February 26, 2025 • 46 mins
This year's first Terraformer is yet another person that personifies the mission and vison of Hood Politics. Rapper, record exec, cannabis business owner and certifed OG Bambu talks about his journey from the streets to grassroots organizing and how these two things are not so far apart.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
All media.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
So some things just kind of come from like not
being a jerk to people and treating them like humans,
whether you know what.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
They can do for you or not.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Just being a good person, which is how I landed
access to All Star Weekend. So shout out the hommy
BJ who works with some incredible nonprofits, and somehow another
(00:39):
got us into a poker tournament with Kenny the Jet
and Charles Barkley. So I got to go to All
Star Weekend. Now the problem is All Star Weekend was
also Valentine's Day weekend, so I ain't get to stay
for the game, nor could they give me tickets to that.
But the point is I got to see a lot
of friends. Molski, who's just running it right now? Squint,
(01:04):
who how do I explain Squints? So I did a
book before Terror Form called I Am Becoming and we
did a It was photojournalism and poetry. But every promo
picture I had up until recently, we're pretty much Squint
shot him. Squint works with beast Mode, works for the Warriors,
(01:25):
works with.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Steph Curry, andre Ward. Squint is.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Like the most He's one of the most humble and
most talented, the most connected, persons I've ever met. He'll
be like, you need to get in text Steph. I
was like, you want me to text Stephan Curry. Yeah,
He's text him and I'm like, man, you text him.
He's like, bro, he likes you just text him. And
(01:53):
I'm like, all right, I'm not gonna. I've never I've never.
He has never handed me his phone numbers, So I
Am not going to tech Stefan Curry.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
You can.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
I'm not anyway.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Uh, But what that meant was I was able to
be up in the Bay Area to actually do our
first terror form show and actually set it up like
a video interview with the Quia Bam Bamboo de Pistola
Bamboo Credible rapper part of Soul Assassins, started.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
A label called Beat Rock Music.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
I just want to talk about like the like rapper
to activists, pipeline. It's it's an interesting thing because it's
like sometimes rappers get rich and they get and they
just become Kanye's or Elon's or just they just go
that route where it's like I'm rich and nothing else matters.
But then some of us get completely radicalized, like you.
(02:52):
I mean, we just watched the Kendrick and Drake narrative,
like they came up at the same time and then
had this split. Kendrick was like, I'm not with all this.
I want to be this other person. Drake was like,
give it all. He wanted all the money, the cause,
and the clothes he supposed he just wants to be successful.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
That's a Drake song. Anyway, y'all already know where I stand.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
But I think I think there's some interesting things about like,
you know, one, the power of hip hop to hip
hop we fell in love with, and then what actually
happens off the mic and the type of activism that
can come from just starting with just you being passionate
(03:37):
about your art. So I happened to be up in
San Francisco. It's just worked out perfectly, and I was
able to tap in with the homie Bambooth. He's been
on the show before. But like we were still kind
of figure out who we were in. But we're in
the game now, all right, here we go, All right,
(04:07):
here we go. Hey, all right, I've already done all the.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Introduction Wait, am I recording over here?
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Yes, I've already done all the introductions before you got here,
So people already know who you are. This is the
first time we've done like an on site, right, say.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Last time we did her politics was over the phone, right, Yeah,
it was a pandemic pandemic time.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Yeah, the show's grown a lot. I feel like I.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Found congratulations, thank you man, really found a direction. Like
I feel like, I mean, it's like anything, you have
to do enough of them to really figure out what
you're trying to say.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
And I think what I.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
The hope has always been like informative education and then
altimate to see like like the end goal is to
see someone run for city council. That was like that
was a part of like K four P.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
That was like you know what I mean, that was
one of us that is like actually, let's let's do this,
you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
But there's a.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
There's a pipeline of that, right, Like there's a way
to get there that I feel like in some ways,
hip hop, just being as young as it is, has
not we haven't seen those statesmen yet. Like we're in
a season now where a lot of our elder statesmen
are being a little strange.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Sure forgetting where they came from.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Forgetting where they came from. Yeah, it's just some really
odd things. But that being said, one of the questions
I get a lot is like people really wanted to
be involved, people feeling over especially from young artists, and
being like, you know, how do I do more than
just rap? You know what I'm saying, and they're only
(05:44):
hearing it from me? So I know, I know my narrative,
I know how I got to where I was, you
know what I'm saying. But like, I think it started
when I think you you had like posted somewhere that
like somebody had challenged you about like what are you
really doing, and that super resonated with me and was like, Okay,
I really need I need y'all to hear this story, you.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
And last year I started doing this thing that I
was calling like I was trying to do them once
a month in the between the chaos that was happening
in the news. It was called like the Terraforming series,
where it's like, let me just find people that are
actually putting good in the world, you know what I'm saying,
and bring y'all on the ground.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Yes, you know, in between stuff.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
We gott tell sometimes you need to break right, you know,
you need a break from the chaos. So that's why
you're here, man. And so first of all, let's see
if we can rewind the clock back as far as
possible to be like, I know, it's an odd question.
It will be like your introduction to hip hop. Sure,
your introduction like you're from the city like me, but like,
(06:46):
where did that start?
Speaker 3 (06:48):
I mean not always rhymed for me as far back
as I can remember. Yeah, yeah, thirteen twelve thirteen for sure.
And then you know, open mic circuits and things like that.
You know, try my hand at it. But I still
had one foot in the life. So you know, I
got locked up from arm robbery at sixteen. When I
(07:08):
got out, the options for me were slim.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Uh. And then there was a judge you said, strongly
suggests that I joined the Marine Corps. I want to
judge strongly suggests. I mean the next time I see you, yeah,
doing big numbers, you know what I mean. So it's like,
all right, you know, so I joined the Marine Corps.
My big takeaway from that, as far as hip hop
is concerned, is that I was you know, what it's
(07:32):
like being from la You kind of just listen to
La shit you know what I mean, Like that's it. Yes,
freestyle fellowship was it like there was no other like
back wrap, you know, quote unquote cipher rap.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Outside of that, you know, don't lose your thought, but
I would.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
I started touring the amount of just I realized I
was like, I'm so arrogant. I don't believe in anyone's
underground raight up. Yeah, like no one's underground straight up.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
So like you know, being in the military, I was
introduced to cash money, really introduced to you know, cats
from Alaska were doing stuff, and I was like, whoa,
this is blowing my mind. So it influenced my style
a lot. Yeah, So when I came home, I think
my style had grown. So I started working on songs
and then I think that just helped me kind of
grow as m see. So I put this project out
(08:15):
called Self Untitled. You know it was it was progressive
or liberal, I should say, yeah, you know, And it
came out and the community gravitated to it. And when
I put it out, I was really on some like
this ain't for Filipino people, this is like for everybody,
you know. I was trying to do the k Ya everybody,
but the community that clung to it was a Filipino community.
(08:37):
You know.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
They were like, Yo, this is that's you know what.
Let me let me stop you there, man, I feel like.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
It's it's it's such a bizarre from my own experience,
like and I didn't until I was an adult think
about it from the Filipino perspective, being like.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Things that how do I say this, like, y'all was
always there.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
I just I just never thought about it, you know
what I'm saying, Like, you know, uh, you know, from
leaving South Central to going to Sangrapo Valley and being
in like Melinda one they like, you know, and even
just little stuff like on the way to school there
was a Goldilocks. I never thought about the fact that
that was a whole ass other you know what I'm saying.
(09:21):
It was just, you know, in our mind, it was
like where I live in a Mexican hood. So I
just thought about it, and at least to my untrained eye,
I was like, well, y'all, you're the you're the darker
Mexicans that talk like black dudes, you know what I'm.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Saying, Like, you know, feel me?
Speaker 2 (09:38):
And so I just especially out that way, So I
just never I never thought about it.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
And then, uh, here's a funny story.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
One of one of my LG's he used to always
talk about the first time we saw a gun was
this guy named Junior from PINOI Rial and he put
it in so many songs, right, and I you talked
about somebody with whose stepmother's Filipino.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
My father's in Philippines.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Right now, right, And I just did not connect the
dots that Penoi Reale was Pinoy, Like I just never
thought about it, you.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Know what I'm saying. And then and then would it
all came together?
Speaker 2 (10:15):
It turns out like I was, I again, never thought
about it until I was a full grown adult. There
was a guy that lived eight houses down from us
on our block that my sister, my older sister and
her friends used to say.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Oh, he's so fine, He's so fine. His name was Junior.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
So then I'm telling this story to my old jay.
He was like, was Junior Filipino? And I was like,
I don't know, trying to text my sister, was Junior Filipino?
Speaker 1 (10:39):
She was like yeah, And I was like.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Oh shit, it might be.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Anyway.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
So just I say that to say that that the
fact that the community attached to it.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
It to me.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
It was like it wasn't that we were actively trying
to overlook this community.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
I'm just saying.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
I'm saying again step Filipino step mom living in West
Covina and friends with breakdancers. I just didn't think about
the fact that, like, oh my god, y'all were there
the whole time.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
So I just wonder if that's.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Like but I was trying to get away from that,
Oh you were okay, you know, like again my you know,
I'm from the oldest La Filipino gang in existence something else,
you know, and you know, so my cultural perspective comes
from that lens, you know, and you know, I'm embedded
with It's my culture, you know. But once I discovered
(11:37):
hip hop, hip hop did not align with what we
were doing as Filipino Americans. So once I fell in
love with it, and I went to school and grew
up with all my best friends are black, you know
what I mean, So like it just grew up in
that environment. And so when I wrote and recorded this album,
I didn't write it with the mindset of like fucking
grab the Filipino community and shake them up. You know,
it was more like accept me hip hop, you know,
(12:00):
I mean, it was more about that. So I didn't
think the hip hop community would understand my perspective as
a Filipino, but I knew that they would understand if
I was talking about neighborhood shit. You all go through that.
