October 13, 2021 • 25 mins
In January, two military veterans released a rap song about loving America and defending our freedom. “The Patriot” quickly soared to the top of the charts. But then two weeks later, it was removed from all streaming services without explanation. The entertainment industry tried to cancel patriotism. For this podcast, Anna talks to Christopher “Topher” Townsend, one of the creators of "The Patriot." An Air Force veteran and a man of faith, Topher is not your typical artist. He’s a conservative activist using his platform as an independent rapper to fight the culture war. Anna and Topher discuss the suppression he’s experienced and what he’s trying to accomplish as a conservative hip-hop artist. As Topher explains, this fight isn’t just about patriotism. It's about good versus evil, and he won’t compromise his morals. And guess what? He doesn’t have to do so to put out great music.
Learn More About Topher: https://tophertown.com/
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Up next, Luna Talks with Anna Paulina. Luna part of
the gang which enough with a tyranny. We come to
take our country back for all citizens, white, red, brown
or black. Return her to her former glory. Fix the
bloody crack on her crown. Fetch your gown, it's going down.
(00:21):
Today we talked about the man who made these lyrics
come to life. A rapper, a veteran, a man of faith,
and a patriot. This is Luna Talks with on a Paulina.
Welcome back to today's episode of Luna Talks with Me,
your host on a Paulina Luna. When people think of politics,
they typically don't think of rap. In fact, some of
(00:45):
you are probably now like, where is she going with this? Well,
I was able to actually come across an artist by
the name of Tofur. Tofur is a rap artist, but
he's also a veteran, and he happens to be a
number one Billboard artist. But why haven't you heard of him?
And why isn't he, you know, on v H one
or b ET or the Next Essence magazine And it's
(01:07):
because of the fact that he is conservative, and so
they actually try to drown out his music. Well, his
song The Patriot, which I'm about to play for you
not only charted at number one, but shortly after it
came out a little after January six, it was actually
removed from every single streaming service shortly after it started
(01:28):
trending as number one, without any explanation, and they of
course blamed it on him, saying that he was solely
responsible for what happened on January six, which is completely false.
But of course we're talking about the mainstream media here,
and we're talking about Hollywood, and as you known, as
stated in previous interviews from people that have left Hollywood,
like Kaya Jones, Hollywood is essentially controlled by leftists, and
(01:52):
they work hand in hand with the mainstream media, and
they work hand in hand with leftist politicians to push
their terrible, terrible ideologies. Anyways, to play for you song
because I think that the lyrics of this song are
so important. And he's not cussing, he's not talking about,
you know, raping women, he's not talking about women in
a derogatory fashion. You could literally listen to his music
(02:12):
with your family present and not feel embarrassed. And yet
because of the fact that he's conservative, they censor him Meanwhile,
you literally have Party b who's talked about drugging men,
and she's what I considered one of the most successful
rappers in the world. I went by goods short and
(02:38):
broom fool fool, tens of thousands on my right, thousands
by my side, on which were good and evil watching
the fiscal lot better forth read them. Now to the
(03:00):
smiss we ride flags waving all around, pages full of pride.
This is what we make a stand. No more give
a taken mantra, baldy capitals on the city goods, but
impress on their next into the truth, breaks all bonds
of corruption, take out all the snakes and starts spangle bound.
I gotta playing a lot and proud people for more
wats of life, filling up the crowd to fill a constitution.
(03:22):
Many more were your avoul casting down into your magasine
with bucking cow. Enough fertilly need be come to take
a country back for all citizens, white red, brown of black,
returned to a former glory, fixed the bloody crack on
the crowd. Set your gown. It's gonna down to My
(04:00):
mama told me, yes, she want me that the state
would come. I'm like my father go to combat with
the blazing guns. I came back to the place from
the face off all these ads in the battle in
the you can write me down, tell me why. I mean.
You hear his music and he is arguably better than
a lot of your top Billboard artists today, and in fact,
(04:20):
he's trending with some of these artists. But again, because
he's conservative, he's censored. And so I wanted to bring
him on today to talk about that song and to
really talk about what he's doing to impact the culture war,
because we know this is something that Candice Owens and
Charlie Kirk have all mentioned, even Brandon Tatum, and every
single person knows that if you want to help impact,
especially the younger generation, that you have to have crossover
(04:42):
with the music industry and with Hollywood. And that's exactly
what this guy is doing. And it's a shame that
he's not given the platform that he deserves because he's
honestly a godly man. He's making music that doesn't do
anything but really help educate people, and he's a black man,
and he's he's censored. He's censored because of it. To Fir,
thank you so much for joining me here. Today on
(05:03):
Luna Talks, I can tell you that I'm actually staring
right behind you, and that's your billboard. Correct, correct, the
number one billboard for digital rap song sales February six,
the week of Fairware six this year. And it was amazing.
So interestingly enough, I was actually looking online and watching
your music video, The Patriot. It has millions of views
(05:25):
on it, and right at the beginning, it says basically,
on January the Patriot, a song by two military veterans,
charted at number three on hip Hop, number four and
R and B and number thirty six and all digital songs.
You're an independent artist. How did that happen? We we
don't know how it happened. We know why. So apparently
(05:46):
our distributed district Care received a take down order from stores.
They never specify which store, um they navi gave you
any more detail than that, so it was very nuanced
and we didn't know, so we just uh, the kind
of like okay. And what we did after that was
we decided to go direct to consumer. So we started
(06:07):
to sail directly from a well site and allow people
to download from there until eventually we was able to
go through another music distributor Hito Music, and then we
was allowed to get the Patriot put back up. But
I would have to say that the timing of it
must have have happened or must have been because of
what went down January six at the Capitol. So your lyrics, tho,
(06:29):
I mean, you're just talking about, I think something that
I would argue most even establishment Republicans, are too afraid
to say. You're talking about loving your country. You're a
military service member, I mean as someone who served this
country and now is basically transitioning into a role where
you really are engaging I think in the forefront of
this battle, which is the culture war. What do you
(06:49):
have to say about that? Hey, no, I fought it everywhere.
