Episode 14 - Poetry Is Everywhere Featuring jessica Care moore

Episode 14 of Lemme Ask You This with Talib Kweli and Tef Poe begins with an introduction to Detroit's poet laureate, Jessica Care Moore. Jessica talks about writing children's books and praises her son's music. Talib and Jessica talk about the importance of supporting artist merch, which leads into a conversation about Jay Z's relationship to capitalism. Jessica talks about how artists should turn down deals that are not good for their spirit and how new rules around DEI are affecting Black people. Jessica is asked to share a poem, so she reads one called I'm Not Ready To Die. Talib brings up Seth Byrd's driving skills. Tef talks about how we need to vote to fight prison gerrymandering. This leads into a conversation about the purpose of the electoral college and how right wingers do not support democracy.  Talib talks about why politicians are scared to be critical of Charlie Kirk and how he thinks assassination attempts helped Donald Trump win. This turns into a conversation about the challenges Kamala Harris faced during her campaign. Talib talks about how Joe Rogan helped Donald Trump and why he does not support political violence. Tef says the war on drugs is political violence and Jessica says the education system is a form of political violence. Talib brings up Cole Thomas Allen's manifesto and asks Jessica and Tef what they think about the conspiracy theories surrounding an old tweet about the name Cole Allen. Talib breaks down the history of groypers. Tef compares the MAGA movement to a TV production. Talib talks about how MAGA is turning on Trump and Tef follows up by calling Trump a distraction for bigger issues.

Shot and Edited By Chino Chase. Additional Filming By Aaron Ross Media Co.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_06 0:12

Yo soy my briefing so tequila.

SPEAKER_03 0:14

Um, do we have any tequila? I don't think we have tequila. Do we have tequila? Oh shit. You know more about the headquarters tonight.

SPEAKER_06 0:22

I probably spend more time here.

SPEAKER_03 0:23

Yeah, we are officially at Givoti headquarters. My name is Tyler Quali.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Is that what we call it now, Javotti headquarters? It is. Okay, we have other names for it.

SPEAKER_03 0:31

This is Tef Poe. I just need a glass. What up, this is Jessica Caremore. What's up, y'all? You know what I'm saying? Shout out to Donna. Shout out to Aaron. Shout out to Kat from Canal Street. We back, y'all. Shout out to Federico. Federico's in the house. AKC6. This is Let Me Ask You This. Big Aaron on the camera.

SPEAKER_01 0:49

Let me ask you this.

SPEAKER_03 0:50

Um, Jessica.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

What up, dude?

SPEAKER_03 0:52

This is your first time on our show.

SPEAKER_01 0:54

Thing. Cheers.

SPEAKER_03 0:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 0:55

The legend, the icon.

SPEAKER_03 0:57

You're a very good friend of mine. And um, you got your books up there. Tell them about your books.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

I got a couple of them. I don't have the children's book here, but I got We Want Our Bodies Back. Uh this is my current contemporary book. Named uh this the title poem was Passandra Bland. I've been writing poems forever, and these are these are on more black press, God Is Not an American, by the way. Uh reminder, and Sun Like Du Bulla Hoes. This is my fourth, this is my third, fourth, and fifth book. And my newest book is Your Crown Shines for Katanji Brown Jackson.

SPEAKER_03 1:27

That's right. Tell them who Katanji Brown Jackson is, because some of our watchers may not know.

SPEAKER_01 1:32

I'm thinking that everyone who watched this podcast must know that Katanji Brown Jackson is the first black woman Supreme Court Justice. And so um I was asked to write a poem in her honor for When We're Black Women. And um I did, and it caught the ear of Oprah, which is pretty interesting. And she shared the poem all over the internet and her social media, and I got a lot of offers for the book. And I decided, it wasn't the poem was originally not written for uh children, but I turned it into a children's uh poem, you know, that that children could uh be inspired by her story and her journey. Yeah, we're using our imaginations to to see ourselves in the future and have to tell our children, despite all the craziness that's happening in the world, that uh they have a fighting chance to actually do that, to live out their dreams and do what they love. Um despite um the attacks on culture and the attacks on on goodness and creativity. Even my son King, 19, who just worked on his album, called me during his school years, sophomore in college, saying, you know, is it am I doing anything if I wanted to be an artist? You know, there's so much he's you know, he pays attention to what's happening. And um, and because he's my child, he's been already, you know, plugged into the world in a different kind of way. And and I'm like, this you are the answer.

SPEAKER_03 2:45

Shout out to King. I just watched this live stream with you. He was killing it. He's playing keys, he was he had bars, he was rapping.

SPEAKER_01 2:53

Yeah, he's doing all the things.

SPEAKER_03 2:54

I remember when me and King used to argue about the internet when he was a younger man.

SPEAKER_01 2:58

Oh my gracious. Well, did you argue? He's a Virgo, he argues, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:01

We didn't argue, like he used to like internet personalities as a child that I didn't like. And I people that I thought was a little problematic. Yeah, you know, and he was and I I was explaining this to him, and yeah, it was it was good though. I'm glad I had that exchange with you.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

I'm sure he probably agrees with you now.

SPEAKER_03 3:17

Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:18

He's just young, you know, they don't know what you know. The people put on these different costumes and show up that's um the opposite of who they really are.

SPEAKER_03 3:24

So no doubt. How you feeling, Tef?

SPEAKER_06 3:27

I'm chilling, man. Um, there's cracking jokes off camera calling me, calling me most Tef because most Tef. Because he Oh my god, I'm so glad nothing was in my mouth.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

Okay, then stop. Okay. Most Tef. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 3:41

Federico came up with that one. Full Black Star gone on the book. Yeah, you have and I do want that. Now show them what you got on, though.

SPEAKER_03 3:46

Show them what you got on.

SPEAKER_06 3:47

I got the exclusive hotness on. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_03 3:50

Donna, where's Donna at? We need to um what's the name of the website? I don't know the name of the Black Star website.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

Blackstarkeepshining.com.

SPEAKER_03 3:56

Blackstarkeepshining.com. You can get your own. I got the hotness. We also got t-shirts that have the barcode on the t-shirt. So if you get the t-shirt, you can scan the barcode on the t-shirt and get the album on your phone.

SPEAKER_01 4:10

Oh, that's sweet. Yeah, that's the next level uh yeah, augmented reality type jum job. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I like it.

SPEAKER_03 4:17

We also got uh Jessica Care More mugs.

SPEAKER_01 4:19

Yeah, these are these are not on sale. They're not on sale? Are we done with Doug? No, it's selling them, but they're not you know on sale.

SPEAKER_03 4:26

Oh, yeah, they're not on sale.

SPEAKER_01 4:27

They're full price. Oh, okay, okay. They're for sale. And the ones that I like drink out of, they're extra.

SPEAKER_03 4:35

Anyway. It's important for us as artists to have merch. Oh, yeah. Because what we do is more akin to bartering and trading than it is like straight up capitalism. Yeah, yeah. A lot of artists like to declare themselves as anti-capitalist, but we live in a capitalist system. And by our very nature, we engage in capitalism and participate in it. And you don't have to worship it though. Yeah, you don't have to worship it, and you can actively work against it. The same way that if you live in a white supremacist society, in a society where uh white supremacist systems are the status quo, you can actively push back against that.

SPEAKER_01 5:15

Well, that's America, so we've we've all grown up in that place. And so yeah, and and becoming independent artists and doing what we love is the pushback. It's part of it anyway.

SPEAKER_03 5:26

This conversation around art and capitalism got me thinking about Jay-Z a lot. You know, because as a rapper from Brooklyn, uh, he's an icon, and he is someone who people forget that Rockefeller Records was independent black-owned business. People look at Jay-Z as this like big sort of symbol for billionaires of capitalism and Hollywood and being famous in this generation. I saw our tape, uh, not a tape, look at how old I am now. I saw a video on the internet of a young girl, young black girl, talking about nobody cared what Jay-Z got to say because he's old and washed. And as somebody or an older black dude was checking her, he was like, That's what I can't stand about what we do as black people, because white people would never say that about a country legend or rock and roll legend. Nobody cares about what they say because they're old and washed. That's something that we do, that we are indoctrinated to do.

SPEAKER_01 6:15

And he's not even old.