Like you just said, we were all in the same neighborhood,
were all police brutality, that's all something we deal with,
you know. So I was like, let me just focus
on that. But like I said, the Filipino communities were
gravitated to me, and was like, Yo, let's grab this
(12:22):
dude and figure him out and see what he's about,
you know. So then I eventually, you know, I'd always
been going to SEATPOT, which is the Filipino Community Center
in historic Filipino Town. It's an acronym for Search to
Involve Filipino Americans, which is still there. Yeah, the best
community center for our community, I think, and so I'd
already been going there. So there was this huge show
(12:44):
for a brother we lost named Arnold, and this guy
named Kiwi was headlined in the show, and everybody was
telling me, Yo, man, you gotta see this dude, Kiwie
be on that kind of height, you know, And I
was like, you know, MC, I like, I don't care
about that, dude. I'm like, yeah, exactly was this dude about?
And I opened the show. It was like a forty
person lineup. So I opened the show. When he closed it,
(13:07):
I'm waiting the whole night. Yeah, yeah, I went to
show up. He showed up, and I was blown away.
I was like, Oh, this dude's like he found a
way to embrace his Filipino this while at the same
time grabbing everybody else from any other culture in LA
and making them all do the call and responses. And
(13:27):
he was just I get goosebumps thinking about it. He
changed me. I was like, Okay, I need to work
with this dude. So when I started working on other
music and before I dropped my first album, I said
I gotta have you. And we went on tour together,
a college tour. It was called the Native Guns Tour,
and then we eventually just it went from like us
doing separate sets and then doing a couple of songs
(13:49):
together till like, by the end of the tour, we
were like doing we weren't even doing our own songs.
We were doing like Native Gun songs, and we became
a group, eventually picked up DJ Fatrick and still wasn't
organized or organizing. He was. He was like a pioneer,
him face Antia. They were pioneers as far as cultural
artists are concerned, working with grassroots people's organizations. I wasn't there.
(14:11):
I wasn't in that head space.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
And so that's so yeah, interjecting the story here. So
I had already knew Faith because of poetry.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
Right, So she was doing the rock to vote campaigns
that she was in magazines like this, you know what
I mean?
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Yeah, and then like obviously like there's for me, like
the glue was you know Irene, you know, I mean,
so you know, for y'all that don't listen Irene. I
mentioned her on multiple albums, you know, just little you know,
a couple of years younger THO were just like mesmerized
like that there's an whole island.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Of girls like you are you serious? Just where is
this place? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (14:48):
And but that that for me too, like I had
never seen and so Faith kind of fitting that to me.
I had never seen revolutionaries that weren't black. I've only
I only knew black ones, you know what I'm saying,
and the few sort of like Mexican organizers around, like
you know.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
The cessor Chilvis stuff groups.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
But my understanding of like no, we're trying to burn
the system down. They was all black people, you know,
So seeing kind of what was what was happening, I
guess I'm assuming this is around the same time as
I was more like kind of learning that like, oh
there's a whole world here. There was like you know,
by someone to college. It was like I was, you know,
(15:29):
I don't even remember the friendship games.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Yeah, yeah, you know all that, and uh, because I
was already in a breaking crew. Yeah I know. I
mean I was there for they still do friendship good.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
I don't know, but I was already in a breaking
crew that, you know, because by this time I had
already decided kind of the same thing that like the
fork in the road of like am I going to
keep doing where to keep climbing over fences and write
writing my name on the walls and getting in trouble?
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Or am I gonna take this serious? You know what
I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
So by this time I was like I just looked
around and I was like all my black friends went
g funk on me. You know what I'm saying. So
I'm like the Bee Boys. They were all Filipino, you
know what I mean. So for me, that introduced me
to this whole.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
World and then I learned of the family.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Then I learned so I have my understanding of the
culture of the Philippines was through hip hop, you know
what I'm saying, And that didn't.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Like you know my prom dad. You know what I'm saying,
because that was where I'm from. You yeah, I didn't.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
I didn't know that origin story. I'm I'm interested in, like,
so where the because I do remember the conversations with
like my friends, me and merce talk about it to
where at some point they like, are he weird? Because
you know what I'm saying, Like, oh yeah, you're reading that,
you know what I'm saying, Like like, I'm interested in
that conversation like where where?
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Where was the homis feeling?
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Well?
Speaker 3 (17:17):
You know, I admired Kiwi and Kiwi was also from
a neighborhood growing up, you know what I mean. He's
from a neighborhood called jeff Rocks, which traditionally didn't get
along with our neighborhood. So but he was part of
the life and I'm watching him transition as an adult,
uh and and kind of adopting this new gang of
like community organizing. I was very attracted to that, but
(17:37):
I still wasn't ready to put your foot in because
I'm an MC so I'm very ego driven and very
like prideful and like, no, I don't. I don't need
to be accountable to nobody. I'm conscious, yeah, and I'm
putting I'm putting good inside, right, I'm the one doing it.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
So, like I said, we were on tour and at
some point, we got to New York and I was
sitting with a bunch of the sisters from Nan, another
organization out there, and this woman named Ree, who you know,
I love her to death, like Ree is my heart
and she's down in San Diego right now. But I
met her and we were at this table and nobody
(18:11):
at ever, everybody was kind of I was at the
stage of my career and I was like, oh, you're Bamboo,
Yeah yeah, yeah, And she was like who you it.
I'm like, you know, I'm from this neighborhood. And she's like,
but who you organized and who are you accountable to?
You're making all this like music, but who's keeping you
in check? That was the change, right, Who's like keeping
you in check? And who's informing you of all this stuff?
(18:31):
And I'm like, well, you know, I pick it up
from homies here and there, you know what I mean.
I work with K and B and L a kind
of you know, and it was just straight out like,
well that music is very weightless, you know what I mean,
Like you you're not accountable to nobody. It doesn't really
mean anything, you know.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
And I was like, because it really it really hits
the like it hits on both levels in the sense
of like, okay, you you you saying you.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
From this block, I go to that block and don't
nobody know you?
Speaker 3 (18:59):
Right? Right?
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Then where are these stories coming from? You know what
I mean?
Speaker 2 (19:02):
So it was kind of so it resonates to where
it's like you talk about all this change, all these
like you know you want to see this, Okay, so
what do you, right, what are you.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Actually going from? You know what I mean? Like, what
are you actually what's the goal of your music? And
I didn't really have an answer to make other people
conscious for what to do, you know, so everybody just
kind of for the purpose for what And I didn't
really have an answer. So then I kind of brought
this up to Kiwi, and I was like kind of bothered,
you know, because again I was infatuated with Rhea. I
was like, oh, she is somebody special, yea, yea, And
(19:32):
for her to tell me that really hurt, you know.
I was like, I'm talking to Keywi, and it wasn't
just hurt, it was the whole table of people kind
of like uh huh uh right, you know what I mean.
And and still in my patriarchal mind, I'm like, wow,
these women talking to me this way, you know what
I mean.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
We ain't got there yet. Yeah. I wasn't there yet.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
I was why are they challenging me in this way?
You know? And so I brought it up to Kiwi
and he's like, well, you should just organize. He's like,
you should go and when you get home, when we
get home, because we're in Boston at the time, He's like,
when you get home, you should sit down and fill
out that application and take your oath and you know,
really get out there and start organizing. And I did.
As soon as I got home. I got with the group.
(20:12):
The organization amachabayani K and B, which is translates to
pro people youth. And I got I got to work,
you know, and then that became the primary and the
music was the secondary, you know, where it was flipped before.
And so now I was using my music as the
cultural arm for this work that I was actually doing
on the ground. So you know, I had worked my
(20:32):
way all the way up to the secretary general that organization,
and you know, it really did hold me accountable, like
it really like people. I would say something on a record,
put it out and somebody tug at me and say, hey, man,
like you probably shouldn't have said this. You probably should
have said this. Yeah, this will affect people back home
in this way, and it was good for wow, you know.
And that's kind of where the growth comes from.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
So let me ask you some more like logistical like
practical questions. So like I'm remembering the things that you know,
questions that people have asked me. So it's like literal
like time of day, you know, in the sense that
like we still got to pay the rent, you know
what I mean. So so like me explaining, I'm like, no,
I still worked, like I still had it, still had a.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Job, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
And then since this is strictly volunteer, how to balance
those things. So that's the first thing I want to ask, Like,
so if you could think back to like how you
were managing your time now granted like single, no wife,
no kids at the time, so I was really.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
Able to say, you know what I'm saying, yeah, but.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
And then having to now like learn how to like
sort of calibrate my time to be like you know,
that's I always say, like, man, you know, the marches
are for the young thes like, you know what I'm saying, Like, so,
but that doesn't mean I'm not involved. So anyway, So
like I want to ask about the practical part of
like those beginning stages, and then secondly, like what were
some of the things that you did a lot of
times we say like, oh we're organizing.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Yeah, so what does that mean?
Speaker 1 (21:56):
What does that mean? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (21:58):
So back then, I mean I may my money. I
worked in reality television. I was a video logger, yeah,
you know, and that kind of inform It was still
in the world of Hollywood. Yeah, this is after I
got out of the Marine Corps. It just came home
from the war and I tried to be a paramedic.
Didn't really work out for me. You know, dealing with
adults who were hurt are different than dealing with children,
(22:20):
and you know someone's old grandma. That's a completely different world.
Kind of messed me up. And I was dealing with
a lot of PTSD. So I got into Hollywood a
whole different beast. But you know, being from LA that's like, yeah,
I was going to say, like, I find a job.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
You're gonna find it. I always had to explain that
to people. I'm like, that's really like.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Yeah, you'll find it your year's work. Yeah. So I
was doing that for a long time. But because I
was organizing with folks, I got into the nonprofit world,
which was pretty easy. You know, most of those people
that were organizing in grassroots people's organizations also had jobs,
as you know in five and one c three, So
I naturally jumped into that People's core, which is people's
community organization for reform and empowerment. His work, I kind
(23:00):
of thrived, and I always talk about that being like
my dream job. I really enjoyed it. And here I'll
give you some concrete stuff that we did there, so
we you know, the there was a big lawsuit on
the tobacco industry, so part of their their retribution was
they'd have to distribute bread to all these community organizations
(23:20):
to do anti smoking campaigns. We took that and we said, okay,
we're going to Artisia, We're going to Crito's and we're
gonna do an anti multi unit housing, anti smoking in
multi unit housing campaign.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Wow, we did that.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
We went in there and we organized door to door.
