Me, Jack Harlow & Racial Dysphoria + Love is Blind and My Disney Chanel Mount Rushmore

Jack Harlow is not the guest btw. But he does have a new album and said some things that got people upset (RACIALLY). I also give my final thoughts on love is blind season 10 and drop my mount rushmore of Disney Chanel stars. If you're in your early 30s this ones for you BABY. Please like the show and leave a rating and review and subscription and give me a hug kbye. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Uh uh uh it's uh uh uh uh it's uh that's cool.

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Uh uh uh curve fucking brilliant. Don't you forget about me? Don't don't don't don't welcome to episode 20 of the Crum World Podcast. Guess who it is? It's your host Crumberley coming to you from my house. Today's date is Sunday, March 15th. You're listening to this on Monday, March 16th, or a later date in the future. You already know that. Um, welcome to the show. Thank you for listening. Thank you for clicking the button on your phone or for letting it roll in. If it if it's just rolling in, hey, just let it rock. Just let if this is just if you haven't had a chance to change the podcast yet, you're listening to, give me a chance, man. And if you clicked on this on purpose, you've done it, you've already experienced the joy. You know what I mean? Like the joy is coming through me talking, but also the once you hit the button, it's like you know, sometimes if you like, I don't drink anymore, but like sometimes when you like get off work and you order a drink before you even get the drink, once you've ordered the drink, you're already in bliss, right? Uh just thinking about the first joint I'm gonna smoke after, just rolling the joint. I already feel, you know what I mean? So let the let the pre let the knowledge that you're gonna be imbued with joy imbue this moment with joy. I'm here to deliver that joy. You can call me Dr. Joy, uh, and my office hours are now. I'm taking new clients. I am not certified. But come, I do BBLs, I'll get you some veneers, and I also do colonoscopies. Again, I'm not certified. I cannot stress that enough. Please, however, like this show on whatever you're listening to. If that's on Spotify, Apple, YouTube, whatever. Uh take a moment to like it, subscribe, uh, leave a comment saying that you like it, review it, rate it. All those nice things really do matter. Um, at least I've been programmed to say as much by other shows and people online who give advice for growing your own podcast. Um, we got fun stuff to talk about today. Um, we're gonna talk, it's gonna be not a lot about Jack Carlo, but we're talking about Jack Harlo, and I'm using that as an excuse to do some exposition. Um, and then I'm gonna have some last thoughts on Love is Blind. And if we get to it, uh I will give you my Mount Rushmore of Disney Channel um celebrities, characters, figures, because uh that's a Raven dropped their Mount Rushmore, and people are talking about it. There's no Miley. There's no Miley, no Hannah Montana. Come on now. Um before we start, it's a fun, it's a fun thing doing a podcast where it's like just your interests, and basically through the metrics I receive or you receive, how or whoever, um, you basically get to figure out which things you talk about the your quote unquote audience or people who listen to you also care about. So I've gotten the harsh reality about what things I talk about that people do and don't care about based on the data, and sometimes it's soul crushing. Um and sometimes, okay, so last week we talked about I talked with Zai about uh this Magic City night, this promotion happening with the Atlanta Hawks, the NBA team, my favorite NBA team. Um shockingly, the story about my favorite NBA team was not, yeah, y'all didn't respond furiously to it. Kind of kind of depressing because it like fully squashes any hope I ever had of like slowly transitioning this, not slowly, but transitioning this into any sort of sports podcast. Not that I would do that to y'all, but if I just happened to talk about basketball and people really responded to that, I would happily talk about it more. But that's not what happened here. Um and I don't care, man, because you know what? Because y'all didn't because y'all didn't rock the vote when it came to engaging with my content on uh the Atlanta Hawks Magic City night, the NBA done canceled it. It's your fault. Um Yes, if you did listen last week, uh, and we talked about how awesome this Magic City promotion was gonna be for the city of Atlanta. The NBA swooped in and canceled it. And I just wanted to give it the closure. I'm not gonna get into it too much, okay? I'm just mad at y'all now. Um, not getting into it too much, but the NBA canceled it. Super disappointing. I am hopefully still getting a hood hoodie. I've been told I'm still getting a hoodie, but now the shipping is like we don't know where it is. They're not telling us about it. So now I'm really afraid the NBA is gonna nix us getting our hoodies, which would make sense because you know, they they ultimately said they didn't want their brand. That not they didn't want their brand, but their quote-unquote the NBA's quote-unquote partners were uncomfortable with it. What does that mean? Other people who have a lot of money, uh the other billionaires or even the people who sponsor the league, such as the various gambling and alcohol organizations who funnel so much money into the league or have a uh a co-what's when they're both uh uh it's a mutually beneficial relationship, basically. The NBA has with all these other companies, and these other companies and these other owners were like, hey, uh F this. So um it's gone and it's over, and I guess I'll never talk about it again. But I just wanted y'all to know, uh, if you did last week that all the joy we were expressing, um, it's not coming, it's not gonna happen. We're never gonna see it. Um Damn you. And it's yeah, no, you listener, the listener, listening now, fuck you, man. No, I'm sorry, that's very mean. I I'm in my feelings about it, but we can move on to the main to the main topic for the day. So, Jack Harlow, if you don't know, Jack Harlow is an American. Well, you can't just call him a hip hop artist or rapper anymore. Uh he says he wants to be known as a rapper. We'll get into it. Jack Harlo, American musician, blew up around the 2020s, um mid-early pandemic, whatever, with a song called What's Poppin'. Um, he also has went on to have other hits such as First Class and Um Lovin' On You. He's on The Lil' Nas X uh number one, former number one song, Industry Baby. Um Zo Jack Carlo, definitely uh already. He's a big he's a big figure in the discourse, uh, the hip-hop discourse community in the past five to ten years, just as the de facto most popular white rapper, new white rapper. And, you know, being as this is