The Coffee First Podcast with Q the Poet pt.2

Monday Nights: The Pulse of Denver Poetry

Part 2: The legend continues! Every Monday, Quincy "Q" Hull transforms The Corner Beet into a sanctuary for the spoken word. As a cornerstone of the Still Black See Writers' and Artists' Guild, Q brings more than just poetry—he brings a movement. Whether you’re a seasoned writer or a first-time listener, his weekly open mic is where raw talent meets real community. Come witness the lyrical grace of works like Tribal Initiations live. Grab a seat, feel the rhythm, and let the words move you.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:15

You do it at this spot too. Because honestly, this has become my Monday house and getaway spot eventually after work.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Happy to hear, brother. Happy to hear.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

This is a great start to the week. It's like a reset.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

Well, you know you're one of the favorites around here because we love your hip hop. I love your hip-hop. It reminds me of the old school 90s vibe. That's where I get myself. I love that, brother. I'm telling you, you do it well. So you're a student. You do it well. You do it well, for sure. Thank you. Hope you're taking something tonight. I hope. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 0:39

Yes. New stuff too. Good. No doubt. No doubt. It's been about time that I'm doing some new stuff. Okay. Because I've been doing old shit for sounds good either way.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Sounds good either way.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

So yeah. But I love this space though. Yeah, me too. Me too.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

Monday's my favorite night of the week. I'm not gonna lie to you. It's my favorite night of the week for sure. Definitely. I bet you I'm not the only one that this resets too. I have to I have to agree. Yeah, I mean not from what I'm just from what I'm hearing. I'm not saying I know that, but like Dylan always tells me how Monday nights is amazing at home. People probably would come if I wasn't a host. I don't know about that part, but you know, either way, it sounds good to hear. It sounds good to hear.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

I don't think they would come. I think the hosting part, you being the host, has a lot to do with why people enjoy being here.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

I accept that humbly. I accept that. That's good. I put a lot into it. I will say I do put a lot into it. I love hosting. Hosting is like my thing. So it gives me an opportunity. And really what it is, is for host for me, hosting is it gives me an opportunity to make sure that people are having a good time. I'm already having a good time, but I want to make sure that I inject that into the audience. I want them to be having a good time. I want the artists to be having, so if everybody's having a good time, then it's gonna be good. To me, the best way to do that is to make sure that people are being respectful to the artists. And that's really the biggest part. And that's been a 50, well, maybe not 50-50, but maybe more of 70, 60, 40 thing. 40% of people might complain about that. But I want it quite, but that's okay. I don't to me, that's if you come in out to hear art, how can you hear it if you talk? If you're talking, yeah. Or if if one person's talking, then I gotta let two or three people talking. Before you know it, it's a conversation going on when people on the mic. And I'm I can't do that. I refuse to host a spotlight. I can't do it.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

I think that's what's been the biggest difference at other open mics, what I've seen, is that a lot of them start respecting now the mic, and you hear a lot of conversations going down. Like I hear I see a lot of other hosts, especially some that's been here and stopped by seen you doing that, taking and do it at their spot.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

Oh, well, it's good. That's one of the uh if that carries on, then that's a good thing. Because I've been hearing sometimes I hear the opposite that people I have heard, I don't know who, it doesn't really matter, but I've been hearing that people say that when they go to other open mics who have been here, that the people who are hosting those open mites say, and it's okay if y'all talk here. We don't care if you could you can talk. I've heard that too, so I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 2:36

Yeah, they say that, but it's okay. You can see that some people take that shit to the back, right? They'll talk in the back, yeah, and then the front, you'll see them respecting the mic. But that's good. That's good. So that's good. I'm glad that's taken. Or going outside and talking.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

Good. That's especially when the weather's nice like this. Why not? There'd be more, and and even with that, sometimes the going outside could be a bit too much because sometimes the people just stay out there, now they're missing artists. Which is fine. Because that just means that when they're coming in, the people go outside on them. They can't be mad. You can't be mad because you did it to somebody else. So you get what you get. You get exactly like exactly ultimately that's how it is. That's how it's supposed to be. That's right. That's the way the universe works.

