Sexual Expression Sparks Debates

This week Tamika and Mysonne speak with Hakim Green from Channel Live and founder of 24HrsOfPeace. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
That's what's up. Family. It's your girl to me Ka
d Mallory.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
And it's your boy, my son and gentlemen.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we are your host of street politicians, the place
where the streets and politics me.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Finally, you don't sound like you're not saying it trying
to copy how well I say it.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
I've told you already to what it is, and I'm
doing that. If you want to keep reiterating the same thing,
then go on there.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Copy me.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Okay, that's that's what it is.

Speaker 4 (00:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
So I and you were on at different parts of
the last few weeks. You and others have been on
the road. We've all been on the road together. But
I was on the road for about three weeks. And
I don't know if I can sustain living in America,

(00:56):
Like I might have to move because the call lost
of survival. And by the way, I tried to do
one or two fun things too, like when everybody was
gone and it was just me by myself, you know,
I try to like do a little fun and I
was trying to just like literally by myself, focus on

(01:17):
a few fun things. And I don't understand how people
are surviving with these numbers they keep saying there's no inflation,
I mean no recession. They keep saying there's no recession.
I don't know why, and I don't hear it usually
when the Democrats lie, because they lie and they try

(01:40):
to cover up things. Of course, every political party is
going to try to suppress any negative information because they
don't want when especially when they're coming up on election time,
to have you know, certain dark clouds open. So every
administration does that. Every political part already is gonna speak

(02:01):
talk up their good side. So but I also don't
hear a counterbalance from the Republicans saying that there is
a recession. It seems like no one is saying there's
a recession. Maybe there, of course they are analysts than others.
But I a person who am not I'm not struggling.

(02:23):
Am telling you it is way.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
Too expensive.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
Flights, hotel, car services, just services in general. Three hundred
and fifty dollars for makeup, you know, four hundred dollars,
but there's two hundred dollars. It's a lot of money
to survive, and it's just it makes me feel very

(02:50):
I don't. I just know, and I know I keep
ask saying the same thing almost every show. But I'm
I feel like it's getting worse.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
I mean, I definitely agree with you. You know, of
course living is has skyrocketed, and being you know, being
in a position to actually be able to pay your
bills out worrying about that and then like you said,
trying to have a good time. You actually see how
fast when he goes and you it's just like thousand
dollars here, fifty five hundred dollars here, every this and that,

(03:20):
this and that, just trying just to maintain and the
average person, you know, has to be dealing with a lot,
you know, I know, case the point, we just see
all these robberies are starting to happen, you know, and
and I think that's like who who who was it
that that got robbed?

Speaker 1 (03:40):
We damns and indrests. He's an actor.

Speaker 3 (03:43):
And then of course, you know, our our auntie Tina,
Tina knows our house was also burglarized where an entire
safe was removed. And listen, that's very triggering to me because,
as you know, my son's father was murdered over a
safety and removed from a high house that he was
living in with some people in Pennsylvania. And the one

(04:04):
thing I know is that whenever somebody physically moves a
whole safe, they have information about where it is, how
long they're gonna have to get it out, because I'm
sure and by the way, we haven't even heard Tina
Knowles confirmed anything about this. So they're saying it's a

(04:24):
million dollars in the safe. You know, the media that
they make up anything all the time, So we don't
know how much money was really in it. But a
million dollars is a lot of money to move. And
so if they did move a million and jury in
a safe, the safe was not light, that means that
they knew they had time to physically move the safe.

(04:46):
And it's funny, Masan because my parents never told the
neighbors when they were going to be out of town.
But in the social media erar you, it's hard for
people not to know that you're on tour with your
daughter in Europe.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
Yeah, you know what I'm saying. It's hard for people
not to.

Speaker 3 (05:09):
Know that you're on a yacht with Magic Johnson and
Cookie Johnson and they, you know, they do their trip
every year.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
Samuel Jackson.

Speaker 3 (05:18):
It's a big trip that I you know, I always
sit and just fantasize on what it would be like
to spend time just sitting with them and listening to
the wisdom and the stories and the funnies. So this
is stuff that people are watching. So while you're out
of town, they know how long it's going to be
before you retire.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
Yeah, and people are hungry. You know that It goes
down to that the inflation that they say is not
happening in the recession, they say, we're not in you know,
people are really like we're talking about that. People are
really trying to figure out because there's a lifestyle and
I think what happens with social media, it also shows

(06:00):
shows people really living and enjoying life. Right, And if
you're just.

Speaker 1 (06:03):
Somebody, they look like they.

Speaker 2 (06:05):
Are, well, they look like they are, but you don't
really look like you. Are you on a boat, you
know in the Seven Seeds with with five or six
millionaires and billionaires, you don't really look like you have
you at a party surrounded by the top artists or
you know, And everybody got on and they got a
whole page on how much the watches cost. They had

(06:28):
fifty people that was in a certain party and they
were showing the watches that range anywhere from fifty to
a million dollars. They were just showing the watches that
each of them had on, So it don't really look
like you actually can you can pretty much concur that
these people are living their best life.

Speaker 3 (06:46):
And when you but you don't know what people got
going on, you just know you don't.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
But I'm just trying to say, it's hard for you
to believe that they not. You know, when you look
and you like, you know, I know where I would
be enjoying myself with that. But you got about fifty
dollars dollars in your pocket, the bills is coming, the
kids is hungry, you know, the gas, you got your
check engine light on. You know, Oh, you're young and
just impressionable. So it's a lot. It's a lot of

(07:12):
pressures that I realized that this generation deals with that
we didn't have to do. We just had to deal
with seeing the people from our block have a couple
of things that we didn't have. But when you go
to the social media and it looks like everybody in
the world is doing better than you, you know, it's
it's a lot. It's a lot of stress. So with
I say all the time, poverty is violence, man. And

(07:34):
I'm I'm I'm thankful that there was nobody in those homes.
You know that the only thing it was with some
property that they probably have and so on. Yeah, they
probably can ensure and get back whatever it is that
they lost, but you know, we just had some real
tough times.

Speaker 1 (07:52):
No it is, I mean, and and the robber, the burglaries.

Speaker 3 (07:57):
Everybody has to be aware because it's like, you know,
in my house, it's a total different situation because there
are people here all the time, twenty four hours a day,
round the clock. It's somebody in the house, people watching
my house. You know, we have it set up that way.
But and I'm not saying that there's not in Tina

(08:17):
Knowles's house either. Obviously she didn't have the same you know, resource.
I mean, I don't have the same resources that she has.
But I actually live with other people, you know what
I'm saying, So it's different. It's a total different situation.
I live with other people, so it's people always around. Nonetheless,

(08:38):
when I say we're going to Kentucky to fight Daniel Cameron,
or we're going to the exact spot where aj Owens
was murdered, when I say those things, people know that
you're not around, you're not at home, or at least
they think that you're not at home.

Speaker 1 (08:58):
And just like you said, I'm.

Speaker 3 (09:00):
Glad that no one was in those homes that was harmed.
The other side of it is, I'm glad you didn't
walk into somebody's house trying to steal their stuff and
they were home and put a bullet all the way
through your behind. So this is a time that people
are living real dangerous because folks is not gonna let

(09:20):
you just take their stuff because you going through whatever
you go through, they're not going to allow it to
have it.

Speaker 1 (09:26):
So you're gonna see more people.

Speaker 3 (09:28):
Did you ever see I don't know if I ever
told you, or maybe I did send it to you
when the Uber Eats or one of those delivery services
when he tried to twist the doorknob of a woman
and the woman pulled a gun on him and held
him at at a gunpoint until the police arrived. Like,

(09:49):
you're gonna mess around and go up in something and
find out that people are not playing about their stuff.
And you know what I think is so funny. If
it it's true that there was a million dollars in
Teena Ole's house, right, if it's true. Now, these are
people who had massive resources, massive resources, and yet and

(10:10):
still she still has some cash in. Now, black coats
gonna put some cash in the house in case anything
shall have it happened to have That's oh.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
That's old school, Manma. We was taught that. Man, the
banks might close, don't put all your faith in you know,
technology and all like, have you some money and just
in case anything go bad. So you know, yeah, Mama Tina,
don't play she from the old.

Speaker 1 (10:39):
School at your little cash in the house.

Speaker 3 (10:41):
But again, we don't know that that story is exactly
as it's being told. So on speaking of money, the
family of Tyree Nichols is suing the city of Memphis
for five hundred million dollars and the audacity and I
get it. Lawyer's gone lawyer right, any system it is

(11:02):
going to try to protect itself. But they're trying to
get the city of Memphis is trying to get the
lawsuit drop so that they don't have to pay this
family to five hundred million dollars. I don't I mean,
I don't know what they're talking about. We saw it,
like everybody saw why it's five hundred million is not
even enough for the trauma of the whole community. They

(11:25):
ought to be paying everybody, all of us that had
to watch Tyree Nichols being beat to death by those officers.
So the audacity of them to even try to they
should be saying, let's just settle it quietly. I do understand. Again,
lawyers are gonna lawyer, but you know, even even I
don't know, you know, it's just like, okay, yeah, I think.