We're knocking on people, say hey, you know, like someone
smoking an apartment b could affect someone in the apartment
seeks a centralized air, and then we would disguise that
in creating small people's organizations. We'd go from there to say, hey,
you know, the tobacco industry they kind of do this.
Then by the end of their meeting, they're talking about
capitalism and hyper capitalism is destroying their community, and we bounce.
(24:00):
So there you go. We did it. We got a
community org built and some of them are still working
to this day. Yeah, so those kind of things, Those
are concrete things that we did with money that was
given to us, and we would just disguise it and rerouted. Yeah,
the grassroots organizational level, our goal was to connect the
issues that were happening locally to the issues happening in
the Philippines. So raising the awareness and then getting those
(24:22):
few that kind of rose up, grabbing them, getting them organized,
getting them in the organization to start doing the work,
and then just helping it spread, you know what I mean.
And then you know, raising support for the movement that
was happening in the Philippines. You know, there's still a
movement happening in the Philippines. We have one of the
longest standing revolutions on the planet, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
So we did an episode on Oh Boy that was
a they just captured that was running the colt, running
the church colt, and then built the homie homi'es hilarious.
He was a full on, like Pentecostal preacher.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
I'm not hip, Oh bro, I gotta send you.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
It's funny.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
It's like it's like he's I mean, he's a bastard,
like a horrible being, but the city is funny.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
And he ended up becoming best friends.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
With the old the last president.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Last President's oh yeah, yeah, you know homegrow with all addresses, Yeah, Marcos, yes, Marcos.
He ended up being cool with them and that's really
what what kept him safe for a while. But now
that they are terrible people, yes, horrible human beings. But man, anyway,
that's I'm off topic.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
But yeah, so, but that was kind of what the
you know, all of our ogs were fighting that regime,
they were fighting the Marcoses. So you know, we learned
a lot of lessons from that. And I'm gonna get
to the other question you asked. So you know, you
mentioned just letting young knees and yeah, yeah, and that's
really true. It's more to me, it's more about getting
(25:46):
out the way as an elder facts, you know, like
let the youth. I don't know what it's like to
organize in a time of crazy social media. Yes, I'm
from door to door, knocking on the door, going to colleges,
breaking into classes and talking to you know, I'm from that.
I don't know what how to navigate this space, and
I shouldn't know how to do that, and I should
kind of inspire and hold up the youth who do
(26:07):
know how to do that. You know, the youth ceiling
is like thirty five, they say, which is crazy to me,
right right, But they say, you can organize youth up
until thirty five, I say, like stay out of it
and when you hit thirty. But you know, so you
know that's kind of where I'm at now. Yeah, you know,
I support folks like I got a show coming up tomorrow.
(26:27):
I'm you know, opening up tables for a lot of
these younger folks to come and organize and grab folks
because I do the ultimate goal of my music is
to get people to organizee you know, I don't need fans. Yeah,
you know, we need comrades more than I need fans,
you know. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
I think.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
One thing that really resonated with me is like I
found that what sort of worked well with sort of
my gifting what I was good at is like in
like like recognizing talent, you know what I'm saying, in
just finding those like those hungry like you know that
that I think in the same probably the same for you.
(27:05):
They gravitated to you anyway, one carried yourself and what
we were talking about anyway. And for me, a lot
of the stuff it came out of my work anyway.
So like when I like fresh out of college, I
worked at East Lake, So I was worked in juvenile halls.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
You know what I'm saying, so that.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
Obviously, like was like, well, there's already an audience here
of people who want to hear something different, you know.
So then out of that, you know, you start helping
them build their own communities and stuff like that. And
then from East Lake then I was like it, Matt
taught at Camp Rocky, Like I taught all these camps
and then finally landed at this school in Pomona, and
(27:44):
then there I just fell into.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
One of the youngest teachers.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
You know, obviously I'm black, I'm from the city, so
like I fell into a lot of the gang intervention
stuff over there, you know, and you just one just
because I knew where I was, you know what I'm saying,
Like it'd be little stuff like there's a big chunk
of our audiences from California, so I could be real
specific about stuff like this, where like I remember the
(28:10):
school was trying to set up a after school thing
at the Boys and Girls Club on Mission, right, So
it's like Mission and whole No No, No Mission and Gary.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
So it's Gary and Mission and.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
This.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
I remember some of the administrators were like, why aren't
why aren't these kids going? And I was like, well,
you have to cross tenth Street.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Right, She's like, what you have to cross tenth Street?
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Like I was like, they're not you like you have
to have you either have to have three of these
places or maybe maybe you shouldn't work here, you know
what I mean. So there was those those those friendships,
you know what I mean that Sometimes it's just started
off as being like I was just the cool teacher,
you know, dovetailed into like.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
A essentially radicalizing these.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
Kids, you know what I'm saying, And you know it
ain't too far off. I always say, like I always say,
gangs are just community organizations, you know what I mean,
That's really all they are. They just they haven't been
brought the awareness hasn't been brought to a lot of
them to like these street beefs are real beefs. First
of all. I always got to say that. I think
a lot of elders look at them as like just
silly kids, you know what. But these beefs are generational,
(29:22):
you know, and and they're very real. People have lost
uncles and aunts to this violence. And it is not
as simple to say let's just stop the violence, you know,
It's not that easy. There's there's a wombs that need
to be here. Yeah, you know, and there's trauma that
needs to.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
Sit a Ukrainian and a Russian down and tell them
to just stop it.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
By it's not that not that, it's not that simple,
you know what I mean. And then compounded with what
we deal with on a regular basis, you know, not
feeling human, not feeling a part of a real community,
you know what I mean, Like life is cheap at
the end of the day. Sometimes, you know.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
I think you're you're a good example of like I
think I said it the first time of what I
mean by hood of politics in the sense that to
your point, you know, I use one of the kids
from that I'm talking about now, uh At he's shooting
a video. He could shoot out a hundred he can
shoot out of text, like, hey, I need a hundred
(30:53):
people on like you know, Florence and Normandy. I'm like, Nigga,
where the riot started. You're gonna shoot a video where
the LA riots started, And.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
You're just.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Right, You're gonna shoot one right there, and one hundred
and fifty people show up, and two hundred people show up,
and I'm like, you're an organizer, Like that's real power.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
That power.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
I was like, you know, politicians pay for that. That's
called astroturfing. They pay to have people show up. I'm like,
you can actually do it.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
That's real power.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
So you could say, Pomona Unified School District, Hey, with
a hundred of us, we need to pull up to
this meeting to say we need this for our schools.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
You can do it, you know.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
So and and and seeing like I said, like seeing
you evolve from like as i' mean asdultad fans I
was a professional rappert.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
But like, it's not what I'm here for. There's a
there's a there's a greater thing happening here.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
To wrap it up, you know, While I appreciate folks
who enjoyed my floor sick, you know, I think, like
I said, the ultimate goal is to turn you into
a comrade at some point, you know what I mean,
even if it's in your own life. Yeah, because we
need this change. We need to impact social changes that way.
You know.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
So in what ways could you le'ma get soupy on you, like,
could you see you know obviously, just I looked up
seven fifty Sacramento Street over here, for the Supreme Court
case about birthright citizenship with the Chinese immigrant, like eighteen
ninety six. It was fresh on my mind, so I
(32:26):
was like, I know, it's so such a deep cut,
but the story I think it's next week's episode. But
the story is like this guy, you know, was born
in San Francisco at seven fifty, you know, comes back,
you know, going back and forth see his family, and
he comes back and because of the Chinese Exclusion Act,
happened while he was gone.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
So he comes back and they're like, yop, he can't
come in.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
He's like, I literally see my house like I was
born right there.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
So just while that's.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Being challenged again, and just you know, and just just
some of just the absurdity that's happening here we're watching.
Like I give an example of like if you buy
it it's Valentine's that you buy a bouquet of roses
and you put them in a vase. The roses are dead,
thirty dead. It's just a matter of time, you know
what I'm saying. And you're just slowing it down. So
(33:15):
when I look at like American democracy, I'm like, it's
it's been dead, you know what I'm saying, but and
we're watching it be rebirthed into this like you know,
technocratic oligarchy, like and we're you voted for this, Like
I watched y'all choose this.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
You know, this man looked you in the face.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
It was like, I'm finn lower yo yo yo grocery
prices and none of y'all like nobody.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
And he's like, here's Golf of America.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Yeah, here Golf of America. This man, I'm like, none
of y'all got an issue with that.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
Like nobody y'all with this Patriot groceries, Like I'm supposed
to pay more?
Speaker 3 (33:54):
Now?
Speaker 1 (33:55):
What do you anyway?
Speaker 3 (33:56):
So?
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Uh, in what ways are like you sort of kind
of continuing on finding hope? Like like I said, everybody
hear from me all the time, So like what ways
are you kind of like finding enjoy or.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
Well, I mean that's a tough one, you know, but
I wasn't asleep during the Obama administration. I wasn't asleep
during Joe Biden's administration. That's you know, my my my
mentor Joe Navidae used to always say, same dog, different
collar facts. You got to kill the dog, you know.
So the goal has always been systemic change, and you
(34:30):
know you just kind of have to dismantle it and
separate it all. You know. The way we can do
it as MCS as artist is the cultural aspect each
you know, the cultural, the political, and the economic all
have to support each other. That's why the music we
hear ISYP is based on consumerism, you know what I mean,
it upholds consumerism, it has to. So what we can
(34:51):
do is change that narrative is start to, you know,
make music that that challenges that, and then eventually one
of those is going to have to fall or at
least start to. And we were getting there's there were
small moments, you know, there were little moments where we're like, okay, cool,
you know we have socialist things in our government now,
social security, yeah, yeah, you know, fire department, right exactly,
(35:12):
those kind of things. And you know, so I find
hope in small victories like that. And I do believe
that this is not a you know, I think when
you're young, you want it to happen yesterday, and you
don't understand it's gonna be generational. You know, this is
gonna be generational change. So I'm patient, Yeah, it probably
won't happen in our children's lifetime. But if they keep pushing,
it's gonna happen.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
That's my thing.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
When I hear myself saying things my father said, and
I'm like, wait, you know what I'm saying. Yeah, But
at the same time I can say, like you said,
like that, my my felt life experience is different, you know.