SPEAKER_00 3:10

A lot of people have musicians at their open mics too. Okay. Like a lot of different like bands and like people doing guitars, drums, like they've been inviting them to be at their open mics. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:20

So I go. So people are doing like spoken word or like poetry rap, and it's good. Man, I'm glad that good things are taking off. Long you're taking away the good parts and doing that, that's a good thing. But I've been hosting for 30 years, man. So this is like I actually first started hosting in 1996. I was in Memphis, Tennessee. This is my first hosting gig was in 1996.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

I bet you it's a lot different hosting out here than Memphis. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a lot more work.

SPEAKER_01 3:42

That's what I'm saying. And I enjoy it, but it's like you really shouldn't have to say respect the mic four or five times through tonight. People should just get it. If I get a sign, if I'm holding a sign up to say, I mean, I've done everything. I'm saying it, I'm holding up a sign. What else can we do? So people still want to talk. I'm like, why is it? And I believe that it's uh, and I know with you, I can always be open and candid. I appreciate that. I never lived in a uh a state uh that was as white as this one. You know what I mean? And I'm not saying it in a negative way, I'm just being honest that I've never lived in such a white state, and I think that when I say white, I mean white-minded. And I think what comes with that is a level of entitlement. And I think people feel like they're entitled. Also, the other fact is that it hasn't really, before I moved here and before I got here, there wasn't really a lot of black hosts here. Hardly any black hosts. So the fact once I became the host here, it was majority of white audience. It still is, but more of us are coming now. But it was majority white audience, and I don't think that they were used to having a black man tell them to be quiet. That you can't talk.

SPEAKER_00 4:36

I definitely understand that.

SPEAKER_01 4:38

And that's just not just coming from me, it's coming from other white friends of mine who said the same thing, like pew. We're not used to that. We're not used to a black guy telling us what So I'm not I'm not saying the guys who told me that were like offended. They were saying, but that's what's going on, and that's what the offense is. I'm a black man telling they can't talk in Ace. So in the beginning, when I first started hosting here, a lot of people who used to come stopped coming when I became the host. Which is fine. We just weeded out the old ones and we seated in some good ones. Really? That's oh, yeah, a lot of people. When I first started hosting three years, it'd be three years in April. When I first started hosting here, it was a whole different crowd. A whole different. I was about the only black person coming. Oh, yeah, it's not like that at all. It was majority white. Yeah. And the majority of those, when Gio passed it down to me, they were upset that he gave it to me and they stopped coming. Literally, I'm being honest. A good, I know for sure I can name a good, probably 10 of them. Let's stop.

SPEAKER_00 5:20

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 5:21

Yeah, easy. Wow. Yeah, so so I know that a lot of it is because so I have to host harder here because it's it's extremely white-minded and they're not used to being told what they can and can't do. That's crazy. You know what I mean? But I always say I won't have to tell you if you just knew automatically what you should and shouldn't do.

SPEAKER_00 5:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:37

If you don't know, then somebody gotta tell you. I mean, and it's gonna be me. I'm gonna tell you how you feel about it.

SPEAKER_00 5:41

So people can't take constructive criticism at all.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

And that's what happens to a lot of people's just outcoming because uh I'm just not gonna host the spot that's disrespectful because it's disrespectful to the art, and I will never cheat the art. I'm like LeBron James when it comes to the game. I won't cheat it. If I gotta cheat it, I'm gonna walk away from it. I'm not gonna cheat.

SPEAKER_00 5:57

More hosts need that. I mean, give that energy to where you show respect to all artists and every artist that is on the mic. You know what I mean? Like I really respect that as the host, you stay up there and watch every single artist that go up there. Yeah, you might go step outside to make some fresh air.

SPEAKER_01 6:14

No, it's only respectful. When somebody said they need to talk to me as a host, I have to go outside. So I won't talk. Because I I gotta lead by example. If I see no talking, I mean, if you want to talk to me, you gotta take me outside as well. That's the only time I go out there. I really try not to go outside. I try to try to stay here for everybody, for every poet. But if somebody wants to talk to me, I'm not gonna break my own rules and be talking while somebody's on the mic. So I tell them to take me. We gotta be here. Every single artist I grow up there, that's just I mean, uh 20 every night. 20. That's a lot. But and it's to me, it's it's a good job to have to be able to sit back and watch a free show every every Monday night. It's pretty cool. I love it. I love that.