America, the internet is the way it is, and hip-hop is the way it is, um, that has pretty constantly made him a s uh a target for both fair and unfair uh criticism and scrutiny around his engagement with this historically back black art form. Um Jack Harlow, after a couple years, I don't remember how many years since the last album, three or four years since his last album, came out this past week with a new album called Monica. The new album is um very RB, uh think neo soul, kind of jazzier, um really soft vocals, really laid back, like classic Sunday kind of jazz neo soul-y. I uh it's so I don't wanna I feel like mentioning any artist to compare it to is like fraught because people are gonna be mad that you're comparing Jack Harlow. I've seen um another outlet, maybe even Rolling Stone or like Vulture, uh called it v uh Voodoo inspired, and people were very upset that they compared Jack Harlow to D'Angelo, which is totally fair, but um it is clearly in the lineage of songs or artists like D'Angelo and the album Voodoo in particular. Um a big surprise, a big this isn't a lane that he has been in before. Like I said, he primarily was like a a more quote unquote braggadocious swag, modern, whatever, uh semi-lyrical, pretty lyrical, I guess, rapper. Um the interesting thing, so I'm gonna use talking about Jack Harlow um as because before I get into my full thoughts about it, I'm going to talk about my experience being a black person. Um because, you know, I I'll I'll ultimately want to talk about like a lot of what I talk about as a comedian or the things I find interesting and like you know, funny, obviously, are the ways, you know, in America we categorize and define black and white people and as we'll as I'll get to kind of in this uh analogous but almost what's that word for like opposite? It's like analogous but like also almost contradictory, um, inverse kind of way. I relate to somewhat of the Jack Harlow experience, um, which I again I said we'll get to, but this album arrived for me. Um I saw that it was coming out on Friday, and on Friday morning, I saw this new episode of the New York Times podcast. Um, this is a music podcast by the New York Times. I've actually listened to for like three or four years at this point. I think it's one of the better music podcasts. At this point, um it's primarily interviews with other artists. Uh, they've had a bunch of artists who have had clips similar to this one go kind of viral because they are getting like a really interesting assortment of artists who are coming through to drop stuff, and obviously, you when you're at the New York Times, you can get the biggest artist. They had Bad Bunny on before he dropped DTMF, uh Rosalia was on, Erica Badu's been on, Young Lean's been on, Big X the Plug's been on, um just a lot of people. Luke Brian Luke Combs was just on. They basically have all kinds of people. Big I said Big X the Plug already. Um basically anytime an artist is dropping an album now, I think it's one of the places that labels are like primarily sending to. I think uh part of the clips rollout that began when clips uh when Pusha T made comments, when Pushity kind of explained his subliminal disses about Travis Scott initially, and that kind of went viral. That was also on the New York Times podcast. So basically, anytime a big artist is coming through or is about to drop a project and they want to get some quotables out there, uh, this is where they head. Uh, I was gonna say I do enjoy this podcast. Right now, it's in an iteration that's mostly just interviews. It's been a lot of other stuff as kind of podcasts can be. Um, you know, a lot of times it was just the two hosts having conversations. Um, there was uh a while where it was the main host just doing like different stories about different, you know, types of things going on in the music world. And it's always been really in-depth, and these are very experienced writers, and they are always able to, especially in interviews, get really interesting conversations out of their guests. Um, so like I said, I saw Jack Harlow was on there and he had a new album out, and on Friday I was like, oh, I'd like to listen to this podcast, but I think I'll probably want to listen to this album first. And I was at work and I can listen to music at work, and I saw the Jack Harlo album was only 30 minutes, so I was like, you give me an under 30-minute album from anyone, I'll probably give it a chance. That's a perfect length. This is so I checked it out. Um, you know, I didn't really I saw I had read that it was gonna be RB, but didn't really think too much about it, and then when it started, I definitely was very surprised by the direction I went. You know, I didn't have a particular a particular expectation of what a Jack Harlow RB album would sound like, but I definitely, I guess in my mind, thought it would be much closer to the music he was making before, meaning it will probably have some singing and some, you know, different kind of you know, songs that are more, you know, centered around love and those kind of experiences. But I still expect there to be some rapping and some, you know, more like synths and like modern sounds, things like that. Um so when it was very stripped back, it's stripped back instrumentally, it's stripped back vocally, um, you know, and that is like clear from like the first couple of seconds of this album. Super surprising to me. I actually really enjoy the album. I've probably like I said, it's only 30 minutes. Um so I've probably listened to it like four or five times already, just because it's really easy to get through and it's really nice on the ears. I think like I don't know, a lot could be excuse me. A lot could be said or felt about like the content of the songs or whatever, whatever. But in terms of like, does this sound good? Do I enjoy putting it on? Is it interesting? Does it felt like authentic and kind of go for? It is it accomplishing the vibe that it's is it accomplishing the goal that it's clearly set out to accomplish? And I think it is. It's like the perfect uh he described it in the interview as Sunday music. Listen to it today on Sunday. Can't confirm great Sunday music in your kitchen, making dinner, whatever. That's the album. I think it's great. Um and I listened to the interview afterwards, and I thought, you know, as I typically do with the show, it was like a really interesting interview. Um if anything, because one of the hosts is like really consistently challenging Jack, because Jack, one thing Jack says about the album is he's like, I tried to write from a position that was like ego-less. And you know, he's saying that in reference to the idea that hip-hop uh as a genre is you know very built on ego, bravado, machismo, all these things, uh mascul that you know, masculinity and the varying ways it can look, but generally it looks like a kind of