May 9, 2025 • 10 mins
The East Bay legend, famed director of Fruitvale Station, Black Panther and Creed, Ryan Coolger, sent a big ol' black lightning rod through the film industry with his new film Sinners. Not only was the film amazing, but the deal he negotiated for himself had the audacity to reflect the caliber of his work! And apparently, America don't like that.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Calls media. Ryan Coogler, in my book, has placed himself
on the mount rushmore of on the nose bay Area
town talk right up there with two short e forty
and Marshawn Lynch. No one sounds more like town biz
than if you hear Ryan talk. Not only that, if
(00:22):
you understand the culture of being raised in the Bay Area,
not so much crips and blood gangbanging that we understand
down here in southern California. Theirs is the game. Theirs
is hustling. Theres is figuring out the system, flipping it
and making it work for you. Ryan is a picture
of playing the game and displaying black excellence. And I
(00:44):
tell you what, it still not only surprises America, terrifies
it taping with so Ryan's new film Centers is not
only a box office smash, but is a filmmaker's wet dream,
(01:09):
just nerded out, really doing for film what Kendrick Lamar
did for hip hop.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
And what I mean by that is Kendrick Lamar is
a rappidy rap, backpacker rapper.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
However, he's a hood dude that knows how to make hits.
For years we thought the two didn't work. You couldn't
be a real lyricist rapper, but at the same time
get it popping in the club. Ryan has done that
in the box office. This man's catalog is insane. While
still in film school, he created the film fruit Vale,
(01:40):
which dramatizes the murder of Oscar Grant. In twenty thirteen,
he took home two awards, the Grand Jury Prize and
the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival. Still in school.
And when you prove you got the chops, you get
the bread for the next project. And the next project
was Creed. With a thirty five million dollar budget. We
(02:00):
made forty two point six million dollars in the opening weekend.
So if you come out the box on the opening
weekend making all the money back, bruh, you get to
do whatever the hell you want to do. But bre
was just beginning to rumble because his next project was
the Black Panther film, which netted a one point three
billion dollars, the highest grossing black film maker ever and
(02:21):
the youngest director to lead a billion dollar movie. And
I don't know if you notice. Black Panther is the
only Marvel film nominated for Best Picture Black Excellence and
if you may or may not notice, each of those
movies all had Michael B. Jordan in it. You know why,
town Biz Baby. We keep our day ones around us.
But all of this is bringing us to the absolute
(02:44):
nerdery level of this new film, Centers. Centers was shot
on film, literally so much so that there are so
many different options for which you could watch this film.
And he does a video explaining the difference between eight
millimeters sixteen millimeter, forty five millimeter Imax and widescreen shot
(03:05):
showing the film and the holes on there, proving that
this is shot with the type of mastery and nerdery
in the same way that us backpacker nerd wrap dissecting
type head ass dudes would go through lyric by lyric
explaining Kendrick Lamar's versus you may just be bouncing to
squabble up or mustard. I'm still saying black Pendleton ball
(03:29):
cap Wes West. We don't say the same synonym fall
back West West. I'm still looking at the Ryan patterns.
It's something for everybody. This film was not only for
the film school nerds. It came out bigger than expected
at forty eight million dollars on Easter weekend and fifteen
million dollars overseas. The only other film to come out
(03:52):
that hard and earn a cinema score was James Cameron's
sequel to Aliens in nineteen eighty six. See there's a
belief that black film don't travel, that they don't work overseas,
and what the hell is a black film anyway? The
very name of it is problematic. Ryan built different. But
when you built different, if you have that type of success,
you know what happens. You could start negotiating for yourself.
(04:15):
See these are the things that unless your parents had
the financial margins to not just be always in crisis mode,
then they really just don't have the bandwidth to teach
you these types of things that kids who come from wealth,
from generational wealth learn there is a way to play
this corporate game. We don't learn negotiation skills. We won't
(04:35):
know a four one ks are we learned that later.
You may have heard us say things like this, Lord,
grant me the confidence of a mediocre white man, because
that mediocre mid khaki C minus barely getting by white
man gets elevated at that career and lands him as salary.
I could never dream of that. He know for a
fact he not worth, but you're worth what you can negotiate.
(04:58):
I didn't know that. We oftentimes feel we just lucky
to be in the room. But that's not every black experience.