Speaker 2 (11:48):
I think that's a no brainer. I think y'all figure
out how you can set or if they were five hundred,
give them for ninety nine, man, because I ain't got
a snowballed chance in hell what they did to that man.
The greediousness, the fact that you know that it even
happens is you can't you can't. First of all, you
can't put a price tag on life, you know. And

(12:12):
the fact that his mother, his parents, and his family
have to be reminded of the way he was brutally
and just beat and you know, it seemed like it
was so malicious, you know, And the fact that just
that that vision, yeah, exactly, and just that vision being

(12:33):
able to go all over your head. I don't think
you can put no price. I think, actually you asked me,
they should be asking for a billion dollars, you know.
But I just think that all of our tax player,
we send money to people that ain't done ship for us,
that don't deserve it. We give millions and billions of
dollars to other countries and shit, and we always say
we don't have money. Well, this was to me, this

(12:56):
would be our tax money going to the right thing,
you know. And then and hopefully we start ending this
qualified immunity so these officers can have to pay up
their own pocket, you know, and be dead broke, you know,
we you know, unfortunately the man lost his life and
he's dead, but we want you to be dead broke while.

Speaker 1 (13:16):
You live, right because the thing is the way that
you know.

Speaker 3 (13:21):
Legislatively, we still are fighting to change the laws, and
there is a fight against us to get that done.
But economically, you can certainly make sure, as Attorney Crump
always says, that we make killing a black man or
woman unjustifiably so expensive that the country can't even continue
to pay the fees too, you know, for for this

(13:46):
immunity of murder. God, you know, it's just we need
it to be so so expensive that they say we
got to do something different because we keep on we
can't keep on paying out this type of money. And
yes it is taxpayer dollars, there's also some insurance policies
and other things that play into us. So it's not
all taxpayer dollars. There's some other pieces that play into

(14:10):
how the departments have to pay as well, and the
City of Memphis all of them. And like you said,
the police officers ought to be paying themselves. They should
never ever, ever, ever ever be comfortable anywhere in their lives.
They shouldn't have no money. They should be shamed, they
should be they should have to move for people doing

(14:31):
protests outside of their homes. They should just be as
uncomfortable as possible. That's what I think about that. So Essence,
we just came out of Essence weekend and you know,
over a million black women, specifically more people but black
women getting together in New Orleans in that city. And

(14:55):
you know something that I was thinking to myself, that
is really the one place that when I look around,
I do not see white people.

Speaker 1 (15:03):
They don't be there. I don't see him.

Speaker 3 (15:05):
I mean, I know they are Orleans. But in terms
of like, you know, how white folks always find like
at the rallies and different things, you see white people,
you see we you know we we just finished at
the rally for a j Owens and there was white
there was white people there.

Speaker 1 (15:25):
White people always aren't But for whatever reason, during essence, people.

Speaker 2 (15:33):
Ain't no white people there.

Speaker 1 (15:34):
People go during that.

Speaker 2 (15:38):
I don't know, it's it's not they think. I think
I think, you know.

Speaker 1 (15:42):
I mean, I'm not saying they should be there. I'm
just saying.

Speaker 2 (15:44):
It's like you might see one or two. I don't
even know if you see one or two, actually I
don't know. But you know, there's a couple, it's a couple.
There's a couple of people that come to the cookout
that you know, you might see here and there. But
for the most part, like you said, it's really not
many Caucasians there.

Speaker 3 (16:02):
But while Jill Scott was singing the star Spangled Banner,
the or the at the black star Spangled Banner, which
I thought was powerful by the way, I was looking
around because that's heavy, and I was looking around to
see the discomfort.

Speaker 1 (16:20):
Of you know, white folks, and it occurred to me
that there were.

Speaker 2 (16:26):
There ain't nothing to be discomfort.

Speaker 1 (16:28):
Hm hm, well that's interesting.

Speaker 2 (16:30):
But what bothers me? Okay, forget that work? This is
no no you no, no, it's not don't work for me.
This notion that when we critique America and when we
say things and we bring up history, historical events that
we know when she talked about all the things that

(16:53):
she said in that Star Spangled banner, when she she
reritted rewrote it so.

Speaker 1 (16:58):
That if nineteen years old, yes.

Speaker 2 (17:02):
So that it fits the narrative of what we actually
deal with and have dealt with in America, that there
were so many people with this. Well, if you don't
like it here, whyon't you just go? And that shit
bothers me more than anything. You know, the fact that
we actually live here and we and like she said,
this fucking country is built on our backs. We have

(17:24):
every right to critique, We have every right to point
our historical events that have been not so favorable that
we've had to endure, that our ancestors have had to endure.
And nobody gets to keep telling us that we don't
we shouldn't be here if we're not okay with the
fact that our people were enslaved. It's like the dumbest
shit ever, you know, And I hate that. I hate that,

(17:47):
you know, somebody who's on my page. It's this one
person on my page that said that shit, and I
think it's over a thousand people that's underneath him calling
him that every dumb mother effort that they can, as
we think of. And it's just sad that there are
people who think that we're supposed to be silent about
a pinion, a historical one of the most egregious, the

(18:13):
most egregious event in history in American history, that we
should be silent, especially after we see the remnants and
the remembrance of what has happened to our people. You know,
when we look and see the conditions that our people
are faced today, they are direct, you know, results of
what we talk about. So all of y'all with the

(18:36):
if we don't like it, leave, if you can't see it,
then my middle fingers up.

Speaker 3 (18:44):
Well, there's a lot of people that if you don't
like it, leave, because that was a big part of
the whole essence debate. You know, several nights of a
concert and of course Janelle Monnee I was there for
her performance while waiting for Lauren Hill to come out.
And then I think the next night, or maybe the

(19:05):
last night, which I wasn't there for Meg, the Stallion
performed and there was some we don't like it, so
either we're leaving or we really what they What I
heard people saying was they wanted Meg and Janelle Monet
to either tongue down in or don't be in the show.
And you know, I thought to myself, first of all,

(19:30):
Joanel Monne and Meg in her own way, they are
a special cup of tea that you have to want, right,
like you It's not regular lifting, right, this is whatever
whatever thing. It's got spice and all that in it.
But sure I'm not gonna take that. I understand. I

(19:53):
also understand that we live in a highly sexually charged
time so right.

Speaker 1 (19:59):
Now sex sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex sex.

Speaker 3 (20:04):
I get it. Totally understand that there are people who feel,
like you know, every time they turn on their cell phone,
every time they, you know, anything they do, they're seeing
this sex being pushed in their faces, and therefore their
children are impacted by it.

Speaker 1 (20:24):
I do not disagree or not understand it.

Speaker 3 (20:28):
I don't, But what I would say to offer a
balanced approach, right, And I guess it's very much so
the thought of the day for me. The first night
of the concert, Lauryn Hill had on about full outfits.

(20:50):
In one thing, she had on some big feathers thing
covering up everything she had. Her full body was covered.
She didn't work, not one time, right, So Larren Hill
came on, I mean Janelle came on before she pulled
out the nipple. I don't really understand. I was there,
but I don't think I was paying attention close enough

(21:11):
to understand the context of what happened in that moment,
which nipple was covered by the way, but still she
pulled her breast out. So that was one thing. Then
you had Lauryn Hill right Then after Lauren, the next
night you had Missy Elliott, who we know is fully
dressed with the shimmerie and even the baggy clothes, and

(21:32):
she's Missy doing what Missy does right.

Speaker 1 (21:34):
A little bit of sexy, but she's not overly sexy.

Speaker 3 (21:39):
The last night you had Meg the Stallion and some twerkers.
My thing is everything you wanted was there? There's people women?
When you got a million women, a million women going
to a show, participating in a conference. It is true

(21:59):
that they are going to be different types of women
who are interested in different things.

Speaker 1 (22:05):
And I think from my.

Speaker 3 (22:07):
Perspective, right one, you don't have to participate in the
parts you don't want to see what I do. Every year,
I get the Essence schedule. I don't like to go
out every night. That's not my thing. So I look
at the schedule and I see who I am interested in.

Speaker 1 (22:23):
Lauren was somebody.

Speaker 3 (22:25):
I was there, my homegirl and I and we sat
for hours on end while Essence.

Speaker 1 (22:31):
For whatever reason the schedule I don't know, but it
was late before Lauren came out, and it was not
her fault because she came right out once.