And and then to me, like I get excited when
I'm seeing like again, like these these young leings like
(35:55):
being hungry and understand things at understanding new luance is
at a level I, you know, didn't at their age
where it's like, you know, for me, it was like
all things that everything's a hammer. You feel me, it's
all on nails, So just straight up beat the door.
Now they you know, they got a little finesse, you
know what I'm saying. I'm like, you understand nuance earlier
than I did.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
You know that well, even in regard to art, like
it's so independent. We're sitting here right now holding microphones
like we couldn't picture that as a kid like you had.
I had to get a task ambrol and like bring
it to a studio in the valley and pay this
dude thirty dollars an hours I can get one song out,
you know where Now kids are recording in their bedroom
and it's amazing people are putting you know, you dream
(36:35):
about being on TV for sure, Now I'm on YouTube phone,
you know what I mean. It's that simple.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
But yeah, yeah, man, that's that's that's good to hear.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
Man.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
So that's where I'm ad. You know, that's where I'm at,
you know what I mean, Like, that's that's what gives
me hope. And yeah, just pointing a dad, you know
what I mean? Like that, that's another big thing for me,
you know, being a dad and watching my kids and
them changing just a little bit more, you know, just
turning the needle just a little bit. You know.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
Yeah, I love love watching my children put together some
sentences that I'm like, me and my wife look at
each other like hmm, kids gonna be all right. It
also helps to I would say, because I honestly couldn't
imagine like experiencing it, like if my partner in life,
like if my wife wasn't about the revolution, sure as
(37:21):
as I was, Like we realized like as we've gotten older,
like a lot of.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Our interests, interests have differed.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
You know what I'm saying like we're just not into
a lot of the same stuff we used to be into,
where I'm like, she don't want to she don't want
to go see some underground wrapper. You know what I'm saying.
I'm good, you know what I mean. She wants to
hike on Sunday. You feel me, And I'm like, I'm good.
I'm entering my like my the old age. I'm like
buying tools and figuring out to fixate like I never
(37:51):
wanted to yard work was punishment, like kidding me, I'm
not fing to do that now you feel me, I'm like,
how many gears? But yeah, but we understood that like
with being like mission focused, like everything's been about mission
and just vision, like being like that's whatever jobs we've
chosen for to support ourselves, whatever things we put our
(38:14):
name on. It's like if it's not if it's not
mission first, we's not into it, you know what I mean,
which meant that we was willing to sacrifice, you know,
vacations as part of why she didn't come this trip
was just like money's.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
Got to go somewhere else, right, you know what I mean?
So I see that with y'all too, like that I mean,
I can't.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
I wish you could give abody advice, like, yo, marry you
a rider, you know what I'm saying, Like I just
sometimes not like that, but I would say that that's
something that's beautiful for y'all too. That like my wife
and I look like from a foreigner, like, yeah, we
understand that word.
Speaker 3 (38:47):
Yeah. I appreciate my relationship, you know. I appreciate her
as a partner and as a co parent, you know
what I mean, Like we idealistically there's things that we
don't see eye on all the time, you know what
I mean, but we have at least the foundation for
how to have those conversations in those conflicts, you know
what I mean. So I appreciate that. Yeah, that's about
my relationship with her, and she's she's a great MC.
(39:09):
I mean, I don't know, I think you are around
more mcs than I am. But I'm really not like
I'm alone. I'm in the house, I'm with the kids,
so rap for me, there was nothing really motivating me,
but I live with somebody. So when she was recording
a record, I'm like, man, I don't want to write
some bars too, you know. So that's kind of where
this new record came from was just me listening to
(39:29):
her make long kids, good night and motivating me to
be like you, I want to get back to right.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
You know.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
As a matter of fact, let's let's end on that,
like so us tell us about this album, which is
the greatest album name ever. At first I thought sharpest
to him, this jet was the best ever, And then
then it's massa.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
If you see someone stealing food, no you didn't.
Speaker 3 (39:49):
I think it definitely was birth for me looking at
the Internet and looking at social media and seeing people
just like stealing things and people shitting on them, like, yo,
this this dude gets crack. He came in here and
started taking shampoo. He's taking shampoo. Yeah, he's taking shampoo,
stealing steaks. I was like, he's loby doll, Like they're
gonna throw that out.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
You know, if you had a little less Melanie, you
would call that forging straight up. There you go yourself
saying there, straight up you call forging and survival, and
especially out.
Speaker 3 (40:19):
Here in the Bay that was inundated because you know,
they were really trying to build this. Uh. You know,
this is such a progressive city up here in there.
It's such a progressive area that conservatives really use this
as like the target of like this is why you
can't have a progressive government because people are stealing and
bipping cars, but they were failing to kind of recognize
the underlying Yeah, you're taking you know, look at Oakland,
(40:40):
Like you've taken all the teams away from Oakland. You're
taking all the industry out of Oakland, you know what
I mean. And then you're like, why are they stealing
so much ship? Why are people poor? Well, yeah, there's
nothing here, you know, So that kind of birth that
like stop snitching, you know what I mean, Like turn
the other cheek, doesn't it don't affect you, you know
what I mean? Like, and then we can have the
(41:01):
nuanced conversation I've had comments on like what about a
small business? Sure we can, we can talk about that.
That's exactly you should know if you listen to record
as not what I'm talking Aboueah, you know.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
And if you and if you're from the city, you know,
nobody's stealing from mister Johnson.
Speaker 3 (41:14):
Nobody's nobody Walgreens, and you know that's where they're taking sticks.
And so that's where the title of the album comes from.
And then like, you know, just I just wanted to
kind of stream a consciousness to make music. But then
there are things like Intifada, which you know, deals with
the Palestinian situation, and you know, I didn't lin Manuel
(41:36):
kind of messed it up for a lot of rappers
because when when I was writing, and I'm like, man,
this is very Hamilton Is you know what I mean,
Like this sounds kind of corny, but I put it
out anyway. I just put it on the table. I
was like, let's just put it out there. So it's
got a lot of dates on it and whatnot. So
but now, really, you know this, I didn't think this
record would have such a great reception. I thought it
was going to be like a mixtape. I was calling
(41:56):
it a mix tape. I was telling the label like, hey,
I'm just putting out this mixtape, you know, And when
it came out, you know, folks really messed with it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:04):
It was timely, man, it was like right on time.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
And it like I think it cuts through a lot
of like a lot of times, I think even for
US mcs that really want to say something. Sometimes I
found which some of the motivation with the podcast, who
is like my commitment to making a dope song sometimes
gets in a way of what I'm trying to say.
Speaker 1 (42:25):
So sometimes you like, you just got to say it,
you know what I mean. But I feel like it's
a great way to put it. You understand what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (42:30):
So I feel like this it cut through in a
way that it's like, oh, no, he's saying it. You
know what I'm saying and it's not. But it's not.
The rap didn't get in the way, like you feel
me like appreciate that, you know, and I as that's
what I appreciated about it.
Speaker 1 (42:44):
I was like, no, you know, he said it. And
I also appreciate.
Speaker 2 (42:47):
About like, uh, because there there there there's music I'm
sitting on that we're not sitting on. It's just in
the pipeline of coming out to where I'm like, I
don't understand why y'all can't just like just say with
y'all jazz, like if this like y'all dancing around like
y'all are real quiet.
Speaker 3 (43:08):
I think because people think they they're gonna live forever,
and I understand that my time is limited. Yeah, my time,
that's something I can't get back. You know, I'm never
gonna get that back, you know. So I cherish all
those moments, and at the same time, it also pushes
me to say say it, what's your fucking chest? Like,
just say it, bro like you know, and and be
(43:29):
open to having convers and that's the other things I
don't think artists. I think artists put themselves on this
pedestal where they don't think they can have conversations with
regular people. And if someone challenges you want to have
that conversation. I'm not talking about like in the comment section.
I'm talking about like, you know, I've had people come
up to me at shows and say, hey, why you
keep saying guys? You know, and I'm like, what, because
that's you know, but I have to have that conversation,
(43:50):
and it challenges me to be like, yeah, maybe I
am like isolating people or you know, yeah, genderizing people
by saying guys. Maybe people do feel the type of way,
and I have to challenge myself on that. So I
think as an artist, that's what we should be. You know,
we're we're a cultural arm of something that's happening, you
know what I mean. We're not above all of this,
you know what I mean, We're not informing the people.
(44:11):
The people are informing us how to make this music.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
I'm I'm a member of the community.
Speaker 3 (44:15):
Right I just happen to be able to wrap and
make something palatable for you to hear.
Speaker 1 (44:19):
You know, thank you for your time, man.
Speaker 3 (44:22):
I appreciate you. Man.
Speaker 2 (44:23):
Man, it's Valentine's You need to get to take care
of your business before all of us get in trouble.
Speaker 1 (44:29):
Anyway. Appreciate you, man.
Speaker 3 (44:31):
I love you, brother, Love you too. Brother.
Speaker 2 (44:45):
All right, now, don't you hit stop on this pod.
You better listen to these credits. I need you to
finish this thing so I can get the download numbers. Okay,
so don't stop it yet, but listen. This was recorded
in East Lost Boy Heights by your boy Propaganda. Tap
in with me at prop hip hop dot com. If
(45:05):
you're in the Coldbrew coffee we got terraform Coldbrew. You
can go there dot com and use promo code hood
get twenty percent off get yourself some coffee. This was mixed,
edited and mastered by your boy Matt Alsowski killing the
beat softly. Check out his website Matdowsowski dot com.
Speaker 1 (45:23):
I'm a speller for you because I know m A T. T.
Speaker 2 (45:28):
O s O W s Ki dot com Matthowsowski dot com.
Speaker 1 (45:34):
He got more music and.
Speaker 2 (45:35):
Stuff like that on there, so gonna check out the heat.
Politics is a member of cool Zone Media, Executive produced
by Sophie Lichterman, part of the iHeartMedia podcast network. Your
theme music and scoring is also by the one and
nobly Mattowsowski. Still killing the beat softly, so listen, don't
let nobody lie to you. If you understand urban living,
(45:57):
you understand politics. These people is not smart and you.