Some of us were trained well, some of us came
from good schools, some of us had supportive parents, and
we took that opportunity in that network, and we worked
as hard as we possibly could to get to the
place that we are. Ryan knew he wasn't gonna do
this again. Ce See here's the crazy thing. Ryan let
(05:20):
us know in a podcast while he was directing Creed
he was two hundred thousand dollars in debt for film School.
You mean this man has made this studio billions of
dollars and he's still in debt.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
No more, baby.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
So when making the deal for this film with Warner Brothers,
he said this, this is what we're gonna do. I
want twenty percent of the gross. Now what that means is,
I'm not gonna wait for y'all to make y'all's money back.
I want money as y'all make money. I'll make money
if you want this film. I'm the guy that directed
Black Panthers, so you can't, you can't front on the skills.
He went in there and demanded what he needed. He
(05:53):
needs rights to residuals for the merchandising. And then lastly
he said, which is the part that's blowing everybody. My
man said, after twenty five years, I want to own
this film. And boy did that break the internet. See,
anti blackness is tricky and can be insidious in a
number of ways and very gaslightly. There's on one end
this belief that if one of us actually makes it,
(06:15):
that means racism is over. But then there's also this
belief that you must also be the exception to the rule.
See this ain't a headline because he's the first person
to ever negotiate this type of deal. It broke the
internet because America really doesn't.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Like black people.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Of course, America is terrified of the radical, raging black man,
but black excellence that's even more scary. I remember one time,
while I was still inside of my master's program getting
ready to start teaching, I was at some sort of
inner city something and I remember this sweet old white
lady asked me before I went to college, was I
a crip or a blood? Because in her mind, that
(06:56):
was the only option. That I came from poverty and
my parents are a parent home and I did not know
my daddy. See, America can deal with that type of
black success. Oh, they like movies like The blind Side
because they get to pack themselves on the back and
say that they not like they ancestors that put us
in chains. No, we're different. We give of our generational wealth. Oh,
(07:16):
this is my little tar baby that I have helped
to become successful.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Because if that's the story, they still get to be
the main character. We needed them.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
What's really scary is when we don't need them. Who
doesn't like a rags to riches story. It also allows
them to ignore the concept of institutional racism because they
can say.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
That, but look, you still succeeded.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
I hate to invoke the greatest fall off of our time,
Kanye West. That's broke Nigga racism, the type of racism
that looks at Black people and say, y'all can't succeed
because y'all don't work hard. Y'all gonna always be broke,
y'all gonna always live in poverty because you don't know
how to work hard. You don't appreciate the things that
are given to you. So let us be kind white
people and give you stuff, and I need you to
(07:58):
be grateful and just it. Except the fact that you
are even at the table because of our mercy. The
other type of racism is different, rich Nigga racism. Damon
Wayan said on yet another fall off club Shaysha that
he knows racism is real because the richer you get,
the less black faces you see. The higher up you get,
(08:19):
the less black people are around. They even have your
team switch out look ause Serena Williams's parents Beyonce's daddy.
At some point you start making enough money to where
they say, you know, we got it from you. You
find yourself being the only black family in the neighborhood,
your children the only black kids at this private school.
The richer you get, the less you see us, unless
(08:39):
it's Atlanta. The type of excellence that really bothers these people,
that really terrifies America is the big Baller brand is
the ball brother. Oh. I'm not here to defend that
old man, but I tell you what. They don't come
from poverty. They come from Chino Hills. And he bet
the house on his sons and built a brand off
their own strength. Oh that's different. I know he might
(09:00):
be a NEPO baby, but isn't Jeanie Buss. I'm talking
about the guy who come from a supportive family, who
goes to college, proves his worth, and then walks in
and negotiates a deal that the rest of y'all was
too scared to negotiate. Oh that got these production houses terrified.
That got all kind of little bro headlines about what
(09:23):
Ryan has done. And Ryan stood on Democracy Now during
an interview and said, I'm not the first person to
ever negotiated. I don't know why it's such a big
deal that I did it. Oh, And Terry Gross was like,
why do you think Ryan, and his most town talk
voice said, oh, you know, I'd rather not say, but
I think we know. I think America is still terrified
when we actually understand our worth, when we actually understand
(09:46):
that we can negotiate, just like y'all can. I remember
my mother told me once when I was in high school,
the reason why I got shipped out to that suburban
high school from the neighborhood I lived in is because
she said, whatever it in white kids is getting my son.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
This whole have to work twice as hard to go
half as far.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
At some point we start realizing like, oh, that's because
we don't negotiate. Oh, we're just thankful to be at
the table. But no, MO, you gonna see my worth.