I fought it over I have in personally follow the seas,
but I've aided overseas. And you know, there's nothing to
fight at home, you know, because you don't care at home,
then it doesn't really matter. So I take it as
a badge of honor. I never expected to be in
this position, to be fighting a cultural war. When I
was a kid. It's like, Yeah, to grow up and
(07:09):
make music, signs to a major label and just do
what I want and they see, you know, I'm I'm
leading a whole culture movement. It's like, yo, see, it
doesn't always tell people like you ask God, you know what,
what what does he have in store for you? And
if He gave you the process and what it would
look like, a lot of us would turn it down.
It's like, no, I don't want to stuffer. I don't
want to struggle. I don't want to be name called,
I don't want to do none of that. I don't
(07:30):
want to be canceled. Right, A lot of us don't
want that to happen, and then we'll probably missed the opportunity.
So it's it's it's been a blessing, and I do
handle it with some importance. So I make sure that
I try my best to represent the culture or veterans
or anybody right independent artists to the best of my ability.
But you know, ultimately you make sure I represent God
(07:51):
and all that I do well. I mean, I think
it's incredible too, because I realized that right now, especially conservatives,
it's so important for people to stick together. And I
really we find that when I actually went through I
listened to every single song that you had um and
I was actually able to see that you're collaborating with
other like minded artists, and I think that that's really
important because right now, especially there is mass censorship. I
(08:13):
mean it even says on that music video that you
have online that two weeks later after your song was
trending and literally I mean for you to basically come
out of being an independent artist and then to be
trending like this, then it was removed from streams. So
they didn't give you any reason why. They just completely
pulled it down, bletely pulled it down. There's there's multiple
stories and articles are reknown and black Rifle call Fee
(08:35):
did a really great right up and we have screenshots
from the distributor, email correspondence, nothing and to this day,
nothing no apologies for me missing income that could have
went to my family. Uh, it's like you said, if
you're independent artists and I do this full time, that's
taking food off the table for no reason, right especially
to do it without giving the explanation. You know, we
(08:56):
didn't take any further than that. I just kind of like, okay, whatever,
But definitely I'm more aware of that possibility now and
if it happens again, we definitely we got some stuff
in place for that. How did you come up with
a song? Because it's very powerful. I think there's one
um segment that you have in there talking about you
wanting to take the country back for his red, white, brown,
(09:19):
or black, and I think that that's really powerful. You're
talking about unifying the country. What was the inspiration behind
the song? Just what I saw all year in twenties twenty,
you know, from you know peep the protests, whether it
was BLM or Antifa, or just just just the climate
of the country. Will say that climate of the country.
I was out in different rallies and protests and I
(09:42):
got to see everybody in person and just to see
the emotions, and I wanted to create a song that
kind of capture the emotions of the people in this
country because, like I said, it was a very intense time,
one of the most important elections of my life for sure,
and I just wanted to let people know that at
the end of the day, me, You've been a black person,
despite the narrat despite what's going on, me being a veteran,
(10:04):
I love this country. I'm going to fight for this
country and no matter what form that evil may come in,
and trying to dismountle everything we all fault for. I'm
going to fight against it and gonna stand up against it,
and I'm hoping many more people will join me in
that fight. And that's kind of what the Patriot was about.
That's why I didn't mention any political parties. I didn't
mention any political ideologies. I'm just like, yo, man, you
(10:27):
love this country, and he willing to fight that defended. Obviously,
in listening to your music, I think that it's very
clear that you believe in gone right, and so you
talk a lot about basically there's a lot of good
versus evil. I do have to cut to commercial break
real quick, so we'll be right back with that question
to tight Okay, back to your music. You talk a
(10:47):
lot in your lyrics about basically the battle between good
and evil, and I think right now, I mean, like
you said, it's not about political party. It's about really,
I think, standing up for what's right and loving your country.
That's not a racial issue. That's not a you know,
issue of man versus woman. That's just if you love
this country, if you believe in what this country is
found upon, which was Christian values, you're going to stand
(11:10):
up for those things. I noticed that a lot of
times in Hollywood when you have artists that end up
finding gods. You had Kaya Jones, she was a part
of the Pussycat Dolls. You had Kanye West who basically
came out and said, I'm no longer going to be
writing the music that was how it was of the world.
I'm gonna be focusing on, you know, gospel music. And
he did that transition into Jesus's King. And then you
(11:31):
had I think other artists that started to more or
less kind of come around to what the conservative ideology
would be. Do you feel that because you are not
willing to compromise your morals, that you've essentially been suppressed,
because honestly, I hear your music, and I do think
that it is definitely comparable, if not better than a
lot of what you hear coming out of the top
(11:53):
hip hop charts currently. Are you correct to even abjectively speaking,
I mean, which arting with the best of the best. Right,
we just had another song hit bill Board and right
next to us with Jake Cole and Little Nas and
all the people that you see all the time, and
like I said, we're doing this independently, which means that
it's very organic. It's way more organic than the what
(12:15):
the industry is putting forth. So where we're proud of that,
and we're probably everyone that supports us, you know, people
like you and your husband, So we thank you for streaming,
thank you for buying O music and sharing it with
your family and friends. I think it's a point for
the people to know that there is a demand and
you're not alone. Right. That shows the strings that you
see on the Patriot Um and everything else that we
(12:35):
have going on. It shows that we're not alone. And
I want to make make that clear. And that's why
I'm making myself to be more visible than most artists
right that. I'm always going live on Instagram because a
lot of artists are. They just put music out and
they don't really engage and in the act. But I
try to stay active in the communication, active in the community,
just to talk about things and let people know that
(12:57):
I'm just a regular guy that stood up. You know.