Speaker 3 (22:38):
You know her people was doing their set while Kenny
Burns and DJ Clark Kent was doing their thing. The
set was being built, and as soon as the set
was finished, Lauren was on the stage. So we're not
gonna do the lauryn Hi'll be late thing. I know
she does this sometimes, but she wasn't this time. But
it was super late by the time she came out.
That's who I wanted to see. There were other things
on the schedule that I was an interested in, so

(23:01):
Therefore I didn't show up early or I left early.
I tailored my experience to my taste. So if I
don't want to see mag thee Stallion and the Magnes
do that work thing she does, which, by the way,
I like it, I'm not gonna lie like I'm I
guess I'm of a generation or whatever the case may be.

(23:23):
I'm not against Meg and her turk and I'm just not.
But I understand there's people who don't like it, so
then you don't have to see it. And then you
were saying something the other day. I heard you saying that.

Speaker 2 (23:34):
Well, yeah, what I want to say. Huh No, I wasn't.
I wanted to reiterate this, but if you want to
repeat that, you can.

Speaker 3 (23:42):
So you were saying that Essence has been a certain thing,
so people are looking for a certain quality.

Speaker 2 (23:48):
But I think I'm not saying quality because I'm not
trying to make it seem like what Meg does is
of less quality. It's just a different genre, it's a
different feel, it's a different dynamic. And I think since
I've been going to Essence, there's always been this this

(24:11):
theme of dynamic. Right, it's hip hop excellence, it's more
geared towards not more of the conservative kind of understanding.
I think most artists who come and perform at Essence
have pretty much classic hits pretty much. They have either
classic hits or new classic hits, and they perform them

(24:35):
as if they perform it for a certain crowd, right.
And I think even even some of our most explicit
and people who push radical artists, who push the envelope sexually,
when they come to Essence, they perform it in a

(24:56):
different in a different way. And I think, I mean
because I don't think I don't think that I've seen
anyone who performed at Essence with the level of sexuality
that Janelle did or that Meg did. Yet maybe they

(25:17):
have been Maybe maybe we can go to former you know,
performances and say, oh, such and such did this and
such and such was way more explicit than that. I
don't think that's a dynamic that has really been introduced.
And I think, you know, to your point, like you said,
that they're trying to attack, attract a younger audience and

(25:37):
and keep you know, moving and moving to a different space.
And it actually maybe evolved, but it's a lot of
people that just like their stuff the way they had
it right. There's a lot of people that go to
Essence every year and they're used to a thing. They
used to hearing their favorite artists you know that they've
been in love with for the last ten, fifteen, twenty years,
sing their classics, do their songs jump up and down.

(26:00):
It's not you know, and it's a lot more families,
family orientated show. It's not a lot of it's not
a lot of you know, that kind of material that's
been there. So people are there. You got in the
Essence crowd. You got people from twenty to eighty. There's
eighty year older women that's sitting in there. And because

(26:22):
they wanted. They fans of Lauren Hill. They fans are Missy,
they've been you know, they like certain songs that they've
come there every year, and there's certain artists that they
they you know, this is their time. They go to there,
they see their friends, you know, they get their same
seats every year, and this is their thing. So when
they see something that's completely new and is on the

(26:46):
side of sexual that's not more family orientated, some of
the all gonna be irritated. Their kids are gonna be like, oh,
that's my girl. Megan, but some of the elder people
who've been going to Essence for twenty and thirty years,
they're not gonna it's gonna be okay with it.

Speaker 1 (27:00):
Well, but let me just say this right.

Speaker 3 (27:02):
Well, first of all, India I read had and hopefully
when our guest joined, we'll get an opportunity to talk
about this some more, because I made a comment on
his page when he was saying thank you to India,
and I think India.

Speaker 1 (27:15):
Iria is a goddess.

Speaker 3 (27:17):
Anything she say, I love Indi Iri is like for.

Speaker 1 (27:20):
Me, she is, She's she.

Speaker 3 (27:23):
I want to see her on my TV and listen
to her all the time. I love nd I re
anybody who knows you know I love India, my posician know.
What she said is that you know why we're trying
to we're making this culture mainstream and I don't like
this moment. And my response to those two things at
once is that the reason why you didn't necessarily see

(27:47):
and I can't.

Speaker 1 (27:48):
I don't know. I can't remember every show, right, so
I can't say for sure what's in every show. I
think I generally agree with you that because we know
that working or the work culture, which by the way
I know for it, And I asked my mama to
be clear because somebody else said, no, it's getting worse.

(28:08):
I asked my mama.

Speaker 3 (28:09):
When Tina Turner started came you know out and started
shaking with the shimmery with her butt and doing them,
I thought that was too much. They thought it was
too much. They said it was too By the way, Beyonce,
Beyonce has been told even by some of our own
leaders to put some.

Speaker 1 (28:29):
More clothes on and that she's too sexy and too explicit. Right, but.

Speaker 3 (28:36):
Let me let me just finishing what I'm saying. So
these so the thing is Essence has a responsibility to stay.

Speaker 1 (28:45):
Relevant to the whole culture.

Speaker 2 (28:47):
It's not about I don't know if that's I don't
know if that's I don't know if that's what people
are saying. I don't know if because it's like it's
just like Iri, no, no, no, Because Indy Iri has
a brand that she with India, Irin says is what
she's always She came into the game with that same
mentality that's the Brandon. So what she's saying is not

(29:08):
far fetched for India to say, like this is what
India is to say. So with people. Anybody that critiques
what she says, that's how that's who she's always been.
She's always been. I don't know why women are taken
the clothes on, and I'm not going to do that.

Speaker 1 (29:21):
And I'm not critiquing that. I'm not critiquing that. I'm
saying that she was trying to push back.

Speaker 3 (29:27):
Against Essence, and Essence released a statement which they did
not call her name, but they said, we have a
wide array of folks that we are trying to bring
the entertainment that they like to that right now, granted,
say whatever you want. I looked at the footage. I

(29:47):
wasn't there for Meg, but I looked at the footage
and I saw some older people who you were talking
about getting down because they like a few of Meg's songs.

Speaker 1 (29:57):
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (29:58):
So I'm saying that you're never are going to please everybody.
And I do understand that there's a thin line because
the issue is so much bigger than just Meg and
Janelle Twerking, Right, It's bigger than that, I get it.
The broader conversation here is what is happening to our

(30:19):
society and our women and our men and whatever because
of so many different issues that we're seeing.

Speaker 1 (30:25):
We see in the Christian.

Speaker 3 (30:26):
Rocks and the or and I guess that's when you
tell me it's Christian, excuse me her and the sexy.

Speaker 1 (30:38):
It's a lie.

Speaker 3 (30:39):
But I truly do believe my opinion. I don't think
these people are gonna last long. And I'm not talking
about Meg and Carty and folks like that. I'm talking
about these other young ladies. I don't think it's going
I don't think they're gonna have to evolve, even in
their brands, because eventually you can only be but so
many booty holes before people like, all right, we got it.

Speaker 2 (31:02):
Well, I hear what you're saying, but I just wanted
to go back to a point because I guess it's
in the r when we need to bring them on
in a second. But when you talk about Tina Turner, right,
and then you talk about Beyonce and you talk and
you talk about how people were saying that was too much, right,
you see that there's less and less clothes every time,

(31:26):
right you So you so what I'm saying is you
you'll definitely see it. It's not it's not the same.
So it's not when we're saying something this definitely it's
going to a point where Tina Tina had she shook
a butt at the camera and she had a little
shimmery thing. Now this person gonna shake her button and
she's gonna have half it. She's gonna have Leo tard on.

(31:47):
This person gonna have a throng on. This one's gonna
be naked. Like the the there is growth. So everybody
is not going to agree with it. And that's what
I'm trying to say. I'm saying that there has to
be and it can be. It doesn't. Everything doesn't have
to fit into one thing. Like I'm not going nobody's

(32:07):
gonna make me think that the church is going involved
to the preacher up there or the the whoever is
the priest. If there's a female she's up there talking,
because this is the church. You want, I don't. I don't,
I don't. So that's what I'm trying to say. We
can't say that we want to appeal to it because
there are people that's in the church that that love
Magda Staff, but they're not.

Speaker 1 (32:27):
Gonna go to church to say church. You know.

Speaker 2 (32:30):
What I'm trying to say is nobody was the Essence
Fast has a certain brand and people go there because
that brand represents a thing and if if, if that
brand stops a lot of and that's what a lot
of artists do is it's called a lot of artists
and an attempt to reach a new demographic and get

(32:50):
a new fan base, they do something different and you
go away from what your brand is established, that has
you did for thirty and forty years, and what you
start doing, you start you're not actually gaining because that
demographic that you're going after is not really your fan base.

Speaker 1 (33:07):
But but but but because.

Speaker 2 (33:10):
We go because the thing is this you like, But
you you've been going to Essence for something else because
that's when you go there. That's not using.

Speaker 3 (33:19):
But I'm not gonna not go to Essence. By the way,
I don't think I want to see some of these
other type of artists out there.