way. And he wanted to get away from writing like that, so he tried to, through his words, write an album where the writing had no ego in it. And one of the hosts is like kind of constantly, you know, they're they wrestle with that idea throughout. And I always find it interesting when like you interview with someone and you're like not you're not just glazing them, you're like, hey, let me challenge you on your ideas. Um, and I thought Jack interacted in a way that wasn't like crazy defensive. It was like, well, let's actually have a conversation about it. Um so far you're probably like, yeah, this just sounds like uh and album roll out. What it what is the what is to be to be had here, Krim? Um, well, it's not like I don't know what kind of bubbles people are in on the internet. I know this was on my in my algorithm, my specific uh view into the algorith the internet. It was at least for a day or two, uh, like a big topic, a big talking point. I've seen a bunch of different black artists and and like the head of TDE even has like responded um because at one point in the interview Okay, at one point in the interview, Jack says the quote, I got blacker in reference to what his like his changing from like you know, typical raggados yo, whatever swag white boy hip hop to a more traditionally I don't know, a traditionally like soulful uh jazzy type of RB, which you know does we'll get into what is black or not black. So I guess the reason I wanted to use this, I thought this was interesting, uh way to jump into like a little expition exposition about myself because like I said, the entire idea about like what is quote unquote black and what is quote unquote white is something I'm like you know constantly fascinated by and constantly you know trying to engage with. I I guess for me, right? I grew up, I grew I grew up black. I am black. Um if you are listening to this podcast and you know we're 15, 20 minutes in and you did not know, boom, gotcha. You got surprised black podcasted. You've already given me your stream, it's okay. Uh this is just step one of the great replacement. Uh step two, step two is podcast. Step one was Steph Curry, step two, Steph two is um slowly getting you all to like Black Podcast, and I'm just happy to be a part of it. Um, but no, I I'm I'm black, but I grew up, so I grew up like uh let me pull back a little bit more. So I I'm listening to the Grits and Eggs podcast with Deontay Kyle podcast. I think me and Zy have talked about just one of the better new podcasts. Uh I think it's like a year or two old. Um, but I've only it's only been on my radar for about a year. Deontay Kyle, the host, super awesome. It's a super pro-black, super radical podcast. And he had a guest on, and they were talking about one of the guests was I don't remember who the guest was, and I I am sorry to that guess. But they were basically having a conversation about how black people uh just the way black people talk is so much cooler and so much more interesting. And the what they used was like at one point the guest ran down a different he ran down all the different ways historically, like just in rap in hip hop alone that niggas have come up with to say the word gun, just like blicky, ruger, nine, draco, you know, think of the next 20. I'm not going to. But you know, they're able to get to literally close to 20. And I'm like, yeah, I actually recognize all of those as different ways people have said gun um using just hip-hop. And so that really inspired me to write a joke about basically the idea that you know, white people I'm just that, that black people talk much cooler. Um, but putting it through my own lens, and you know, the I'm not gonna spoil too much of the joke, um, but I use like a similar mechanism and naming all the different ways black people have to say something is cool, and then blah blah blah blah blah. And so I did that joke and I wrote that joke and I was like, cool, it started working, and I was like, cool, but then you know, as one thing I do it's like helps meme build my material as a comedian, is as soon as a joke works. I'm like, okay, how do I fit this into my ult ultimately like my personal narrative about myself? Because like comedically, you know, there's some people that are doing purely like observational political stuff out in the world, boom, that's where my their comedy is rooted. For me, I definitely do some of that, but I think a lot of my comedy is rooted in personal experience and personal narrative and um getting talk in writing this joke about how black and white people talk, um, the natural like leading into that. I'm like, okay, so uh what is my relationship with that, right? And My relationship with that is like, you know, being told for a lot of my life, like, oh, you're so articulate, you're so well spoken. Uh, or ultimately, like, I talk like a white person. Um, again, if you didn't know for the first 15 minutes I was black, gotcha. Um, then my middle school bullies were right. Uh so yeah, I just was like, okay, what's the most I could extrapolate out of that uh like that feeling, right? And it it gets me it got me to, you know, so vulnerable. Basically, the idea that like I am, I'm a black person, well established at this point, but I generally do feel insecure about the way other other black people perceive me. Um not like so much that like I walk around and I'm like nerd, like nerd, you know what I mean? This is a thing I'm like know about myself and have worked through in therapy for some years and like am comfortable enough to like write about and tell people about. So I'm okay. But you know, that's my experience, and a big part of that experience is or the big reason for that experience is growing up, I went from kindergarten to seventh grade, and then from like ninth grade to or tenth grade to twelfth grade, I went to the same small, predominantly, predominantly white private school. And so most of my friends and teachers and a lot of the education, ultimately, a big chunk of my community growing up was white, therefore, therefore, I'm culturally, I say there's a lot of excuse me. I say in the joke, but one thing I say is like I am culturally white. Um not that I don't identify with like black people and black stuff, it's just I bring a very uh have you guys seen the office energy to the cookout? Ha ha ha. Um and I so I guess like I was trying to figure out how to frame uh my experience growing up to like help you people understand what it was like for me growing up in a predominantly white environment. So I have like a couple, I have a narrative or a story rather from each elementary, middle school, and high school that I think is illustrative of my experience. Okay, so elementary school. Um, for the most part, I am the only black kid in my grade. Not for the most part, I'm the only there's one black boy and one black girl in my grade. Um, I'm not gonna