SPEAKER_00 6:43

So you think about it as a free show? That's just cool.

SPEAKER_01 6:46

Yeah, I do. I look at it because it's some pretty entertaining. You know, you've been here, there's some great artists who do some great artists here. So I mean, you're one of them, of course. You're one of them. You know how the crowd. I'm not just saying that you know how the crowds respond to you when you get up there. Yeah, you're just so cool when you flow. And it's like it just takes me back to the golden era hip-hop and hip-hop was really fun and and educational and dropping knowledge. Your style of hip-hop takes me back to that. You know what I mean? Oh no, evolve it. You can cuss, you can do all that, but you can still drop knowledge, you can do all those things. You can be freaky, you can drop knowledge, but now to me, it's just not the same. I know it's not a conversation about hip-hop, but no, no, no, it is. It's just not the same to me now. It's like I have a hard time. Being a lover, I used to break dance. I was a graffiti artist and a DJ in the 70s and eighths. So now to see where it's coming, I'm having a hard time. So to see somebody like you who's still under 30 and just keep those elements of the 90s, it's refreshing, but I'm telling you. So I have to say thank you. I appreciate you. I'm not gonna lose it. Make me feel good about how hip hop still is, you know. You and 3-2, like my favorite cats in the city, you know. I mean, I appreciate that. So y'all definitely definitely uh represent hip-hop to the fullest. I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_00 7:44

So appreciate you. Appreciate my heart. That's it's called.

SPEAKER_01 7:46

Uh 3-2 coming from Colorado, and you from where? Yeah. And you both of y'all being from Colorado is so fucking dope when it comes to hip-hop. It's like, that's why you know hip-hop is not like uh just a New York thing. It's uh if it's in the heart, I don't care where you're living at. You can represent it, and y'all represent it to the fullest, brother. Y'all definitely represent it to the fullest. I think so. So I appreciate that. It's because my family was from New York. Oh, okay. So you got to use in your blood. Somewhere in your blood.

SPEAKER_00 8:08

They was in there like giving me that New York growing up and so they played a lot. They played. Oh, that's dope. That's dope.

SPEAKER_01 8:13

So yeah, so you were a student of the game before you was a participant. That's the best phase to be. You can be a good artist if you're not. You gotta be a student first. You gotta be a student first. I got tons of poetry books in my house, Nice than Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks. I've been reading that stuff since I was a baby. You know what I mean? So you gotta be a student of the game, become a participant of the game. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:31

I need to get more poetry books, honestly.

SPEAKER_01 8:33

I gotta get hango. Like you gotta get hango.

SPEAKER_00 8:35

I feel like those would be very, very helpful.

SPEAKER_01 8:37

Even as an MC, absolutely, absolutely. It would be very helpful for sure. No doubt about it.

SPEAKER_00 8:41

I mean a lot of different books, but never uh your flow is dope.

SPEAKER_01 8:44

Your flow is good. Once you get more information about our people, and now you just implement that into the flow. That's what's gonna that's what made Rachel so good because he was dropping knowledge about who we were as black people, public in who we were as black people. The more information you get in, the more you can spit back out to us. So that is true. No doubt. That is true.

SPEAKER_00 9:01

Most of the information I receive is from like psychology and self-help books and stuff like that. So yeah, yeah. If I do it, switch it up to make it more. I mean, I've read like the the base of cultural books, like you know, the Malcolm X and the auto autobiography of like MLK and like stuff like that, but I've never really done it. Kind of deep. Yeah, no doubt, no doubt. Yeah, I gotta start doing my thing with it because it's about that time. It's about that time. Yeah, it is. It is.

SPEAKER_01 9:28

Um you might have a shorty one day and you want to give as much to your shorty as you know as you guys.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

I had one time, and because she was dispensing, I had that one time.

SPEAKER_01 9:37

Like she was like almost mad at me. I'm in a child. Oh I say a shorty, I'm in a child. I'm in a child, you mean like a female. Yeah, yeah. That's too though, because we are the teachers to the women and the children, and the more we know, the more they know. The less we know, the less they don't know. So or the woman without the shorty will outshine you, and then it really caused a problem in a relationship, you know what I mean? So you gotta be on your game. So my experience. Yeah, I believe it. I believe it. I believe it. That's kind of embarrassing.

