartsy movies that don't like the superhero movies and every chance that they get will dump on it. I don't think. That it's that bad. I do. I agree with you. There was some missed opportunities. Why? I think it is going to appease most of the MCU, but I think there was a missed opportunity. I gave it a 6 out of 10. I don't think it is a 2. And there are some enjoyable moments, there are some good fight scenes. I think the suit looks great. I think Anthony Mackie definitely brings a different, I think he's a more emotional. Because Sam is more emotional, he's more human. He doesn't have the serum, so you don't have all that emotional detachment. And I think this more or less because we're getting, from my understanding, an Avengers movie. After this, right? So, it's like the setup for him leading the new reassembled, whatever version of the adventures that's gonna be. But, yeah that's pretty much, I get it. It's like a, it's a nice steak, but it's not Wagyu beef.
Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic:Yeah, yeah,
Kathia Woods:yeah.
Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic:And so if you're going to talk about food, if it's a nice steak, a nice steak for me is not all that red that my guy with a top chef shelf likes all the time. I'd be like, I don't want my, want to see all that blood and red coming out of there. That was not a good steak. It was okay. I mean, I'd eat it if I come over your house, but, yeah. It wasn't quite well
Kathia Woods:done, but it wasn't, it didn't have a touch of pink. It wasn't like rubber, like a shoe, but it wasn't properly cooked either.
Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic:I totally feel that. I do want to say one more thing about Anthony Mackie is that what I liked is I liked his ability to show strength. He shows some humor and he showed leadership. I thought that he shined from everything that they gave him to do. I thought he really did a good job. My rating is very similar to yours. My rating is on a four scale and I gave it a 2. 5. And if we convert those, yours is six out of 10, which is 60%. And mine is two and a half out of four, which is 6. 25. So we're in the same boat. I'm saying. You won't necessarily feel cheated, but you won't walk out of there thinking that Anthony Mackie he's killing the Captain America role. That's that's what I think and I think that's due to The writing not due to his effort. I
Kathia Woods:agree.
Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic:That's it. That's it All right, so that means we can move into our next movie And one of the things for you guys listening to us is that when I first met Katya, she would always be like, You gotta watch this movie. This is a film that you gotta see. And I'm like, I can't watch everything. She be watch Firstly, she watches too much. Too many things and it'd be like messing me up. So she comes back and she says, Reggie, this next movie that we're about to talk about, she says, Reggie, you need to check this one out. And so that's why I'm going to let her lead with, not let her lead. I'm going to ask her to lead with this one so that I can chime in here or there, but I, go ahead, Kasi.
Kathia Woods:Sly lives. And
Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic:what's the name of it?
Kathia Woods:Sly lives. I gotta give you the full, this, that is a, can I just say it's a doozy. Fly lives, AKA the burden of black genius, which is the follow up, which is quest love if you love summer soul, he talked about it, that he was working on. stone. It's another passion project of his where he talked about, he has great admiration of sliced stone and he's quite a musical nerd. Like I am. I'm a musical nerd too. And I thought if anybody should tell it, it's going to be him because he understands a musical. He understands the black portion of it. And can also dwell on the influence on Sly Stone. Why I enjoyed it, I didn't enjoy it as much as Summer of Soul. I really kept as I was watching it, and maybe I'm out here by myself, felt like this is a perfect example of he ran out of time to give us the complete depth and soul, dare I say, of Sly Stone. I felt And that's not to say that you shouldn't watch it and it's not good, but because of the way he gave it to us, I felt like I had a hunger for more information. I felt we probably in this case would have been better served in a five chapter, five episode limited series. Let me explain I feel like his beginnings, there is a reason I believe Why he made the integration choices that he made because the family moved from Texas to Northern California. I don't know, had he lived somewhere, had he stayed in Texas, and that's not to say that it wouldn't have happened, that he wouldn't have been open to those different types of sounds that told him when I'm for my group, I'm going to have my brother and my sister, but I'm also going to have these white folks in it. You got to remember this was in the 60s, late 60s, where we were coming out of segregation, and California was a different vibe than down south. Down south was very segregated. Black and white people were not mixing like they were in Northern California. And also, I wanted to know What we know where the black musical sound came from, right? His gospel roots. I wanted to know more like how did, because his brother