say her name. I've already mentioned her in a different story. Maybe I'll circle back to it. Um but hope she's alright. There's another girl in my grade, it was just me and her for like the first two or three kindergarten through second or third grade. Third grade comes around. We get another black kid in my grade named Amir. Um, they put Amir and me in the same class. Looking back, I don't know if that was a good move or a bad. I think it was a good move because I think they were like, we gotta keep them together. But they they didn't they gave us to the worst teacher to give us to two, give to two, right? Like they're like, okay, we have two black, two black boys, we definitely want to keep them together, and let's give them the youngest, you know, most socially conscious teacher. They're like, no, two black boys, let's keep them together. Who's the oldest white lady we have here? Put her in charge of them. And that's what happened. And um, me and Amir are homies that me and Amir are still, I mean, we're not still tight, but we still keep in touch. Um, but the story is like, so this is like I didn't realize this was a crazy thing until much later. This is like a story I like told a friend at like the age of 24, and they're like, this is nuts. I was like, huh. I guess it is weird. So obviously me and Amir are in the same class, uh, like I said, and every day, so the the teacher, uh, Mrs. King, bless her heart. I don't know if she's still alive. I I'm not gonna say I don't care. She was nice. The story is weird, but she's nice. Um, generally, you see, this is my internalized whatever. RIP potentially her. Um, so she never got our names right, right? Like me and Amir, the only two black kids, every day. She never called us the right name. She called me Amir a lot. She called Amir uh my government name a lot. And I don't think it I don't remember it affecting either of us, but it like uh clearly looking back on it affected her. Because eventually, what I remember is like one day we came in a class and she like called us the wrong name and like I corrected, she called me the wrong name, and I corrected her, and she just like threw me a piece of candy. And that was just like her strategy for the rest of for the rest of the time she taught us. There was never uh an explanation of the bucket. She never was like, hey, listen, I'm gonna do some microaggressions. Here's an apology Twix. There was never that. It was never, you know, like I think she probably I'll I think she said sorry. I don't know for sure. In my head, she said sorry, but the candy definitely communicated sorry either way. And um, yeah, I I again that's not a thing I ever thought about being weird until I told someone, and then like looking at it now through an adult lens, it's like it's really I I don't it is dehumanizing might be a little too extreme, but it's definitely like no, I think dehumanizing is the right word because it's not there's never really like an acknowledgement of our actual humanity, and there was like you know, an effort to make us comfortable with being called out of our name, and with a candy, it's almost like even an ec like a way to like highlight it. I don't know, it wasn't right, it wasn't right. So that was like my elementary school experience, and there was a lot of like you know, they do this, they've done this study. I don't remember, it's like a study and like some kind of video, but basically, you know how like if they did this some sort of scientist scientific thing that proved that like a teacher will just will just be looking at a black child more, so like a black child will get more. People who know what I'm talking about know the study I'm referencing. Um, but if you're black, you basically get looked at more. And definitely that was my experience. Um I felt kind of constantly picked on by my teachers, and like I was a chill kid. I wasn't a chill kid, I was like a kid, you know what I mean? Like, I wasn't any different in terms of like temperament or behavior than any of my peers for the most part. But I do remember like almost every year being like, why am I getting in trouble so much? Like, I feel like I'm just chilling, but I am constantly in the principal's office for just the same shit my friends are doing, and they're not here. Um and then what is the story? Oh, in middle school, right? So like I think the first story illustrates like the the like subtlety of like racism and being, you know, kind of the the the fly and the milk, the proverbial fly and the milk. Um in middle school it was crazy because like you know, I don't whenever it like comes out and someone was like racist as like a teenager or like a middle schooler or like said racist things online as like a teenager, I always don't care. And I'm not saying you shouldn't or nobody should, but I guess my middle school experience made me just so it just normalized the idea that those age kids are just like terrible and racist, just like to everyone. Um and I'm not saying that's right or wrong, that was just my experience. There was one day I was I was in the study hall and a kid named uh I'll call I'll I'll name him Chris Harvey just called me uh a nigger, just called me that like pretty loudly. The teacher heard him, he got one detention. He was like, You gotta she's like, you gotta go to detention, otherwise chill out for what I think is a little bit more serious of an offense. You you ask me, someone calls another kid hard R. He can't come to school tomorrow. Anyway, they gave him one detention later in the same day. I'm just like talking in class to another like I'm talking to another person in class while the teacher's talking, but wouldn't you know? Teacher just calls on me, boom, I'm in trouble. I have detention that day. I get to detention that afternoon. Who do you know is there? Boom, Chris Harvey. Um we just hang out attention to his credit. I don't think he said it again uh during our entire hour together. Um yeah, that I don't that that's like I think the craziest part of that is like how normalized that was for me. I think that's like looking back on it, I was I wasn't even that pressed. And I don't even I remember no one being that pressed. And I was like, oh yeah, you know, people are just wild. Um, and you know, I won't act like I, as someone that age, wasn't doing and saying things that were deplorable either for attention or to be edgy. So that's why I'm like there's definitely no defense I have for it. I'm not in his like, I'm not like it was fine. Uh that's a crazy thing to do, and to not but for him to not be punished more severely than that is like kind of a tacit approval of it, frankly, because like you know, me as this me as someone who got at one attention for talking in class, I'm clearly gonna talk in class again. Like, you know what I mean? You haven't given me a punishment large enough to deter me from it.