SPEAKER_00 10:02

Wait, wait, what?

SPEAKER_01 10:03

It's kind of embarrassing.

SPEAKER_00 10:03

I was like, yeah, wait. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:06

It's a good wake up call, though. It's a good wake up call for sure. So yeah, no doubt.

SPEAKER_00 10:09

It definitely was. Do you uh between the corner beat and the basement, what's the main thing you're trying to like? What's the message you're trying to send with those? Like um the message as as two people that show up.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

I was saying me. Q the human being and me Q the poet or both. Ooh. My bad, I didn't mean to throw off the question.

SPEAKER_00 10:30

Nah, that's a good, like, ooh, I don't keep wanting to hear both. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

Um, so I incorporate, that's why I asked it in that way, because I incorporate Q the human being into Q the Poet. Into Q the uh host. Q the poet is a different person, but Q the host. What I'm trying to do is implant implant myself into the audience to make sure that if I'm sitting out there, I'm watching the best thing that I can watch. Yeah. So I have to become them to make sure I'm giving them the best thing. Because if I'm sitting out there wondering if I'm receiving the best thing, then I gotta, I'm checking myself every step of the way. I'm checking myself. So when I go up there and I say something for the first time, I'm looking at somebody in the audience and I'm looking at their facial expression. I'm trying to wonder, are they receiving what they're supposed to get? And if not, on the second time I go up, what can I do to make it better? You know what I mean? So I want to make sure that everybody who leaves is telling somebody about what they just saw, who wasn't there. That's my goal. It's to make sure that it's so good that you're telling somebody about it. And that's what's gonna hope to make that you it's all about repeat customers in this business. You know what I mean? When you're a host, you always want people to repeat. You always want people to come back. Josh said the first time he came and he saw me, he was like, Oh, this is it, this is my favorite open mic, I'm going back. That's what I want. I want to make sure that I'm making you want to come back to be here on a regular basis. Like you said, this is like your money night spot now. That's what I that's my goal, is to make sure that this is this I want you to come back. Yeah, repeat customers is very important in this. You know, because you always want to have people who show new people are great, but sometimes new people don't come back. I mean, I know we were all new people once, but I want to make sure that we have a nucleus and they inform new people around that nucleus. That's true. I need a nucleus first.

SPEAKER_00 12:00

That's true.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

You know what I mean? I know I can name the people who are gonna be here. I know Marlene is gonna be here. I know that um Yuzi Sugi is gonna be here. Um, you know what I mean? I can name some people who I'm gonna Miriam won't be here. Miriam's gonna be here, Josh is gonna be here. Uh I can name the people who I know are pretty much going to repeat because they love the space and I love that. You know, that's what I want. So I hope that answered the question. I don't see how I'm always trying to make sure that as a host, I'm I'm giving you what I would want to have, but I would say it's an audience. Okay. That's it. That's my answer. That's dope. That's dope. What about the poet side? Um, so I guess the goal in that is to make you uncomfortable, shake you up a little bit, because nothing changes unless we are a little bit uncomfortable. We don't get we don't get changed from being everybody's just being happy and kumbaya. Yeah. I have to know I have to say something that's going to kind of make you question, like, oh, why did you say that? Or what was that about? And if I do that, that's good enough for me because even if you don't like it, at least it shook you up. It's all about energy. You know what I mean? You know energy. So if if I can affect your energy in any kind of way, I've done my job as a poet as a poet. I need to affect your energy. The first time I heard um The Last Poets, uh, you familiar with the last poets? Well, let me do somebody, let me do Gil Scott here. The first time I heard uh Whitey's on the Moon. I don't know if you know the poem, Whitey's on the Moon. He said a rat, then I said a rat them, then my sister Neil were righty on the moon. Her face and arms began to swell with Whitey on the Moon. So he's basically talking about all this stuff that's going on in my community, but white people are sending rockets to the moon. Like y'all saying, fuck us. We're not important. You know, we got rats and roaches in our houses, but y'all spending trillions of dollars sending people to the moon. So what is that about? So it shook me up and made me realize that somebody cared enough about our community to put it on wax. He cared enough about us to talk about it on wax, and that meant a lot to me. So I need to let my people know that I care enough about police brutality when I'm doing poems about maybe taking back a cop's life who took one of our lives. I'm letting my people know that, okay, Q cares. You know, he cares. He he knows what's going on in our hood, that he knows the police are messing with us and he's putting it back out there to shake them up a little bit. If I can't kill him, at least I can shake them up and let them know that. There might be some brothers out here who might be willing to even up to score, buddy. Yeah. You might want to watch what you do. So that's my job as a uh as a poet is to shake you up a little bit. You know? I feel like that's right. Even on the flip side, as a father, when I wrote the poem about my daughter, maybe I want a young black man out there to be who's really questioning his decision on how he's gonna make it as a father, like what he's gonna do. Maybe if he hears me as a black man talk about my love for my daughter, how she changed my life and shaped my life, maybe that might shape and change his a little bit. I'm saying, you know what, let me start taking this fatherhood thing a little bit more serious. So I'm just trying to affect change. I'm trying to affect change with my with my poems.