Speaker 1 (33:28):
But I don't see meg as being.

Speaker 2 (33:30):
I'm not saying, I'm not saying artist.

Speaker 3 (33:34):
That's not gonna stop me. That's not gonna stop me
from going to the concert. And the majority of women
will continue to go, but they do have everybody does
have to have an element of the different, you know,
little tastes.

Speaker 1 (33:50):
If you do a festival, you're gonna put a taste.

Speaker 5 (33:53):
The bottom line is, there's no there's another There's nothing.

Speaker 2 (33:57):
Wrong with having a brain saying what I'm saying with
your brain.

Speaker 3 (34:01):
But it's not about Sticky because the brand had evolved.
I'm sure there were things that they did before that
they started doing something else and people were like, I
don't like this, why is this happening? It always going
to be people that are not gonna like different elements,
But the overwhelming majority, from Lauren to Missy to Jill
Scott to this one and that one was on on key,

(34:25):
they had one or two things that was a little different.

Speaker 2 (34:30):
It's not I'm but with those artists. We all but
there's nothing wrong with those artists because reality situation is,
I don't think people go to the essence to see
to see the visuals of those things.

Speaker 3 (34:44):
They might all they was in the owls dancing, okay,
loving it up.

Speaker 1 (34:51):
So maybe we should bring our guests.

Speaker 2 (34:58):
As always, I would show it was full of our friends,
and this guest is no different. He's one of a
brother I respect musically, you know, I love what he
does for his community, with the community at large, he's
an educator, he's dope lyricists, and he's one of my guys.
This brother here, Haqeen Green from Channel Live, the founder

(35:21):
of twenty four Hours of Peace, and a New Jersey native.
He is here to join us today. How you doing today, brother.

Speaker 5 (35:28):
I'm great, I'm excellent. Thank you for having me on
the show. It is completely my honor. Thank you, Sef
ma'am peace, Queen.

Speaker 1 (35:35):
What's up man? You know how much we love you Haqeen.

Speaker 3 (35:39):
You know we always speak very highly of you because
you're just that type of dude. And everywhere I've not
ever heard anyone say something bad about Hakeen Green.

Speaker 4 (35:50):
I just had is somebody out there with some darts
for me.

Speaker 1 (35:53):
They don't say it.

Speaker 3 (35:54):
To me, and trust me, people got something to tell
me about everybody, but they say anything bad about you,
And I think that is a true testament, you know,
to to to who.

Speaker 1 (36:04):
You are and what you've done.

Speaker 3 (36:05):
My dad is that type of guy that everywhere he
goes people say positive things about him, and that's just
a that's a good thing when you can actually walk
in and out of rooms and have people you know,
carry your name and uphold your legacy in a positive way.

Speaker 4 (36:23):
Well, I think my mother she gets all the credit.

Speaker 2 (36:28):
Yes, as she should. Man, Yes, sir, so Hakem. I
know you do a bunch of work. You know, you're
a part of the legendary Channel Live and in that concert.
I'm gonna even a couple of tickets. I can. I
got to call me a favor.

Speaker 4 (36:43):
Man.

Speaker 2 (36:44):
You know that a Yankee stadium.

Speaker 4 (36:46):
Oh no, no, no, I'm not gonna be a Yankee stadium.

Speaker 2 (36:48):
You're not coming to Yankee Stadium.

Speaker 5 (36:50):
Man, I can't afford Yankee Stadium. It's crazy. Dave Jackie
robs Up, he got your arm behind that. They look,
you should be at the Yankee Stadium. Man, I'm gonna
I'm gonna try. I'm gonna try. But we're working hard
to pull off. August twelfth, the very next day KRS
one Temple of hip Hop, twenty four hours a piece.
We're doing a hip hop celebration on the block in

(37:12):
front of fifteen to twenty Central Avenue on the twelfth
the next day.

Speaker 2 (37:17):
Oh so you're gonna be in the hood. That's my hood.
You know, I'm from University and all that, So that's
right down the block I was born.

Speaker 5 (37:25):
That's what that's what hip hop is about, being in
the hood and touching down with the people.

Speaker 4 (37:29):
You see how we're doing Nork every year.

Speaker 5 (37:31):
So it's the fiftieth anniversary of hip hop and the
community that gave us hip hop, we need to give
something back, so you know, we're doing our effort for free.
Even though the Yankee Stadium event is looking quite legendary,
it's it's crazy.

Speaker 4 (37:46):
It's crazy, but for the people.

Speaker 5 (37:48):
We over on Central Gavenue fifteen twenty Central g Cavenue
on August twelfth.

Speaker 2 (37:53):
See it's over there August twelfth.

Speaker 4 (37:56):
I saw you with Chris at the jah Roof show.

Speaker 5 (38:00):
A few weeks back, and I know you guys chopped
it up, so I'm hoping we got my side on
the bill.

Speaker 2 (38:05):
Well, listen, man, from your mouth to gods is man,
listen you. I would love to be there. That's the hood,
you know, I'm wanting. I started rapping because of Chris,
So it's that you know you if you're from the
Bronx and Chris didn influenced you as a lyricist, you know,
then then I don't even know what you was doing.
So I'm definitely would love to be there.

Speaker 5 (38:26):
Right So vitalizing the flyer right now talking about promotion.
So we're gonna add my SiGe name on there.

Speaker 2 (38:32):
If you don't mind thease, do do business right right time,
right in time. So tell tell people about twenty four
hours a piece, how it started? You know, what is
the goal and every where it is? Everything?

Speaker 4 (38:51):
Yeah, like you out like you.

Speaker 5 (38:52):
I was highly influenced by KRS one. Of course I
work with him with Chanel Lives Matters and Record. But
in two thousand and six we reconnected and we initiated
to Stop the Violence Movement as a nonprofit. So in
doing that work and kind of coal us and using
hip hop to coal us around peace, love, unity, safety,
having fun, it kind of allowed me to carry this

(39:15):
over to Jersey where I hooked up with ros Baraco
who was then Southwork Councilman's principal Central High School, and
following him and the North Anti Violence Coalition, it was like, Okay,
how can we use hip hop culture to peace to
push peace, love, unity, safety, having fun.

Speaker 4 (39:33):
I got with a Mary Baraka Junior.

Speaker 5 (39:35):
He was like, Yo, we need to put the hip
hop out on the block for twenty four hours hot,
all day, all night. I'm like twenty four hours. Why
don't we just do something like forty six hours in
and out, you know, easy setup. No, we got to
make a statement and do this for twenty four hours,
and that's how twenty four Hours of Peace was launched.

Speaker 4 (39:51):
Peace, Love, Unity, safety, having fun.

Speaker 5 (39:53):
There's a lot of people in our community who are
already doing the work. I mentioned the North Anti Violence
Coalition and like yourself, you guys are doing the real work.

Speaker 3 (40:02):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (40:03):
The commercial is the commercial right, and as artists and
creatives we have the ability and the power to shape
the messaging in a certain way. So that's what I'm
doing with you know, my effort to support the work,
the real work that you guys do.

Speaker 4 (40:17):
The folks that are in Newark, New Jersey.

Speaker 5 (40:19):
Big shout out to the Office of Violence Prevention and
Trauma Recovery and the Brick City Peace Collective. You guys
are your research, but we're talking about that real work,
tending to people who have suffered violence, traumatic experiences, getting
that extra support, organizing city government around that effort. That's
what it's about. And we can use hip hop to

(40:40):
engage folks in that way.

Speaker 2 (40:42):
Definitely, Definitely, you've been and you've been. You know, a
stead work, a start work in that area for years.
You know, I remember when you brought me up to
twenty five hours a piece, and you know, I was amazed,
like dag, it's just this level of energy. I think
Queen Latifa was. There was so many people there, you know,
and it was a dope event. So when is the

(41:02):
next twenty four When is twenty five hours a piece?

Speaker 4 (41:04):
This year?

Speaker 5 (41:05):
The next one is September first and second, of course
in North New Jersey, and we try to schedule it
towards the end of the summer, heading back to school,
just to start the school year off on a positive note.
And we've been able to do that fight well since
twenty ten. Every year since twenty ten except for the
pandemic year.

Speaker 3 (41:23):
Now have you seen like in terms of the data.
I never forget the New York City. One of the
biggest fights I had with Mayor Bloomberg was around getting
money for the anti violence work. You know, of course
Erica Ford and At Mitchell and so many people in
the City of New York. We were fighting for resources

(41:46):
and Mayor Bloomberg said that there was no data to
prove that funding small grassroows groups would actually help to
reduce violence. He thought it should be all about the
political side, and you know, of course passing legislation to
get guns off the street and all of that, and

(42:07):
we said, no, that's part two.

Speaker 1 (42:09):
Part one is invest in our communities. So from the
twenty four hours.