We'll see y'all next week.
Speaker 3 (46:23):
H
All media.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
So some things just kind of come from like not
being a jerk to people and treating them like humans,
whether you know what.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
They can do for you or not.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Just being a good person, which is how I landed
access to All Star Weekend. So shout out the hommy
BJ who works with some incredible nonprofits, and somehow another
(00:39):
got us into a poker tournament with Kenny the Jet
and Charles Barkley. So I got to go to All
Star Weekend. Now the problem is All Star Weekend was
also Valentine's Day weekend, so I ain't get to stay
for the game, nor could they give me tickets to that.
But the point is I got to see a lot
of friends. Molski, who's just running it right now? Squint,
(01:04):
who how do I explain Squints? So I did a
book before Terror Form called I Am Becoming and we
did a It was photojournalism and poetry. But every promo
picture I had up until recently, we're pretty much Squint
shot him. Squint works with beast Mode, works for the Warriors,
(01:25):
works with.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Steph Curry, andre Ward. Squint is.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Like the most He's one of the most humble and
most talented, the most connected, persons I've ever met. He'll
be like, you need to get in text Steph. I
was like, you want me to text Stephan Curry. Yeah,
He's text him and I'm like, man, you text him.
He's like, bro, he likes you just text him. And
(01:53):
I'm like, all right, I'm not gonna. I've never I've never.
He has never handed me his phone numbers, So I
Am not going to tech Stefan Curry.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
You can.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
I'm not anyway.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Uh, But what that meant was I was able to
be up in the Bay Area to actually do our
first terror form show and actually set it up like
a video interview with the Quia Bam Bamboo de Pistola
Bamboo Credible rapper part of Soul Assassins, started.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
A label called Beat Rock Music.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
I just want to talk about like the like rapper
to activists, pipeline. It's it's an interesting thing because it's
like sometimes rappers get rich and they get and they
just become Kanye's or Elon's or just they just go
that route where it's like I'm rich and nothing else matters.
But then some of us get completely radicalized, like you.
(02:52):
I mean, we just watched the Kendrick and Drake narrative,
like they came up at the same time and then
had this split. Kendrick was like, I'm not with all this.
I want to be this other person. Drake was like,
give it all. He wanted all the money, the cause,
and the clothes he supposed he just wants to be successful.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
That's a Drake song. Anyway, y'all already know where I stand.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
But I think I think there's some interesting things about like,
you know, one, the power of hip hop to hip
hop we fell in love with, and then what actually
happens off the mic and the type of activism that
can come from just starting with just you being passionate
(03:37):
about your art. So I happened to be up in
San Francisco. It's just worked out perfectly, and I was
able to tap in with the homie Bambooth. He's been
on the show before. But like we were still kind
of figure out who we were in. But we're in
the game now, all right, here we go, All right,
(04:07):
here we go. Hey, all right, I've already done all the.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Introduction Wait, am I recording over here?
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Yes, I've already done all the introductions before you got here,
So people already know who you are. This is the
first time we've done like an on site, right, say.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Last time we did her politics was over the phone, right, Yeah,
it was a pandemic pandemic time.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Yeah, the show's grown a lot. I feel like I.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Found congratulations, thank you man, really found a direction. Like
I feel like, I mean, it's like anything, you have
to do enough of them to really figure out what
you're trying to say.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
And I think what I.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
The hope has always been like informative education and then
altimate to see like like the end goal is to
see someone run for city council. That was like that
was a part of like K four P.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
That was like you know what I mean, that was
one of us that is like actually, let's let's do this,
you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
But there's a.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
There's a pipeline of that, right, Like there's a way
to get there that I feel like in some ways,
hip hop, just being as young as it is, has
not we haven't seen those statesmen yet. Like we're in
a season now where a lot of our elder statesmen
are being a little strange.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Sure forgetting where they came from.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Forgetting where they came from. Yeah, it's just some really
odd things. But that being said, one of the questions
I get a lot is like people really wanted to
be involved, people feeling over especially from young artists, and
being like, you know, how do I do more than
just rap? You know what I'm saying, and they're only
(05:44):
hearing it from me? So I know, I know my narrative,
I know how I got to where I was, you
know what I'm saying. But like, I think it started
when I think you you had like posted somewhere that
like somebody had challenged you about like what are you
really doing, and that super resonated with me and was like, Okay,
I really need I need y'all to hear this story, you.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
And last year I started doing this thing that I
was calling like I was trying to do them once
a month in the between the chaos that was happening
in the news. It was called like the Terraforming series,
where it's like, let me just find people that are
actually putting good in the world, you know what I'm saying,
and bring y'all on the ground.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Yes, you know, in between stuff.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
We gott tell sometimes you need to break right, you know,
you need a break from the chaos. So that's why
you're here, man. And so first of all, let's see
if we can rewind the clock back as far as
possible to be like, I know, it's an odd question.
It will be like your introduction to hip hop. Sure,
your introduction like you're from the city like me, but like,
(06:46):
where did that start?
Speaker 3 (06:48):
I mean not always rhymed for me as far back
as I can remember. Yeah, yeah, thirteen twelve thirteen for sure.
And then you know, open mic circuits and things like that.
You know, try my hand at it. But I still
had one foot in the life. So you know, I
got locked up from arm robbery at sixteen. When I
(07:08):
got out, the options for me were slim.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Uh. And then there was a judge you said, strongly
suggests that I joined the Marine Corps. I want to
judge strongly suggests. I mean the next time I see you, yeah,
doing big numbers, you know what I mean. So it's like,
all right, you know, so I joined the Marine Corps.
My big takeaway from that, as far as hip hop
is concerned, is that I was you know, what it's
(07:32):
like being from la You kind of just listen to
La shit you know what I mean, Like that's it. Yes,
freestyle fellowship was it like there was no other like
back wrap, you know, quote unquote cipher rap.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Outside of that, you know, don't lose your thought, but
I would.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
I started touring the amount of just I realized I
was like, I'm so arrogant. I don't believe in anyone's
underground raight up. Yeah, like no one's underground straight up.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
So like you know, being in the military, I was
introduced to cash money, really introduced to you know, cats
from Alaska were doing stuff, and I was like, whoa,
this is blowing my mind. So it influenced my style
a lot. Yeah, So when I came home, I think
my style had grown. So I started working on songs
and then I think that just helped me kind of
grow as m see. So I put this project out
(08:15):
called Self Untitled. You know it was it was progressive
or liberal, I should say, yeah, you know, And it
came out and the community gravitated to it. And when
I put it out, I was really on some like
this ain't for Filipino people, this is like for everybody,
you know. I was trying to do the k Ya everybody,
but the community that clung to it was a Filipino community.
(08:37):
You know.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
They were like, Yo, this is that's you know what.
Let me let me stop you there, man, I feel like.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
It's it's it's such a bizarre from my own experience,
like and I didn't until I was an adult think
about it from the Filipino perspective, being like.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Things that how do I say this, like, y'all was
always there.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
I just I just never thought about it, you know
what I'm saying, Like, you know, uh, you know, from
leaving South Central to going to Sangrapo Valley and being
in like Melinda one they like, you know, and even
just little stuff like on the way to school there
was a Goldilocks. I never thought about the fact that
that was a whole ass other you know what I'm saying.
(09:21):
It was just, you know, in our mind, it was
like where I live in a Mexican hood. So I
just thought about it, and at least to my untrained eye,
I was like, well, y'all, you're the you're the darker
Mexicans that talk like black dudes, you know what I'm.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Saying, Like, you know, feel me?
Speaker 2 (09:38):
And so I just especially out that way, So I
just never I never thought about it.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
And then, uh, here's a funny story.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
One of one of my LG's he used to always
talk about the first time we saw a gun was
this guy named Junior from PINOI Rial and he put
it in so many songs, right, and I you talked
about somebody with whose stepmother's Filipino.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
My father's in Philippines.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Right now, right, And I just did not connect the
dots that Penoi Reale was Pinoy, Like I just never
thought about it, you.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Know what I'm saying. And then and then would it
all came together?
Speaker 2 (10:15):
It turns out like I was, I again, never thought
about it until I was a full grown adult. There
was a guy that lived eight houses down from us
on our block that my sister, my older sister and
her friends used to say.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Oh, he's so fine, He's so fine. His name was Junior.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
So then I'm telling this story to my old jay.
He was like, was Junior Filipino? And I was like,
I don't know, trying to text my sister, was Junior Filipino?
Speaker 1 (10:39):
She was like yeah, And I was like.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Oh shit, it might be.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Anyway.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
So just I say that to say that that the
fact that the community attached to it.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
It to me.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
It was like it wasn't that we were actively trying
to overlook this community.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
I'm just saying.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
I'm saying again step Filipino step mom living in West
Covina and friends with breakdancers. I just didn't think about
the fact that, like, oh my god, y'all were there
the whole time.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
So I just wonder if that's.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Like but I was trying to get away from that,
Oh you were okay, you know, like again my you know,
I'm from the oldest La Filipino gang in existence something else,
you know, and you know, so my cultural perspective comes
from that lens, you know, and you know, I'm embedded
with It's my culture, you know. But once I discovered
(11:37):
hip hop, hip hop did not align with what we
were doing as Filipino Americans. So once I fell in
love with it, and I went to school and grew
up with all my best friends are black, you know
what I mean, So like it just grew up in
that environment. And so when I wrote and recorded this album,
I didn't write it with the mindset of like fucking
grab the Filipino community and shake them up. You know,
it was more like accept me hip hop, you know,
(12:00):
I mean, it was more about that. So I didn't
think the hip hop community would understand my perspective as
a Filipino, but I knew that they would understand if
I was talking about neighborhood shit. You all go through that.
Like you just said, we were all in the same neighborhood,
were all police brutality, that's all something we deal with,
you know. So I was like, let me just focus
on that. But like I said, the Filipino communities were
gravitated to me, and was like, Yo, let's grab this
(12:22):
dude and figure him out and see what he's about,
you know. So then I eventually, you know, I'd always
been going to SEATPOT, which is the Filipino Community Center
in historic Filipino Town. It's an acronym for Search to
Involve Filipino Americans, which is still there. Yeah, the best
community center for our community, I think, and so I'd
already been going there. So there was this huge show
(12:44):
for a brother we lost named Arnold, and this guy
named Kiwi was headlined in the show, and everybody was
telling me, Yo, man, you gotta see this dude, Kiwie
be on that kind of height, you know, And I
was like, you know, MC, I like, I don't care
about that, dude. I'm like, yeah, exactly was this dude about?