SPEAKER_00 14:30

So I feel like that's what you should do as an artist.

SPEAKER_01 14:33

Period. No matter what we as a rapper, a dancer, a singer, uh everything. We're supposed to be trying to make change.

SPEAKER_00 14:38

If you're not doing that, then ultimately What are you doing for?

SPEAKER_01 14:41

Yeah, yeah. I say one of my poems, I said uh uh some people are only out to entertain, and and those are the ones who are chasing financial gain, and that's not really what we're supposed to be about. You know what I mean? So there's a difference between uh getting paid doing what you do and doing what you do to get paid. I'll say it again. There's a difference between getting paid doing what you do and doing what you do just to get paid.

SPEAKER_00 15:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 15:04

I get paid doing what I do. I don't do what I do just to get paid. I do this for free all day. I get paid just doing what I do. They pay me just doing what I do. You know what I mean? They pay me at the basement just doing what I do, but I'm not doing nothing just to get paid. I refuse to do that. Because now you gotta do what they want you because they got the check. Sound more like this. Dance more like that. You know what I mean? I'm not doing that. I already came in doing what I do, and they just happen to pay me just for doing what I do.

SPEAKER_00 15:27

That's just another job.

SPEAKER_01 15:28

Right.

SPEAKER_00 15:28

That's just another sign to five.

SPEAKER_01 15:30

Like, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 15:31

You're just doing what they want you to do so you can get paid. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 15:34

I can care less if they pay me. I didn't know when Gio passed this down to me if they was gonna be paying me or not. I had no idea. I didn't care. I accepted the job when he gave it to me. And then the money came, and now I do anything. Nikki gives me anything. And I appreciate the corner beat for allowing me to be here for three years. It'll be three years in April. So I got a shout out to Nikki and MK, the manager, the staff of this place. It's amazing place. So it's been one of the best relationships I had as a host in a long time.

SPEAKER_00 15:54

That's cool. One time, shout out the corner beat every Monday, real quick, and the camera.

SPEAKER_01 15:59

Um, the corner beat open mics every Monday. Lineup, the doors open at six o'clock. That's when the sign-up starts. But the line usually forms by five o'clock. Um, the barista is here until about nine, and the cook is here until eight o'clock, and the kitchen and the barista is open.

SPEAKER_00 16:13

I like that.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

So we take 20 people on the list. So get here early and uh 10 minutes to perform and come out and have a good time.

SPEAKER_00 16:19

And if you aren't here, if you come here at 6, you are not going to get on the list.

SPEAKER_01 16:22

You're not gonna make the list. You're not gonna get here at 5:30, you might be barely making the list at 5.30.

SPEAKER_00 16:26

So you might be making the list at 5.30.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

Also, shout out to uh brother Eclipse for always putting on the good podcast. And uh we appreciate you, brother, and uh uh you know just keep doing what you know because you're giving us all the venue, you're giving us all a voice. So you're using your platform for the right reason because you're sharing it with the with the community and you're giving us a voice, and we appreciate you for that.

SPEAKER_00 16:41

It's been it's been very helpful for me. Like it's been helpful for us.

SPEAKER_01 16:44

So it's been a two-way tree. It's been helpful for you, and it's been helpful for us at the same time.

SPEAKER_00 16:47

So I started so I can start getting out of my own like depression with the whole medical issue. And I was like, yeah, you don't need to be. Let's go ahead and find out some about some other people's stories so you can see that you ain't the only one out here, you know. So once I started finding out about other people's stories, I was like, yeah, suck it up and just go keep going, bro. So I just kept going.