SPEAKER_01 33:07

So I I feel did he probably call me again, sure, but he never got caught.

SPEAKER_00 33:13

Um, so yeah, that that's kind of an idea of like the racism I dealt with as a middle schooler, and then like in high school, um there was this girl, and one day during uh like art class, I think, uh there was a song, you probably know it's Swimming Pools by Kendrick Lamar. It's a very popular song. Um, my senior of high school, there's a line in it goes, I got a swimming pool full of liquor, I'm gonna dive in it. I listen to that song, that song is playing, the song finishes playing. My white female friend looks over to me and she's like, Can I tell you something? I'm like, sure. She's like, the first time I heard that song, I thought it was I got a pool full of niggas and they drown in it. Um I was just like, Oh, like that's the thing. It's like by the time I'm older, or yeah, by the time this is like senior of high school, I've already had like there is I will go back in a minute, but like I've already there was like a long cycle for me where there was like not a long cycle, a period. I've done the work now to like look back and be like there was a period in my life where there was like a self-hating black person in me, or like a a part of me that was ashamed of myself, or like earnestly wanted to be white because I went through all these experiences that like made me feel other or you know I was getting called racial slurs. Um yeah, to the point where like I don't know, I don't know. There was when I say I'm gonna go back in ninth grade before the senior year, um, that's like the time I think of where I was like the most ashamed um because I had gone to this I'd gone to like small private schools my whole life, and then I gone to pr small private schools where I was like generally not the only white person, not the only black person, but like the only black one of the only black people for a while, and like a school got as we got higher in grade and the school got bigger, obviously like more black people came. A lot of them um were not black people that had gone to private school their whole life. Um and also throughout this experience of being around like mostly white people, I still have my like family and my like church. So there's still, you know, a couple opportunities a month or one a week, um, opportunities or situations where like I'm actually around a lot of black people, and the older I get, the like more I feel like less accepted by them and like more different from them. And that's definitely a point that like peaked in like um I guess it's my freshman year of high school when I stopped going to the private school and for one year went to like a public high school, and I I remember like the first day of walking into high school and like walking into the bathroom immediately and crying because you know, I didn't have the ability to articulate or even like understand my feelings at that point, but like I was going from being in a grade of like 40 people to like a grade of like you know, a couple hundred. And you know, I went from like no diversity to like full spectrum of diversity, different people who knew each other, uh just an insurmountable social insurmountably difficult social situation for me that I like recognized instantly, and like my response to that was to like really glam on to like uh just like being a white trying to be a white person as crazy as that sounds, this is like my most I've had a lot of different eras. This is my most shameful era, but so like the hand I had like two or three friends and they all were on the lacrosse team, and obviously white dudes, two of them named Jackson, so love still love those guys, hey Jacksons. Um and yeah, I just I just pretended to be on the lacrosse team. I like wore lacrosse pennies and like different lacrosse sh gear and shirts and like team stuff to school every day despite not being on the team and not playing. I just like I was so um out of sorts socially and like unable to know who I am or like where I fit that I just like tried my best to fit into the one thing where like I had any familiarity. Um and that was a really weird era. So all that to say my senior year, I had like I was past that, but still, I don't know, because this was still it was definitely like st uh still 10 years, because like if I'm being honest, it took until like my mid-20s for me to really feel like a sense of like security and like confidence in myself as like a person and who I am as an individual, um, you know, thinking of like race included or otherwise. Um and that's when I really started to like have black friends and like you know, ironically enough, it was during Portland, but when the Black Lives Matter protest started, and you know, me and all the other like black artists across town kind of like formed up and made community. That's when I was like, oh, there is a version of me that is that is like authentically me and like I feel comfortable with, and like I don't have to worry if like black people find me uh to be too quote unquote white. Cause like I guess what I haven't even had is like I got called uh an Oreo a lot, which is um I think probably high school stage was like accepted acceptance, late high school is like acceptance of being an Oreo, which is not a place I'm at anymore, but Oreo is like the idea is you're black on the outside and you're white on the inside. Um in the joke I'm doing about it, I'm like, I actually felt like a black person inside a white person inside a black person. Um I there's more expedition that needs to happen for that to make sense, but ultimately because like I don't know, even the I'm losing my train of thought. The the white parts or the black parts, the black parts about me. Oreo, anyways.

SPEAKER_01 40:58

Um I done a good job of explaining everything. I kind of just uh cut off the Oreo point.