SPEAKER_03 6:17

Um, yeah, but I mean, if you 1918, I guess. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 6:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:21

You know what I'm saying? Remember when Jay-Z was battling with Nas and one of the disses that had everybody loving Ether, which people said was a victory for Nas.

SPEAKER_06 6:32

You're 48 in a karate class. He said 36, bro.

SPEAKER_03 6:34

He didn't even say 48. 36 was old. Now that you're older than 36, your mind is making you think he said 48. Bro, he said you're 36 in a karate class. So he clowned him on being 36, which means Nas had to be in his 20s at that time. And he clowned him on trying to make his life better by having health and wellness and being a karate class. Yeah, nigga, what kind of shit is that? Are you so old that you gotta take karate to feel better? Right. That was like a diss. And now that sounds like the right thing for a 36-year-old to be doing. Oh, absolutely. You know what I'm saying? Oh, taekwondo, everything. Yeah. But I think that with that and with the criticism around capitalism and Jay-Z's name, because um, we just put out a clip with Coltrane and he was talking about the GQ interview with Jay-Z, and we were talking about how much we enjoyed it. But you know, you get pushback online whenever you talk about Jay-Z in his space and time because people are like, there's a large contingent of people online who claim, and I say online because I don't really see it in the real world. People in the real world is too busy surviving to be staunch anti-capitalists. But online, you see people be like, you know, uh deaf to the oligarchy, and I'm gonna break out the guillotine, and like you, you motherfuckers is not ready to behead anybody. You know what I'm saying? But they be online talking about eat the rich. And these are sentiments that I resonate with and relate to, but the rhetoric I don't see matching with the actions, and then I think the rhetoric should be tempered when we're talking about black capitalism and black people trying to get money, you know what I'm saying? Because, like, like with all the critiques we have of capitalism and all the critiques we have of someone who's a billionaire, like a Jay-Z or someone, um, I think as a culture, we have to hold ourselves more accountable for what I'll call their confusion around capitalism and what it is. Jay-Z identifies as a capitalist, right? He said that in an interview, right? Which you know make a lot of people who are anti-capitalists upset. But why does someone who started out as an independent black businessman who started out poor from a very poor destitute situation, who leveled himself up to become a billionaire, uh why how how does his lens become so cloudy that he doesn't understand, he doesn't seem to understand what the it seems like he doesn't understand what the criticism is of him. And are we showing him enough grace? I think he understands his criticism. That's why that's why I had to switch my language. I said it seems that he doesn't understand. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Because he said what his language in the interview was all of a sudden they're bringing up this new word capitalist. Maybe he'd be a tongue in cheek when he said that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 9:26

I've been wondering how much of and maybe you know. Both of y'all, maybe both of y'all can answer this. When we see stuff like that in the media that is an obvious kind of cleanup job to what the public's conversation is. Like you can tell, I've been meeting through media training enough to know when certain things are conjured up talking points. When they say this, you say this. When they're they're starting to say this, so this is how we're gonna meet it.

SPEAKER_05 9:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 9:54

How much of his personality that we're seeing in response to this is his real personality versus it being them understanding that there's a a generation gap that's building between him and a growing population of people, and they're trying to find talking points to deal with it.

SPEAKER_01 10:11

Yeah, so I don't know him in real life. So I don't really talk about people unless I I mean Tyler knows him in real life. I don't know him. But I do know.

SPEAKER_03 10:18

I can't say that I know him, know him. I can say that we've met a few times. Okay, and then there's been the statements of public mutual respect. But now I'm not sure. I absolutely respect him. I think he respects me, but that's not someone who I got in my phone that I can get on the phone like that.

SPEAKER_01 10:29

Right, so friend, friend. The the criticism I think, I mean, I you know, we're in Brooklyn and the Barclays Center is a part of the criticism.

SPEAKER_03 10:37

Right, and it's a conversation around culture. He's a symbol of something, right? He's not, it's not about Jay-Z, it's about what someone who has accumulated his wealth who comes from the hood symbolizes.

SPEAKER_01 10:47

Yeah, but also, I mean, in that in the Barclay deal, though, they really pushed him for. He wasn't even such a small part of the ownership of Barclays, but they really used him in that way, in my opinion, to push him on the community to say, hey, it's cool. We're gonna build this. I know we're gonna knock some things down. We're gonna go, you know, build some things in your community. People are really upset. I mean, I don't, you know, this is in my world, you know, but I love this world. And I remember some of the people I love really did not want that stadium to be built, and they did use Jay-Z to kind of temper they use him for the community. Because if you love Brooklyn, you might love Jay-Z. You might love Biggie. So you're gonna look at them and say, okay, well, they're doing this, but maybe it's not so bad. And so that's where I think it gets where the criticism comes in is like who's who's work, who is he working for us? And in and uh, and just because somebody's black and rich, does that mean that they're our ally in that space? Even if you like his music, I don't know him in that space. I don't know him as a business person. I like some songs he made. Right.

SPEAKER_03 11:47

I was looking for like the you know, Jay-Z was mentioned in the Epstein files um and in the emails. He was mentioned a couple times, but he's mentioned by an anonymous uh tip to the FBI, which was you know largely deemed very uncredi. But he was also mentioned in the email by one of these business partners of Epstein. And I was looking for the exact email, but I can't find it right now. Um, the exact language. Right. But essentially the paraphrase, the guy was saying Jay-Z as the face of Barclays um really helped the situation. Oh, yeah. Of course.

SPEAKER_01 12:22

But he's not in Epstein Files like as a pedophile. No, not at all. Not at all. Anyway, not at all.

SPEAKER_03 12:27

Anyone to a party shape or form. And he didn't even go to a party. The shit they talk about is 94. He wouldn't have been at no party in 94. It's not, it's not, you know, the timeline is off. But I'm just talking about the only reason I mentioned it is because of what you just said as far as barclays. He was mentioned in an email by someone else talking about him in relationship to how his deal with barclays impacted the neighborhood in which he came from.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

Yeah, I mean, it's and I and the people in the neighborhood felt a lot of different ways about that being built. You know what I'm saying? So, yeah, I mean, capitalism as a motherfucker. I mean, it's how we all need some money, it's a it's a means to an end. We all need food in our fridge. And um, this place, this country, doesn't take care of people, it doesn't take care of the poor. The working poor are struggling in this country. Middle class people are struggling right now. My friends with degrees um have been fired, and some of them can't find work. And these are people with like master's degrees and you know, all kinds of undergraduates have, you know, academics and things. Uh, you know, a lot of black women and black men have been fired every day. They're talking about black men getting fired. Black women have been fired in the corporate world too. So, yeah, I mean it's it's it's difficult times. But capital, you know, but you can't merge up the dollar. I mean, I've never been an artist that cared about making money. I turned deals down. I've just recently turned out uh gig just based on uh my integrity as a person. And I it's not like I have that I don't have it like that where I can just turn money down, but I do have it like that where I can just turn money down. Right. And I and I do tell us more about that.

SPEAKER_03 13:50

I know that you might not want to disclose every single detail, but going around the details that you don't want to disclose, tell us more about that.

SPEAKER_01 13:56

Yeah, just a big corporate figure. You know, I do a lot, I've been doing corporate storytelling for a long time. So a lot of corporations from um the big three to Amazon to all kinds of folks have asked me to do different things. And uh I wrote the like I wrote the Pure Michigan campaign for my state. I'm the Detroit poet laureate. People don't know that, but uh Detroit is my home. And so I've I know how to write about the city that I love. But when I'm asked to show up, this is not just now, this is in general, especially when black people ask me to come somewhere. And I guess white people are gonna be in the audience. And this happened to me, you know, 20 years ago too. And they were like, Wanna, I've been asked to read, send my poems in advance. If anybody asks me to send my poems in advance, I'm not doing again. I'm not doing it again. I'm like, I've been doing this long enough. If you don't, I've I my weight is in in what I've done already. You know, I'm not sending you my CV. You know, you're calling me because you know who I am, right? Don't ask me to like, I'm not, you're not gonna censor me. I'm not gonna cater. I'm mys I show up as myself at all times. So if you're gonna send me language saying, you know, just so you know, because it's these DEI things that people in the corporate world are dealing with, it's really, really unfortunate and very sad that our people who have to work. Now I'm I I'm spoiled, you know what I mean? I've been an artist for 30 years. I don't work for a corporation. You know, I build corporations around my art. And so I have a lot of empathy and and and I don't have a lot of understanding, but I understand they have to, they're trying to keep their lights on too. And they're working for these folks, telling them, you know, to bring black artists into a space, they have to have all there's all these rules now, you know. But I I never follow those rules. And I don't care if I'm in Germany, I don't care if I'm in in Kansas, I don't care if the audience is all white girls, old white men. I am gonna read my work the same way. And either you love me because of what I bring to the table and because you're trying to expand your mind or what a black girl poet sounds like or what black people, you know, what I care about, you want to hear from me and hear from my heart. And if you don't want to hear from that, then I don't want to be there.