and sister were good musicians too. How did that, like, where did they get it from? Mom, dad, that type of thing. And mind you, I watched the documentary more than once. I also wanted to know was it like, what did he pick up from his DJing days? Because his early records that he produced were more for white artists. Then for black artists. So again, where, like, where's the tune and the missing thing is we don't have slide. The slides not doing interviews. He's not talking to people. So he had their line archives. Then I also wanted to dwell in also a little bit and choose very specific on how he viewed women. So you have women as a prominent part in the documentary, right? His relationship with Cynthia Robbins, which is also worst romantic, but he put her in a group because she's a dope trumper player, right? What did that discussion? And then also the harmonies when him and his sister and his brother would sing, right? And how he put his sister in the front, right? If you look at that, the Edison show and how they went out and they were really in there. Also, what I have a question. If you listen to higher right on the album, it's very melodic. When did he say, okay, I recorded this way, but when we do it live, we don't go in the gospel call and chant. Hi, I want to take you higher. You listen to it on the album. I have so many questions that I feel like. That's why I'm like, man, maybe if you did a series, we could have had just a chapter on how he pivoted from each album and how he pivoted from what was in the booth to the live. But overall, I think what he did do, which is happening right here, right. It made me want to dig a little bit deeper and made me want to rewatch the thing and made me look at other things to understand because the gift that is slide, I will say that is. When you allow a musician and we were not going to have it in today's age, unless you are really independent to be really free. This is what happens when you don't give him the freaking rules. This is you allowed to cook. Now, the sad part about it is once you do start to cook with the recipes, like we were talking about, they don't want you to make a new mac and cheese. They want you to keep because that's what's making money. And I feel like because of the times we were in. Sly was trapped by his own success and unfortunately he had nobody to call. He didn't have Michael Jackson Prince to call. So he turned to drugs and alcohol to cope. So that is my 5 cent review here.
Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic:All right. Firstly I am so happy, as usual, when you tell me that there's something that I need to watch, because this I disagree with you like 100%. This was the documentary. They did this doc. This was, this is probably, I know you watch more documentaries than me, miss Documentary watcher, but this was the documentary because it did a couple of things that I've been wanting documentaries to do about artists. It did not hold back about his foibles, his, the things that happened to him, which will go nameless, where they'll be talking about how, yeah, she was a great artist, but she had these babies at a young age and we don't know nothing about what happened back then. It just, they just gloss over it. Yeah, they did this, but they had some drugs, but we won't even talk about that or whatever. And we just we gloss over it or just, or ignore it all together. This didn't ignore it. Any of that stuff. If you I can understand you wanting more saying that this didn't do what it was supposed to do. This did exactly what it was supposed to do. The first thing it did was remind the world that there was a and it still is a black genius that came through that. Most people are not talking about today and it doesn't make any sense. This guy was a genius. Number two, it showed his impact on not only just being a genius, but his impact on all the music that has come afterwards. Including the music that we're listening to today. And then it showed the downfall of them. And it asked a question, which can be a different documentary or a different thing, but it did ask the question, what is the price of genius? What is the price of black genius? And I just think that the way in which this was put together was genius. I forgot. I just forgot. Not that I didn't know. But I forgot about these songs that I love from Sly, and there were so many that I was like, oh, yeah, that one, okay, I know you listening, y'all listening to us, so I'm gonna name a few of them. First and foremost, you guys gonna be like Family Affair, yep. Family Affair don't sound, if you listen to the, look at the lyrics and they did it, it's not like it was all kumbaya. A family affair was one fun in the summertime cup. Come on, hot fun in the summertime. That was like, like it. It was all of that. But then you think that can't be surpassed, but then you get everyday people. Really? There were so many songs as I was listening to them go through it. And that's how I come. I love what Questlove did here. He made sure that we knew that one way to the slide list. It's through the music. The other way to slide Liz is because the world didn't end up killing him. He didn't, he ended, he didn't end up like the princes and Michael Jackson's of the world. And he's still here. I really, really liked this documentary.