SPEAKER_01 17:08

Well, you're doing a good thing, by the way. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 17:10

This is something that I I do not to get paid. It's just something that I enjoy doing.

SPEAKER_01 17:14

You get paid just doing what you do, right? So but hopefully you're getting paid. Hopefully it generates some type of income.

SPEAKER_00 17:19

A little bit.

SPEAKER_01 17:19

I mean a little bit, but it's on growth. That's on growth. But yeah, you shouldn't say nothing, so it's generating a little bit, but I think it's on growth. Sponsorship and other ways, it's on growth.

SPEAKER_00 17:25

I mean, I've been getting serious with the whole sponsor shit. It's good making uh people want commercials in the commercials on here and they're gonna do it.

SPEAKER_01 17:31

Yeah, it's gonna grow for you. It's on growth from you still make t-shirts?

SPEAKER_00 17:34

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 17:34

Okay, I want to ask you about that. Um, I it I need to so you have uh networks where you can make t-shirts? I want to get some t-shirts made with the corner bead on it.

SPEAKER_00 17:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 17:43

I really want to think we should do it, and then we can sell the merch to kind of help the corner bead out too. I want to sell them, not to keep the money from. I buy them from you, yes. Let me know what the price is, you get a good number of them, different sizes. Now I want to make them proceeds and sell it and give it back to the corner. Okay, yeah. That's a good thing. Because we gotta keep these local. This is a single woman-owned venue. You know what I mean? Just one woman who owns this, and the her overhead is and we need to make sure that we can do everything we can in our power. I probably shouldn't say this part on on tape. Just probably take that part off. No, I got you. But I'm saying I do want to sell t-shirts to help the single-owned uh local businesses to stay afloat. And I think the more we do to help them out, that they're helping us out. They don't charge us to be here every week. Nah, they don't. And sometimes we don't buy food like they should, you know what I mean? So I'm gonna help them out by getting some t-shirts made. Maybe you come up with a good logo we can look at it and uh uh have MKs uh say if it's good and then we can just sell them here on Monday nights and get a money to them.

SPEAKER_00 18:30

Yeah, that'd be awesome.

SPEAKER_01 18:31

I'll pay you for them, of course. I'm gonna pay you for them, but still I just want to take the proceeds and get a money back to them.

SPEAKER_00 18:35

I mean, honestly, with the payment, I'll just take a little percentage of it and like I don't even know. Just let me know. I'm saying I don't mind though.

SPEAKER_01 18:42

But I know how to support Black Business Science. I know you're doing what you do. So I you already gave me one free t-shirt, so I know you've already supported. So I'm saying whatever it is, if it's not just you know, keep in mind on momentum, but just but either way, just whatever you say. I'm I just want to get a good number of them, sell them here, put them on display, sell them here, then get the money, let the people know that if you buy them, give the money back to the corner beat. So some start selling our shirts back to make up some of that uh loss that of not buying food and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 19:03

So a lot of people will buy those, a lot of people will buy it.

SPEAKER_01 19:06

So yeah, just let me know because it's about to be springtime again, it's supposed to be in the 80s all this week. Yeah, and next week. So let me know. If how soon can you think you can turn that around? Maybe in like three weeks. Oh, that's cool. That'd be perfect because it'd be right into the middle of April anyway. And that's my my um my one year anniversary is in April. My three year anniversary is in April anyway.

SPEAKER_00 19:21

That's when I'm saying to get my shirts by one again. Okay, all right. So I'm gonna have like I'll just increase the little bulk order that I'm about to put in and just be like boom.

SPEAKER_01 19:28

I figure we start off with about how many sizes do you do? Like how many?

SPEAKER_00 19:32

I do from small to large. Well, extra large. Sometimes I'll go to two X.

SPEAKER_01 19:36

Something you go to 2x. Yeah. If you can do 2X, that'd be good. So that'd be five different sizes: small, medium, large, extra large, and two X. Small, medium, large, extra large, and two X. So that if you can give me like five of each, just start off five of each one, that'd be like 25 ships. Right. So just let me know what the price would be and we go from there.