It's like like a Lincoln, you know, it was just
a regular guy that's like, hey man, I don't like this.
I'm gonna go up here and do something about it.
And that's kind of how I take that approaches and
another reason why I don't really wear flashy things. I
thought about changing my looks and I was like, man,
you know, but who cares if the red hat made
me look homeless? Sometimes you know, but it's it is well,
(13:20):
I just think, you know, it could come off. Sometimes
people say that, but it's it's one of those things
like it keeps me humble. I keep warring hoodies. I
just want to dispel the image that people have pushed upon,
you know, the youth or what it what a successful
artist looks like, like they gotta have a bunch of money.
They have a bunch of money. It's very important. I'm
not getting funny, but boyd uh, gotta have a bunch
(13:42):
of tattoos. I'm gotta be cussing like you ain't gotta
do notne of that stuff. You don't have to compromise
on your mores to put out the music that's gonna
help sustain the living that you want. So that's that's
that's one of the reasons why I continue to fight
for what I do. So did you always start out
a conservative? Because you said you you know, you may
the conscious decision to speak up, And sometimes I think
(14:02):
For a lot of people, that's the hardest thing. They're
worried about, this stigma that comes along with if people
find out that their conservatives. I always tell people, you know,
the minute that you shake that off and you stop
caring what other people think, that's actually one of the
most free moments in your life because you might lose
some friends, but you'll gain people in your life that
you'll be able to be friends with for a lifetime.
(14:24):
I mean, how did you grow up? Is that a
factor in an influence and why you do what you do? Absolutely,
like you said, I've I've always kind of had some
some now so popular opinions or I went against the
herb mentality that we have here in the black community,
and I got a lot of flight forward. I mean
I used to just make random posts on Facebook and
people would just shoot me down, and to dissolve the drama,
(14:46):
I would remove the post and I agree to not
post anything on my opinion about something for a long time,
and then I come back and pust something without another
event and still wrong, TOPHI is still doing the wrong
and still get you know, hate comments. And then eventually
it got to a point where I was like, no,
I'm not gonna shut up because I remember being uh,
when I was in school, we didn't have any conservatives,
(15:08):
specifically with about black conservatives. If we're talking about representation,
to come to my school and be like, yo, these
are all the things you can do versus all the
things you can't do because you're black. In America, you know,
we never had those conversations. So a lot of us
grow up thinking like, oh, I'm just gonna go to
jail this this country hates me. There's nothing I can do.
I'll never be successful. All I can do or all
(15:29):
I can be as a rapper or ball player or
something like that. It's like, no, man, there's so many
things we can be and we have more, way more
control and power than the media will let you let
you know you have, right, So that's that's kind of
what made me speak up. And when I started to
see so many people like Gottics, they started um doing
(15:49):
a lot of videos on YouTube. She was former leftists
and she you know Red Peeled, she said I helped
Red Peeled was just crazy because she's a she's a
beast um you know. Create long. So many other people
that just came around, like even kids, now that um
contribute their faith and their and and their boldness to
(16:09):
watching my videos pop up on their screens on TikTok,
you know, and there's no value you can put on that.
So I appreciate it, and I'm just gonna continue to
do it because at this point, it's not about me anymore.
It is about it's about us. It's about what guys
doing through me, exactly. And I think that your platform,
I mean, you're able to do things. You know, you
can have politicians up there ranting and raving about it,
(16:32):
you know, it being this party's faulter, that party's fault.
But when you're able to actually go down to I
think those core issues, which are like you're communicating with
people in a more intimate fashion because it's through music,
because people are listening and directly engaged and sometimes even
memorizing your lyrics like here. I mean, I've listened to
your song a couple of times, and I already knew
some of the song lyrics. But that's because you were
(16:54):
able to frame it in a way where people can
easily digest it and understand it. I think that that's
so important. And to see that you have been suppressed
even though you are. I mean, you're still trending with
a lot of these artists. But why is it that
you have you know, little nas who's selling just some
awful satanic shoes and you're better artists than he is. Like,
(17:15):
and I'm not just saying that because you're on this podcast,
you genuinely are. And I actually prior to this, I
actually rolled a segment for the audience to hear just
kind of some of your music. But you are doing
some incredible things. What is a message that you have
for the younger generation of those that are looking to
get into you know, performance art like what you're doing
with rap, or maybe that want to get into Hollywood
(17:36):
but don't necessarily morally aligned with Hollywood do it and
allowing yourself with others that do, Like I'm not doing
this alone, and I contribute a lot of my success
to that, right. I have the Marine rapper d Cure
who we're we're talking daily and we crossed promote all
the time, you know. And then if you're throwing burden
Bryson Gray Tyson, James Kelvin, j Um, you know muses.
(18:01):
Now we've got Hi Rez and you know Jimmy Levy
you know, shout out to them boys for having a
number one hip hops on this week that was being
out the rock and Tech nine, which is crazy. Are
I didn't know that that's cool? I think Jim actually
on social media and Bryson so yeah. So it's like
we don't do this alone and we actually support, like
(18:21):
when we ain't talking, just share content. Like if I
drop a project or single, they're buying it and telling
everybody else to buy it, and we do it. We
do it for them as well. So having a strong
community is very important, and that's how you're able to
overcome things. You know, when when when it comes to
those temptations when it comes to you possibly um giving
up your moles or or almost say give up or
(18:43):
at least suspended them for a time so you can
get some money. But like I said, you don't have to.
And if you feel like you do, hit toe for
hit somebody. We're trying to create a community where we
get so many other people out there. Man, but you
don't have to. But do it anyway, and even if
you go across that line and you get over there,
(19:03):
you can always come back. It's okay, We're gonna accept you.