Speaker 3 (42:13):
Of component and thinking of you know, his well, let
me go backwards and say, but when he talked about data,
we understood then that that was the that was necessary
going forward. So we would never be caught out there
again without data points. So no one could deny resources

(42:34):
based upon that. So what do you have, you know,
what do you think in terms of what twenty four
hours a piece the impact.

Speaker 1 (42:39):
That it has on the community.

Speaker 5 (42:40):
Okay, so let me let's you say, twenty four hours
a piece is one day in a year, right, and
you know it's organizing the cultural the cultural community, the
artist community, plugging into the nonprofits that already exists, and
of course with the city comes behind it, with the support.

Speaker 4 (42:57):
It's a part of a larger effort. Spirit had it
by the mayor.

Speaker 5 (43:01):
Before he was the mayor, he launched the Initiative to
Declare Violence of Public Health Issue, which was about local, state,
federal government investing in community. The number one resource is
human resource, so we don't invest in human beings. Everything
else is gottage, right, So raz understanding that has a

(43:21):
series of initiatives. Office of Bole of Prevention, Drama Recovery,
Brick City Peace Collective are just two of the flowers
on that tree. It's an overarching and I don't want
to speak like an expert as if I know all
the bits and pieces that said Nork is experiencing the
lowest violence and crime rates since before the Nork riots
in sixty seven. Last year, a New York police department

(43:46):
didn't fire their gun one time, not shoot somebody. They
didn't fire their weapon one time. And I think that
the city has throughout the entire year. In North last year,
nor police department didn't fire their weapon one time.

Speaker 1 (44:05):
And he defunded the police.

Speaker 2 (44:07):
That's the culture.

Speaker 4 (44:08):
Yeah, I don't. I don't, you know, said, I don't
work for the mayor, I don't work for the city.

Speaker 2 (44:12):
I don't think.

Speaker 5 (44:15):
I know over there that you know, people get a
little itchy about the defund word, but it is what
it is.

Speaker 4 (44:20):
He took money from the police department and put it
into these programs.

Speaker 3 (44:24):
Yes, and I say he abolished the police obviously, and
that's not what defund means.

Speaker 1 (44:30):
Like people try to twist it on purpose because they
want to confuse folks.

Speaker 3 (44:34):
Defunding needs take some money, as you said, and shift
it to other places, and you are able to prove
that when you invest in the human resources is the
best resource. When you invest in community and not so
much impunitive damage method methods that you'll see more success
in terms of safety and so on and so forth.

(44:56):
And by the way, I mean I know these things
because obviously we talked to Mayor Baracco all the time.
It is also dangerous to have police officers having to
fill the role of being the mental health therapists. You
were gonna say, go ahead, well no, it's.

Speaker 5 (45:14):
You know they they're called peace officers, right, and you
know that first line of defense should be offense should
be the work of peace officers who are trained professionals,
social workers, psychologists, educators who know how to you know,
talk to talk when it comes to de escalating people
having mental health crisis, walk them, get them over to

(45:35):
the other side.

Speaker 4 (45:36):
They're needed.

Speaker 5 (45:36):
You know, people are crying out for help or having
meltdowns at a lot of a lot of times and
they need professionals, not just somebody to short up with
a gun. And you know what raz Mayor Barack has
been doing in North New Jersey, not just with getting
behind twenty four hours of piece, but everything he's doing
is transforming the city in a positive way.

Speaker 2 (45:55):
You're definitely shout out to rest Rock. We've been doing
We've been doing work with Boycott Black Murder in Newark.
You know, shout out to Keisha Yuri, Shout out to
Kylisha Hill, the people who work those those programs that
you're talking about, and a lot of other organizations like

(46:16):
New Direction, who I work with, you know, one of
the the ny Brothers who work out there. It's a lot,
it's it's a real collective.

Speaker 1 (46:24):
You know.

Speaker 2 (46:25):
I've been working with these individuals and they're very intentional
and it's serious about the community. So the work that's
happening there, you know, it's a blueprint. It's a blueprint
for the rest of the cities and the rest of
the states. You know that if you actually invest the
money in people in the community, that you'll see change.

Speaker 3 (46:44):
So make sure we uh spread love to our brother
Bashir Anelli. You know, he's another brother that before and
before everybody got to Newark to start doing anti violence work,
he was on the ground. This brother has been assist
that he is like the father, if you will, of

(47:05):
anti violence, organize it in my eyes. Now, I know
there were people before him, but I'm saying I'm forty
three years old and I've been knowing.

Speaker 5 (47:15):
I know Bashir since i was eight years old exactly,
So I like, in terms of our walk, like we
walk together, it's a crew of us that you know,
I graduated high school nineteen eighty seven, So it's like,
you know, a lot of the folks that I work
with in North now, folks that I've known from the
sandbox literally, you know. And what's happening in North is

(47:37):
about you know, people on the inside who have been
doing the work for years and Mayor Baraka empowering him
to come inside city Hall to continue that work. And
you know, Vasher is just one of those folks. You know, again,
one of the North Anti Violence Coalition, and if the
peace was inspired by watching the work of the North
Anti Violence Coalition, Rest in peace. Natasha Allen one of

(48:01):
the powerful sisters in the North community who you know,
one of the executive members of the North Kentry Polace
coalition passed away last year and alexis trustee. Just you
know again, I've been knowing these folks since the sandbox,
grew up with them and to see them, you know,
transform their community like you got to pitch in, you
gotta help. So for all the artists out there, that's

(48:23):
our responsibility is to help the real work going.

Speaker 3 (48:26):
On now you're still making music. Also, because you know,
my son is always very clear because people are like
my son is an active he's that I'm an artist
and an activist. So he is a ractivist, that is no,
his his title is raptivist. He say sure that people know,
don't try to act like I'm not still outside and

(48:47):
I don't still.

Speaker 4 (48:48):
Have got these bars. I met the God.

Speaker 5 (48:53):
First time I met you was at Tramps at the
kras One Redman show.

Speaker 4 (48:59):
This was probably.

Speaker 5 (49:01):
Six or seven or twenty first Street, and like you
were like the talk of the town, like every my
sign my side, like you were next right, so you know,
to know what happened and the trand you know what
and you come out on the other side and you're
doing this and like you're over where I'm at, Like

(49:24):
you was over there you come through the belly of
the beasts and you hear and it's like your confirmation
for what I've been working towards for, like you know,
since I got put on by Chuck Chris Exclaim so
forth and someone that ability to speak the language of
the people to elevate them. So it's like, man, you know,

(49:48):
you influenced me as much as I'm the og and
I'm before it. Man, you influenced me in ways we
have no idea and we have a song together called Don't.

Speaker 2 (49:57):
Truck Don't Trump right, we definitely do so.

Speaker 5 (50:06):
Yes Aubrey album produced entirely by Rob Lawrence, Hitman Legend.

Speaker 4 (50:11):
I got Carl Thomas, carris.

Speaker 5 (50:13):
One, Selo Green Freeway step on the project and g
Simone Big Shot the g Simone. Krras One's wife, she's
on the project. And we got some bangers on there.

Speaker 4 (50:24):
Check it out.

Speaker 5 (50:24):
Rob Lawrence is no joke on the on the tracks
and like my side test, I got them bars.

Speaker 3 (50:34):
Well, speaking of bars, you and I had I dropped
what I thought was some bars on your game the
other day and we were just talking about, you know,
this this moment that we're in where which we all
agree the three of us won't argue that this is

(50:54):
a super super sexualized time right where it's a lot
of sex out here, everybody's selling something, you know whatever.

Speaker 1 (51:03):
I'm gonna leave that at that.

Speaker 3 (51:05):
And I think that I and and and also I
said on your post, where you would, you know, basically
showing love to nd I re for her position that
she doesn't like this moment that we're in where we're
sort of mainstreaming sex in a place.

Speaker 1 (51:20):
Like Essence Fest.

Speaker 3 (51:23):
I think one of the things, and I don't. I'm
not against Ndia, I Rea. I respect her position. I
think her position is necessary because it must be a
balanced conversation. Never have our culture be, you know, in
a space where Auntie or sister sister, we're gonna still
call her sister, can't step into the chat and say, hey,
let's make sure we keep.

Speaker 1 (51:42):
Our shit together, right, So I don't.

Speaker 3 (51:45):
I'm not against her for that, But I do have
other another perspective, or I think a broadened perspective on it.
And I talked about how the show has so many
different elements. It was it was full of all the
things that anybody wanted to see. I was saying to
my son, I go to essence. Every year, I would
like to be out at one and two o'clock in

(52:05):
the morning every night. I wish they would start a
concert at two o'clock in the afternoons, so I go
to bed at ten o'clock, like, but that's not what
they do. Concerts go till two o'clock in the morning.
And I look at the schedule and decide what I
want to see. You know, I don't.

Speaker 1 (52:21):
I don't go to everything. Some nights I'm like, you know,
some years, I want to see this. I want to
see that. I know I'm not gonna stay up three nights.
That's not going to happen. So I need to pick
a hall, a.