SPEAKER_04 16:01

I feel that.

SPEAKER_01 16:02

And I don't want to be a part of your whatever you're trying to do. I don't care about the tablecloths or the fine china or whatever the fuck. I don't care about none of that shit. Um, and so I have had to remove myself from opportunities, right? To, you know, opportunities mean a check, you know. But it's what's more important. And if I cared about just signing in money, I would have signed to a big major uh white publishing house, you know, a long time ago. And I'm doing more black press now with Amastad so I can help Brad Warron and Barbara Fant and these other poets get out and build my, you know, so I I can't go to the I can't go to the post office no more. I'm just I used to go to the post office with some of the people. You still do that over here. Listen, that's some that's heavy lifting. And I and I appreciate y'all. I do it for my my own things, but for other people's.

SPEAKER_04 16:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:49

It's it's a lot of work to take care of other artists. And I know you're one of those people like me that takes care of other artists. Um, but yeah, I I feel really good that I can look in the mirror and I've had a a career, a life work, which is more, it's more like a life work than it is a career of um being able to turn down things when necessary. But I'm never following a dollar. I need some money, but I take my money and I invest it in myself.

SPEAKER_03 17:13

I need a dollar. Yeah. Shout out to Allo Black. I was asked to I never met him.

SPEAKER_01 17:18

I like him.

SPEAKER_03 17:19

That's my guy. I was asked to turn in my lyrics for review once in my life. Um, and I did it. And how'd that feel? Did you care for it? It felt like the right thing to do. I did it to go to Cuba.

SPEAKER_01 17:33

That might be different.

SPEAKER_03 17:34

And to perform in Cuba, and that's a little bit different circumstances.

SPEAKER_01 17:37

And then people are translating my work.

SPEAKER_03 17:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:39

I've done it for translation. You know what I mean? I always make sure it's like not the setup though, like just trying. I remember people have asked me, can you send the work because we want our translator? Because you know, the sign language translators, which is really important. I've had those people at my shows translating my poetry. And I love, you know, so I say yes sometimes if it's that, but usually I just say I send a couple, I still just send a couple. I'm doing like, because sometimes I'm doing hour-long keynotes. Nobody needs all my information like that. So I was in a few, because a real good interpreter, a signing person, can really do it on the spot. They can hear you and they can interpret the words.

SPEAKER_03 18:11

Yeah. We just did a show together. Um, shout out to Paul Tucket, Rhode Island. It felt like we was in a Family Guy. You know, Family Guy takes place in Rhode Island, and uh Quahog, Quahog, is that what they say?

SPEAKER_01 18:23

I think so. But it felt like it was very interesting.

SPEAKER_03 18:25

It felt like we were performing at the at the Happy Clan.

SPEAKER_01 18:29

You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. I felt like you're hilarious. I felt like I was in a time warp, you know. I saw some interesting things there. Tef performed uh Malcolm X jumped in the crowd. Thank you. That was crazy. I love how he jumped in the crowd. I almost jumped in the crowd, but I was like, okay, let me just calm down, Jessica. It's not your time. So no, it was a great song. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 18:47

You performed, of course, every time we get together, you perform um with me and you did uh a piece. You want poems? Yeah. Um that was deep. That that that was deep. Are you do you have a piece you could do for this episode for us?

SPEAKER_01 19:00

Yeah, do you is there any theme in particular?

SPEAKER_03 19:03

Um no, just um think about it for a second, you know what I'm saying? Um, you got a piece you want to do now?

SPEAKER_01 19:09

I can. I mean, I always got poems. I got books. Look, you got books, yeah. I got three of them.

SPEAKER_03 19:13

But yeah, I uh you know, you did uh you did such a wonderful job that you had people crying, is what I wanted to bring up. And I want to thank you for always bringing the divine feminine energy to my stage. Thank you. You know what I'm saying? As Donna would say, I I passed the Beckdell test, you know what I'm saying? Having women on the podcast and on the stage, you know what I'm saying? We try to be intentional about that and we try to bring the energy in you that you um always represent so lovely. So, yeah, I mean, if you if you have something you want to share.

SPEAKER_01 19:38

Yes, I'm gonna read it. Is that okay? Now how you feel about it?

SPEAKER_03 19:41

I mean, okay, so I told her that I didn't want her to read a poem on stage because in the hip-hop space it's about like, but yeah, I mean, on the podcast, of course you can.

SPEAKER_01 19:49

Yeah, yeah, but I think that in the hip hop space, you know what I'm saying? Books in the hip-hop space. I'm fighting for it. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you should read it. Tell them about the book.

SPEAKER_03 19:59

What book? Tell them about tell them about your book. Which one? At your show. When you're selling your book, but on Moss Dick. You're coming off the top of the book.

SPEAKER_01 20:09

He's a tyrant, he's a tyrant. Anyway, you know who's good at this? Who? MK Asante.

SPEAKER_03 20:14

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:15

Yes, because he has because he'll be because he's a great MC. Shout out to Malefi Asante. Listen, and Buck. Like, so he's bringing the book. I saw him, I remember at the show at SOBs, and he's rocking with full band. He's got the book in his hand. I'm like, yeah, yeah. MK Asante.

SPEAKER_03 20:30

That's how you and I'm telling you, but he doesn't, he also has stuff that he's in his head.

SPEAKER_01 20:35

Me too. I know a thousand things in my head. But sometimes when I want to do the new, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:39

I feel I'm not against it. I'm not against it. I just think I thought for that particular show.

SPEAKER_01 20:44

It was fine. It was a good. Yes, thank you. Thank you, label daddy. Okay. All right, daddy. It's gone. I'm just joking. Uh, I'm not ready to die. Can I read that? I'm gonna read that. You know what's funny about this poem? Because this has Queen Latifa and uh and MC Light's name in it, and with you, I've been able to give them, they both have this book. I love that. But the Queen Latifah moment was very hilarious.

SPEAKER_03 21:05

When we was in a studio with Latifa. Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:08

And I I read that and I showed her her name in the book, and uh, and I so she looked at the line. She looked there's a line in the poem. I'm not gonna tell y'all what there's a line in the poem, and she looked at she looked, she looked at the line and she looked at me and she goes, like, I don't know about that, but I'll show you. When I say it, I think you'll know what line.

SPEAKER_03 21:25

Uh, exists in the back rooms of history. She knows what's really going on.

SPEAKER_01 21:29

Yeah, she does. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love her, man. Her and Light have been like two of my favorite, you know, MCs always. Like, just you know, when I was a little girl in high school, like they were and lights just.

SPEAKER_03 21:39

Yeah, shout out to Light. Lights on my new album, The Large Professor. That's oh, that's a gangster. And they are in the rock and roll hall of fame. They are gonna both be inducted this year.

SPEAKER_01 21:49

Oh, I wanna go to that.

SPEAKER_03 21:50

And shout out to Wu Tang, Queen Latifah, MC Light.

SPEAKER_01 21:53

Oh, yeah. We're going. Oh, yeah, we're going. I'm going. I'm going. Um, I was there when Eminem got inducted. Yeah. Not care about that, but Detroit. It was a big moment. It was right in the front. It was great. Shout out to that man. Shout out to Detroit. I'm not ready to die. So I wrote this because it was somebody, a little girl, a young what little girl, an artist, a young lady, I don't know which one, was crawling around on an award show show during her performance.