We're gonna we're gonna rinch you off, We're gonna wash
you off, we get you back into the phone where
you're supposed to be, and it's gonna be a okay.
So I do have one last question for you, and
I do have to take our last commercial break, and
this one's actually about whether or not you guys will
be going on tour anytime soon, because I feel like
(19:25):
if I was sitting here as a conservative phil anthropist
and I saw the talent that you guys had. I mean,
you have some of these clown shows running around at Coachello,
you guys, if you were to do a conservative nationwide tour,
I think that you guys would be able to pack
out some arenas just based on your music. Um, we'll
be right back after this quick break. Okay, let's talk tours.
(19:47):
Do you see that as something that you might be
doing in the near future. Sure, I would love to
go on tour, but it's kind of tough, right because
a lot of stuff we want to make sure that
we still give people the freedom to wear a mask
and not wear a mask and don't have to wear
about so distancing. You know, they's still got the COVID
restrictions and a lot of different places and it's kind
of tough especially you know. It's funny, I look at
(20:08):
my statistics. I well, most of my listeners are coming
from it's like all blue cities, just like New York City,
Dallas or you know, l A. And I'm just like, man,
this is a while, you know it just maybe because
they're lumping everybody into one big city, right, but still,
just there are people listen to our stuff. You know,
they might not live in Freedom, but they want to
(20:29):
at least here and listen to it. So I would
love to go on tour and if anyone wants to
support us, please reach out to us. We will set
it up. We had a really successful show Freedom Festival
we had down in what was Orlando, Orlando, Florida August
seven this year. We had a really great one. It
was me Hores ms Is, the Marine Rapper, Jimmy Levy
(20:52):
and Burden and we brought the house down. People flew
all the right from California that people drive down for Ohio,
you know, all across the states just to come see
us all in person, which is incredible, you know. So
it's it's a demand for it. But we just got
to find out how to make it work. Well. I
I remember growing up when I was in so I
actually I'm from California originally, and I remember hearing some
(21:15):
of the back then we had Atmosphere that was one
of the bigger independent artists at the time, and so
a lot of my friends in high school and we
listen to Atmosphere. But I mean, you guys, it's something
that's definitely doable. And I feel like, if we are
going to really take back this country with people that
believe in the constitution or just the basic ideas of
you know what our country was founded upon, that we
(21:37):
have to be able to share this message with everyone, right,
And so you bring in this aspect of a lot
of people that are following. I think rap culture typically
don't tend to put politics into it. And then when
you think of what's happened previously, I mean, you had
the evolution of rap, you had Big, you had Tupac.
There is some serious movement and I think power in
(21:58):
your voice that I think a lot of people are
afraid of and I think that that's why you get suppressed,
and so I think that it would be really powerful
to bring that forward. Um, where can people go to
find you on social media? And if anyone ever wanted
to reach out and book you, like I know here,
we're actually gonna be bringing you out to Tampa Bay
here in a little bit to do an event with
black Set where you'll be performing on November one. But
(22:21):
where can people book you and where can they contact
you and follow what you're doing and Dowlandry music at
toford Town Music. That's t O p h R t
O w N m U s I see tofa Town
Music and if you want to send me an email
is tofor at toford town dot com and just reach out,
just let me know what you're trying to do. We'll
(22:41):
see if we can make it work and just go
from there. But make sure you just look up to
for on any musical platform, and you should pull up
my profile and make sure you download and purchase my
album No apologies, I think it's on any platform, but
if you also can get a physical sign copy from
my website if you go there perfect. Thank you so
much for joining us today on Luna Talks. We look
(23:03):
forward to following your journey your music career, which obviously
I think we are just getting started with everything. Especially,
I'm telling you guys, I'm looking behind him. He has
this amazing billboard frame number one. It's everything that you
could ever dream of. I hope to really see some
incredible things coming your way soon. But thank you so
much for joining us, and we look forward to having
you back. Thank you. If that interview doesn't give you chills,
(23:23):
I don't know what will. It's important that we as
conservatives increasingly especially invest our spending power in people and
companies that support our value system. It's interesting there's an
organization called Second Vote and it actually will track what
corporations give to leftist causes and where you can better
spend your dollars. And I feel like, especially in this argument,
(23:46):
when you're talking about, you know, getting your kids involved
or actually making politics cool, it does take people like
Toford to do that, to kind of transcend those party lines.
And it's important and it's important to support him as
an artist. So I'm going to do a plug since
he didn't, but I highly encourage you all to download
his song The Patriot. That is not a paid ad.
That is me saying that this guy is really talented
(24:07):
and I hope to actually have on some more people
that he actually was mentioning in that interview that he's
working with because as we continue to move into four,
it's going to be important the way that we campaign.
You know, I call it guerrilla campaigning, but it's kind
of thinking outside of the box of what your typical
campaigning would be. And that's because you know, you talk
(24:27):
about the platform of the Democrats and what they're really
bringing forward, and I can tell you, having been boots
on the ground in Georgia, that the Democrats were actually
busting people. They had this one bus movement, it was
called Souls to the Polls and they're actually bringing in
very very famous R and B and gospel singers to
actually get people activated after church to go to the
polls to vote, and they were pushing the leftist message.
(24:50):
And whether or not it's you know, to for talking
about his conservative values or these people talking about leftist values,
I think it's important to note that music does have
a factor in politics, and that if you can harness
that energy and do what he's doing and provide really
a platform and a mechanism to help encourage people like
him to perform and to stand up and to really
(25:11):
target that base, and that audience. I think that that's
really important, not just for our generation, but really to
help I think, raise up the next generation of conservatives.
So I hope you guys check them out. Thank you
so much for tuning into this episode, and we look
forward to having you back at our next Before we go,
I want to thank Tober again for such a great interview,
(25:33):
and I want to thank you guys so much for listening.