And I opened the show. It was like a forty
person lineup. So I opened the show. When he closed it,
(13:07):
I'm waiting the whole night. Yeah, yeah, I went to
show up. He showed up, and I was blown away.
I was like, Oh, this dude's like he found a
way to embrace his Filipino this while at the same
time grabbing everybody else from any other culture in LA
and making them all do the call and responses. And
(13:27):
he was just I get goosebumps thinking about it. He
changed me. I was like, Okay, I need to work
with this dude. So when I started working on other
music and before I dropped my first album, I said
I gotta have you. And we went on tour together,
a college tour. It was called the Native Guns Tour,
and then we eventually just it went from like us
doing separate sets and then doing a couple of songs
(13:49):
together till like, by the end of the tour, we
were like doing we weren't even doing our own songs.
We were doing like Native Gun songs, and we became
a group, eventually picked up DJ Fatrick and still wasn't
organized or organizing. He was. He was like a pioneer,
him face Antia. They were pioneers as far as cultural
artists are concerned, working with grassroots people's organizations. I wasn't there.
(14:11):
I wasn't in that head space.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
And so that's so yeah, interjecting the story here. So
I had already knew Faith because of poetry.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
Right, So she was doing the rock to vote campaigns
that she was in magazines like this, you know what
I mean?
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Yeah, and then like obviously like there's for me, like
the glue was you know Irene, you know, I mean,
so you know, for y'all that don't listen Irene. I
mentioned her on multiple albums, you know, just little you know,
a couple of years younger THO were just like mesmerized
like that there's an whole island.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Of girls like you are you serious? Just where is
this place? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (14:48):
And but that that for me too, like I had
never seen and so Faith kind of fitting that to me.
I had never seen revolutionaries that weren't black. I've only
I only knew black ones, you know what I'm saying,
and the few sort of like Mexican organizers around, like
you know.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
The cessor Chilvis stuff groups.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
But my understanding of like no, we're trying to burn
the system down. They was all black people, you know,
So seeing kind of what was what was happening, I
guess I'm assuming this is around the same time as
I was more like kind of learning that like, oh
there's a whole world here. There was like you know,
by someone to college. It was like I was, you know,
(15:29):
I don't even remember the friendship games.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Yeah, yeah, you know all that, and uh, because I
was already in a breaking crew. Yeah I know. I
mean I was there for they still do friendship good.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
I don't know, but I was already in a breaking
crew that, you know, because by this time I had
already decided kind of the same thing that like the
fork in the road of like am I going to
keep doing where to keep climbing over fences and write
writing my name on the walls and getting in trouble?
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Or am I gonna take this serious? You know what
I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
So by this time I was like I just looked
around and I was like all my black friends went
g funk on me. You know what I'm saying. So
I'm like the Bee Boys. They were all Filipino, you
know what I mean. So for me, that introduced me
to this whole.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
World and then I learned of the family.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Then I learned so I have my understanding of the
culture of the Philippines was through hip hop, you know
what I'm saying, And that didn't.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Like you know my prom dad. You know what I'm saying,
because that was where I'm from. You yeah, I didn't.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
I didn't know that origin story. I'm I'm interested in, like,
so where the because I do remember the conversations with
like my friends, me and merce talk about it to
where at some point they like, are he weird? Because
you know what I'm saying, Like, oh yeah, you're reading that,
you know what I'm saying, Like like, I'm interested in
that conversation like where where?
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Where was the homis feeling?
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Well?
Speaker 3 (17:17):
You know, I admired Kiwi and Kiwi was also from
a neighborhood growing up, you know what I mean. He's
from a neighborhood called jeff Rocks, which traditionally didn't get
along with our neighborhood. So but he was part of
the life and I'm watching him transition as an adult,
uh and and kind of adopting this new gang of
like community organizing. I was very attracted to that, but
(17:37):
I still wasn't ready to put your foot in because
I'm an MC so I'm very ego driven and very
like prideful and like, no, I don't. I don't need
to be accountable to nobody. I'm conscious, yeah, and I'm
putting I'm putting good inside, right, I'm the one doing it.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
So, like I said, we were on tour and at
some point, we got to New York and I was
sitting with a bunch of the sisters from Nan, another
organization out there, and this woman named Ree, who you know,
I love her to death, like Ree is my heart
and she's down in San Diego right now. But I
met her and we were at this table and nobody
(18:11):
at ever, everybody was kind of I was at the
stage of my career and I was like, oh, you're Bamboo,
Yeah yeah, yeah, And she was like who you it.
I'm like, you know, I'm from this neighborhood. And she's like,
but who you organized and who are you accountable to?
You're making all this like music, but who's keeping you
in check? That was the change, right, Who's like keeping
you in check? And who's informing you of all this stuff?
(18:31):
And I'm like, well, you know, I pick it up
from homies here and there, you know what I mean.
I work with K and B and L a kind
of you know, and it was just straight out like,
well that music is very weightless, you know what I mean,
Like you you're not accountable to nobody. It doesn't really
mean anything, you know.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
And I was like, because it really it really hits
the like it hits on both levels in the sense
of like, okay, you you you saying you.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
From this block, I go to that block and don't
nobody know you?
Speaker 3 (18:59):
Right? Right?
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Then where are these stories coming from? You know what
I mean?
Speaker 2 (19:02):
So it was kind of so it resonates to where
it's like you talk about all this change, all these
like you know you want to see this, Okay, so
what do you, right, what are you.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Actually going from? You know what I mean? Like, what
are you actually what's the goal of your music? And
I didn't really have an answer to make other people
conscious for what to do, you know, so everybody just
kind of for the purpose for what And I didn't
really have an answer. So then I kind of brought
this up to Kiwi, and I was like kind of bothered,
you know, because again I was infatuated with Rhea. I
was like, oh, she is somebody special, yea, yea, And
(19:32):
for her to tell me that really hurt, you know.
I was like, I'm talking to Keywi, and it wasn't
just hurt, it was the whole table of people kind
of like uh huh uh right, you know what I mean.
And and still in my patriarchal mind, I'm like, wow,
these women talking to me this way, you know what
I mean.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
We ain't got there yet. Yeah. I wasn't there yet.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
I was why are they challenging me in this way?
You know? And so I brought it up to Kiwi
and he's like, well, you should just organize. He's like,
you should go and when you get home, when we
get home, because we're in Boston at the time, He's like,
when you get home, you should sit down and fill
out that application and take your oath and you know,
really get out there and start organizing. And I did.
As soon as I got home. I got with the group.
(20:12):
The organization amachabayani K and B, which is translates to
pro people youth. And I got I got to work,
you know, and then that became the primary and the
music was the secondary, you know, where it was flipped before.
And so now I was using my music as the
cultural arm for this work that I was actually doing
on the ground. So you know, I had worked my
(20:32):
way all the way up to the secretary general that organization,
and you know, it really did hold me accountable, like
it really like people. I would say something on a record,
put it out and somebody tug at me and say, hey, man,
like you probably shouldn't have said this. You probably should
have said this. Yeah, this will affect people back home
in this way, and it was good for wow, you know.
And that's kind of where the growth comes from.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
So let me ask you some more like logistical like
practical questions. So like I'm remembering the things that you know,
questions that people have asked me. So it's like literal
like time of day, you know, in the sense that
like we still got to pay the rent, you know
what I mean. So so like me explaining, I'm like, no,
I still worked, like I still had it, still had a.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Job, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
And then since this is strictly volunteer, how to balance
those things. So that's the first thing I want to ask, Like,
so if you could think back to like how you
were managing your time now granted like single, no wife,
no kids at the time, so I was really.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
Able to say, you know what I'm saying, yeah, but.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
And then having to now like learn how to like
sort of calibrate my time to be like you know,
that's I always say, like, man, you know, the marches
are for the young thes like, you know what I'm saying, Like, so,
but that doesn't mean I'm not involved. So anyway, So
like I want to ask about the practical part of
like those beginning stages, and then secondly, like what were
some of the things that you did a lot of
times we say like, oh we're organizing.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Yeah, so what does that mean?
Speaker 1 (21:56):
What does that mean? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (21:58):
So back then, I mean I may my money. I
worked in reality television. I was a video logger, yeah,
you know, and that kind of inform It was still
in the world of Hollywood. Yeah, this is after I
got out of the Marine Corps. It just came home
from the war and I tried to be a paramedic.
Didn't really work out for me. You know, dealing with
adults who were hurt are different than dealing with children,
(22:20):
and you know someone's old grandma. That's a completely different world.
Kind of messed me up. And I was dealing with
a lot of PTSD. So I got into Hollywood a
whole different beast. But you know, being from LA that's like, yeah,
I was going to say, like, I find a job.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
You're gonna find it. I always had to explain that
to people. I'm like, that's really like.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Yeah, you'll find it your year's work. Yeah. So I
was doing that for a long time. But because I
was organizing with folks, I got into the nonprofit world,
which was pretty easy. You know, most of those people
that were organizing in grassroots people's organizations also had jobs,
as you know in five and one c three, So
I naturally jumped into that People's core, which is people's
community organization for reform and empowerment. His work, I kind
(23:00):
of thrived, and I always talk about that being like
my dream job. I really enjoyed it. And here I'll
give you some concrete stuff that we did there, so
we you know, the there was a big lawsuit on
the tobacco industry, so part of their their retribution was
they'd have to distribute bread to all these community organizations
(23:20):
to do anti smoking campaigns. We took that and we said, okay,
we're going to Artisia, We're going to Crito's and we're
gonna do an anti multi unit housing, anti smoking in
multi unit housing campaign.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Wow, we did that.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
We went in there and we organized door to door.
