May 23, 2025 • 11 mins
Sometimes, it seems that the causes we need to fight for can feel never ending. I just wanna remind y'all that there are people on the other side of those hashtags.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Calls media. Hey, Yo, Happy Friday. Hopefully you're listening to
this on Friday, and this weekend is something special for me.
I will be in Atlanta. No, I would have just
finished the show in Atlanta at Emory University. So if
you came to that shout out you, I would have
(00:23):
came home and be heading to the La County Fair
to rock with the Hommie Tycoon. If you're interested into
hearing the rap version of me prepping for the album
release party at Club real Ones on June first, so again, please,
I would love for you to come through there. If
you go to clubreal Ones dot com, you can get
(00:44):
like a discount ticket fifty percent off clubrel Ones dot com.
Use promo code props pr ops. Come chill with the
Day Party crew. It's a lot of hip hop, so
just be prepared for that, but a whole lot of
R and B and good times and just come chill.
It's fun and besides your home by nine, j'all oh last,
(01:06):
all right, this tap in is about keeping that same
energy that you need to keep and it also has
to do with my rap world. I just got back
from Joseph Harp Correctional Institution in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, at
an event called music Fest in conjunction with Justice for Julius.
Julius Jones was a man wrongfully convicted for murder who
(01:30):
was scheduled to be on death row. Was in on
death row for twenty years, and my homeboy JB fought
alongside the Justice for Julius movement to get his wanting
to get him out of jail, but first of all
to get his death row sentence commuted. They succeeded with that,
but he is still sitting in jail. At the prison
(01:52):
he's at, there is an event called music Fest, which
is a three day music festival that's been going on
for the fast five years. I've had a chance to
be a part of three of those five years, but
this might be the end of it because of a
new head of security. And there was this moment with
one of these inmates. And this inmate is a man
(02:15):
that you would absolutely expect to just be working at
a church running sound like he's the most regular, regular
looking white boy you'd ever meet. Ever, he said something
that makes me want to tap in. What y'all about?
He says, I just really hope that prison reform is
still something you guys are talking about on the outside.
(02:38):
That kind of shook me a little bit taping with me. Okay,
So if you have to go to prison, this is
(02:59):
the prison you want to be at. A lot of
these men are lifers. There's one young man who is
serving two consecutive life sentences, but it was from a
charge when he was seventeen. There was a young man
that I was actually looking forward to seeing, and I'm
gonna change his name right now because it's none of
y'all's business. I'm gonna call him Paul. Paul. And another
(03:20):
one who I don't mind saying his name is Key Tech,
who was a legendary like producer in okac's hip hop
scene running a studio. And him Paul and that regular
degular white boy I was talking about. They put together
this thing called Music Fest. So it's completely put together
by the inmates in conjunction with Live Free OKC, Black
(03:44):
Lives Matter OKC, and the Justice for Julius program Org.
These are people who work not only for justice for inmates,
to see community organizing inside of OKC, but all so
specifically for Julius. So in conjunction with that, they work
to reach out to artists. It's a three day thing.
(04:07):
They have an amazing sound system. It's like a festival.
It's like it feels like coming to a festival. You
get emailed, you know with the team. They ask for
your tech writer. There are certain things that you can't
bring in because it is in fact a prison. But
like I said, if you have to be in prison,
you want to be in prison. Here there is the
closest to the just valuing of these brothers humanity. They're
(04:33):
not overly surveiled. It is still in fact jail, don't
get me wrong. But the yard is of course a yard.
It's also but it's also you know, it's chapel. It's
gym where the brothers got a TV. You know, they
could play basketball. We go in there and this when
(04:54):
I tell you, it's nothing like this. It's like going
to a twenty four hour fitness except for all the
security you had to go through to get in there.
We're just chilling. We watched Game seven for the OKC
and Denver series. They all get these tablets which was
loaded with of course, again you're still in prison, so
(05:15):
it's loaded with some like pre selected channels and some
musical selections that like, obviously are not going to spark
crippin blood wars. But these guys have, relatively speaking, a
lot of privileges. Now, granted, there were other men that
are there that are don't have those privileges, that are
in a little more you know, kind of lockdown situation.
(05:38):
Some of that's for their own good or whatever, but
or their own safety, you know. And of course they
still have is the white supremacist world that has to
get segregated because they choose to believe a thing. There
are brothers that I am excited to see every year.