We're gonna stay on your neck. We gonna pay me
what you owe me. Y'all just gonna have to be scared.
Tap in with me, babies,
Calls media. Ryan Coogler, in my book, has placed himself
on the mount rushmore of on the nose bay Area
town talk right up there with two short e forty
and Marshawn Lynch. No one sounds more like town biz
than if you hear Ryan talk. Not only that, if
(00:22):
you understand the culture of being raised in the Bay Area,
not so much crips and blood gangbanging that we understand
down here in southern California. Theirs is the game. Theirs
is hustling. Theres is figuring out the system, flipping it
and making it work for you. Ryan is a picture
of playing the game and displaying black excellence. And I
(00:44):
tell you what, it still not only surprises America, terrifies
it taping with so Ryan's new film Centers is not
only a box office smash, but is a filmmaker's wet dream,
(01:09):
just nerded out, really doing for film what Kendrick Lamar
did for hip hop.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
And what I mean by that is Kendrick Lamar is
a rappidy rap, backpacker rapper.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
However, he's a hood dude that knows how to make hits.
For years we thought the two didn't work. You couldn't
be a real lyricist rapper, but at the same time
get it popping in the club. Ryan has done that
in the box office. This man's catalog is insane. While
still in film school, he created the film fruit Vale,
(01:40):
which dramatizes the murder of Oscar Grant. In twenty thirteen,
he took home two awards, the Grand Jury Prize and
the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival. Still in school.
And when you prove you got the chops, you get
the bread for the next project. And the next project
was Creed. With a thirty five million dollar budget. We
(02:00):
made forty two point six million dollars in the opening weekend.
So if you come out the box on the opening
weekend making all the money back, bruh, you get to
do whatever the hell you want to do. But bre
was just beginning to rumble because his next project was
the Black Panther film, which netted a one point three
billion dollars, the highest grossing black film maker ever and
(02:21):
the youngest director to lead a billion dollar movie. And
I don't know if you notice. Black Panther is the
only Marvel film nominated for Best Picture Black Excellence and
if you may or may not notice, each of those
movies all had Michael B. Jordan in it. You know why,
town Biz Baby. We keep our day ones around us.
But all of this is bringing us to the absolute
(02:44):
nerdery level of this new film, Centers. Centers was shot
on film, literally so much so that there are so
many different options for which you could watch this film.
And he does a video explaining the difference between eight
millimeters sixteen millimeter, forty five millimeter Imax and widescreen shot
(03:05):
showing the film and the holes on there, proving that
this is shot with the type of mastery and nerdery
in the same way that us backpacker nerd wrap dissecting
type head ass dudes would go through lyric by lyric
explaining Kendrick Lamar's versus you may just be bouncing to
squabble up or mustard. I'm still saying black Pendleton ball
(03:29):
cap Wes West. We don't say the same synonym fall
back West West. I'm still looking at the Ryan patterns.
It's something for everybody. This film was not only for
the film school nerds. It came out bigger than expected
at forty eight million dollars on Easter weekend and fifteen
million dollars overseas. The only other film to come out
(03:52):
that hard and earn a cinema score was James Cameron's
sequel to Aliens in nineteen eighty six. See there's a
belief that black film don't travel, that they don't work overseas,
and what the hell is a black film anyway? The
very name of it is problematic. Ryan built different. But
when you built different, if you have that type of success,
you know what happens. You could start negotiating for yourself.
(04:15):
See these are the things that unless your parents had
the financial margins to not just be always in crisis mode,
then they really just don't have the bandwidth to teach
you these types of things that kids who come from wealth,
from generational wealth learn there is a way to play
this corporate game. We don't learn negotiation skills. We won't
(04:35):
know a four one ks are we learned that later.
You may have heard us say things like this, Lord,
grant me the confidence of a mediocre white man, because
that mediocre mid khaki C minus barely getting by white
man gets elevated at that career and lands him as salary.
I could never dream of that. He know for a
fact he not worth, but you're worth what you can negotiate.
(04:58):
I didn't know that. We oftentimes feel we just lucky
to be in the room. But that's not every black experience.
Some of us were trained well, some of us came
from good schools, some of us had supportive parents, and
we took that opportunity in that network, and we worked
as hard as we possibly could to get to the
place that we are. Ryan knew he wasn't gonna do
this again. Ce See here's the crazy thing. Ryan let
(05:20):
us know in a podcast while he was directing Creed
he was two hundred thousand dollars in debt for film School.