We're knocking on people, say hey, you know, like someone
smoking an apartment b could affect someone in the apartment
seeks a centralized air, and then we would disguise that
in creating small people's organizations. We'd go from there to say, hey,
you know, the tobacco industry they kind of do this.
Then by the end of their meeting, they're talking about
capitalism and hyper capitalism is destroying their community, and we bounce.
(24:00):
So there you go. We did it. We got a
community org built and some of them are still working
to this day. Yeah, so those kind of things, Those
are concrete things that we did with money that was
given to us, and we would just disguise it and rerouted. Yeah,
the grassroots organizational level, our goal was to connect the
issues that were happening locally to the issues happening in
the Philippines. So raising the awareness and then getting those
(24:22):
few that kind of rose up, grabbing them, getting them organized,
getting them in the organization to start doing the work,
and then just helping it spread, you know what I mean.
And then you know, raising support for the movement that
was happening in the Philippines. You know, there's still a
movement happening in the Philippines. We have one of the
longest standing revolutions on the planet, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
So we did an episode on Oh Boy that was
a they just captured that was running the colt, running
the church colt, and then built the homie homi'es hilarious.
He was a full on, like Pentecostal preacher.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
I'm not hip, Oh bro, I gotta send you.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
It's funny.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
It's like it's like he's I mean, he's a bastard,
like a horrible being, but the city is funny.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
And he ended up becoming best friends.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
With the old the last president.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Last President's oh yeah, yeah, you know homegrow with all addresses, Yeah, Marcos, yes, Marcos.
He ended up being cool with them and that's really
what what kept him safe for a while. But now
that they are terrible people, yes, horrible human beings. But man, anyway,
that's I'm off topic.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
But yeah, so, but that was kind of what the
you know, all of our ogs were fighting that regime,
they were fighting the Marcoses. So you know, we learned
a lot of lessons from that. And I'm gonna get
to the other question you asked. So you know, you
mentioned just letting young knees and yeah, yeah, and that's
really true. It's more to me, it's more about getting
(25:46):
out the way as an elder facts, you know, like
let the youth. I don't know what it's like to
organize in a time of crazy social media. Yes, I'm
from door to door, knocking on the door, going to colleges,
breaking into classes and talking to you know, I'm from that.
I don't know what how to navigate this space, and
I shouldn't know how to do that, and I should
kind of inspire and hold up the youth who do
(26:07):
know how to do that. You know, the youth ceiling
is like thirty five, they say, which is crazy to me,
right right, But they say, you can organize youth up
until thirty five, I say, like stay out of it
and when you hit thirty. But you know, so you
know that's kind of where I'm at now. Yeah, you know,
I support folks like I got a show coming up tomorrow.
(26:27):
I'm you know, opening up tables for a lot of
these younger folks to come and organize and grab folks
because I do the ultimate goal of my music is
to get people to organizee you know, I don't need fans. Yeah,
you know, we need comrades more than I need fans,
you know. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
I think.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
One thing that really resonated with me is like I
found that what sort of worked well with sort of
my gifting what I was good at is like in
like like recognizing talent, you know what I'm saying, in
just finding those like those hungry like you know that
that I think in the same probably the same for you.
(27:05):
They gravitated to you anyway, one carried yourself and what
we were talking about anyway. And for me, a lot
of the stuff it came out of my work anyway.
So like when I like fresh out of college, I
worked at East Lake, So I was worked in juvenile halls.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
You know what I'm saying, so that.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
Obviously, like was like, well, there's already an audience here
of people who want to hear something different, you know.
So then out of that, you know, you start helping
them build their own communities and stuff like that. And
then from East Lake then I was like it, Matt
taught at Camp Rocky, Like I taught all these camps
and then finally landed at this school in Pomona, and
(27:44):
then there I just fell into.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
One of the youngest teachers.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
You know, obviously I'm black, I'm from the city, so
like I fell into a lot of the gang intervention
stuff over there, you know, and you just one just
because I knew where I was, you know what I'm saying,
Like it'd be little stuff like there's a big chunk
of our audiences from California, so I could be real
specific about stuff like this, where like I remember the
(28:10):
school was trying to set up a after school thing
at the Boys and Girls Club on Mission, right, So
it's like Mission and whole No No, No Mission and Gary.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
So it's Gary and Mission and.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
This.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
I remember some of the administrators were like, why aren't
why aren't these kids going? And I was like, well,
you have to cross tenth Street.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Right, She's like, what you have to cross tenth Street?
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Like I was like, they're not you like you have
to have you either have to have three of these
places or maybe maybe you shouldn't work here, you know
what I mean. So there was those those those friendships,
you know what I mean that Sometimes it's just started
off as being like I was just the cool teacher,
you know, dovetailed into like.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
A essentially radicalizing these.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
Kids, you know what I'm saying, And you know it
ain't too far off. I always say, like I always say,
gangs are just community organizations, you know what I mean,
That's really all they are. They just they haven't been
brought the awareness hasn't been brought to a lot of
them to like these street beefs are real beefs. First
of all. I always got to say that. I think
a lot of elders look at them as like just
silly kids, you know what. But these beefs are generational,
(29:22):
you know, and and they're very real. People have lost
uncles and aunts to this violence. And it is not
as simple to say let's just stop the violence, you know,
It's not that easy. There's there's a wombs that need
to be here. Yeah, you know, and there's trauma that
needs to.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
Sit a Ukrainian and a Russian down and tell them
to just stop it.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
By it's not that not that, it's not that simple,
you know what I mean. And then compounded with what
we deal with on a regular basis, you know, not
feeling human, not feeling a part of a real community,
you know what I mean, Like life is cheap at
the end of the day. Sometimes, you know.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
I think you're you're a good example of like I
think I said it the first time of what I
mean by hood of politics in the sense that to
your point, you know, I use one of the kids
from that I'm talking about now, uh At he's shooting
a video. He could shoot out a hundred he can
shoot out of text, like, hey, I need a hundred
(30:53):
people on like you know, Florence and Normandy. I'm like, Nigga,
where the riot started. You're gonna shoot a video where
the LA riots started, And.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
You're just.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Right, You're gonna shoot one right there, and one hundred
and fifty people show up, and two hundred people show up,
and I'm like, you're an organizer, Like that's real power.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
That power.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
I was like, you know, politicians pay for that. That's
called astroturfing. They pay to have people show up. I'm like,
you can actually do it.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
That's real power.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
So you could say, Pomona Unified School District, Hey, with
a hundred of us, we need to pull up to
this meeting to say we need this for our schools.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
You can do it, you know.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
So and and and seeing like I said, like seeing
you evolve from like as i' mean asdultad fans I
was a professional rappert.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
But like, it's not what I'm here for. There's a
there's a there's a greater thing happening here.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
To wrap it up, you know, While I appreciate folks
who enjoyed my floor sick, you know, I think, like
I said, the ultimate goal is to turn you into
a comrade at some point, you know what I mean,
even if it's in your own life. Yeah, because we
need this change. We need to impact social changes that way.
You know.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
So in what ways could you le'ma get soupy on you, like,
could you see you know obviously, just I looked up
seven fifty Sacramento Street over here, for the Supreme Court
case about birthright citizenship with the Chinese immigrant, like eighteen
ninety six. It was fresh on my mind, so I
(32:26):
was like, I know, it's so such a deep cut,
but the story I think it's next week's episode. But
the story is like this guy, you know, was born
in San Francisco at seven fifty, you know, comes back,
you know, going back and forth see his family, and
he comes back and because of the Chinese Exclusion Act,
happened while he was gone.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
So he comes back and they're like, yop, he can't
come in.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
He's like, I literally see my house like I was
born right there.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
So just while that's.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Being challenged again, and just you know, and just just
some of just the absurdity that's happening here we're watching.
Like I give an example of like if you buy
it it's Valentine's that you buy a bouquet of roses
and you put them in a vase. The roses are dead,
thirty dead. It's just a matter of time, you know
what I'm saying. And you're just slowing it down. So
(33:15):
when I look at like American democracy, I'm like, it's
it's been dead, you know what I'm saying, but and
we're watching it be rebirthed into this like you know,
technocratic oligarchy, like and we're you voted for this, Like
I watched y'all choose this.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
You know, this man looked you in the face.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
It was like, I'm finn lower yo yo yo grocery
prices and none of y'all like nobody.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
And he's like, here's Golf of America.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Yeah, here Golf of America. This man, I'm like, none
of y'all got an issue with that.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
Like nobody y'all with this Patriot groceries, Like I'm supposed
to pay more?
Speaker 3 (33:54):
Now?
Speaker 1 (33:55):
What do you anyway?
Speaker 3 (33:56):
So?
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Uh, in what ways are like you sort of kind
of continuing on finding hope? Like like I said, everybody
hear from me all the time, So like what ways
are you kind of like finding enjoy or.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
Well, I mean that's a tough one, you know, but
I wasn't asleep during the Obama administration. I wasn't asleep
during Joe Biden's administration. That's you know, my my my
mentor Joe Navidae used to always say, same dog, different
collar facts. You got to kill the dog, you know.
So the goal has always been systemic change, and you
(34:30):
know you just kind of have to dismantle it and
separate it all. You know. The way we can do
it as MCS as artist is the cultural aspect each
you know, the cultural, the political, and the economic all
have to support each other. That's why the music we
hear ISYP is based on consumerism, you know what I mean,
it upholds consumerism, it has to. So what we can
(34:51):
do is change that narrative is start to, you know,
make music that that challenges that, and then eventually one
of those is going to have to fall or at
least start to. And we were getting there's there were
small moments, you know, there were little moments where we're like, okay, cool,
you know we have socialist things in our government now,
social security, yeah, yeah, you know, fire department, right exactly,
(35:12):
those kind of things. And you know, so I find
hope in small victories like that. And I do believe
that this is not a you know, I think when
you're young, you want it to happen yesterday, and you
don't understand it's gonna be generational. You know, this is
gonna be generational change. So I'm patient, Yeah, it probably
won't happen in our children's lifetime. But if they keep pushing,
it's gonna happen.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
That's my thing.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
When I hear myself saying things my father said, and
I'm like, wait, you know what I'm saying. Yeah, But
at the same time I can say, like you said,
like that, my my felt life experience is different, you know.