SPEAKER_03 22:17

You know exactly what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_01 22:19

I don't even remember. Someone called me about it. I wasn't watching their award show. Someone called me like, so my soul was crawling on the ground. So I don't even, I didn't even look it up. I just wrote this poem. So it's called I'm Not Ready to Die. I'm Not Ready to Die a Little More Today. My nails are polished a bright aquamarine. My skin smells like the ocean. In my hair, I'm wearing the flowers he left on my doorstep. Tiger's eye and turquoise are wrapped around my wrist. Do I look like I'm attempting an early death? My headphones sound like Sha Day. I wish these new girls would get the fuck off their knees and transform a room with some subtle power and grace. Sade doesn't really dance, Poet, and that is the point. When's it become okay to die in this country on my knees? The walking dead, a 24-hour day spot. They parade in groups. Hell, I need a massage too, but at what price? I gotta stand behind mediocre bars just because the kids rock to it. I've yet to hear of MC destroy the alphabet more gangster than Intazaki Shang. So I ain't ready to die today. Won't participate in the spirit massacre of my children, my thoughts on fire, my pen is hot, Intazaki is dead, Intazaki will never die. I'm more alive than more of these wannabe, I'm more alive now than most of these wannabe Euro inside out millennials. I've graduated from digital slavery masterclass. I read books without screens. I have sex with men my age, whenever I feel like it or not. I love my hair, my ass, my breasts. I'm clear, my power is between my ears and side of my chest. Black girl magic doesn't grow between our legs. This is the mythology of men. How much to get off your knees, sis. This pen is a knife, stabbing out the hearts of dead trees. These trees already dead anyway. I walk in dead urban forests. We are surrounded, so I continue to climb to right. Cause I ain't ready to die today or tomorrow. I'ma keep living inside poems. You done know what left for you. If you would just get off the goddamn floor, you can see all these poems, all this royalty, all this world they attempt to kill you with. It's really your universe to inherit, to change, to rebuild, get off your knees, stop crawling for them. Stand up queen, Latifa, light, Lauren, Missy Ellie, left and I Bahamadia, Rajiga, Roxanne, Rhapsody, K Valentine, Mamaso. Microphones are not stripper poles. Sonia, Audrey, Maya, Nazaki, Jane, Lucille, Nikki, Nikki, Tony, Asha, Stacy Anne, Akiri, Mahogany, Elizabeth, Lisa, Michelle, and Deggy and Cello, me, us, we need you to stop dying, stop dying, stop dying to be less than who you were destined to be. We need you to outlive death in all its forms. Live, live, live so patriarchy can finally die.

SPEAKER_03 24:48

So. Slow clap. Yes, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 24:54

Not gonna tell you what line. I'll tell you what line.

SPEAKER_03 24:56

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 24:56

I can't tell the world what line, but I was telling you, it's a funny moment.

SPEAKER_03 25:00

Thank you, Jess. Thank you for sharing that. That's the line. Oh, I know. I know. Um, and um It was great. Yeah, I know. And I'll tell you why. Uh in particular, that's very funny. Off camera. Um, man, thank you for sharing that, Jesse.

SPEAKER_01 25:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:17

Really appreciate you, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01 25:19

Even though I said patriarchy has to die, it does. Some guys get mad at me for that line. It does. They do, they get mad at me.

SPEAKER_03 25:26

Some of them just being like, Patriarchy is a as a an oppressive system. Patriarchy is not uh male superpower. It's not like what, you know. Come on, it's not a male superpower. Yeah, come on, man. It's not what Frank Thomas is selling you. It's not like eugenics. What the new what's that shit he be sending? Selling that testosterone pill shit he be selling.

SPEAKER_01 25:48

Oh my goodness, Christmas.

SPEAKER_03 25:48

Man, niggas be selling testosterone pills on podcasts, in the break. You know what I'm saying? Like, to make them feel like men.

SPEAKER_06 25:57

More manly.

SPEAKER_03 25:58

Yeah, man, and that, you know, patriarchy is, man, fuck patriarchy. These are social contracts anyway.

SPEAKER_06 26:02

I agree.

SPEAKER_01 26:03

No, the best kind of man is gentle, you know what I mean? You know. That's a bar right there. Yeah, it's the truth. It's the truth, especially with strong women like me. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 26:13

Like I'm glad we had a strong woman like you in the car with us the other day with Seth. I don't want to talk about it.

SPEAKER_01 26:20

It was a near-death experience. No, no, no. It wasn't a near-death experience. Actually, can I just say about Seth? Yeah. Shout out to Seth Bird. Shout out to Seth Bird. With a Y. Um, he's a really good driver. He's a very good driver. Yo, to the point of like, I think in another life he should have like been a professional driver.

SPEAKER_03 26:39

Seth has gotten me there many times, of course.

SPEAKER_01 26:44

Yeah. I was first, you know, you go, you go from being afraid.

SPEAKER_03 26:47

I kind of stop saying pause, but the shit is too funny sometimes.

SPEAKER_01 26:50

Well, it's I'm just saying, look, he went from I went from being like terrified to going, this nigga. You had to let go. You had to let go. Well, he's got a control of the car first. He's dropped, I mean, the window. Seth drove us to uh to the show and back. I've been in many cars with him. I've been with him in Puerto Rico, different places.

SPEAKER_03 27:08

Uh Corey Mo.

unknown 27:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:09

The first time we was in the car with Seth, after an hour of driving around, he said pull over, and he threw up.

SPEAKER_01 27:16

Yeah, I believe it. Yeah. It's a it's an experience. But you have to just kind of like know that you're.

SPEAKER_06 27:21

We call the way he drives swerving. He was swerving.

unknown 27:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 27:25

He didn't drive, he's swerving. He's swerving. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. He got that mother glide and he I said, damn, he changed the fastest part going.

SPEAKER_03 27:32

You know what's funny about watching Seth drive and Juju drive like this too? Their emotions be all involved in it. Yeah. He was like this, yeah. He was because he was upset. He was upset at whatever they was doing, they wasn't in the right lane or they was going to slow. I don't know. I didn't give a fuck. But he was very upset about it. And to the point where he had to control how upset he was about it. And that's where he was like. And I was sitting there like, you know what's crazy?

SPEAKER_01 27:59

The cat was holding on like this in the middle.

SPEAKER_03 28:01

Yeah, yeah. You know what's crazy? Um the emotions really be wrapped into it. I saw Juju. Juju just something, a habit he does, where it's like, um, if he hit a bump or he does something that might be like a little damage in the car as he's driving, he'll like caress the steering wheel.

SPEAKER_04 28:22

Right?

SPEAKER_03 28:22

And I said that on some clown of him shit in front of somebody else. He was like, and it to someone else who's a driver.

SPEAKER_04 28:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:29

Because I don't really drive like that. And then he was he looked to the other person, he said, You don't do that? And they were like, hell yeah, I do that. And I was like, oh shit. I'm I'm the clown. Like, I'm not knowing what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_01 28:38

You're about to say they're keeping their zen. Yeah, man, people protected out there.

SPEAKER_03 28:42

When people drive a lot, yeah, it becomes serious to them, the etiquette and the codes.

SPEAKER_01 28:48

Yeah, you know. Yeah, Seth is a very serious driver.

SPEAKER_03 28:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:51

And we thank you, Seth, for getting us safe with everywhere you've taken us.

SPEAKER_03 28:55

Yeah. Seth raised an interest uh Seth brought up an interesting point about prisons. Okay. He did. He did. And uh he was talking about prisons being for profit and uh something called prison uh gerrymandering. Uh the practice of counting incarcerated people where they are detained rather than where they live. Um they've been doing this since the first census. Um you know, of course, it's racialized. Of course, of course, prison is the new slavery. Um you know, but pre people in prisons are not actually residents of the prison where they are forced to live. Um so in 48 states, uh I I Googled this because after Seth talked about it, I was like, this sound sound crazy. That sound crazy, right? Yeah. In 48 states, people held in prisons cannot vote, giving them limited leverage to make their voice heard uh to the people who represent the district where they are incarcerated. Counting incarcerated people incorrectly in the districts where they are detained rather than the ones where the homes homes are compounds racial justice. Black and Latino people make up 56% of the U.S. prison population, despite constituting only 32% of the population at large. Yet they are held in prisons that are disproportionately built in predominantly white areas. For instance, uh the prison policy initiative found that in New York in 2005, 92% of prison cells were in disproportionately white legislative districts, right? So when they talk about prisons are for profit, they really are, and they're really uh changing the way and really impacting the vote with how they are build building these prisons. Completely. Um and you responded crazy to me when not crazy, but very interesting when Seth said that.