It feels like a reunion, one of which is the
name I changed to Homie Paul. I was informed that
(05:59):
he got moved, and he got moved to a another
prison institution that did not have these types of freedoms.
This was supposed to be disciplinary action because apparently he
had peanut butter in his cell. Now he's one of
the people that greet us that organized this event. And
(06:21):
then I come to find out that this was because
the new head of security apparently had an issue with
him from twenty years ago when he got written up.
He asked the guy like what, like, where do you
where's this coming from? Like, what do you know me
from He goes, man, you were a troublemaker back in
twenty years ago at you know whatever whatever he and
(06:43):
he goes. My friend Paul was like, I was in
Florida then, so like and then the security guy was
like you talking back to me shipped him out. He
has been working tirestly to end a lot of these freedoms.
He feels as though security, safety and control needs to
(07:03):
be done through power by an iron fist. Some of
the other things the Brothers was telling us is that
they do these mind game these just manipulation type stuff
that just completely unnecessary and intentionally designed to remind them
that they are not free. And I even noticed it
from the day or from the first moment walking in
(07:27):
to get through the metal detectors into security, I used
to be greeted very warmly, like there were professionals. There
were still like prison guards, but it was warm. Hey, dude,
glad you're doing this for the guys. Just put your
laptop right there, blah blah blah blah your name man,
Like it was great. This dude was like signing right here,
won't even look at us in our eyes. Just a
whole other like old school lapd just bully. You guys
(07:51):
are like just bullies, like all of us are beneath you.
The whole tone. I just saw, like after going their
two years, I just saw how their demeanor was so different.
One thing you gotta know about when you when you
when you're talking to inmates is they don't really be
having a lot of people to talk to. So you
got to, like, you gotta be prepared for a lot
(08:13):
of stories because they just don't have a lot of
time to do small talk often because they only see
each other all the time. So whenever there has a
new face, these brothers with Takyo year off, so you
gotta make sure you get your rest before you before
you go to be very present for him. The stories
they were expressing of just really petty, unnecessary, like we're
(08:33):
already in prison creating problems and creating problems with guys
that are the good ones, if we're gonna use those terms,
and even the men that like apparently Key Tech is
about to get transferred to another institution too, and I
think that is in for the purpose of removing this festival,
(08:54):
which is a sense of joy, like a moment for
these guys to just remember that they're humans again, that
there is such thing as joy. They're serving their time.
You don't have to dehumanize them. I haven't even gotten
too the concept of abolition. I'm saying, they already locked up.
And the way that they were explaining this thing just
(09:16):
it grieved me so much because they would They kept saying, man,
they're not even he's not even treating us like we're
a human. Man. Hopefully he'll leave. And that guy that
I told you that just seems like a regular, regular
dude that you'd meet it at the parent teacher conference.
That's just like that guy's kid is in your fourth
grade class, just the most regular. He was like, yeah,
(09:39):
you know, we've been, you know, doing our homework, doing
our research, really trying to understand like what's going on.
And he goes, the message we're getting is like those
guys are dinosaurs, like they are on their way out.
But what he said at the end of that was, Man,
I just hope and pray that people are still talking
about this on the outside. You know a lot of times,
(10:01):
especially if you move in justice circles or just pay
attention on social media, it's about the news coming so
fast that you can't keep up. We all know about
like Instagram activists that are moving on to the next
to borrow Jamie's language, the next Internet main character. But
of justice. You know, you're only caring about it because
(10:24):
we talking about it right now, all the black squares
that were on twenty twenty when everybody cared about Black
Lives matter. Eventually something else happens and it takes over
our zeigeist. But then there's the reality of like, yeah,
Flint still doesn't have clean water. There's so many things
we have to care about. But that moment reminded me
of something that I want to remind you of is
(10:46):
that these people are not just Internet topics or what's
going on in the news cycle. They are in fact
people of people that are hoping and praying that we
can keep the same energy. And I know i'm speaking
to peace people, especially if you subscribe to anything that
Cool Zone does, y'all care. I also know that it's
(11:06):
impossible to care about everything, But I just want to
remind you that your advocacy, the things that you do
speak up about and push the line on, there are
people counting on us and it do work. Just man,
when you're posting your watermelons in support for the children
(11:28):
of Gaza. Remember, I mean literally, this is somebody's baby
and they're kind of counting on us to not lose focus.