SPEAKER_00 41:05

I because I don't remember where that was landing. Um is the thing I got called. I guess that's I guess that's like a root of where a lot of my insecurity comes from, too, getting called things like that. Like obviously the you speak so well you articulate and you talk like a white person's those are like you know, dog whistles and like you know, this weird anti-black compliment. Um and that never really because like you know, at many points in my life I wasn't like aware enough to like understand how shitty of a thing that is to say. So I think for a while in my life it was just like a thing that I just took earnestly, which is crazy. Um and yeah, this excuse me. Just this um just the idea that I not that I because we're gonna tie it back to Jack Harlow now. It was like, why am I even talking about this? I remembered. So I I understand. So the quote the quote, did I give the quote already? The quote he had um was about him getting blacker, he said, in regards to his music. Um the question, one of the it's actually funny, because the the interviewers, and we're back on the Jack Harlow thing. I'm sorry, I hope this was easy to follow. Um but the interviewer, the interviewers were actually asking him specifically about the idea of being a white artist and being a white artist who is in the space of hip-hop, and how historically you could talk about obviously Post Malone, Machine Gun Kelly, Miley Saris, Jelly Roll, the probably the Mount Rushmore of people who've done this. Um, you know, they talked about how he was in hip-hop and as a white artist in that space, there's almost at this point an expectation that eventually a pivot back to being uh a white person will come, and how what he's done um is kind of antithetical to that idea. And they're asking him a question about that, and they they basically present like that idea to him that you know a lot of people were expecting, would expect it, would have expected him to shift into a genre or a sound or a persona that is more uh appealing or accessible to white audiences and you know is more quote unquote traditionally white, uh thinking about Post Malone doing country, Miley doing everything else she did, and jelly roll doing jelly roll stuff, etc. Um, and you know, he kind of he as the person was like Yeah, and the interviewer was like, Yeah, and instead of doing that, he said, Yeah, I got blacker. Um, and I remember and this is a line people are pretty peop people are people's feathers are ruffled about this line. And listening to the interview initially, it's not something I even registered as odd. Um, because you know, in the context of the actual question that's being asked, they're like c very clearly trying to do their best to be aware of and um respectful of the fact that his music is in a lineage of a black art form. And the me his music is indebted to black people, and his current project was even further indebted to black people, even more in a lineage of historically black music, uh, when it pertains to like soul and jazz. Um so it was well understood to me that what he meant was his he was intentionally going opposite of the way people expected him to go, in that he was not explicitly catering to a more traditionally white sound or whatever the expectation of white people music is, quote unquote. And like I said, I didn't it didn't read odd to me at first. Um, or I didn't like I didn't even notice it. And then when people started like, you know, it got the just the the the quote I quote unquote I got blacker that itself has been thrown onto, you know, YouTube uh TMZ style news graphics that are meant to engagement farm, it's the perfect line if you want to engagement farm about Jack Harlo. That's the thing. He like I said at first it I didn't think anything of it because it's in a perfectly reasonable conversation, and but once you copy and paste it and put it onto just, you know, a picture of your face, like next to a picture of your face where it just is you saying I got blacker, obviously that's gonna look crazy. And then so I went back and watched the clip of that part of the conversation again, and the crazy thing is, and someone pointed it out in the comments, it's it's so hard optically, because it is three white dudes having a conversation about like especially in this moment, explicitly black music, and like what is like the best way to be respectful to and pay homage to black art, and it's three white guys pontificating about it. And so the optics already aren't great. And I gotta say, if you're gonna be the New York Times music podcat, or just like I said, I love this show a lot and love both these journalists a lot. I've read one of their books, I've actually talked to one of them through like DMs about stuff a couple times. They're really knowledgeable, they're really cool guys, they have shitty opinions on uh brat, but besides that, they're cool. But if you're gonna be like, you know, the New York Times, uh a quote unquote progressive, um, a quote unquote worldly uh quote unquote, like I don't want to say woke, but you the other side would say woke. Um you're gonna be that kind of institution, and then you're gonna have two people be critics on an art form as like vast and varied as music, and you're just like, here's a couple white guys, you're gonna get in a lot of moments where optics are not great because it's 2026, and you chose to have your both your main music people be two white guys. Again, I think they're great at the job, and I think I like them, but you can't say that's not uh bad weird optics. And did I have a problem with the quote when it happened? No. Do I have a problem with the quote now? And this is where we'll tie in both my uh very long personal expedition and this Jack Harlow story. I clearly like relate to the idea of being because with Jack, that's why I said he's kind of like not the opposite of me, but like I am black person that grew up around a lot of white people, so has a lot of like culturally white things that like I am just like naturally really into, and scare quotes around culturally white, and like scare quotes around grow up black, like all that for sure. Um and then on the other side, Jack Harlow and like a lot of these quote unquote swag white boys, a thing I only I say, but a lot of these swag white boys are like white, but grew up indebted, like appreciating primarily black art. And it's funny because in the conversation they talk about like the idea that like black artists, hip-hop artists in particular, don't have as much like latitude or don't get as much like coverage or press or like serious consideration when they go into different when they try to explore different genres in the same way that white artists do when they try to explore different genres. And while that is true, I don't know. I also I feel like there I don't want to say that like no rapper has ever done a good rock project, but like in terms of like the the the most popular rappers, has have any of them done a good rock project? There's like, you know, I love Jay-Z and Lincoln Park's collision course, um, and there's certainly other good moments of hip-hop and rock crossing over. Um, and it's not just rock music. Black people, hip-hop artists tried to do a lot of other stuff. My whole point being like, you know, I don't know. This is why it's interesting to me, right? Because I I understand, I would never say I got wider. Y'all, I would never say I got wider. Um, but I understand the uncomfortability around not knowing like how to how to like the things you really like without it seeming like it's in some way corny, or you're liking it to be cool or fit in, or you're trying to be some sort of vulture. Um I'm not saying that Jack Harlow is totally innocent or guilty of all these things. I'm just saying I've come at it, I come at it from the perspective of like it's a big what did what what was he supposed to do moment. Obviously, I wouldn't have said I got blacker if I was him, but within the context of the conversation, it makes a lot of sense. And I don't know. Did I I'm I'm I'm afraid of being called a coon again, y'all. I got called a coon. Um Wha when I did the when I did the Koreans with the new black people thing, I've been called a coon a lot. So it's it's very it's very I'm trying to I don't want to defend Jack Harlow. That's what that's what I I'm trying to get across here. Um but unfortunately I do think it's interesting that more than anything uh there was this conversation that they were having about like how to properly be a white person trying to fit into black music in general, and just having that conversation kind of sparked this um backlash and this kind of distancing by certain parts of the black community. This I don't know, it felt like black people being like, no, which is totally fair, but it's just funny in the context of the conversation where it was very effortful on both the parts of the interviewers and the interviewee to try and be respectful and yeah, reverential and call out the thing that they ultimately kind of got called out for. I don't know, it's interesting. I don't know if I I fully landed the plane tying my personal exposition and Jack Harlow together, but I had to get the personal exposition off because I I've been um it's been cooking in my brain for the past week. Uh it took me like three days to write this to write this long joke. Hopefully you'll see it one day. It's it's got at some point I call myself uh a racially confused Russian doll. Uh there's Oreo stuff in there, there's stuff about the cookout. Uh-huh. I kind of hash, did I? Yeah. Uh it's so hard. Is when you're doing this solo and there's no one here to be like, I guess even if there was someone here, this is all my thoughts. So I couldn't be like, hey, did I say all my thoughts? They'd be like, I don't know. You tell me, listener, did I say all my thoughts on this? I don't know. But it says I'm like 50 minutes in, and I'm like, really? 50 minutes in? We're cut I got bad news for you guys. We're not gonna we're not gonna cut the Disney Mount Rush more. We might cut the Disney Mount Rush more. I want to cut the Disney Mount Rush more, but we're not gonna do it. Okay, give me a second. Okay, this season of Love is Blind, season 10 is over. It's been, I was gonna say a decade, but they do two a year. So it's been five years, ten seasons of Love is Blind, 50, 50-ish couples. IDK.

SPEAKER_01 54:45

These are my five. I'm just gonna do closing thoughts on the season. I finally watched the reunion. I think everyone who's cares too probably has by now.

SPEAKER_00 54:54

I it's hard to know how people feel about this show because people have every opinion online. I've seen a lot of people, especially this season, talking about how they don't watch the show anymore and then proceeding to talk about the show. So I don't really know where people are at. I personally, based on this season, I think the show is still doing a great job. I I really I'm not gonna act like this was the best season ever.

SPEAKER_01 55:21

But I think it's a I think it's a it's a like a quality season. I liked it a lot. Um at this point, we know the the what the experiment bullshit.

SPEAKER_00 55:35

Love is not blind, they have failed. That's the ship is sailed. There's you know, we have the data on that. Some people are like, so I know, so I don't want to watch anymore. I'm like, that's I am not watching being like, I wonder if the people are gonna work out. They're not. I know that. I watch the show for mess, I watch the show for people putting being put in unprecedented unprecedentedly insane emotional situations where they have to decide if they want to marry someone for the rest of their life on a whim in front of their entire family on TV. Is it healthy for a society? Would it happen in a just world? No. But here we are. So if you're in there for mess, if you're in there for being like, damn, this dude's a psycho, if you're in there for being like, man, I don't know what's going on with Shorty. I don't she's nice, but something ain't right about her. This is the show for you.

SPEAKER_01 56:37

Um uh Chris, I'll I'll I'll get to Chris. Uh Chris, one of the best assholes of all time on the show. One of the best.