SPEAKER_00 19:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:52

Start off small and they outsell, then we do another batch and just go from there.

SPEAKER_00 19:54

That's easy. That's easy. All right, let's do that, brother. My mom be making me do that for her child care.

SPEAKER_01 19:58

And you believe that you can have them before the end of April?

unknown 20:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:00

Oh, it'd be perfect, but it'd be perfect. Oh, yeah, that's another time.

SPEAKER_01 20:03

Let's make that happen. Let's make that happen. I really want to do that. I really, really want to do that. Yeah, we'll definitely do that. We'll definitely do that. I would love to do that. So we good? We done?

SPEAKER_00 20:10

Uh one more. Okay, yeah, for sure. Uh this is just uh the one that I just like to ask for shits and giggles, like little questions. I like those. I like those. So what's the most, what's the most like stupendous? Is it stupendous trip? Can I say it right? Let's just hear it. What's the most stupendous trip that you've taken just off of the fly?

SPEAKER_01 20:32

Stupendous? When you think stupendous, what does that mean?

SPEAKER_00 20:34

Like I think I'm saying that wrong. No, I'm just saying, like, what like just like a good one, but just like off, like just one, like, oh, I just, you know, I'm gonna just go here just yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:44

Um recently, uh, me and a friend of mine went to uh Salt Lake City, Utah on a train. Oh took a train ride to Salt Lake City, Utah. So what?

SPEAKER_00 20:53

How long was that?

SPEAKER_01 20:53

It was a good 15, about 15 hours, I believe. But it was a dude, I'm telling you, because I didn't know how I mean I had been on the train since I was a kid, right? Long time ago, probably in third grade. It was a fun trip, dude. I had no, I mean, I didn't know trains was it's much more room and it's less stress. I went in trouble by more trains because that trip taught me a lesson. Nobody checks your bags. You just put your bags on the train, whatever you want. I mean, it's it's so low-key and easy. It was it's a long ride, but the seats, so much room in between you and the person sitting in front of you. You can really stretch your legs out, the bathrooms are bigger. It didn't feel like it was 15 hours. It was a very comfortable trip. It was a very, very comfortable trip. I would try a trip. Salt Lake City, Utah. I've never been there before, but it was we went to Salt Lake City, Utah. And it was cool. It was a cool trip.

SPEAKER_00 21:32

A lot of black people out there, too.

SPEAKER_01 21:34

I didn't realize that. At first, I had no idea. It's some cool being in restaurants that I went to when I was there, but I would love to do it again. It was a really cool trip. Took pictures of the um what a Utah Jazz play. I took some pictures outside of the arena with a Utah Jazz play. It was a cool trip. So that was that was on the whim. We just decided, you know what, let's take a train ride. We talked about it. Next thing I know, they were looking up and they saw Salt Lake City. It was pretty inexpensive, and we went to so it was to answer your question, it was on the whim. We went to Salt Lake City, YouTube. Never been there before. So that's awesome. It was a pretty cool trip. It was a really cool trip. You know, hip hop? Is actually popular, I think, too. You know what you said that the last I think the last time you was here. You mentioned that you said that. I had no idea. But uh you said that dude's good. He's a good dude. He goes, interesting name, though. What's his you remember? You know, remember him before?

SPEAKER_00 22:12

I remember him playing, but not by something idiot or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 22:15

Uh something idiot? This is that anyway. He's a dope poet.

SPEAKER_00 22:18

We got some great artists out here tonight. He's a dope poet.

SPEAKER_01 22:20

But anyway, so that's the answer to the question. So I like that uh that question, though. That's a good question. I like that. But yeah, that was it. That's the trip that took for sure. It prompted me to make money to take more trips like that, though. Just on the whim.

SPEAKER_00 22:29

Honestly. Those would be the best ones.

SPEAKER_01 22:31

Yeah. But I remember you saying that that Utah had a hip hop uh community. I remember you saying that, and I thought that was pretty cool that they had a hip hop community. It's pretty dope. It's pretty dope. It's awesome. I wonder you made me want to go back again to check that out, though, to check out the scene. Because I didn't get a chance to spit when I was out there, I didn't get a chance to do no open mic.