And and then to me, like I get excited when
I'm seeing like again, like these these young leings like
(35:55):
being hungry and understand things at understanding new luance is
at a level I, you know, didn't at their age
where it's like, you know, for me, it was like
all things that everything's a hammer. You feel me, it's
all on nails, So just straight up beat the door.
Now they you know, they got a little finesse, you
know what I'm saying. I'm like, you understand nuance earlier
than I did.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
You know that well, even in regard to art, like
it's so independent. We're sitting here right now holding microphones
like we couldn't picture that as a kid like you had.
I had to get a task ambrol and like bring
it to a studio in the valley and pay this
dude thirty dollars an hours I can get one song out,
you know where Now kids are recording in their bedroom
and it's amazing people are putting you know, you dream
(36:35):
about being on TV for sure, Now I'm on YouTube phone,
you know what I mean. It's that simple.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
But yeah, yeah, man, that's that's that's good to hear.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
Man.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
So that's where I'm ad. You know, that's where I'm at,
you know what I mean, Like, that's that's what gives
me hope. And yeah, just pointing a dad, you know
what I mean? Like that, that's another big thing for me,
you know, being a dad and watching my kids and
them changing just a little bit more, you know, just
turning the needle just a little bit. You know.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
Yeah, I love love watching my children put together some
sentences that I'm like, me and my wife look at
each other like hmm, kids gonna be all right. It
also helps to I would say, because I honestly couldn't
imagine like experiencing it, like if my partner in life,
like if my wife wasn't about the revolution, sure as
(37:21):
as I was, Like we realized like as we've gotten older,
like a lot of.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Our interests, interests have differed.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
You know what I'm saying like we're just not into
a lot of the same stuff we used to be into,
where I'm like, she don't want to she don't want
to go see some underground wrapper. You know what I'm saying.
I'm good, you know what I mean. She wants to
hike on Sunday. You feel me, And I'm like, I'm good.
I'm entering my like my the old age. I'm like
buying tools and figuring out to fixate like I never
(37:51):
wanted to yard work was punishment, like kidding me, I'm
not fing to do that now you feel me, I'm like,
how many gears? But yeah, but we understood that like
with being like mission focused, like everything's been about mission
and just vision, like being like that's whatever jobs we've
chosen for to support ourselves, whatever things we put our
(38:14):
name on. It's like if it's not if it's not
mission first, we's not into it, you know what I mean,
which meant that we was willing to sacrifice, you know,
vacations as part of why she didn't come this trip
was just like money's.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
Got to go somewhere else, right, you know what I mean?
So I see that with y'all too, like that I mean,
I can't.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
I wish you could give abody advice, like, yo, marry you
a rider, you know what I'm saying, Like I just
sometimes not like that, but I would say that that's
something that's beautiful for y'all too. That like my wife
and I look like from a foreigner, like, yeah, we
understand that word.
Speaker 3 (38:47):
Yeah. I appreciate my relationship, you know. I appreciate her
as a partner and as a co parent, you know
what I mean, Like we idealistically there's things that we
don't see eye on all the time, you know what
I mean, but we have at least the foundation for
how to have those conversations in those conflicts, you know
what I mean. So I appreciate that. Yeah, that's about
my relationship with her, and she's she's a great MC.
(39:09):
I mean, I don't know, I think you are around
more mcs than I am. But I'm really not like
I'm alone. I'm in the house, I'm with the kids,
so rap for me, there was nothing really motivating me,
but I live with somebody. So when she was recording
a record, I'm like, man, I don't want to write
some bars too, you know. So that's kind of where
this new record came from was just me listening to
(39:29):
her make long kids, good night and motivating me to
be like you, I want to get back to right.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
You know.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
As a matter of fact, let's let's end on that,
like so us tell us about this album, which is
the greatest album name ever. At first I thought sharpest
to him, this jet was the best ever, And then
then it's massa.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
If you see someone stealing food, no you didn't.
Speaker 3 (39:49):
I think it definitely was birth for me looking at
the Internet and looking at social media and seeing people
just like stealing things and people shitting on them, like, yo,
this this dude gets crack. He came in here and
started taking shampoo. He's taking shampoo. Yeah, he's taking shampoo,
stealing steaks. I was like, he's loby doll, Like they're
gonna throw that out.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
You know, if you had a little less Melanie, you
would call that forging straight up. There you go yourself
saying there, straight up you call forging and survival, and
especially out.
Speaker 3 (40:19):
Here in the Bay that was inundated because you know,
they were really trying to build this. Uh. You know,
this is such a progressive city up here in there.
It's such a progressive area that conservatives really use this
as like the target of like this is why you
can't have a progressive government because people are stealing and
bipping cars, but they were failing to kind of recognize
the underlying Yeah, you're taking you know, look at Oakland,
(40:40):
Like you've taken all the teams away from Oakland. You're
taking all the industry out of Oakland, you know what
I mean. And then you're like, why are they stealing
so much ship? Why are people poor? Well, yeah, there's
nothing here, you know, So that kind of birth that
like stop snitching, you know what I mean, Like turn
the other cheek, doesn't it don't affect you, you know
what I mean? Like, and then we can have the
(41:01):
nuanced conversation I've had comments on like what about a
small business? Sure we can, we can talk about that.
That's exactly you should know if you listen to record
as not what I'm talking Aboueah, you know.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
And if you and if you're from the city, you know,
nobody's stealing from mister Johnson.
Speaker 3 (41:14):
Nobody's nobody Walgreens, and you know that's where they're taking sticks.
And so that's where the title of the album comes from.
And then like, you know, just I just wanted to
kind of stream a consciousness to make music. But then
there are things like Intifada, which you know, deals with
the Palestinian situation, and you know, I didn't lin Manuel
(41:36):
kind of messed it up for a lot of rappers
because when when I was writing, and I'm like, man,
this is very Hamilton Is you know what I mean,
Like this sounds kind of corny, but I put it
out anyway. I just put it on the table. I
was like, let's just put it out there. So it's
got a lot of dates on it and whatnot. So
but now, really, you know this, I didn't think this
record would have such a great reception. I thought it
was going to be like a mixtape. I was calling
(41:56):
it a mix tape. I was telling the label like, hey,
I'm just putting out this mixtape, you know, And when
it came out, you know, folks really messed with it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:04):
It was timely, man, it was like right on time.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
And it like I think it cuts through a lot
of like a lot of times, I think even for
US mcs that really want to say something. Sometimes I
found which some of the motivation with the podcast, who
is like my commitment to making a dope song sometimes
gets in a way of what I'm trying to say.
Speaker 1 (42:25):
So sometimes you like, you just got to say it,
you know what I mean. But I feel like it's
a great way to put it. You understand what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (42:30):
So I feel like this it cut through in a
way that it's like, oh, no, he's saying it. You
know what I'm saying and it's not. But it's not.
The rap didn't get in the way, like you feel
me like appreciate that, you know, and I as that's
what I appreciated about it.
Speaker 1 (42:44):
I was like, no, you know, he said it. And
I also appreciate.
Speaker 2 (42:47):
About like, uh, because there there there there's music I'm
sitting on that we're not sitting on. It's just in
the pipeline of coming out to where I'm like, I
don't understand why y'all can't just like just say with
y'all jazz, like if this like y'all dancing around like
y'all are real quiet.
Speaker 3 (43:08):
I think because people think they they're gonna live forever,
and I understand that my time is limited. Yeah, my time,
that's something I can't get back. You know, I'm never
gonna get that back, you know. So I cherish all
those moments, and at the same time, it also pushes
me to say say it, what's your fucking chest? Like,
just say it, bro like you know, and and be
(43:29):
open to having convers and that's the other things I
don't think artists. I think artists put themselves on this
pedestal where they don't think they can have conversations with
regular people. And if someone challenges you want to have
that conversation. I'm not talking about like in the comment section.
I'm talking about like, you know, I've had people come
up to me at shows and say, hey, why you
keep saying guys? You know, and I'm like, what, because
that's you know, but I have to have that conversation,
(43:50):
and it challenges me to be like, yeah, maybe I
am like isolating people or you know, yeah, genderizing people
by saying guys. Maybe people do feel the type of way,
and I have to challenge myself on that. So I
think as an artist, that's what we should be. You know,
we're we're a cultural arm of something that's happening, you
know what I mean. We're not above all of this,
you know what I mean, We're not informing the people.
(44:11):
The people are informing us how to make this music.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
I'm I'm a member of the community.
Speaker 3 (44:15):
Right I just happen to be able to wrap and
make something palatable for you to hear.
Speaker 1 (44:19):
You know, thank you for your time, man.
Speaker 3 (44:22):
I appreciate you. Man.
Speaker 2 (44:23):
Man, it's Valentine's You need to get to take care
of your business before all of us get in trouble.
Speaker 1 (44:29):
Anyway. Appreciate you, man.
Speaker 3 (44:31):
I love you, brother, Love you too. Brother.
Speaker 2 (44:45):
All right, now, don't you hit stop on this pod.
You better listen to these credits. I need you to
finish this thing so I can get the download numbers. Okay,
so don't stop it yet, but listen. This was recorded
in East Lost Boy Heights by your boy Propaganda. Tap
in with me at prop hip hop dot com. If
(45:05):
you're in the Coldbrew coffee we got terraform Coldbrew. You
can go there dot com and use promo code hood
get twenty percent off get yourself some coffee. This was mixed,
edited and mastered by your boy Matt Alsowski killing the
beat softly. Check out his website Matdowsowski dot com.
Speaker 1 (45:23):
I'm a speller for you because I know m A T. T.
Speaker 2 (45:28):
O s O W s Ki dot com Matthowsowski dot com.
Speaker 1 (45:34):
He got more music and.
Speaker 2 (45:35):
Stuff like that on there, so gonna check out the heat.
Politics is a member of cool Zone Media, Executive produced
by Sophie Lichterman, part of the iHeartMedia podcast network. Your
theme music and scoring is also by the one and
nobly Mattowsowski. Still killing the beat softly, so listen, don't
let nobody lie to you. If you understand urban living,
(45:57):
you understand politics. These people is not smart and you.
We'll see y'all next week.
Speaker 3 (46:23):
H
Host
Prop
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