Speaker 3 (52:32):
Solid tooth, and that's what I do. So I feel
like understanding that I saw. I watched Laurren Hill put
on one of the best performances ever one only one
other time, and I've seen Lauren Hill several times. One
other time, PUFF had a small thing and my son
and I somehow ended up at the front table, and

(52:54):
I and.

Speaker 2 (52:54):
My son.

Speaker 3 (52:57):
Nobody else was dead except him at Laurenn Hill in
the room that night, because you know, she performed and
she was so amazing, but this she was in Oh
she was oh hakem at essence. Lauren was on high,
she was amazing, she was radiant and all that. So
you got that, and you had she was fully dressed,

(53:18):
she had everything on. Then you had you know, Jill
Scott who came with the old Negro spiritual the new
star Spangled banner then and she was of course fully dressed.

Speaker 1 (53:32):
Missy Elliott was fully dressed. She wasn't twerking. She was shimmering,
but not twerking.

Speaker 3 (53:39):
You had a lot of people, right, and then of
course you also have the element of the time that
we're in where these younger girls they doing what they're doing,
and there's other young girls that are not doing that.

Speaker 1 (53:51):
So I just know that, you know, I feel like
the variety of things that's out there.

Speaker 3 (53:57):
When you have a million women coming together, people want
to see different things, and so I just feel that
it wasn't overly it wasn't overly done. There was more
of the other stuff and less of the meg and
Janelle Monee Tourken moments.

Speaker 1 (54:13):
That was one moment in a full three days.

Speaker 2 (54:17):
Of a festival.

Speaker 4 (54:18):
Right.

Speaker 5 (54:18):
Well, I don't think the critique is about the whole thing.
I think the critique is about that moment. So if
anything goes, everything will. If we allow for anything, everything will.
Now this is my first essence festival. But when I

(54:39):
think of essence an essence festival, I don't think of
black tails, don't I think of there's a level of
excellence that essence represents that you tarnish your legacy when
you would go down to the to attach it.

Speaker 4 (55:00):
Now, there's a respectful way to do everything.

Speaker 5 (55:03):
But when you allow for anything, everything goes, and you
can't then control what goes and what doesn't go because
why can they do it but I can't do it?
You get into that argument now, you know, I understand
the times that we're in and there's a reason for it.
Like as much as there's a sexual revolution, I can

(55:24):
enslave you with sex, there's really you gotta be careful
o the sexual revolution. No, in a lot of ways,
it's you becoming a slave to your desires and your
passions and creating the environment where indecency rules today, where
indecency is, decency isn't. So when things go wrong and

(55:45):
you're expecting decency to step up, decency left the room
when indecency stepped in.

Speaker 4 (55:52):
So I ain't perfect. I got my garbage. Like I said,
there's somebody out there. It darts for me too.

Speaker 3 (55:59):
But struggle with I struggle with the use of the
term in decency when we're talking about Meg and Janelle
Monette specifically. I'm just talking about those two sisters specifically
because they was the target of India's point, right. They
were they were, they were the two and I think

(56:21):
both of them are incredibly talented. I think that Meg
the Stallion is a great artist. I think that she's
got some she I mean, yeah, she'd be twerking and
it is what it is. But I don't I if
they had sexy read up there talking about booty whatever
they talking about, whatever that is, then I might agree

(56:44):
with you.

Speaker 1 (56:44):
But the problem, the.

Speaker 2 (56:46):
Problem is the problem is the problem is this. It
opens the door for sexy rich.

Speaker 1 (56:50):
I don't think they're gonna have a let.

Speaker 5 (56:53):
I'm not even gonna put it on. Like I'm not
saying Meg and Janelle they were an artist form. They
were when they let.

Speaker 4 (57:01):
All the other sisters up on stage. That's when indecency
go was on it we allowed. But that you can't decide, Ma.
We don't want to see the crack of your ass.
We just don't know. Oh yah, yeah.

Speaker 5 (57:17):
I always brought another comparison to just so it's not
about women, right, So when the whole sagging pants thing happened,
right with males sagging their pants and the whole show
in your underwear, like that's just indecent, bars.

Speaker 4 (57:33):
Don't want it's indecent. It's not for every environment.

Speaker 3 (57:40):
It may be indecent, but I see it all the
time in some places that un quote unquote so supposed
to be so professionally whatever.

Speaker 5 (57:50):
And they are wrong, and you're right, Like what you
said is right. It ain't wrong just because I might
or man I identify with it.

Speaker 4 (57:59):
It's wrong. It's wrong.

Speaker 3 (58:01):
And I also feel like I also struggle here, right,
I struggle in this other area.

Speaker 1 (58:08):
I struggle because I feel like I hear a lot
of men.

Speaker 3 (58:18):
Very loudly trying to help determine what is decent or
boundaries for women.

Speaker 1 (58:26):
And I understand that we have to respect our kings.
I don't. I'm not one.

Speaker 3 (58:31):
I mean, I'm all about respecting our kings. But I
also think that we as women probably need a space
where we can try to work some of that stuff out. Right,
Because We've always been being told how we should show up.
We've always been being told by men what we should
look like. And I think that some of it is

(58:52):
resistance to that. So it might be out of control.
It might be out of control in some aspects. Right,
I'm not saying all of it, but some of it
may be just a barrier breakdown of always being told
what we should look like, how we should dress, how
we should show up, and what is okay with society

(59:13):
for women. Right, we have been censored, if you will,
and our lifestyles and everything about us has been so
controlled by whatever society things, which includes men, not just
black men, but men in general. So I think we're
seeing some resistance to that happening in this moment as well.

Speaker 4 (59:34):
Yes, I agree with you there, and a lot of times.

Speaker 5 (59:42):
That environment to express yourself is tied to the exploitation
of who gets the dollar at the end. Right, So
when we look at the advertisers and the sponsors and
and so forth and so ons who come in and are.

Speaker 4 (59:58):
Willing to dump money here but not dump money there, it's.

Speaker 5 (01:00:02):
Because you know, to the lowest common denominators what appeals
to the most people.

Speaker 4 (01:00:06):
But so if I can keep you here, this is
where all the investment's going to go.

Speaker 3 (01:00:11):
I agree, but you but we can't say that about essence,
right because at essence the investment is covering a wide
array of the celebration of black talent, right, It's covering everything.
It's not like, well, they're narrowing in on a certain
type of thing. And I wouldn't I wouldn't bear to
say that there's probably some sponsors that didn't even like

(01:00:34):
the whole trque thing and the bood thing and the
whole thing. They probably are not even really with that.
And it might be a little bit of shock to
the system as well, because I know a lot of
the women specifically who handle the accounts that are millions
of dollars worth of sponsorship to Essen, And I can
tell you that there's not outside in that way. But

(01:00:55):
I also saw them on camera up in there with Meg,
like know, because they like it as well.

Speaker 2 (01:01:02):
So it's I just think just as artists, as individuals,
just as professionals. Right when you when you have a
catalog right there, there's there's there's a way that you
show up right. You understand, you understand the dynamics, you
understand your your audience. I just don't think if certain

(01:01:26):
people will actually perform at certain other events that they
would show.

Speaker 1 (01:01:30):
Up certain ways Meg does.

Speaker 4 (01:01:32):
No.

Speaker 2 (01:01:33):
I just I don't know what I've seen I've seen.
I've seen Meg come out without having on a leotard
and without having on like I've seen her, but I've
seen him come out without having what even if she
does the certain dances, but the way, it's a certain
way that she presents herself that I've seen her perform
at different shows and different things where there's a different

(01:01:55):
dynamic and understanding that this dynamic is different. But I
think artists we have to because there's certain songs that
I'm not gonna perform everywhere. Like I know, I'm not
performing my song lefty gunna be in the right pom
when I go to the school. I'm just not doing
that because that's not the audience for that song. Right,
I'm not gonna address a certain way. This what I'm

(01:02:15):
saying is the Essence has Like he said, there's a
brand that there's a brand of black excellence. The Essence
represents right. And I think that each of those artists
you're talking about have songs and have things that are
so dynamic that the Essence wants those things, and I
just think that we have to attach it to the excellence.

(01:02:37):
The Essence is not just saying I'm gonna be I'm not.
I'm here to get shock value. I'm gonna do some
shit that nobody did to bring shock value because I
want it and I don't. I think we I think
we caught up in a shock value and I don't,
and I'm.

Speaker 4 (01:02:51):
Not all for that.

Speaker 2 (01:02:51):
I think a lot of times people are doing things
because they want to shock somebody. When you're talent, they
actually have talent. That supersedes the fact that we got
to talk about that and you did this like we
shouldn't even have it. Now it's overshadowed that you actually
did dope ship there, you know, And I think that's
what every I think that's what the ever we are
in there.