Kathia Woods:I do. I don't get me wrong. I just want to be clear. I didn't hate it. I just wanted us to dwell a little bit deeper because to me, to show you how I, in my opinion, I think Some of his B cuts are stronger than the hits. If you really listen to his music. If you really take the time to listen. That's why I said it. The fact a lot of people only know the version of Higher. It's the dun, dun. They don't know that the song was not like that. I want to know, and again, I hope, I pray, before he passes. That we can have that conversation. And be like, what made you say okay, in the studio, this was not before the moment where you just looking at into the crowd was the spirit taking you over. Did you say today? I'm going to. I think that is that doesn't happen. I think Prince gave us a little bit of that. Do you know what I mean? Where he took his because and he took his songs and he remixed them just to keep it interesting for him as an artist. But you're right. We wouldn't have. Yeah. Have the songs we love. We wouldn't have the sound of A Child Called Quest. We wouldn't have the songs of Dale of Soul because Prince Paul went all through Sly Stone's catalog. We wouldn't have Mama said, knock you out. That comes from sign a family. We
Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic:would not have George Clinton. We wouldn't have we wouldn't have Prince. We wouldn't have
Kathia Woods:Michael Jackson.
Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic:When you look at how he dressed, what he did, you could tell that his influence just permeated the whole music industry. When you look at Prince and you look at Sly Stone, you'd be like, Oh,
Kathia Woods:you see where it came from. And you know what? If you hear Prince talking about it, it's Sly Stone and Stevie Wonder. And also if you listen to Lenny Kravitz, it's Sly Stone's influence. And also I'm like, like you said, we wouldn't have LTD. We wouldn't have the early, if you listen to early Earth, wind and fire. Mighty, mighty love. That is Sly Stone influence. We wouldn't have the Barcade. We wouldn't have all the Ohio players. None of that funk groove that we now know as a funk era came out of Sly Stone. And the other thing is that kills me. The genius! It's just what is going on in the brain that he gave you such funky, funky things and then he also gave you the melodies, the harmonies, because if you listen to the songs, it's him singing lead, it's Cynthia singing lead. It's Freddie and it's Larry singly it's for people saying you can't even in today's that you can't even get them brothers to put their egos aside to for a single because they're like, I only got 20 seconds. They, and also the fact that. You know how we have groups break up and everybody be talking their ish, Larry, to this day, Larry Graham wouldn't be, I think Larry Graham would have had a career would have taken him a little longer, but he wouldn't be the Larry Graham that we love if it wasn't for sliced stone and the love that they have for this man with all the mistakes that he made and all of his fallacies. Is a genuine love because they understand that he was a victim of his own success and I'm not. First of all, I'm going to be very clear. I'm not excusing him not being a good father, him abandoning things due to his, but I understand, but I also understand because we still are having a conversation. Reggie, when black artists that don't want to do the dance and don't want to stay in the box. What is Michael Jackson Prince Prince all those years? He was fighting. That's what I'm saying. And yeah, and even Kendrick Kendrick, Kendrick is breaking away from TDE because he's like, I don't I'm not that dude anymore. I want to do different things. That's sad part is. That too often those artists don't have the courage or don't have the support to speak out without, being labeled troublesome, which is what slide was starting to be labeled and he turned to drugs and alcohol. And, once you go down that road and it gets a hold of you it's a never ending door. And also the people, he's the people that were hanging around him. Didn't give a damn about him. But the point I'm saying,
Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic:George says. He said that they said, so George, what were y'all doing? He said we were tracing, chasing the juror. So he hanging out with Clinton and both of them are chasing it. I would just want to add though, is that it is no surprise to me that the Funkadelics, that Bootsy, that George Clinton, it is no surprise. And George said in this piece, it's no surprise. They were like, yeah, we want to do something like that. The fact, I, I don't remember, and I went to the spaceship tour. I don't remember seeing slot there, but I bet you he was there. I just don't remember that because I was just so in love with George Clinton and now, but the fact that he was on tour with them to come on, but they were chasing the drug. They were absolutely. You
Kathia Woods:know what the Reggie, here's the best part because we're, I say this, we were born musically at the most amazing time. I don't care. You can argue with me to the cows come home. The seventies, in my opinion, was the best time for black music because we took the shackles off and say, we are no longer conforming to what is pleasing to white people. We going to do us. We going to grow our hair out. We going to dress how we want to dress. We don't get down and get funky. If you get it, you get it. If you don't, you don't. And hence to this day, we can still listen to that music. So to me, I'm always like, we were lucky enough that we were young enough to see it. We might not have gotten everything, but we experienced it. And then as adults, we can go back and we can say our ears. When we hear the remixes, we go, Oh, I know where that comes from. But this generation today, like it's like, listen, you know, the conversations when people are like Beyonce wouldn't would beat Michael Jackson and I love Beyonce or that Kevin Hart is bigger than Eddie Murphy. Are you dumb? But here, you now have the generation, our kids who never, you know, cause I is. Out here doing sly. They now get to see, oh, I understand that when my parents were talking about what my grandparents are talking about, I understand when they play it at the barbecue. Okay. I see how that man dressed. Like he, his swag, like sly swag. Come on now. It, it was, he was just, remember he got married at the garden?
Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic:It was second to none. I, so we gotta wrap this sec, this part of our segment up. So I'm gonna tell you. I disagree with Kassia. She's Kathia she wanted it to do this and do that.
Kathia Woods:I want it more. I'm
Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic:giving this one is four reels out of my four reels for me. I love this one. I hope you go out and check it out. It is so good and you will want more. I'll agree. You'll want more. They, they did a really good job with this one. I think Questlove, you my guy, you my guy. What are you saying about this one, Kathia?
Kathia Woods:I give it a nine because I want it more, but then again, I'm also a music nerd because I, as afterwards, I didn't, as I was writing my review, I put the headphones on and I went through the discography. Cause like I said, you could do music class on the first three albums and don't dismiss the first one because it wasn't a commercial success commercial commercial good music is good music. And there is some stuff on there that is, and like I said, as an artist is really, really good when the B cuts. The in between, not filter music is, is talking to you and I hope this generation, especially as we're celebrating Black History Month, because we still celebrate Black History Month over here, we celebrated 365, but understand that American culture is black culture, black culture is American culture, and we, if it wasn't for us, black and brown people, we would have Some very stale music. So I hope it inspires kids and lets them know, Hey, it's okay to be different. It's okay to lean in to, to, to flying above the clouds.
Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic:So I really do want to end this segment, but I can't because it would be sacrilegious to say our segment is over. I gave it a four out of four. 10. And then she says something. She said that she went through the discography. So, Kathia, there are two songs that people may not have played that you would want to tell people to play. To go and listen to we need that recommendation. I need that recommendation because I bet you it's going to be some song that I didn't hear. I was over there listening to Stan and I'm listening to Ha Ha Hee Hee. But there's something else in that discography that you're about to tell us that we should go listen to. What are the two songs?