SPEAKER_06 30:44

You said Because now because we always have these provocative conversations from people talking about why they don't vote, specifically black men. And I get it more than most people might imagine, but at the same time, when you fight in white supremacy, you have different moments on the floor to call for different tactics. So today it might be this, tomorrow it might be that. But I do think that only a fool would let somebody have a generational skunk game on them doing the same thing over and over and over and over. And you don't do nothing to interrupt the fact that they slam Duncan on you. You know what I'm saying? And then you wake up and look like yo, yo, why we ain't got this, why we ain't got that? The crazy part about all of this is we have to unearth the total conspiracy. And it just can't be a one-dimensional frame of work to unearth everything that they've done to us. It's deeper than what meets the eye, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01 31:41

I know you understand the not voting part though, because me too, right? Because you sometimes you're like, what's the point? They already got it, it's all fixed.

SPEAKER_06 31:48

But when you hear what he just said, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:51

Come on.

SPEAKER_06 31:52

We got a whole different case in point for why it might be necessary.

SPEAKER_01 31:55

No, we have to. I believe in local politics. Me too. Yeah. It's the federal thing, is to me a bit of a scam, but the uh the local politics make a difference. Your mayors, your the people representing you and setting the Congress.

SPEAKER_03 32:08

And they know that. That's why they're doing this prison gerrymandering, is artificially inflating the population so that the people, so that they get more power in the vote. They understand that it's powerful or else they wouldn't be spending so much time doing it. And it reminds me of the three-fifths compromise. Completely. Right? Where black people were only three-fifths, but they, you know, that shit was to inflate the vote. Yeah. To make the vote more white.

SPEAKER_06 32:33

What's crazy about something like this this scenario is black men in recent times have received the Rico for less. Like this is a whole orchestrated criminal plot.

SPEAKER_03 32:46

Look what prize from the Fuji's is in jail for right now.

SPEAKER_01 32:50

Is he still there?

SPEAKER_03 32:51

Yeah, he's in jail for a while now, and he'll be in there for a while because they said he was trying to affect elections. It was like election fraud or like with his spy activity because he was introducing some like, you know, foreign people, foreign spies to Obama. Wow. Interesting.

SPEAKER_06 33:08

Wow. That's that's that's crazy. That's but yeah, when you look at I'm still stuck on it. I need to unpack the fact that they are inflating the population numbers for the sake of electoral votes.

SPEAKER_01 33:24

Oh, it's on. I mean, what's going on? The thing that was happening in Louisiana is bananas. Like literally, these white folks are controlling black communities.

SPEAKER_03 33:34

Oh, the Gary Chambers thing. Yeah. So I saw you watching the Gary Chambers thing and I saw you responding to that. I'm trying to understand. Can y'all break it down for me?

SPEAKER_06 33:40

Because I just I just overheard. They did so, I don't know the full case down there, but they did something like that in Missouri where they basically just redistrict. Yeah, just doing the redistrict state and set it up so that it really doesn't even matter who you vote for, it's gonna the conclusion will be that one of the things. They're gonna win. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:56

And it and it just completely disempowering the community. So you basically, it's no such thing as voting for if I want you, I can't have you. They're gonna the person that they want. It's a setup completely. And then the the what I loved about Gary is that he's like, y'all are losing. This state is losing on every level. Your your education level, your poverty, you're not winning.

SPEAKER_03 34:16

Right, and they're willing to give up things that are good for them and vote against their own best interests in order to be racist.

SPEAKER_01 34:22

And they're not gonna even be there because they're gonna get voted out. And that's what I believe in you. I believe in these, you vote for these, get these folks out of here. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:31

I think that's a good thing. Well, I mean, we gotta address the fact that large pockets of right-wingers and conservatives don't even believe in democracy. They don't believe in voting. They're like, this is a republic. They're like, you peasants don't deserve to vote anyway. You know what I'm saying? The whole reason the Electoral College is set up is so that rich, straight white males get the benefit of the doubt and they get the most voting power, and they're on that. They're on the oligarchy, they're on the uh the making Trump a king, they're on the like take democracy away. Democracy doesn't work. When we have democracy, we have we open borders, which we've never had, but we have women that want equal rights. We have black people that you know want to live, and they they're not with none of that shit. You know what I'm saying? And that's why when you see a fair election that doesn't go their way, we get, you know, the riot of 2021.

unknown 35:22

Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_03 35:23

You know, they are in trying to install their people, and they're using every single piece of the system. The gerrymandering, the election rigging, election rigging, the intimidation. What Dave Chappelle talks about in the Unstoppable Nigger Act, when he talks about not being able to speak in America, it's controversial what he said because they're talking about the shows he did, Saudi Arabia and other places. But the point that he was making was that Charlie Kirk is respected so much in the public space, not necessarily because by politicians, not necessarily because politicians agree with the things that he has said and done, because Charlie Kirk has said some very hateful, bigoted, white supremacists, Nazi fascist, homophobic, racist things, right? And it's not a mystery. They know he said that, but the reason why they celebrate him publicly is because they are terrified of political violence. They're scared of the repercussions of speaking against this man, even though he was shot. And we I want to get into more of that later, but that's that's exactly what Dave was talking about.

SPEAKER_06 36:34

Okay when you start seeing political violence from their side, normally to me, that means somewhere in this conflict they feel like they're losing. Like when they start killing people, blowing up shit, invading shit. Yeah, they don't do that when they feel like they winning. When they feel like they're losing, that's when they push that button.

SPEAKER_03 36:56

Well, does that go for everybody, or that just goes for right wingers? Because we gotta address the elephant in the room. We just seen a very recent example of political violence. This is what the third alleged attempt on Donald Trump's life was. The third that we know of. That we know of, right? And uh the first two was very clear that these are right wingers, and and I gotta state that the vast majority of political violence in America is Christian nationalists, uh, white nationalists, right wingers, like it's not even close. Right. People think it's Muslims, people equate the left and the right, people's people talk about anti-fi and all this. It's not even close.

SPEAKER_06 37:32

It couldn't be close, because I mean our basic everyday life is political violence.

SPEAKER_03 37:36

That's right.

SPEAKER_06 37:36

You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_03 37:37

That's right. So it's mostly right-wingers, but in this particular case, with this guy who calls himself the friendly federal assassin, which sounds like you know, Spider-Man or some shit, right? And he's a video game developer or whatever. I mean, all of it seems very surreal. Um I just want to know where his shirt is. Yeah, and he was tackled with no shirt.

SPEAKER_06 37:57

Can y'all Secret Service, CIA, whoever y'all niggas is? Tell us why y'all had this nigga in there with no shirt on face down on the carpet, bro. On the carpet. Make it make sense. Why this nigga didn't have no shirt on?

SPEAKER_03 38:08

I mean, who knows why he didn't have no shirt on? But I think what's important to note is that um Donald Trump was uh competing against Joe Biden. And then they switched and they brought in Kamala, and then it really looked like Kamala was gonna win.

SPEAKER_04 38:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:28

And then all of a sudden you see these assassination attempts and Trump surged. And I think it's an argument can be made that without the assassination attempts, he doesn't win the election. Oh wow.

SPEAKER_06 38:43

I would like to believe that, but I also want to know I call the Democrats out because that was a total setup. Because the day y'all do give it to the black woman, y'all gave her 90 days to run. Who runs for the most powerful office on on planet earth in less than a hundred days and is convinced that they can actually pull it off? It was a setup from the jump.

SPEAKER_01 39:02

So I have a question. So one of my one of my guy friends said that if Joe Biden really wanted to do something powerful in that moment, he would have just stepped down and allowed her to be the president.

SPEAKER_06 39:11

He would have given her a space to get her campaign.

SPEAKER_01 39:13

Instead of her making her campaign, like that's a good point.

SPEAKER_06 39:16

She had to blitz it.

SPEAKER_01 39:17

Yeah, just made her the president. Like that could he could have really made the history. Like he could have just stepped down and said, I'm clearly not well, he wasn't mentally fit to be president anymore. We all wanted him to go away and let her step into the position. And then let's see how she gets down, let's give her three months to be the president, as opposed to her campaigning and having to raise money. She could have just had it.