If you enjoyed today's show, please leave us a review
and rate us five stars on Apple Podcasts. To your
more of my episodes and get my weekly newsletter, go
to Gangridge six dot com, slash on a and you
can also find me on Twitter, Parlor, Facebook, and Instagram
at real Ana Paulina. And a special thank you to
producer Drew Steele, writer Aaron Kligman, and executive producers Debbie
(25:54):
Myers and Speaker New Gangridge part of the Gangridge sixty
Network
Up next, Luna Talks with Anna Paulina. Luna part of
the gang which enough with a tyranny. We come to
take our country back for all citizens, white, red, brown
or black. Return her to her former glory. Fix the
bloody crack on her crown. Fetch your gown, it's going down.
(00:21):
Today we talked about the man who made these lyrics
come to life. A rapper, a veteran, a man of faith,
and a patriot. This is Luna Talks with on a Paulina.
Welcome back to today's episode of Luna Talks with Me,
your host on a Paulina Luna. When people think of politics,
they typically don't think of rap. In fact, some of
(00:45):
you are probably now like, where is she going with this? Well,
I was able to actually come across an artist by
the name of Tofur. Tofur is a rap artist, but
he's also a veteran, and he happens to be a
number one Billboard artist. But why haven't you heard of him?
And why isn't he, you know, on v H one
or b ET or the Next Essence magazine And it's
(01:07):
because of the fact that he is conservative, and so
they actually try to drown out his music. Well, his
song The Patriot, which I'm about to play for you
not only charted at number one, but shortly after it
came out a little after January six, it was actually
removed from every single streaming service shortly after it started
(01:28):
trending as number one, without any explanation, and they of
course blamed it on him, saying that he was solely
responsible for what happened on January six, which is completely false.
But of course we're talking about the mainstream media here,
and we're talking about Hollywood, and as you known, as
stated in previous interviews from people that have left Hollywood,
like Kaya Jones, Hollywood is essentially controlled by leftists, and
(01:52):
they work hand in hand with the mainstream media, and
they work hand in hand with leftist politicians to push
their terrible, terrible ideologies. Anyways, to play for you song
because I think that the lyrics of this song are
so important. And he's not cussing, he's not talking about,
you know, raping women, he's not talking about women in
a derogatory fashion. You could literally listen to his music
(02:12):
with your family present and not feel embarrassed. And yet
because of the fact that he's conservative, they censor him Meanwhile,
you literally have Party b who's talked about drugging men,
and she's what I considered one of the most successful
rappers in the world. I went by goods short and
(02:38):
broom fool fool, tens of thousands on my right, thousands
by my side, on which were good and evil watching
the fiscal lot better forth read them. Now to the
(03:00):
smiss we ride flags waving all around, pages full of pride.
This is what we make a stand. No more give
a taken mantra, baldy capitals on the city goods, but
impress on their next into the truth, breaks all bonds
of corruption, take out all the snakes and starts spangle bound.
I gotta playing a lot and proud people for more
wats of life, filling up the crowd to fill a constitution.
(03:22):
Many more were your avoul casting down into your magasine
with bucking cow. Enough fertilly need be come to take
a country back for all citizens, white red, brown of black,
returned to a former glory, fixed the bloody crack on
the crowd. Set your gown. It's gonna down to My
(04:00):
mama told me, yes, she want me that the state
would come. I'm like my father go to combat with
the blazing guns. I came back to the place from
the face off all these ads in the battle in
the you can write me down, tell me why. I mean.
You hear his music and he is arguably better than
a lot of your top Billboard artists today, and in fact,
(04:20):
he's trending with some of these artists. But again, because
he's conservative, he's censored. And so I wanted to bring
him on today to talk about that song and to
really talk about what he's doing to impact the culture war,
because we know this is something that Candice Owens and
Charlie Kirk have all mentioned, even Brandon Tatum, and every
single person knows that if you want to help impact,
especially the younger generation, that you have to have crossover
(04:42):
with the music industry and with Hollywood. And that's exactly
what this guy is doing. And it's a shame that
he's not given the platform that he deserves because he's
honestly a godly man. He's making music that doesn't do
anything but really help educate people, and he's a black man,
and he's he's censored. He's censored because of it. To Fir,
thank you so much for joining me here. Today on
(05:03):
Luna Talks, I can tell you that I'm actually staring
right behind you, and that's your billboard. Correct, correct, the
number one billboard for digital rap song sales February six,
the week of Fairware six this year. And it was amazing.
So interestingly enough, I was actually looking online and watching
your music video, The Patriot. It has millions of views
(05:25):
on it, and right at the beginning, it says basically,
on January the Patriot, a song by two military veterans,
charted at number three on hip Hop, number four and
R and B and number thirty six and all digital songs.
You're an independent artist. How did that happen? We we
don't know how it happened. We know why. So apparently
(05:46):
our distributed district Care received a take down order from stores.
They never specify which store, um they navi gave you
any more detail than that, so it was very nuanced
and we didn't know, so we just uh, the kind
of like okay. And what we did after that was
we decided to go direct to consumer. So we started
(06:07):
to sail directly from a well site and allow people
to download from there until eventually we was able to
go through another music distributor Hito Music, and then we
was allowed to get the Patriot put back up. But
I would have to say that the timing of it
must have have happened or must have been because of
what went down January six at the Capitol. So your lyrics, tho,
(06:29):
I mean, you're just talking about, I think something that
I would argue most even establishment Republicans, are too afraid
to say. You're talking about loving your country. You're a
military service member, I mean as someone who served this
country and now is basically transitioning into a role where
you really are engaging I think in the forefront of
this battle, which is the culture war. What do you
(06:49):
have to say about that? Hey, no, I fought it everywhere.