SPEAKER_00 56:47

The episode where he was at the where they were at the meet, the not reunion, but they were at like the party, like the whatever party they had. One of the best episodes of the show ever. It was on the level with uh the jet skis or uh uh the Megan Fox stuff. It's it's all time. The flying, a flying fuck. That's so someone who likes watching a show where I know most of the people are gonna be terrible, I know most of the relationships will fail. I know uh the producers are bad people from Atlanta, great show. Um really no no notes on the season. Um, just a quick rundown of all the couples, a last word. Uh Alex and Ashley, you're both you both suck. Ashley, of course, did the whole uh leaving him at the altar thing. It's much less cool when you realize like they both talked about how they weren't gonna do it, and she was like, I'll surprise you by calling you weird. Like everyone's calling making fun of Alex, and that's totally fair. He is weird. I think he might be on the spectrum, but that's a different podcast. He is weird, no doubt. I still sh everyone's talking about how the dude's a liar, and he's just like, hey, please tell me where I lied, and she's like, You know where you lied, you are unclear about the timeline. Like, if all this is predicated on him being dishonest and a liar, and you have a you still have a very hard time, like you can't elevator pitch me on how he lied, but he's a liar, then I'm like, what's happening? I I don't understand how he's a liar still. I know the timeline stuff he says is weird, but every time they try and press him on it, he's like, I'll pull it up right now. Like, what are your questions? So I'm like, I he seems about the action, so um, yeah, they they were never gonna work. Um, and they both seem like they peaked in high school. So uh I hope you both enjoy your moment in the sun. Chris and Jessica, I've already said, you know, Chris, all-time, all-time bad guy, all-time bad guy. I know when I'm watching the show that um I know I'm lot locked in the show when someone's being such a dick on stage or on screen that I consciously am like, I have to find their social media and send them a mean DM. And there were Chris was the first one this season where I'm like, I gotta send this guy a mean DM right now. But I did, I also I I don't anymore. There was a time in my life where people on reality TV would tweak, and I'd be like, nah, I gotta tell you. I gotta try and tell you to your face. You're tweaking. Uh he inspired that out of me. Jessica, Jess, she seems like a great girl. I think ultimately this whole experience is probably gonna be a good thing for her life. She seems to have found a man. Um, all that. No notes, Chris. You're an asshole. But you you helped make the season great. Connor and Bree, uh, just kind of boring. You know, I I thought Brie sucked, but her and Connor seem to be in love. And if if you're just cool with Connor, she's cool with me. Connor seems like a cool dude. Connor seems nice. No more deep thoughts. Divo, Devontae and Brittany. I saw someone online call Devontae Fatrick Mahomes. I haven't thought about anything else since I've seen that. Um they both they both he he already got another girl pregnant, which is crazy. Um and it's it's not equal weight. He is definitely more of a douche than she was nuts, but it can't be ignored. I think I've seen some women defending the whole having a wedding like buying a wedding dress before, and I get that. Um, and maybe he knew that before uh he knew that in the pod, so like it shouldn't have been a big thing to him. I I would also find that to be a bit much.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:25

It's clear he was stringing her along. I don't know. They were they were weird. I don't really have a lot of deep thoughts on Patrick Mahomes and Brittany.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:34