SPEAKER_03 39:38

Speaking of raised money, this guy, Cole Allen, Cole Thomas Allen, they we don't know at this point. I don't know when this episode is gonna come out, but at this point we don't know a lot about him. The one thing they are reporting is that he allegedly gave money to Act Blue, to Kamala's campaign. Okay. Um 25 books. Something like that. That's not may or may not be true. I don't know. Um it's strange that that's the one detail it's such a small thing. Yeah. But it's it's it's definitely like, okay, it's irrefutable that if you gave money to Ag Blue for Kamala, that you are you are it's it's painting him as a Kamala supporter, right? So whether that's true or not, that's what the narrative and that this information is coming from the Trump administration. We don't have any other sources besides what they say at this point. But um, it's important to note that that's the narrative that they're trying to craft.

SPEAKER_06 40:30

Yeah. You can't trust nothing coming from them niggas, though.

SPEAKER_03 40:33

Yeah, yeah. And I'm not a conspiracy theorist. I need to state that. I'm not someone who's out here, I don't like to speculate. I don't like to push conspiracy theorist theories, I don't like to speak on things where I don't have all the facts and information.

SPEAKER_06 40:45

Um I You said something earlier. You said I don't speculate in public.

SPEAKER_03 40:48

I don't. I'll speculate in private, but I'm gonna turn the cameras off. Exactly. You know what I'm saying? But not in public. Um, I like to have because our platform is is is big and we have to be responsible for you know, we're not just regular voices, we're not just shouting into the void here. Yeah, somebody might be affected by what we say on this show, so we can't just push lies and we got that's why I have people who watch the show, they know I got my computer out the whole time. Because I want to make sure that I'm saying the right things. Um, but going back to the election, uh Joe Rogan and the Rogan sphere and the mana sphere and all these uh influential voices in the podcast space that people credit with helping to push the needle on the Trump election. Like these these you know, the Theo Vaughns and the uh Andrew Schultz and all these you know comedians who who who uh appear to be, you know, in the past more liberal, right? More left-leaning, or maybe at least libertarian. Yeah, you know, they started being no none of them like black women, though. No, no, no, no, no. I mean, no, no, no. I mean, that's a whole nother issue. Yeah. But all of them lined up behind Maggie last year. They all got in line for Trump. He, him, Trump and JD Vance and Robert Kennedy did all their podcasts. And so I feel like um they helped, right? Joe Rogan, who is somebody I met, I met him because he's friends with Dave Chappelle. Joe Rogan is very respected in the comedy space. He's respected as a stand-up, and he's respected in the podcast space as far as being uh first or one of the first people to really stick with the podcast opinion. You know, he has a very famous podcast, and NDI re correctly noted that he gets a couple of hundred million dollars from Spotify where they don't want to pay us nothing, but they pay this man at all. Um but I I've met Joe Rogan a couple times, and um he's been very kind and gracious to me as a human being. Um so I say that to before I even say this, even with the tape that came out of him saying the N-word all the time, uh, not all the time, but so often on his show, that tape is old. And this was it was very hypocritical about our society. Um, that's not a new tape. Right. You know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying? Yeah, it's been out the whole time, and that's part of the thing that I didn't really like about the Joe Rogan show. Um, I didn't like the way that he talked about race, and I disagreed with him or certain political issues, so much to so much so to the point where I thought that he was a Trump supporter when I met him.

SPEAKER_04 43:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:21

And so when I met him, I talked to him and I was like, yo, uh, I gotta say, man, like you're a good hang, but there's some things that you said. Because I felt guilty about the fact that I'm hanging with someone that I've uh criticized publicly.

SPEAKER_01 43:38

Yeah, but also, I mean, we're around people. I mean, there you can be a nice person. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. And have a different opinion. You can't be racist.

SPEAKER_03 43:46

But then if I'm if I have said something about you publicly online. Oh, yeah, and then I'm hanging out with you, that's what I and I don't say something about it, I feel sad.

SPEAKER_01 43:52

You have to address it, you have to address it.

SPEAKER_03 43:54

And so I said it, and he was like, Well, what did I what did I say? And uh, the first thing that popped in my head was the nigga tape. But that wasn't like publicly out like that yet. So I was like, well, you know, I was like searching my brain for what did he say that I disagree with, right? And I landed on, I'm not a Trump supporter. You know, and I think that Trump is like an existential threat. And he said to me, I'm not a Trump supporter either. I don't support Trump at all. Matter of fact, the Trump people want me want to have him on my show, but my platform is too big. And I would look like a Trump supporter if I had him on my platform. So I would never have Donald Trump on my platform. And I was like, Joe Rogan. You were surprised? I got you all wrong, bro. You know what I'm saying? I was this is what I was like, okay. Um and then the knicker tape comes out. You know what I'm saying? And I I did a show with Joe and Dave after that, right?

SPEAKER_04 44:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 44:48

And I liked the way in which he dealt with it because he, in my opinion, and people could disagree with this, but I felt like he met it head on and he held himself accountable. He called himself a racist. He was like, man, I he was he did a joke on stage. He was like, you don't, you you can say you racist, you're not racist all you want until somebody plays you with tape and you say an N-word for 12 minutes. And then you're like, damn, maybe I'm maybe I'm racist. Right? So I was like, he made it into a joke, but he also I like the way he dealt with it, right? So I was like, okay, at least he has a heart and a soul, right? Even if I don't agree with she's saying it's room for growth.

SPEAKER_04 45:23

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 45:24

But then Trump gets shot. Or allegedly shot, right? And Joe Rogan brings Trump on his podcast. And he says that the reason he brings Trump on his podcast is because as a podcaster, when Trump got shot, he was like, well, now, allegedly shot. He's like, Well, now I have to talk to him. Now I can't not talk to the president who almost got I need to know how he feels. And he used the assassination attempt as a justification to bring Trump on his show, even though he said to me and also said in public on his podcast, I will never have Trump on my show. Wow. And he also someone called him. He did the show with a show. He did the show with Trump, and he also said, I changed my mind after the assassination attempt. But that to me moves the Neil. Yeah. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01 46:13

Yeah, but that's the that's what that's what happens though. The empathy. Because you feel bad. Like even if us, you're like, you don't really, much as my people might talk about it, you don't want to see anyone go out like that. Like even with Charlie Kurt. I guess.

SPEAKER_03 46:25

Are you talking about? No, okay, so let's be yeah, be let's be clear. Like we are like, I know everybody, I know y'all very well. Yeah we we all met in Ferguson. I met you before that, but we met Tef Poe on the ground.

SPEAKER_04 46:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 46:35

In Ferguson. So we are uh for the movement for black lives.

SPEAKER_05 46:42

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 46:42

We are for freedom. We we there's no justice, no peace, right? But nobody wants to see, we're not out here trying to see people murdered. We're not out here trying to support political violence. Violence is not, violence is a symptom. You know what I'm saying? It's violence is a response, violence is not like all that, nah man, we're not on that. And that's that's an important line to try understand.

SPEAKER_06 47:03

I don't think there's no black people that really support political violence. Like I think we support notions of self-defense. Self-defense for sure. Uh notions of self-perservation. Come on. Um, and just after a while, you know, we got a 500, 600 year radical dilemma. So it's not necessarily like we are going outside saying, hey, gun down every person or gun down this or do that. We really are existing in a space where we're trying to figure it out and survive from day to day. I think um the conversation of what is political violence is really important to me because I have dealt with a lot of professional liberal activists that don't define the war on drugs as political violence.

SPEAKER_01 47:45

Oh, I see, but it is. Right?

SPEAKER_06 47:46

They don't define what Ronald Reagan did to us is dead wrong. But also they grew up in Jack and Jill clubs, they didn't grow up actually seeing people's houses get battered around. They think that the stuff that's in these rap songs is just highly imaginative punchlines and catchphrases. Wow. So they have a deep disassociation from it. You know what I'm saying? Yes. But when you see your uncle go on an eight-year vacation, and you keep asking, where uncle such and such at? Everybody say, Oh, he's on vacation. Well, what what type of vacation is this nigga taking? Oh, that's now I gotta realize he was removed, abducted, and placed somewhere. You know what I'm saying? And that is political violence. Like the whole layout of it. That's right. That everything we we go through from that whole thing from top to bottom, I always say, I don't know a version of myself that's unaffected by their bullshit.

SPEAKER_05 48:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 48:39

I don't know who I would be if every day I existed, you would just leave me the fuck alone.

SPEAKER_01 48:45

Just leave us alone. Yeah, Michael Jackson. No, that's they don't really care about us.

SPEAKER_03 48:51

That one too. Michael Jackson had many bars.