I fought it over I have in personally follow the seas,
but I've aided overseas. And you know, there's nothing to
fight at home, you know, because you don't care at home,
then it doesn't really matter. So I take it as
a badge of honor. I never expected to be in
this position, to be fighting a cultural war. When I
was a kid. It's like, Yeah, to grow up and
(07:09):
make music, signs to a major label and just do
what I want and they see, you know, I'm I'm
leading a whole culture movement. It's like, yo, see, it
doesn't always tell people like you ask God, you know what,
what what does he have in store for you? And
if He gave you the process and what it would
look like, a lot of us would turn it down.
It's like, no, I don't want to stuffer. I don't
want to struggle. I don't want to be name called,
I don't want to do none of that. I don't
(07:30):
want to be canceled. Right, A lot of us don't
want that to happen, and then we'll probably missed the opportunity.
So it's it's it's been a blessing, and I do
handle it with some importance. So I make sure that
I try my best to represent the culture or veterans
or anybody right independent artists to the best of my ability.
But you know, ultimately you make sure I represent God
(07:51):
and all that I do well. I mean, I think
it's incredible too, because I realized that right now, especially conservatives,
it's so important for people to stick together. And I
really we find that when I actually went through I
listened to every single song that you had um and
I was actually able to see that you're collaborating with
other like minded artists, and I think that that's really
important because right now, especially there is mass censorship. I
(08:13):
mean it even says on that music video that you
have online that two weeks later after your song was
trending and literally I mean for you to basically come
out of being an independent artist and then to be
trending like this, then it was removed from streams. So
they didn't give you any reason why. They just completely
pulled it down, bletely pulled it down. There's there's multiple
stories and articles are reknown and black Rifle call Fee
(08:35):
did a really great right up and we have screenshots
from the distributor, email correspondence, nothing and to this day,
nothing no apologies for me missing income that could have
went to my family. Uh, it's like you said, if
you're independent artists and I do this full time, that's
taking food off the table for no reason, right especially
to do it without giving the explanation. You know, we
(08:56):
didn't take any further than that. I just kind of like, okay, whatever,
But definitely I'm more aware of that possibility now and
if it happens again, we definitely we got some stuff
in place for that. How did you come up with
a song? Because it's very powerful. I think there's one
um segment that you have in there talking about you
wanting to take the country back for his red, white, brown,
(09:19):
or black, and I think that that's really powerful. You're
talking about unifying the country. What was the inspiration behind
the song? Just what I saw all year in twenties twenty,
you know, from you know peep the protests, whether it
was BLM or Antifa, or just just just the climate
of the country. Will say that climate of the country.
I was out in different rallies and protests and I
(09:42):
got to see everybody in person and just to see
the emotions, and I wanted to create a song that
kind of capture the emotions of the people in this
country because, like I said, it was a very intense time,
one of the most important elections of my life for sure,
and I just wanted to let people know that at
the end of the day, me, You've been a black person,
despite the narrat despite what's going on, me being a veteran,
(10:04):
I love this country. I'm going to fight for this
country and no matter what form that evil may come in,
and trying to dismountle everything we all fault for. I'm
going to fight against it and gonna stand up against it,
and I'm hoping many more people will join me in
that fight. And that's kind of what the Patriot was about.
That's why I didn't mention any political parties. I didn't
mention any political ideologies. I'm just like, yo, man, you
(10:27):
love this country, and he willing to fight that defended. Obviously,
in listening to your music, I think that it's very
clear that you believe in gone right, and so you
talk a lot about basically there's a lot of good
versus evil. I do have to cut to commercial break
real quick, so we'll be right back with that question
to tight Okay, back to your music. You talk a
(10:47):
lot in your lyrics about basically the battle between good
and evil, and I think right now, I mean, like
you said, it's not about political party. It's about really,
I think, standing up for what's right and loving your country.
That's not a racial issue. That's not a you know,
issue of man versus woman. That's just if you love
this country, if you believe in what this country is
found upon, which was Christian values, you're going to stand
(11:10):
up for those things. I noticed that a lot of
times in Hollywood when you have artists that end up
finding gods. You had Kaya Jones, she was a part
of the Pussycat Dolls. You had Kanye West who basically
came out and said, I'm no longer going to be
writing the music that was how it was of the world.
I'm gonna be focusing on, you know, gospel music. And
he did that transition into Jesus's King. And then you
(11:31):
had I think other artists that started to more or
less kind of come around to what the conservative ideology
would be. Do you feel that because you are not
willing to compromise your morals, that you've essentially been suppressed,
because honestly, I hear your music, and I do think
that it is definitely comparable, if not better than a
lot of what you hear coming out of the top
(11:53):
hip hop charts currently. Are you correct to even abjectively speaking,
I mean, which arting with the best of the best. Right,
we just had another song hit bill Board and right
next to us with Jake Cole and Little Nas and
all the people that you see all the time, and
like I said, we're doing this independently, which means that
it's very organic. It's way more organic than the what
(12:15):
the industry is putting forth. So where we're proud of that,
and we're probably everyone that supports us, you know, people
like you and your husband, So we thank you for streaming,
thank you for buying O music and sharing it with
your family and friends. I think it's a point for
the people to know that there is a demand and
you're not alone. Right. That shows the strings that you
see on the Patriot Um and everything else that we
(12:35):
have going on. It shows that we're not alone. And
I want to make make that clear. And that's why
I'm making myself to be more visible than most artists
right that. I'm always going live on Instagram because a
lot of artists are. They just put music out and
they don't really engage and in the act. But I
try to stay active in the communication, active in the community,
just to talk about things and let people know that
(12:57):
I'm just a regular guy that stood up. You know.
It's like like a Lincoln, you know, it was just
a regular guy that's like, hey man, I don't like this.
I'm gonna go up here and do something about it.