You mean this man has made this studio billions of
dollars and he's still in debt.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
No more, baby.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
So when making the deal for this film with Warner Brothers,
he said this, this is what we're gonna do. I
want twenty percent of the gross. Now what that means is,
I'm not gonna wait for y'all to make y'all's money back.
I want money as y'all make money. I'll make money
if you want this film. I'm the guy that directed
Black Panthers, so you can't, you can't front on the skills.
He went in there and demanded what he needed. He
(05:53):
needs rights to residuals for the merchandising. And then lastly
he said, which is the part that's blowing everybody. My
man said, after twenty five years, I want to own
this film. And boy did that break the internet. See,
anti blackness is tricky and can be insidious in a
number of ways and very gaslightly. There's on one end
this belief that if one of us actually makes it,
(06:15):
that means racism is over. But then there's also this
belief that you must also be the exception to the rule.
See this ain't a headline because he's the first person
to ever negotiate this type of deal. It broke the
internet because America really doesn't.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Like black people.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Of course, America is terrified of the radical, raging black man,
but black excellence that's even more scary. I remember one time,
while I was still inside of my master's program getting
ready to start teaching, I was at some sort of
inner city something and I remember this sweet old white
lady asked me before I went to college, was I
a crip or a blood? Because in her mind, that
(06:56):
was the only option. That I came from poverty and
my parents are a parent home and I did not know
my daddy. See, America can deal with that type of
black success. Oh, they like movies like The blind Side
because they get to pack themselves on the back and
say that they not like they ancestors that put us
in chains. No, we're different. We give of our generational wealth. Oh,
(07:16):
this is my little tar baby that I have helped
to become successful.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Because if that's the story, they still get to be
the main character. We needed them.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
What's really scary is when we don't need them. Who
doesn't like a rags to riches story. It also allows
them to ignore the concept of institutional racism because they
can say.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
That, but look, you still succeeded.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
I hate to invoke the greatest fall off of our time,
Kanye West. That's broke Nigga racism, the type of racism
that looks at Black people and say, y'all can't succeed
because y'all don't work hard. Y'all gonna always be broke,
y'all gonna always live in poverty because you don't know
how to work hard. You don't appreciate the things that
are given to you. So let us be kind white
people and give you stuff, and I need you to
(07:58):
be grateful and just it. Except the fact that you
are even at the table because of our mercy. The
other type of racism is different, rich Nigga racism. Damon
Wayan said on yet another fall off club Shaysha that
he knows racism is real because the richer you get,
the less black faces you see. The higher up you get,
(08:19):
the less black people are around. They even have your
team switch out look ause Serena Williams's parents Beyonce's daddy.
At some point you start making enough money to where
they say, you know, we got it from you. You
find yourself being the only black family in the neighborhood,
your children the only black kids at this private school.
The richer you get, the less you see us, unless
(08:39):
it's Atlanta. The type of excellence that really bothers these people,
that really terrifies America is the big Baller brand is
the ball brother. Oh. I'm not here to defend that
old man, but I tell you what. They don't come
from poverty. They come from Chino Hills. And he bet
the house on his sons and built a brand off
their own strength. Oh that's different. I know he might
(09:00):
be a NEPO baby, but isn't Jeanie Buss. I'm talking
about the guy who come from a supportive family, who
goes to college, proves his worth, and then walks in
and negotiates a deal that the rest of y'all was
too scared to negotiate. Oh that got these production houses terrified.
That got all kind of little bro headlines about what
(09:23):
Ryan has done. And Ryan stood on Democracy Now during
an interview and said, I'm not the first person to
ever negotiated. I don't know why it's such a big
deal that I did it. Oh, And Terry Gross was like,
why do you think Ryan, and his most town talk
voice said, oh, you know, I'd rather not say, but
I think we know. I think America is still terrified
when we actually understand our worth, when we actually understand
(09:46):
that we can negotiate, just like y'all can. I remember
my mother told me once when I was in high school,
the reason why I got shipped out to that suburban
high school from the neighborhood I lived in is because
she said, whatever it in white kids is getting my son.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
This whole have to work twice as hard to go
half as far.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
At some point we start realizing like, oh, that's because
we don't negotiate. Oh, we're just thankful to be at
the table. But no, MO, you gonna see my worth.
We're gonna stay on your neck. We gonna pay me
what you owe me. Y'all just gonna have to be scared.
Tap in with me, babies,
Host
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