SPEAKER_01 48:54

But I think I'm trying to think of another song. But um, the U.S. education system to me is political violence. I mean, without question. Like the way they absolutely, well, they don't teach who we are. And I I just did this thing in Detroit with like uh 500 kids from white, mostly majority white schools in Michigan. I thought I was going to talk to the black and brown kids. I was like, I showed up, I was like, oh, this is the white kids. All right, let's talk. Let's talk to them. And these white students, I did the keynote and I did these breakout workshops. These white students from like suburban Michigan complaining to me about not having Black History Month. They said they have never, most of them don't have any black. I looked, you know, I was looking for our babies. There was now, there was like one black boy in the whole, in the whole for like 500 students. And they're like, we they've never been in a classroom with a black student.

SPEAKER_03 49:40

These are And these are things that they are identifying.

SPEAKER_01 49:42

They're identifying this, they want to be teachers. The young people I'm talking to, just to frame it, they want to be educators. So I'm asking them, I said, so you don't have anybody black in your neighborhood, you never seen a black boy in your classroom. I said, what happens when you get my son in front of you as a teacher? How are you gonna have a conversation with him? Wait, and more importantly, how you gonna love him? Because if you don't love my son, then you can't teach him. And so this is the most violent to me thing that they've done to us. First of all, and then black people have lost their minds and thinking that these white folks can teach your babies better than we can. And and and and that's what it is. We so we moved to these neighborhoods where we got diverse schools. And then I mean, I because I've been trying to raise, I, you know, raising King has been a journey, just raising a free black boy. You know, in Detroit, though, a majority black city has been our struggle. And the and I was paying for it, paying for private schools, thinking that's the best thing. Private school, smaller classrooms. These white women teachers, man, they're horrible. And we had a couple, we had one, Miss Davis. We can name them. The ones that were cool. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Miss Davis loved my son, King. We can name her, but the other one, it was like the majority, it was real difficult. It was real difficult. And so I think there was like we had to talk about you know, violence on every level, you know what I mean? And trying to destroy our babies in in in through inside schools is a real thing.

SPEAKER_03 51:10

Yeah, this guy Cole Allen, Cole Thomas Allen, yeah. Um, his profile is interesting. He's won Teacher of the Year last year. Oh wow. Right? Um, I don't know his racial makeup, but he's definitely a person of color. And uh his manifesto was weird, man. Like it like, okay, first he runs in the Washington Hilton into the Wash into the White House correspondent dinner. It's real. It's like uh movie. I said before I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I want to bring up a conspiracy theory that's been floating around on the internet and get y'all thoughts on this. Uh since we're on Let Me Ask You This, let me ask you your thoughts on this conspiracy theory. All right, so in 2023, there was a post on Twitter by somebody named Henry Martinez, right? Uh, December 2023. He mentions there's only one post and it says Cole Allen without any additional context, right? That's the only entry on the account. It's the profile picture is Pepe the Frog. Now, if you know anything about Pepe the Frog, Pepe the Frog was a cartoon by a famous cartoonist that became a symbol for the alt-right, which are neo-Nazis, incels, um, grapers, right? Pepe the Frog became sort of a code between white supremacists for them to sort of like not wink wink at each other like I'm on the same team with you, right? Um uh the the header of the account is from a website called Time Machine. And if you superimpose Trump doing the the the fist in the air with the butler shit, super prose that over the shit, it fits perfectly, right?

SPEAKER_04 52:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 52:54

So now that account was run by who someone who whether or not uh there's any uh connection to that, and this actual Cole Allen, that account was run by somebody who supports grapers. Grapers are are led by uh Nick Fuentes. Oh wow. Nick Fuentes is definitely a Nazi. That's the dude Kanye was running around with. Even Donald, Nick Fuentes is so Nazi that Donald Trump was like, that's a Nazi. Yeah, hey, that's how Nazi Nick Fuentes is, right? Now, the person who shot Charlie Kirk was a graper. He's down with this graper community. These grapers who follow Nick Fuentes now, he Nick Fuentes wasn't always the person who was running that shit, but he ascended to the leadership of this online community of incels and whatever, right? Nick Fuentes, he has described Hitler as really cool. He says women deserve to get raped. Oh my god. He started a war of grapers with turning point. So there was like beef between Nick Fuentes' organization and turning point. Okay. So this conspiracy theory is going deeper and deeper and deeper, right? Because an account in 2023, that's a graper account, posted the name Cole Allen. And this is not, these are reported by reputable outlets. No one has made the actual connections, but everything that I've said to y'all is fact. Um the influence of grapers over right wing politics has only increased. Back in the days, Nick Fuentes and Grapers, that was back in the days when I was on Twitter, like you see these frog profiles? That's a racist. People are like, frogs are racist. Quale, you need to get off Twitter. You know what I'm saying? Like, that's back in them days, but now they're the mainstream. Yep. You know what I'm saying? They went from being the fringes to the mainstream, and that's what's happened with the right wing. Um, according to Cole Thomas Allen's LinkedIn page, he interned at Nassau in 2014. Um, in 2014, Nassau published a paper, uh, and the author of the paper was Henry Martinez, which is the name of this account that was on Twitter. Um Yeah, this like what do y'all think about this?

SPEAKER_01 55:00

I mean it's fascinating to hear his resume, to be honest. It's like what and why would he, this person with this red with this?

SPEAKER_03 55:07

I mean, the guy Ted Kaczynski was a Harvard guy who became an environmental terrorist who was blowing up snowmobiles and then he started murdering people. He's a very smart person. Yeah, but nobody who really wants like you the way he's smart people want revenge sometimes. Like he Ted Kacinski, when he went on trial, they said, You're so smart, you gotta know that what you're doing is not actually justice. It's just revenge. And he said, I know it's revenge. I'm trying to get revenge. Revenge. So when this guy in his manifesto says, I'm coming for all these people, he said he talked about rapists and pedophiles. I mean, uh if if I'm to believe the narrative, okay, it's a revenge narrative. It's very Taratino-esque.

SPEAKER_01 55:46

And is it online? Yeah, okay, so people can access this and find this manifesto. Because I haven't read it.

SPEAKER_06 55:52

Yeah. I think the whole situation is crazy for real.

SPEAKER_01 55:56

I think um Do you think it's set up though? Do you think it like, you know, I think we want to go down the rabbit hole, but you have a mental break.

SPEAKER_06 56:06

Here's the thing dealing with the American government. Even if it ain't a setup, it's a damn setup. Like, why play a game of schematics with these people? Like, yeah, they're not smart enough for me to start playing schematics with. You know what I'm saying? Is it real? Is it fake? Nigga, everything y'all showing me is a TV production. The goddamn war in Ukraine is a TV production, the goddamn war in Iran with this nigga Pete Hegsep is a TV production. Uh ratings. Trump himself is a whole entire goddamn fucking production, man. So you're not even about to put me on the treadmill to have to answer to you, is it real or fake, nigga? You tell me, is it real or fake? You the nigga they trying to kill, bitch ass nigga.

SPEAKER_01 56:51

Right, I know, that's right. Damn.

SPEAKER_06 56:53

You tell me. Don't leave it for me to decide. The fuck?

SPEAKER_01 56:58

It's a wild, it's a wild time.

SPEAKER_06 57:01

It's just too much Saturday Night Live shit going on at that White House. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Then they trying to, they started tweeting build uh This is why we need the ballroom after that.

SPEAKER_03 57:12

Immediately they all got in line and tweeted that. That's a lot of things.

SPEAKER_01 57:15

Which makes it strange.

SPEAKER_03 57:16

Right, because Trump uh How can that be the thing you're talking about? Shout out to Shout out to Michelle Wolfe. Yeah. Shout out to Michelle Wolf. Michelle Wolf was so good at the correspondence dinner.

SPEAKER_01 57:26

That's why I know her because of that. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 57:28

She was so a lot of us got to know her. At the correspondence dinner, she got on them so bad that Trump decided to never go again. It was based on that one time that Michelle Wolf did it. And so Trump was like, I'm not going ever again. And now this year he goes again for the first time since the Michelle Wolf. Which is the thing. And as soon as he walks in, this happens. And the director of the FBI is the guy who wrote his manifesto. One of the things he said, he said, I'm coming after everybody except for Cash Patel. And why is that you think? I don't know.

SPEAKER_06 58:01

And then didn't we? We don't know.