And that's kind of how I take that approaches and
another reason why I don't really wear flashy things. I
thought about changing my looks and I was like, man,
you know, but who cares if the red hat made
me look homeless? Sometimes you know, but it's it is well,
(13:20):
I just think, you know, it could come off. Sometimes
people say that, but it's it's one of those things
like it keeps me humble. I keep warring hoodies. I
just want to dispel the image that people have pushed upon,
you know, the youth or what it what a successful
artist looks like, like they gotta have a bunch of money.
They have a bunch of money. It's very important. I'm
not getting funny, but boyd uh, gotta have a bunch
(13:42):
of tattoos. I'm gotta be cussing like you ain't gotta
do notne of that stuff. You don't have to compromise
on your mores to put out the music that's gonna
help sustain the living that you want. So that's that's
that's one of the reasons why I continue to fight
for what I do. So did you always start out
a conservative? Because you said you you know, you may
the conscious decision to speak up, And sometimes I think
(14:02):
For a lot of people, that's the hardest thing. They're
worried about, this stigma that comes along with if people
find out that their conservatives. I always tell people, you know,
the minute that you shake that off and you stop
caring what other people think, that's actually one of the
most free moments in your life because you might lose
some friends, but you'll gain people in your life that
you'll be able to be friends with for a lifetime.
(14:24):
I mean, how did you grow up? Is that a
factor in an influence and why you do what you do? Absolutely,
like you said, I've I've always kind of had some
some now so popular opinions or I went against the
herb mentality that we have here in the black community,
and I got a lot of flight forward. I mean
I used to just make random posts on Facebook and
people would just shoot me down, and to dissolve the drama,
(14:46):
I would remove the post and I agree to not
post anything on my opinion about something for a long time,
and then I come back and pust something without another
event and still wrong, TOPHI is still doing the wrong
and still get you know, hate comments. And then eventually
it got to a point where I was like, no,
I'm not gonna shut up because I remember being uh,
when I was in school, we didn't have any conservatives,
(15:08):
specifically with about black conservatives. If we're talking about representation,
to come to my school and be like, yo, these
are all the things you can do versus all the
things you can't do because you're black. In America, you know,
we never had those conversations. So a lot of us
grow up thinking like, oh, I'm just gonna go to
jail this this country hates me. There's nothing I can do.
I'll never be successful. All I can do or all
(15:29):
I can be as a rapper or ball player or
something like that. It's like, no, man, there's so many
things we can be and we have more, way more
control and power than the media will let you let
you know you have, right, So that's that's kind of
what made me speak up. And when I started to
see so many people like Gottics, they started um doing
(15:49):
a lot of videos on YouTube. She was former leftists
and she you know Red Peeled, she said I helped
Red Peeled was just crazy because she's a she's a
beast um you know. Create long. So many other people
that just came around, like even kids, now that um
contribute their faith and their and and their boldness to
(16:09):
watching my videos pop up on their screens on TikTok,
you know, and there's no value you can put on that.
So I appreciate it, and I'm just gonna continue to
do it because at this point, it's not about me anymore.
It is about it's about us. It's about what guys
doing through me, exactly. And I think that your platform,
I mean, you're able to do things. You know, you
can have politicians up there ranting and raving about it,
(16:32):
you know, it being this party's faulter, that party's fault.
But when you're able to actually go down to I
think those core issues, which are like you're communicating with
people in a more intimate fashion because it's through music,
because people are listening and directly engaged and sometimes even
memorizing your lyrics like here. I mean, I've listened to
your song a couple of times, and I already knew
some of the song lyrics. But that's because you were
(16:54):
able to frame it in a way where people can
easily digest it and understand it. I think that that's
so important. And to see that you have been suppressed
even though you are. I mean, you're still trending with
a lot of these artists. But why is it that
you have you know, little nas who's selling just some
awful satanic shoes and you're better artists than he is. Like,
(17:15):
and I'm not just saying that because you're on this podcast,
you genuinely are. And I actually prior to this, I
actually rolled a segment for the audience to hear just
kind of some of your music. But you are doing
some incredible things. What is a message that you have
for the younger generation of those that are looking to
get into you know, performance art like what you're doing
with rap, or maybe that want to get into Hollywood
(17:36):
but don't necessarily morally aligned with Hollywood do it and
allowing yourself with others that do, Like I'm not doing
this alone, and I contribute a lot of my success
to that, right. I have the Marine rapper d Cure
who we're we're talking daily and we crossed promote all
the time, you know. And then if you're throwing burden
Bryson Gray Tyson, James Kelvin, j Um, you know muses.
(18:01):
Now we've got Hi Rez and you know Jimmy Levy
you know, shout out to them boys for having a
number one hip hops on this week that was being
out the rock and Tech nine, which is crazy. Are
I didn't know that that's cool? I think Jim actually
on social media and Bryson so yeah. So it's like
we don't do this alone and we actually support, like
(18:21):
when we ain't talking, just share content. Like if I
drop a project or single, they're buying it and telling
everybody else to buy it, and we do it. We
do it for them as well. So having a strong
community is very important, and that's how you're able to
overcome things. You know, when when when it comes to
those temptations when it comes to you possibly um giving
up your moles or or almost say give up or
(18:43):
at least suspended them for a time so you can
get some money. But like I said, you don't have to.
And if you feel like you do, hit toe for
hit somebody. We're trying to create a community where we
get so many other people out there. Man, but you
don't have to. But do it anyway, and even if
you go across that line and you get over there,
(19:03):
you can always come back. It's okay, We're gonna accept you.
We're gonna we're gonna rinch you off, We're gonna wash
you off, we get you back into the phone where
you're supposed to be, and it's gonna be a okay.
So I do have one last question for you, and
I do have to take our last commercial break, and
this one's actually about whether or not you guys will
be going on tour anytime soon, because I feel like
(19:25):
if I was sitting here as a conservative phil anthropist
and I saw the talent that you guys had. I mean,
you have some of these clown shows running around at Coachello,
you guys, if you were to do a conservative nationwide tour,
I think that you guys would be able to pack
out some arenas just based on your music. Um, we'll
be right back after this quick break. Okay, let's talk tours.