I don't know, man. It was such a reminder to
me that these ain't just pods. This is somebody's lives.
Tap being with
Calls media. Hey, Yo, Happy Friday. Hopefully you're listening to
this on Friday, and this weekend is something special for me.
I will be in Atlanta. No, I would have just
finished the show in Atlanta at Emory University. So if
you came to that shout out you, I would have
(00:23):
came home and be heading to the La County Fair
to rock with the Hommie Tycoon. If you're interested into
hearing the rap version of me prepping for the album
release party at Club real Ones on June first, so again, please,
I would love for you to come through there. If
you go to clubreal Ones dot com, you can get
(00:44):
like a discount ticket fifty percent off clubrel Ones dot com.
Use promo code props pr ops. Come chill with the
Day Party crew. It's a lot of hip hop, so
just be prepared for that, but a whole lot of
R and B and good times and just come chill.
It's fun and besides your home by nine, j'all oh last,
(01:06):
all right, this tap in is about keeping that same
energy that you need to keep and it also has
to do with my rap world. I just got back
from Joseph Harp Correctional Institution in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, at
an event called music Fest in conjunction with Justice for Julius.
Julius Jones was a man wrongfully convicted for murder who
(01:30):
was scheduled to be on death row. Was in on
death row for twenty years, and my homeboy JB fought
alongside the Justice for Julius movement to get his wanting
to get him out of jail, but first of all
to get his death row sentence commuted. They succeeded with that,
but he is still sitting in jail. At the prison
(01:52):
he's at, there is an event called music Fest, which
is a three day music festival that's been going on
for the fast five years. I've had a chance to
be a part of three of those five years, but
this might be the end of it because of a
new head of security. And there was this moment with
one of these inmates. And this inmate is a man
(02:15):
that you would absolutely expect to just be working at
a church running sound like he's the most regular, regular
looking white boy you'd ever meet. Ever, he said something
that makes me want to tap in. What y'all about?
He says, I just really hope that prison reform is
still something you guys are talking about on the outside.
(02:38):
That kind of shook me a little bit taping with me. Okay,
So if you have to go to prison, this is
(02:59):
the prison you want to be at. A lot of
these men are lifers. There's one young man who is
serving two consecutive life sentences, but it was from a
charge when he was seventeen. There was a young man
that I was actually looking forward to seeing, and I'm
gonna change his name right now because it's none of
y'all's business. I'm gonna call him Paul. Paul. And another
(03:20):
one who I don't mind saying his name is Key Tech,
who was a legendary like producer in okac's hip hop
scene running a studio. And him Paul and that regular
degular white boy I was talking about. They put together
this thing called Music Fest. So it's completely put together
by the inmates in conjunction with Live Free OKC, Black
(03:44):
Lives Matter OKC, and the Justice for Julius program Org.
These are people who work not only for justice for inmates,
to see community organizing inside of OKC, but all so
specifically for Julius. So in conjunction with that, they work
to reach out to artists. It's a three day thing.
(04:07):
They have an amazing sound system. It's like a festival.
It's like it feels like coming to a festival. You
get emailed, you know with the team. They ask for
your tech writer. There are certain things that you can't
bring in because it is in fact a prison. But
like I said, if you have to be in prison,
you want to be in prison. Here there is the
closest to the just valuing of these brothers humanity. They're
(04:33):
not overly surveiled. It is still in fact jail, don't
get me wrong. But the yard is of course a yard.
It's also but it's also you know, it's chapel. It's
gym where the brothers got a TV. You know, they
could play basketball. We go in there and this when
(04:54):
I tell you, it's nothing like this. It's like going
to a twenty four hour fitness except for all the
security you had to go through to get in there.
We're just chilling. We watched Game seven for the OKC
and Denver series. They all get these tablets which was
loaded with of course, again you're still in prison, so
(05:15):
it's loaded with some like pre selected channels and some
musical selections that like, obviously are not going to spark
crippin blood wars. But these guys have, relatively speaking, a
lot of privileges. Now, granted, there were other men that
are there that are don't have those privileges, that are
in a little more you know, kind of lockdown situation.
(05:38):
Some of that's for their own good or whatever, but
or their own safety, you know. And of course they
still have is the white supremacist world that has to
get segregated because they choose to believe a thing. There
are brothers that I am excited to see every year.
It feels like a reunion, one of which is the
name I changed to Homie Paul. I was informed that
(05:59):
he got moved, and he got moved to a another
prison institution that did not have these types of freedoms.