SPEAKER_03 58:02

Except Cash Matt. The press They didn't rush Cash Patel out the room. He was in the room.

SPEAKER_06 58:06

Cash Patel was chilling. Yeah, he was chilling.

SPEAKER_03 58:09

Interesting.

SPEAKER_06 58:10

And this is how you know that the insurrection was legit. And that this might be some cap. Yeah. Because them damn people, them damn elected officials who was in the building during that insurrection was running for their life. They wasn't sitting around trying to get a last-minute text off. They wasn't looking around saying, hey, let's see how this feels. Somebody gave me a secret warning that uh it's gonna be a little surprise tonight. You know what I'm saying? Like, come on, man, get this bullshit out of here, man.

SPEAKER_03 58:42

So now another theory that's happening is that in the MAGA world, people are turning on Trump. Uh Candace Owens is turning on Trump. Tucker Carlson is turning on Trump. Yeah. Um, Joe Kent, who was the former National Counter-terrorism center director, went on Tucker Carlson's podcast. He resigned over Iran. He was like, What are we doing in Iran? It's not good. Yeah, I'm out. I'm out, right? And um they started talking about Butler County. And uh this guy was, you know, killed by Secret Service agents. Um and Kent said on Tucker Carlson's podcast and that the investigation into that shooting had been shut down. Um I know that my audience is not watching Tucker Carlson's podcast. I'm here to provide you with the information. I'm here, I'm like Cat Williams. I sneak over to the other side, go get the information. Bring it back together. But Tim Dylan is a comedian who's in that Joe Rogan sphere. Okay. He's now coming out against Trump. He said Butler was staged. Candace Owen said that. Like Marjorie Taylor Greene, um, who I hate the fact that I share a last name with this woman. People are trying to say that she is now not MAGA because Trump and them, you know, they they don't like women, and the way they treat the women is crazy. And they got rid of uh Bo Burt and they they be dissing her. And Marjorie, Marjorie Taylor Green is now joined the ranks of the anti-Trump people. Um, but I bring her up and Tim Dillon and all these people. Well, let's let's talk about Marjorie Taylor Green and Candace Owens, because at this point, people are now saying, some voices are saying that we should embrace these people and uh align with them. You know, shout out to my brothers from Dead Press, sticking M. Yeah, you know, they got a famous lyric that's based on a revolutionary principle. The enemy of my enemy is my man. You know what I'm saying? Um that's true sometimes, but it's not an absolute. Nah. There's many, many, many times where the enemy of your enemy is not your friend. And we would talk about that in the car about a broken clock. You know what I'm saying? And this is one of those situations where to me, the metaphor of a broken clock being right twice a day that we use we're talking about human beings, doesn't actually work because a broken clock is an inanimate object with no actual agenda to push. A broken clock is not a danger to you. A human being that is using saying one or two things that you agree with, but they disagree with your existence or your humanity or disagree with something that is that is keeping you alive.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:15

And also they're just trying to stay in it. Like with Marjorie and Candice. I just think you know, I saw Marjorie, like the hey she how she came for Jasmine. I just I I I just can't with her. And and and I think she can be used towards her base, because her base is white folks. Then nobody, nobody black I know is run, is like, yeah, Marjorie, she's on our side now. Like, nobody's feeling her ass. But I I mean, and if she changed her mind, good, she's becoming more human. Um congratulations. Candace is just following the rabbit. Like, she's like, whatever's the hot thing. She wants to be popular.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:49

Every day, every week, Candace got a new bombshell. Like, she's like, this story's gonna change the way you think about the whole world. I'm good, I'm gonna be able to do it. Stay tuned, and it's every week is nothing. Yeah, I'm good. I'm done.

SPEAKER_06 1:01:58

I see it like uh, okay, the earth is a prison planet, and in the penal system, everybody go bang whatever car they're gonna bang. The black card, the Muslim car, the Christian card, they start breaking down in different things, right? Well, no, the reversal of that is you got the white supremacist card. Yeah and they be having their own racist ass politics, battles, battles for supremacy, who's gonna be the new top dog, who do we all gotta be subservient to? And I think on an oligarchical level, what we're witnessing in the United States is exactly that. Internally, everybody ain't really a Trump soldier. They just knew that he was the puppet to get to a certain space. But now we we haven't uh what they call the game of throne challenges right now. Cats like, yo, it could be me. We don't think he might leave in the next four years. You might not get a chance, JD. Oh shit, your wife ain't white player. What are we gonna do about that? Like it's a whole bunch of shit going on up there. You know what I'm saying? And like nobody really wanna had a real conversation about what the fuck they really doing. They just sent some damn people to the moon, the the dark side of the moon, and back while we was all sitting here chilling.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:07

Right.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:08

Meanwhile, they got a war going on in Iran, they destabilizing Cuba. Everybody looking at Iran, but he wants to go to Cuba and build all them damn Mar-Lagos. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? So it's like it's so much crazy bullshit going on, then he's helping his homeboy. We never can believe anything they say. So people kill me going, oh, Elon and Trump ain't getting along. How do you know that? What is what is what is their version of not getting along? Because it ain't it ain't not getting along enough to get your mama out the gutter, right? It ain't not getting along enough to stop poisoning the earth. So, what exactly is their version of not the fuck getting along? Because it still look like they're trying to colonize Mars to me, it still look like they dropping bombs on Palestine to me, it still look like they pedophiles and fucking liars to me. So, what exactly is their version of dissent going on in manga world, y'all? Criminals fighting criminals, get the fuck out of here. You know what I'm saying? Don't get me started on this shit.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:06

I think you've earned the right to smoke on this episode of the show. What is mom? You said earlier, you said I'm smoking on this episode. We got too much real shit to talk about now.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:15

You know what I'm saying? But yeah, you can't take a fucking charlatan and turn him into a hero. You know what I mean? Like just because you doing gangster shit to other gangsters don't make you an honorary member of society. Say that. You just doing gangster shit to other gangsters, y'all doing gangster shit. Like, as a person who ain't involved in that stuff, that got nothing to do with me. I'm not about to start celebrating either one of y'all because I'm victimized by all of you motherfuckers.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:36

Come on.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:38

Just my point.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:42

It was. Man, shout out to Tef Poe.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:45

I mean, this is why we started this podcast because these are the type of conversations that I have with Tef Poe. This is the type of thing that he be saying to me on the phone. Yeah, you're like, let's do this. Let's do this. Yeah. So I want to take the time to thank Tef Poe. Oh, thank you, brother. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:03

And I'm a stereo sharp.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:05

Which his name is stands for Teflon Poetics. We got one for you, bro. Okay, well. Teflon Poetics.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:10

All right, Teflon.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:11

The Poet Laureate of Detroit. Jessica Care Moore. Yeah, what up though? Um, man, level up, man. If your team ain't living their dream, you're not doing the right thing, man. Get your team like my team. Look at this team.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:25

We use our imaginations to see how to do this. We're doing it right now. It's all quality other. That's it, man. We're doing it. We podcasting. That's right. We got community programming going on. We got political education going on. We got the music thing clicking on. We got books. We're doing it all. We're doing it all. We're doing it all. We're doing it all. We're doing it all.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:41

I'm doing movement festival. That's right. I'm just saying. I know that doesn't matter to everybody, but it matters to us, Jessica. Well, I'm the first poet that they've ever booked. You know, and I I believe as a poet in like I don't have any people see poetry in this one, you know, insular kind of space, and I see it in every space. Um, I see it everywhere I go. Yeah, yeah. It's o poetry is everywhere and belongs everywhere. I say that. And I actually am pushing using my my my career and sometimes my weight to just inbox people like, well, I ain't been booked for that yet. Because they're not thinking poet, they're thinking techno, they're thinking house, and I think, oh, we can put the poet laureate in there. And I'm excited to show them what's possible. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:21

Poetry is everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:22

Poetry. And it belongs to everyone. And it's definitely a part of your podcast. And thank you for having me on. I appreciate both of y'all. No, we love you, Jesse.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:31

You're one of us. You know, you're gonna be on biggest. I wanna be a regular.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:34

Yeah, you are a regular being regular. We're gonna have you on again. And I'm getting no contact from the from the smoke.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:41

Let me ask you this.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:42

You come in, universe, I am. The creator has a master plan. I see a lot of in the fans. Catch me if you can. Catch me if you can.