SPEAKER_00 22:43

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:43

Oh yeah, yeah, because we just went on the way upstairs in the hotel and just kind of kicked it. Definitely check it out. But I want to go back, I want to check out the scene, find out when open mics are gonna go back and put my words out there now. So the next time I go back. Definitely check it out. So if you know of any spots, hit me up. Send me some um some links or something like that. That'd be kind of cool.

SPEAKER_00 22:54

Okay. What's that? I'm gonna have to take the train. That's it.

SPEAKER_01 22:57

The train I would tell any, I would suggest anybody take a train. Yeah. I think my next train trip, because you know Moses, you know, Moses is in Chicago. Yeah. So I'm gonna go to see Moses in uh Abbey in Chicago. I'm gonna take a train out there. And it's a long, probably might be 17, 18 hours, but I'm gonna take a train out to uh Chicago from here. That's what I'm gonna do.

SPEAKER_00 23:12

All the way down there too? Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:13

Oh yeah. Yeah. I gotta go see my people, you know what I mean? And then it's just I figured they can pick me up from the train station, and that way it's simpler. I ain't gotta drive, you know, it's almost the same thing because I think it's about 15 hours driving. So it'd be like 18 hours on the train out.

SPEAKER_00 23:27

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 23:27

And yeah, I think uh round trip it might be like 150 bucks round trip. Yeah, it's nothing. Now I was looking at the uh I was looking at them takes Monday, I was looking at them yesterday, I was looking at the uh prices yesterday. It's like 70, like$73 one way and$75 the other way coming back. So it's like$150 round trip. Literally, and it's comfortable. I'm telling you when I take it, and you can eat on the train. They got like vent had I had a vegan burger the last time. I was on the train, dude. It's so comfortable. It's I'm telling you, dude, the train ride is the business. Bathrooms are big, ain't that small, like the you know, the train, like the clean bits and everything. No, it's a big bathroom.

SPEAKER_00 23:55

Oh cleaner and everything.

SPEAKER_01 23:57

So yeah. Check out the train. No, trains are love, though. I'm telling you, train is love.

SPEAKER_00 24:00

You got no reason not to travel this training.

SPEAKER_01 24:01

You can read it, you can put your headphones on and do it. I mean, it's it's love on a train, dude. The good thing is that they don't check your bags. You can pretty much take whatever you want to take to get you back and forth. They don't nobody's looking at your bag. Nobody's taking your bag. You can take two, I put one under the uh seat and one above. It's all good. It's all good for real.

SPEAKER_00 24:17

Go check it out. Yeah, go check it out. Thanks for getting on here. Oh brother, I appreciate you, man. I appreciate it. I like the bees, still ball. I'm filling your beats. My sister's slowly putting me on game. No doubt, she's slowly teaching me. No doubt. She's uh putting me in an apothecary, and like I got a reading from Have you been to the apothecary next door?

unknown 24:32

Nah.

SPEAKER_00 24:34

Dude, they got all the herbs and everything you need over there. Taking my brother over there because he's real big in it, and he's gonna like take me over there and educate me on a lot of stuff because he has his own little he has his own little apothecary in the in the room. So he like he'll be like, yo, you see in here, drink this tea. And I'm like all day long, man. Bro, I'm not trying until he's like, it's the best thing for you for it. Drink this. It's the best thing for you for real. All right, all right.

SPEAKER_01 24:58

The body needs to operate off energy, and the energy we put in it is gonna do the right thing. So you you need that, brother.

SPEAKER_00 25:03

Every morning, he does three things. He will go make his tea, he will go go to the bathroom, and then he will wash his face and brush his teeth. That's the business. That's his routine every morning. That's what it's supposed to be. It's good. He sticks to it and I love it. It's cool.

SPEAKER_01 25:16

Well, I'm still in Ramadan right now, so I haven't drank anything all day. So I'm waiting till seven o'clock, I can break my fast. So yeah, still Ramadan. So the last day is Thursday.

SPEAKER_00 25:23

So I just got the Quran. Okay. About to get in.

SPEAKER_01 25:26

You ready to talk? I've been a Muslim for thirty long. You've been born, bro. I've been a Muslim for thirty years. I converted in 1990. That's cool. So I've been Muslim for 30 years.

SPEAKER_00 25:32

I got some questions. I'm gonna definitely. Let's do it. Hit me up for sure. No doubt.

SPEAKER_01 25:35

For sure. Um also.