This was supposed to be disciplinary action because apparently he
had peanut butter in his cell. Now he's one of
the people that greet us that organized this event. And
(06:21):
then I come to find out that this was because
the new head of security apparently had an issue with
him from twenty years ago when he got written up.
He asked the guy like what, like, where do you
where's this coming from? Like, what do you know me
from He goes, man, you were a troublemaker back in
twenty years ago at you know whatever whatever he and
(06:43):
he goes. My friend Paul was like, I was in
Florida then, so like and then the security guy was
like you talking back to me shipped him out. He
has been working tirestly to end a lot of these freedoms.
He feels as though security, safety and control needs to
(07:03):
be done through power by an iron fist. Some of
the other things the Brothers was telling us is that
they do these mind game these just manipulation type stuff
that just completely unnecessary and intentionally designed to remind them
that they are not free. And I even noticed it
from the day or from the first moment walking in
(07:27):
to get through the metal detectors into security, I used
to be greeted very warmly, like there were professionals. There
were still like prison guards, but it was warm. Hey, dude,
glad you're doing this for the guys. Just put your
laptop right there, blah blah blah blah your name man,
Like it was great. This dude was like signing right here,
won't even look at us in our eyes. Just a
whole other like old school lapd just bully. You guys
(07:51):
are like just bullies, like all of us are beneath you.
The whole tone. I just saw, like after going their
two years, I just saw how their demeanor was so different.
One thing you gotta know about when you when you
when you're talking to inmates is they don't really be
having a lot of people to talk to. So you
got to, like, you gotta be prepared for a lot
(08:13):
of stories because they just don't have a lot of
time to do small talk often because they only see
each other all the time. So whenever there has a
new face, these brothers with Takyo year off, so you
gotta make sure you get your rest before you before
you go to be very present for him. The stories
they were expressing of just really petty, unnecessary, like we're
(08:33):
already in prison creating problems and creating problems with guys
that are the good ones, if we're gonna use those terms,
and even the men that like apparently Key Tech is
about to get transferred to another institution too, and I
think that is in for the purpose of removing this festival,
(08:54):
which is a sense of joy, like a moment for
these guys to just remember that they're humans again, that
there is such thing as joy. They're serving their time.
You don't have to dehumanize them. I haven't even gotten
too the concept of abolition. I'm saying, they already locked up.
And the way that they were explaining this thing just
(09:16):
it grieved me so much because they would They kept saying, man,
they're not even he's not even treating us like we're
a human. Man. Hopefully he'll leave. And that guy that
I told you that just seems like a regular, regular
dude that you'd meet it at the parent teacher conference.
That's just like that guy's kid is in your fourth
grade class, just the most regular. He was like, yeah,
(09:39):
you know, we've been, you know, doing our homework, doing
our research, really trying to understand like what's going on.
And he goes, the message we're getting is like those
guys are dinosaurs, like they are on their way out.
But what he said at the end of that was, Man,
I just hope and pray that people are still talking
about this on the outside. You know a lot of times,
(10:01):
especially if you move in justice circles or just pay
attention on social media, it's about the news coming so
fast that you can't keep up. We all know about
like Instagram activists that are moving on to the next
to borrow Jamie's language, the next Internet main character. But
of justice. You know, you're only caring about it because
(10:24):
we talking about it right now, all the black squares
that were on twenty twenty when everybody cared about Black
Lives matter. Eventually something else happens and it takes over
our zeigeist. But then there's the reality of like, yeah,
Flint still doesn't have clean water. There's so many things
we have to care about. But that moment reminded me
of something that I want to remind you of is
(10:46):
that these people are not just Internet topics or what's
going on in the news cycle. They are in fact
people of people that are hoping and praying that we
can keep the same energy. And I know i'm speaking
to peace people, especially if you subscribe to anything that
Cool Zone does, y'all care. I also know that it's
(11:06):
impossible to care about everything, But I just want to
remind you that your advocacy, the things that you do
speak up about and push the line on, there are
people counting on us and it do work. Just man,
when you're posting your watermelons in support for the children
(11:28):
of Gaza. Remember, I mean literally, this is somebody's baby
and they're kind of counting on us to not lose focus.
I don't know, man. It was such a reminder to
me that these ain't just pods. This is somebody's lives.
Tap being with
Host
Prop
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