Speaker 5 (01:03:11):
Add on to that, he just made me think of
something in terms of, you know, the Essence brand, and
maybe I gotta twist it. Maybe I'm holding Essence to
a higher standard of what it really is. But where
I think Essence is right, Like there's places for everything,
and we know who Megan is. We know, well, we
thought we know who Janell mo. They is she's becoming
something else. So we're not mad at that at all.

(01:03:32):
It's just she's transformeding.

Speaker 4 (01:03:33):
But we know, we know what Megan is.

Speaker 5 (01:03:35):
Essence should be the thing where Meg now steps up
that says I'm gonna present myself with Yeah, Meg the style,
and y'all do these gigs here and it's all good.
But when it comes to essence, I'm gonna step up.
And that shows systems across the board or not just systs,
people's time.

Speaker 2 (01:03:56):
This is not she like, this is a woman of
we know that she can do.

Speaker 1 (01:04:02):
That's what I'm saying. I think that's where my struggle
is that I don't see.

Speaker 4 (01:04:08):
It.

Speaker 1 (01:04:09):
I don't think her brand was debased.

Speaker 4 (01:04:11):
I don't.

Speaker 2 (01:04:12):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:04:12):
I don't even I need to think about this more
because and that's okay to say, like as a woman,
I need to think about it more because I know
that as the two of you are speaking, and I
don't mean this in a in a dramatic way, there
are things that you're saying that's triggering me and the
freedom of my womanhood right Like, it's just it's triggering

(01:04:33):
me to say that I don't I don't because.

Speaker 1 (01:04:36):
People say the same thing to me. But let me finish.

Speaker 3 (01:04:42):
No, I'm just I'm saying because essence is about for
the most part, it's about women, right for the most part.
And I don't know what Lil Wayne did when he
was there, if any of his songs was the stuff
that we know has massagyny in it, but I'm sure
it probably was, and he performed, and nobody is talking

(01:05:03):
about how it was ten lyrics or or three of
his songs perspected or degrading women, right, But.

Speaker 2 (01:05:12):
I don't think.

Speaker 4 (01:05:14):
I agree with her.

Speaker 5 (01:05:15):
I agree with her in that sense that essence is
for women, and then you have an artist who's a
large portion of his music is degrading women.

Speaker 4 (01:05:23):
That's really a conflicted messaging exactly.

Speaker 3 (01:05:26):
So it's a lot of conflict in general of things
that have to be negotiated in order to give people
what they want, right or whatever.

Speaker 1 (01:05:35):
So it triggers me.

Speaker 3 (01:05:36):
But I also I want to be thoughtful about how
all of this because you said something, and my song's
been saying it to me all week, because we've been
talking about this over and over again. It's all connected.
And we know where in a time when things in
our community there's some challenges, some serious challenges we're up
against with the ways in which we behave or are

(01:05:57):
behaving as a community, and a lot of things that
see playing out. And I know that there must be
a connection somewhere with entertainment because we know I'm black
and I'm proud, and those moments were moments that lifted
our people up, and we see something else happening. I'm
just saying that I would like for the two of
you to hear that I have people who come to

(01:06:17):
my social media and I've had brothers, specifically some of
my brothers, more spiritual brothers. I'm not going to put
title specific titles out there. Come to me and tell
me that I should not have a bikini on online
because people are not going to respect me as a leader.

Speaker 1 (01:06:35):
And that's problematic for me.

Speaker 3 (01:06:37):
But what I'm trying to say so because wait, let
me just finish my point and you take it. Because
I'm showing up as my full self right on my
social media. My full self is there. Now, it's some
other things that I probably do that maybe and I
don't know, maybe not, But there's some other things I
might do that's not on social media, but I'm saying

(01:06:57):
that I feel slightly oppressed by my own brothers that
I know love me when I'm told that I can't
be in the bikini online because somehow that's gonna make
people not want to show up in a fight that
we're in that has absolutely nothing to do with what
I'm wearing. And so when I hear us talking about

(01:07:19):
decency around this other thing, it triggers me. And I
don't have a final I don't I can't put a
punchline on what I'm saying, but we gonna come back
and talk about this.

Speaker 2 (01:07:29):
Let me just say one more thing. Your social media
is your personal This this is your personal life.

Speaker 1 (01:07:35):
With those million people that's on.

Speaker 2 (01:07:37):
It, they're following you, you didn't follow them. You didn't
go into their arena, you didn't go into their house.
You didn't go into the church with what your baby
suit on and decide that you're gonna say a speech
and a baby suit because you should be able to
do it.

Speaker 1 (01:07:50):
You are.

Speaker 2 (01:07:50):
You are one hundred percent aware that when certain organizations
and certain places come, you understand that there is something
that's required to do that you dress a certain way
because you're you're multi.

Speaker 1 (01:08:03):
Thus Okay, you breaking those barriers.

Speaker 3 (01:08:08):
No, you break We have been showing up places where
people have expected us to do things a certain way
and we have been like, that's just not what we're doing.

Speaker 2 (01:08:17):
No, but that's but that's not what we do anyway.
You understand I'm saying what I'm trying to explain to you.
We don't do certain things, So we don't go trying
to act like we do something and the people that call.
But the thing is what we also don't do. You
you are you, and you know how to be. When
you decide you want to look pretty on Instagram, you
posted a pretty picture. When you decide that you want

(01:08:40):
you have to be the beat, you post a picture
to beat. That's what you want, that's your personal thing.
But you understand that when you going to the rally,
you ain't going in the bathing suit to the rally.
You're not trying to.

Speaker 1 (01:08:51):
Get shock value. But I might wear some booty cutters.

Speaker 2 (01:08:54):
But the thing is this I'm just saying.

Speaker 3 (01:08:56):
I want to say with Miniester fa Arakon, me and
the minister had a very specific conversation because you know
his perspective, well, are.

Speaker 2 (01:09:05):
You going to are you going to? Are you going
to the mansle booty cutters.

Speaker 1 (01:09:08):
One, of course not.

Speaker 3 (01:09:10):
But y'all think Essence, I know what I think. Everybody
at Essence wants to see this thing that you got
what I'm trying to say, Essence has are you all
day haking? You will never get off of this thing?

Speaker 4 (01:09:26):
I want to.

Speaker 5 (01:09:27):
So we want to spin back to twenty fours apiece, right, So, okay,
twenty five hours a piece, right is. Initially was for
positive artists like myself, my sign to have the stage
to do our thing and kind of and promote that
whole message. When we do that, it was like, you know,
we get six seven hundred people, fifteen hundred people, whatever.

Speaker 4 (01:09:45):
You know. Twenty twenty one was a big year.

Speaker 5 (01:09:46):
But last year we did Drill, We did five Yeofarign,
g Herbal, two Rare. We had Fabulous, who's gunn heavy
in all his music. We had a cls moved myself.
We try to balance it out. But because the five
year oldarg Herbal and Fabulous, that's what the numbers out.
Now we're on stage, it's twenty four hours a piece.

(01:10:08):
Every other song is I'll blow your head off, I
put a gun in your mouth, I'll do this. I'll
do that.

Speaker 4 (01:10:13):
Ras is looking at me like, y'all hot, you gotta
fix this, you gotta do something.

Speaker 5 (01:10:17):
G Herbal set was just total murder, killed, murder, kill
our sexually assault you. I'll sexually assault You'll sexually assault you.
All little girls knew every word and he's talking about
sexual assault.

Speaker 4 (01:10:32):
It's art. It's music. I'm not saying, you know that's
what he's a valid me.

Speaker 5 (01:10:35):
It's music. But I know what he's saying. And he's
talking about killing black people and sexually assaulting black men
and he's being celebrated. They know every word. So after
he gets off his set, I had to reset the broom,
reset the table, bring people back to why we're here,
because on the twenty four Hours of Peace stage, we
shouldn't be promoting that, even though there's a reason why

(01:10:59):
he talking about that. We know black men are oppressed,
we know that, we know all these things, but at
some point we got to draw a line and say
you can't do that here.

Speaker 4 (01:11:11):
And I don't know if you figured it out, because
we might be back to seven hundred people if we
do that.

Speaker 1 (01:11:16):
You know, okay, well this is.

Speaker 3 (01:11:18):
This is this is a this is a very important
conversation that we're having, and I think it's one that
we need to continue to have because this is the
way to do it right, Like this is the way
to have the conversation about what's appropriate, what's not when
and how and not have white folks determine what should
and should not happen in our communities and where our

(01:11:40):
people can show up certain ways. I'm just hoping that
based upon me telling you about the swimsuit thing and
all of that, that it also helps to broaden your
perspective and understanding of what it feels like to be
a woman who has many different I have all kinds
of things with me, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (01:11:58):
I've talked about work and work all the time, and.