I hope they both find counseling. Vic and Christine, y'all are just y'all are cool, y'all are hot, y'all are fun. I I wish you could be my parents. Um, Mike and Emma, yeah, I don't really care overall. That's I I can't believe y'all got as far as you did when everyone who watched the show knew what the issue would be from day one, and it was the issue. Wow, I can't believe it. Uh I think both of you really wanted to be on TV, and that's fine. I think everyone, you know, everyone does. So like that's fine. Um, Jordan and Amber, wow, this was at the reunion, this was riveting stuff. This is you go you when you watch a reality show reunion, you hope you hope one of the broad storms off stage in a huff, and you hope one of the dudes is like, you were wasted, and you were mean to me. Like every time, like people they broke up and I totally see it on both sides, right? I don't think either of them is necessarily a bad person. I think they probably both shouldn't have done, shouldn't have got married. I think you shouldn't anyone with a kid on this show tweaking if you ask me. But uh it kind of seem at first I was like, it kinda seemed I kind of was sympathetic to Amber being like Jordan, seems like more of an effort could have been made. But once he said she was like yelling at him and stuff, I was like, I get it, bro, because it made me realize like a shorty could yell at me one time and like we could be together for 10 years and it's loving and all that. But as soon as you like, not to say like you know, you can never raise your voice or be emotionally expressive, but like if you were screaming at me and like being mean, you get you get one of those. You get one time. I'm not saying there's not some people who could rock with it. That's just not me. I'm fragile, I would cry, I would never uh believe you loved me again. Like, I need I need constant positive affirmation, even when things are going great, right? So if you yelled at me, there's not enough time left in my life for you to dig us out of the crater we would be in in terms of me being comfortable as as a as a couple, right? Um okay. And to get out of here, Raven Simone. Um, I don't I think Raven Simone uses they them pronouns, so I'm gonna they them, but I'm not sure. Um Raven Simone recently gave their Mount Rushmore of Disney Channel stars. People are in a huff about it. Not in a huff. I people are talking about it online because uh Miley Cyrus, Hannah Montana, Miley Cyrus of Hannah Montana fame was not included. What did I do with my hair just now? Um was not included uh in Raven Smone's uh They're Mount Resumer, Shia LaBeouf, Hillary Duff. Hmm. Everything about the fact that those rhyme? Something there. Um Raven and Jess Jackson, Jet Jackson. I wasn't familiar with Jack Jackson. Jet Jackson is before my time. Even Stevens was a little Hillary Duff, even Stevens, they were both kind of before my time. Hillary Duff was still on, uh Lizzie McGuire was still on when I was a kid, but it was a little too mature for me when I started. So my Matt Rushmore. Um, and to give you an idea, I mean, I think that does that like I am like right at the tail. I'm like that so Raven was like when I started watching, and like Phineas and Ferb is like when I stopped watching. That's the rough timeline of my Disney viewership. So within that, my Mont Rush for Disney Channel original stars are obviously starting with Miley, Hannah Montana, Hannah Montana, Hannah Montana, I got Miley, I got white. Wow, there's a whole this is a double Miley Cyrus episode because I talked about her in the culture vulture section. Um, so what a legacy, but I don't know. For me, Hannah Montana, or for me, my generation, my era, Hannah Montana, that was. I mean, Miley is the biggest star out of all these people, right? Like that, that alone should kind of tell you what it was. Like, I don't think any other show mentioned even Stevens or uh Lazy McGuire. Certainly not that story of Interfinius and Ferb. I don't think any of those shows is as big as Hannah Montana. I don't think just the the the sheer triple threat, the singing, the singing and dancing of it all, the music banged, the movie banged, see you again, uh nobody's perfect, I gotta work it again again till I get it right. Everybody makes mistakes. Yeah, that's that's a deep back. So Miley's on there for me. Who is who is oh okay, cool. It's Miley. Number two, I'm throwing Zach Efron. I think high school musical I in a similar way to Miley, it's like he had the triple, it's the triple thread of it all. Interestingly enough, Zach Ephron actually not the bo voice of Troy Bolton, the singing voice of Troy Bolton in the first movie, but just like I guess I'm looking at I'm I might be looking at it from a too much of a star-centric standpoint, because to me, obviously, after Miley, Zach Ephron's the next biggest star. Um definitely bigger than Shia. Jesus Christ, Shia. That's another episode. Um yeah, in high school musical, to me that was the biggest thing that ever happened on Disney Channel at that era. I loved it, multiple movies, obviously no TV show, but I'm still putting Zach Efron up there. He was to me, he drove those movies. Everyone else was great. The ensemble cast was great, but those are Zach Efron movies before anything else. Uh number three on the Mount Rushmore is Hillary Duff. I'm a little I was a little uh, like I said, late on Lazy McGuire. It was a little little mature for me when I first started, but I think the legacy is undeniable. Hillary Duff is still a smoke show that has to be factored in. Um yeah, and I just felt like her I mean, and she's probably like 1A, 1B with Shia. Um, her and Shia could probably share a space ultimately. Um, but yeah, that that clearly was like the backbone of that network for a second. And then for last but not least, it's Raven Simone. Raven, um, you know, the underrated thing I thought about Raven looking back on this is Raven has this. Raven was a voice on the Proud Family and the Carlsburg Show. Um, but also Raven gave us the cheetah was a part of the Cheetah Girls. So just like with Miley and Zach, there's also the music we got from Raven, uh, and being in multiple movies. I think there's two different that's the Raven spin-offs, including like that Corey in the house, whatever more recent Raven thing they did.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:02

Raven were all oh, the high school I went to, wow, double tie in the high school I went to when I told you I cried, Sam High School that's the Raven went to.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:10

What a beautiful way to end this episode, man. Um, it all it all ties together. Honorable mentions are gonna go to the Zach and Cody uh twins, the Dylan and Colt, the Sprouse twins, and Phineas and Ferb. Phineas and Ferb, oh my god, if we want to talk about music, Phineas and Furb might have had the best catalog of anyone I've mentioned, Miley included, man. Uh Bow Wow Wow. Uh Bow Bow Chica Bow Wow. That's what my baby said. Mow mow mow and my heart's heart's bumping. Chika chica choo wow. Um, thank you for listening. Every end of every solo podcast, I'm like, man, I hope that wasn't terrible. Cause there's I have no time to do any self-reflection. Any everything I say. I'm just like, I'll think about that again in tomorrow when I listen to this. So um please like, subscribe, all the things I asked at the top of the episode. Follow me on socials at Cremberlay2D. Reply to me with what your Mount Rushmore is. Uh what else did we talk about? Tell me what you think of the Jack Harlow album. I do think the album's good. Call me a coon. I dare you.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:24

I don't give a flying fuck. I'm tying in everything, okay?

SPEAKER_00 1:10:29

Baby, uh that's cool. One of the notes I have just here just says reverse Jack Harlow. And I guess I was talking about weaken hate. Yes, crap. Y'all have a good night. I'm with your bag, cause you look great. Yes, crap, fucking brulet, and watch your bangs, and watch your way. We're not the same, stay on my lane. She gave me brain, that's my green. I don't do brakes, I don't do games, I don't do chains, but you're freaking. I'm so gonna dance, I don't do paint, and that she stay, I make it ring. I'm gonna do, I'm gonna face She won't bring, I wanna kick, I don't do packs, I don't do picks, I don't bitch, I lick Cry switch, look at the wrist, tryna have kiss, tryna grist, she wanna pick, come with your bitch, she wanna kiss, not on my life. Cause a bitch, I'm a bitch, baby and rich, why I was crying, fucking below, you can lie, quite you out, yeah, it's crying, fucking relief, wake and live, quite you. Yeah, it's crying, fucking below. I want you to pick, yeah, it's crying, fuckin' below, I wish you picked, I wish you wake. Rivin' on the highway, roaches on the driveway, brawling like LeBron James, you know, it's Kyrie. White bitches like Miley, like me, cousin wifey, watch it on a glass tray, blackness of a spiky, whiskey in my chai tea, stepped a ring on her knees, as soon as she tied me. I buy her some her meat, baby. It's your birthday. Won't you have some brulette? Come inside on my face, even if it's two. Cram fucking roulette. Yank or you can hit. Yes, cram, fucking relax. Yay, can like or you can white. Yes, cram, fucking relax. I want your bag, cushion of the cray. Yes, cram, fucking relax. And watch your bangs, and watch your white. Yes, cram, fucking relay. You can like or you can hear. Yes, cram, foreign. Yank and like we can wait. Yes, cram, fucking relay. I want your bag, cushion the cray.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:27

Yes, cramp, foreign, and watch your bank, and my shit we have cram ruling, go on cram role or I'm gonna be able to do it.