Kathia Woods:Well, okay, I encourage you to go to and and listen to higher On the album, you're gonna be like it's just cannot be The same song because it is it's on their second album dance to the music. It's okay It's great. You know what? I mean? It is absolutely Absolutely great And i'm just like I forgot because you know i'm so used to Us hearing apple music is is is being interesting But I do think and I absolutely encourage you to Listen to the first project, you know what I mean? Which is sly and the family's doing a whole new thing. And I would have you listen to if this room could talk,
Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic:If this room could talk. I, I haven't heard this one, so I'm gonna listen to it. I'll come back next week. And tell you that I listened to it. If this room could talk.
Kathia Woods:Yes, because again, I'm just saying what is going what was going on in his head that went from which I believe is from the higher spirit. You're not that gifted to his sheet. I just feel like. You know how we always say some people are talented?
Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic:Yes.
Kathia Woods:But some people just get a little extra in the talent line. Slice stone got a Li way more than a little extra you and something about him. When everybody was on the ones and twos, he was on the ones and twos out there above the clouds. And I think that is. That's something to be studied and absolutely leaned into.
Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic:So I was going to say, I know this is what we should do, but I'm positive. You probably already did it. I was like, we should just have you tell quest a letter, come on our show. And we just chit chat with quest love. But
Kathia Woods:to me, what I love about quest is this is how, you know, when somebody loves music, right? I love that he's the one doing it because he's literally doing the expression digging in the crate and he's exposing a younger generation at a time when our history is being erased, where we're being told that we made no contributions. Voila, one man, one group gave us so many different leaves. And I think that's important. It's also to remind ourselves who are older to be like, yo. Yeah, that, that is part of our history. That is part of why we play. These tracks at the barbecue, you in the car, you could be, or you could watch a movie, right? And these songs come on and your head is like, boom, boom. Next thing you know, your lips are moving, you know what I mean? And it's just, it's a feel good thing. That's what I think Quest does more than anything is he heightens your curiosity. And also he has a difficult conversation, not like TMZ light, but he is like breaking it down for us. This is special. And I'm so glad that we're talking about it. You can tell I really didn't like this movie.
Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic:That is so funny. All right. All right. Let's move to our last segment and we'll try to keep it tight for my sake because it is our rant and rave segment. And I think it really is my eat and crow segment. So, last episode, I gave out all of the reasons why that I knew for a fact that the Chiefs would win the Super Bowl. And I gave out reasons that I knew for a fact why. The Philadelphia Eagles wouldn't lose it. So they weren't going to, they weren't only going to get beat. They were also going to hand it over. I was wrong. And Katya cause you can't see her has on a big old black Eagles hat, a NFL Eagles shirt. Number one. I wonder who that is. And I don't have too much to say other than I was wrong and I'm just going to relinquish the floor. To Katya. Cause my team did not play well. Firstly, they didn't play well. And then they just got stomped. I'm talking about they got stumped on defense. They got stumped on offense. This was not a good Superbowl for me. I can't, I can't you guys go ahead, Katya. Oh man. I have a feeling that you're going to fly from Atlanta to the Superbowl party and be on one of those light posts. So no, no,
Kathia Woods:never that, but I had to do it because Reggie, my Midwest brother, your team got, not only did we win, your team got embarrassed. They got spanked. My team held your team. As my guy said on TV, it was a good old fashioned butt whipping. Your team did so bad that we brought in our backup quarterback to have snaps cause we knew it was a wraps. Them 20 points was with the second team on the field. Coach turned around and said, everybody can get some at the Superbowl. We was one step away from putting QB number three in there to take a snap. That's how bad the chief Patrick Mahone's was running like he was running. He was black on Sunday because he was running Frankie was right. He was running from my defense like a black man from the police. Like he could not catch a break. I mean, they had hands on him. Everywhere. My man is going to need a soak, an ice bath, and he's going to need to hide out in Cancun because that's how bad it was. Like, and but, and he gave Cooper Dejean a wonderful birthday present. Cooper Dejean, shout out to you. Number 22, he got a pick and ran in for a touchdown on his birthday. Thank you, Patrick Mahomes. Then, they thought because Saquon was not rushing up and down the field, Saquon was blocking, Saquon was keeping everybody level headed, right? Then my guy, Jay Hertz. Can we talk about Jay Hertz? Put some message out on QB number one. Talk to us nice. When he threw that, I also loved it. Nixie Ronnie was like, you know what? We not going to play and say, put the nail in the coffin. He threw that beautiful pass to Devante Smith. Oh my God. You could just hear the air coming out of all the cases.
Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic:It
Kathia Woods:was just like, it was a wraps. My man stood in the pocket Lotus. He didn't even like. He knew it was going to be a touchdown. The whole squad looked and said, Oh yeah, that, that, that hurts. I feel bad for them. Like, look, Oh, did you see your chiefs on the sideline? They looked deflated. Patrick,
Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic:my own only had two interceptions. Yo guy had one. Patrick Mahomes had 257 yards. Your guy only had 227.
Kathia Woods:He did not
Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic:outplay, he did not outplay my guy. It's, it's, oh my goodness.
Kathia Woods:You know why he only had as many yards as he did? Because my defense kept scoring. My defense was all over him. And Harrison Buckner's uniform was so clean, he managed to just take it off, fold it, and put it back in the closet. He was only on the field for kickoffs. He didn't kick one field goal. My man, I mean, listen, he needed more than Jesus. He, that faith he needed to call Jesus that day. Cause Jesus said not today, not today. And I do think there were a couple of guys on the chiefs that cried. I mean, Patrick Mahone's looked like, I wanted to say, sir, do you even know where you are? We're in New Orleans and it's the Superbowl. And it's been lights out. I'm so happy for this Philadelphia Eagle squad because nobody gave us a chance. I'm so happy for Jalen Hurts, who just let his play do the talking. I'm so happy he's up and down my TV on every show, that he's hanging out with Mickey, that he's in the parade today. Be prepared. I'm so I so love the Jordan ad They're opening up the first Jordan store. Guess where in philadelphia and guess what the banner was. Oh my god. Jay hurts outside the store So I'm just saying, when you talk about my QB, do not mention your QB in there in Chicago. Don't mention that man over there in Buffalo. Don't mention the guy in freaking Detroit. Don't mention the guy in Baltimore because guess what? My guy, Jay Hertz has that they don't have. They have a win against, he has a win against Patrick Mahone's. He has an MVP trophy and he has a Superbowl trophy. We are not the same. We went over here, but I love that y'all got to eat crow and you really got to watch my man up and down on your TV, having the time of his life.
Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic:All right, everybody. For some reason I hear a bell. It seems like our show's over. It's time to close it up. I
Kathia Woods:got, listen, next time I see you, I got a shirt for you. You, we have room for you in the fan club because Chicago is going to be a minute before y'all are good again. Good people, good football fans, but it's going to be a minute. Y'all going to have to suffer a little bit more. I'm sorry. You are.
Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic:We used to like the Eagles when, what was the black quarterback's name who was from Chicago? Hmm. Did y'all have one? Y'all know McNabb? Yeah! Oh, McNabb!
Kathia Woods:Steve McNabb, he's team Eagles.
Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic:McNabb, yes, yes, yes. Alright, well, I am going to just say this and get to our closing. Fly Eagles, fly. Fly Eagles, fly. Whatever. All right. That's our show you guys. Hopefully we're done talking about football for awhile. So that will be good because Chicago is not doing anything over here. So it'll be great to stop talking football for a minute. This is the Real Critics Network. You got two critics, two opinions on one mission where dialogue, it engages, educates, entertains, and occasionally escalates. As you can see in our prior discussion, I'm Reggie Ponder, the Real Critic. You can find me at the Real Critic on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube. And I even signed up for that new one that Kathia is on. Kathia, where can we find you?
Kathia Woods:Blue sky. You can find me everywhere. Kathia underscore woods. I'm the same in everything.
Reggie Ponder, The Reel Critic:Well, that's it. See you guys next time.