(19:47):
Do you see that as something that you might be
doing in the near future. Sure, I would love to
go on tour, but it's kind of tough, right because
a lot of stuff we want to make sure that
we still give people the freedom to wear a mask
and not wear a mask and don't have to wear
about so distancing. You know, they's still got the COVID
restrictions and a lot of different places and it's kind
of tough especially you know. It's funny, I look at
(20:08):
my statistics. I well, most of my listeners are coming
from it's like all blue cities, just like New York City,
Dallas or you know, l A. And I'm just like, man,
this is a while, you know it just maybe because
they're lumping everybody into one big city, right, but still,
just there are people listen to our stuff. You know,
they might not live in Freedom, but they want to
(20:29):
at least here and listen to it. So I would
love to go on tour and if anyone wants to
support us, please reach out to us. We will set
it up. We had a really successful show Freedom Festival
we had down in what was Orlando, Orlando, Florida August
seven this year. We had a really great one. It
was me Hores ms Is, the Marine Rapper, Jimmy Levy
(20:52):
and Burden and we brought the house down. People flew
all the right from California that people drive down for Ohio,
you know, all across the states just to come see
us all in person, which is incredible, you know. So
it's it's a demand for it. But we just got
to find out how to make it work. Well. I
I remember growing up when I was in so I
actually I'm from California originally, and I remember hearing some
(21:15):
of the back then we had Atmosphere that was one
of the bigger independent artists at the time, and so
a lot of my friends in high school and we
listen to Atmosphere. But I mean, you guys, it's something
that's definitely doable. And I feel like, if we are
going to really take back this country with people that
believe in the constitution or just the basic ideas of
you know what our country was founded upon, that we
(21:37):
have to be able to share this message with everyone, right,
And so you bring in this aspect of a lot
of people that are following. I think rap culture typically
don't tend to put politics into it. And then when
you think of what's happened previously, I mean, you had
the evolution of rap, you had Big, you had Tupac.
There is some serious movement and I think power in
(21:58):
your voice that I think a lot of people are
afraid of and I think that that's why you get suppressed,
and so I think that it would be really powerful
to bring that forward. Um, where can people go to
find you on social media? And if anyone ever wanted
to reach out and book you, like I know here,
we're actually gonna be bringing you out to Tampa Bay
here in a little bit to do an event with
black Set where you'll be performing on November one. But
(22:21):
where can people book you and where can they contact
you and follow what you're doing and Dowlandry music at
toford Town Music. That's t O p h R t
O w N m U s I see tofa Town
Music and if you want to send me an email
is tofor at toford town dot com and just reach out,
just let me know what you're trying to do. We'll
(22:41):
see if we can make it work and just go
from there. But make sure you just look up to
for on any musical platform, and you should pull up
my profile and make sure you download and purchase my
album No apologies, I think it's on any platform, but
if you also can get a physical sign copy from
my website if you go there perfect. Thank you so
much for joining us today on Luna Talks. We look
(23:03):
forward to following your journey your music career, which obviously
I think we are just getting started with everything. Especially,
I'm telling you guys, I'm looking behind him. He has
this amazing billboard frame number one. It's everything that you
could ever dream of. I hope to really see some
incredible things coming your way soon. But thank you so
much for joining us, and we look forward to having
you back. Thank you. If that interview doesn't give you chills,
(23:23):
I don't know what will. It's important that we as
conservatives increasingly especially invest our spending power in people and
companies that support our value system. It's interesting there's an
organization called Second Vote and it actually will track what
corporations give to leftist causes and where you can better
spend your dollars. And I feel like, especially in this argument,
(23:46):
when you're talking about, you know, getting your kids involved
or actually making politics cool, it does take people like
Toford to do that, to kind of transcend those party lines.
And it's important and it's important to support him as
an artist. So I'm going to do a plug since
he didn't, but I highly encourage you all to download
his song The Patriot. That is not a paid ad.
That is me saying that this guy is really talented
(24:07):
and I hope to actually have on some more people
that he actually was mentioning in that interview that he's
working with because as we continue to move into four,
it's going to be important the way that we campaign.
You know, I call it guerrilla campaigning, but it's kind
of thinking outside of the box of what your typical
campaigning would be. And that's because you know, you talk
(24:27):
about the platform of the Democrats and what they're really
bringing forward, and I can tell you, having been boots
on the ground in Georgia, that the Democrats were actually
busting people. They had this one bus movement, it was
called Souls to the Polls and they're actually bringing in
very very famous R and B and gospel singers to
actually get people activated after church to go to the
polls to vote, and they were pushing the leftist message.
(24:50):
And whether or not it's you know, to for talking
about his conservative values or these people talking about leftist values,
I think it's important to note that music does have
a factor in politics, and that if you can harness
that energy and do what he's doing and provide really
a platform and a mechanism to help encourage people like
him to perform and to stand up and to really
(25:11):
target that base, and that audience. I think that that's
really important, not just for our generation, but really to
help I think, raise up the next generation of conservatives.
So I hope you guys check them out. Thank you
so much for tuning into this episode, and we look
forward to having you back at our next Before we go,
I want to thank Tober again for such a great interview,
(25:33):
and I want to thank you guys so much for listening.
If you enjoyed today's show, please leave us a review
and rate us five stars on Apple Podcasts. To your
more of my episodes and get my weekly newsletter, go
to Gangridge six dot com, slash on a and you
can also find me on Twitter, Parlor, Facebook, and Instagram
at real Ana Paulina. And a special thank you to
producer Drew Steele, writer Aaron Kligman, and executive producers Debbie
(25:54):
Myers and Speaker New Gangridge part of the Gangridge sixty
Network
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Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.