Speaker 3 (01:12:01):
It has actually drawn lot a lot of younger people
and different people, especially women, to my world and to
you know, they come to me because I'm like, you know,
I work and work, so I can do both things.

Speaker 1 (01:12:14):
I can be all those things.

Speaker 3 (01:12:15):
And it has been not so much a marketing tool,
but it has helped people to see me in more
than just one thing. And I've been winning folks into
the movement because they're like, Tamika is different, right, and
so I understand it as a place in time for
everything I do.

Speaker 1 (01:12:33):
I get it.

Speaker 3 (01:12:34):
But I also know that Jamal and Brian are just
given an example. When he's preaching, he understands that he's
got to kind of go to the line in an
area that is very different than the regular and he
has and his church is packed full of people who
are there because he's gonna get up there and say lyrics.

(01:12:56):
He gonna talk about stuff that might be a little racy,
and it's working in terms of his messages. So we
just got to figure out a balance, that's all.

Speaker 2 (01:13:06):
It's just that, it's just like it's just like when
but Dumal Brian also know when he went way too far,
they tore his ass up, right, you remember that when
he said when he did all that, they said, oh no, no, bro,
you ain't gonna come in here with that, right, So
we we gotta understand that.

Speaker 5 (01:13:28):
And to me, you know, you're talking about looking at
the culture, analyzing the culture, and being strategic in how
you engage with the culture. That because most people using
that language, male and female, are looking to exploit young people.

Speaker 4 (01:13:47):
So we create the environment where anything goes.

Speaker 5 (01:13:51):
Everything will you're talking about being strategic, setting barriers, doing
things towards a higher purpose than just the culture.

Speaker 4 (01:13:59):
This is what they're doing or this is what they want.

Speaker 2 (01:14:02):
So I'm just gonna pease them because sometimes it's like
you're giving it. It's like giving you a kid. Just
keep giving them sugar all day because they asked for it. No,
I know, I can't keep giving you sugar because it's
killing you. But yeah, exactly, But you gotta like they said,
you gotta put the the the cherry inside the colf

(01:14:23):
drop right because you wanted to taste good. But you
still but where is the colt drop? See when it
ain't no colt drop, that's where the problem is.

Speaker 1 (01:14:34):
Whatever you said, I didn't see this part about the other.

Speaker 4 (01:14:40):
They bought a whole bunch of people on stage.

Speaker 5 (01:14:42):
It was like, you know, it was it's anybody, all types,
all sizes, all shame, all agents. No, I mean no,
the one girl, her whole thing went up. You could
see the crack up behind it was a few of
them that would go help. You know, it was what
it was because it's meg, it's you know, we get it.

(01:15:05):
But it's like, okay, this is why I'm not the
when I saw the videos like, Okay, that's why I
don't go to those parties.

Speaker 1 (01:15:11):
I just want you to know that B is clapping
cheeks in her concert right now, this word writing.

Speaker 2 (01:15:20):
Concert, just like just like Meg gonna clap cheeks in
her but she B is not gonna go to the
Essence Award and clap cheeks. She just ain't gonna do it.

Speaker 1 (01:15:28):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:15:31):
I don't think that's should I don't.

Speaker 2 (01:15:33):
Think, but she's not gonna. But she's gonna do it
with a different level.

Speaker 1 (01:15:37):
She's gonna understand it's a certain way exactly.

Speaker 4 (01:15:42):
Can ask your question, what was the watermelon song about
lemonade or eliminade? Who's the Who's the song? That was
some real it was real gutter, but it was Beyonce.
And when it was.

Speaker 3 (01:15:59):
Eliminade about the lollipop or something, Beyonce got some ship
that when you.

Speaker 5 (01:16:05):
Listen to it, right, what I'm saying, it's like, you know,
the girl is super talented, one of the greatest ever
do it.

Speaker 4 (01:16:11):
Don't even front I got you. But it's like certain
songs you shouldn't be on the radio. Kids is going
to kids is going.

Speaker 5 (01:16:19):
To school, And I had to be with it was
one of my favorite songs, bunch of my favorite songs
national anthems for us.

Speaker 4 (01:16:27):
It's degrading, like it sets the stage for nothing positive. Actually, and.

Speaker 2 (01:16:36):
That already by the time you got knowledge and understand
that you already like the song you.

Speaker 4 (01:16:41):
Done, you don't only because you've got to go.

Speaker 3 (01:16:47):
And I want to be thoughtful about my response because
again I'm taking into account that you brothers are two
people that love black folks, right, So everything you're saying
is because we want to see black folks at our
high cels. We know what's going on in our communities.
We know that our young girls, the way in which
they are, some of the behavior that we see is

(01:17:10):
very problematic and it's dangerous.

Speaker 1 (01:17:12):
And so the culture certainly has room for critique. And
so I'm I'm for that.

Speaker 3 (01:17:20):
So that's all I'm gonna say. I'm gonna leave it
at that. I want to I want to give drop
a bomb in this conversation, but I think this is
such a rich dialogue that it requires revisiting it and
allowing other people to play a role in the conversation
to talk through, you know, their feelings about about these things.

(01:17:42):
I know one thing I don't agree with is when women,
any entertainer says I'm not a role model, that's a lot,
and that's a lot.

Speaker 1 (01:17:50):
So that's something.

Speaker 5 (01:17:53):
Yeah, And everybody, everybody's a role a role model, a
good one or bad one.

Speaker 4 (01:17:58):
Everybody's a role model.

Speaker 1 (01:18:00):
That's right, that's right.

Speaker 3 (01:18:01):
Well, brother Green, Haquen Green, thank you so much for
joining the street politician.

Speaker 1 (01:18:05):
I feel like we more and so sat in the
living room and just kick it and talk, you know, you.

Speaker 3 (01:18:11):
Know, blessings over twenty four hours of piece because you're
doing three hundred and sixty five days a piece.

Speaker 1 (01:18:17):
That's what you do every day. That's what we try
to work towards.

Speaker 3 (01:18:21):
And we need all the support that we can get
because there is so much attention and focus on the
negative aspects of you know, in our community. And so
when folks step out like you have been for so
long to do the work you're doing, we have to
salute you, send you.

Speaker 1 (01:18:38):
Prayers and positivity because it's not easy. It is not easy.
So thank you for everything you're doing, and we love
you and we hear we support you.

Speaker 4 (01:18:47):
Likewise, likewise, you guys are so.

Speaker 5 (01:18:50):
Got the battery in my back in a real way
every time I see you guys out there, it's like, yeah,
thank god, somebody loves.

Speaker 4 (01:18:55):
Black people, and you guys love black people.

Speaker 2 (01:18:57):
Appreciate you all right, thank you, king piece. Shout out
to my brother Hakim Green Man dope conversation, the work
he does in Newark and just in general, you know,
as an educator and just somebody who's actually for our people.
It's just dope. You know, we got music together, going
to get his album Aubrey that he said he just dropped,

(01:19:20):
and you know, it's not much else to say. Follow him. Man.
If you don't know Hakim Green from Channel Live, the
legendary group, all we do is smoke matt ism like
they was one of the first people on the cannabis
thing back in the days and they was signed to
care rest Ones. So and he's still doing this thing
on just a high level, man twenty five, like I
could tell you twenty four hours a piece of a

(01:19:42):
real big thing in Newark that they do, you know,
So shout out to him on that. And so let
me go to my I don't get it because this
is like one of the biggest topics. You know, everybody's
been talking about. Kiki p and her boyfriend, baby daddy whatever,

(01:20:03):
And you know, there's been a lot of weighing in
and it's not and it's not my job. Is not
my place to tell anybody how to handle their relationship, right,
because everybody's relationship is different. Things that work in somebody's
relationship might not work for me, you know. And then
and if you in a relationship where where there are

(01:20:23):
major things that you that you have that are you know,
non negotiable, and your partner doesn't have that, then you
probably in the wrong relationship. Right If he feels that
how she dresses wasn't something that a mom should do,
and this and that, and in a relationship and they
haven't come to terms with that, and you this a
non started for you and she's saying pretty much on
a way what I want, then you're probably in the

(01:20:43):
wrong relationship. And that's just the reality. Sometimes people are
not equally yok. Sometimes you attracted to somebody like somebody
cool this and that, but there's certain things that you're
not willing to negotiate that that person is not willing
to negotiate either, on the opposite side of the spectrum,
and you just have to understand that and you got
to move on from that. But my other my I

(01:21:04):
don't get. It is not even about that, my I
don't get. It is pretty much about why grown people,
family members, friends, close friends, people who claim to love
you or do all these things, are utilizing social media
to have discourse. Like to me, like, I'm really like,

(01:21:26):
I'm so disturbed at it, Like I'm watching everybody go
to social media with millions and hundreds of thousand people
who don't give a fuck about you, who just want
to critique you, just want to tear you down, who
just want the tea on your information to where you
can't even come back from me, right, Because this conversation

(01:21:47):
that this man had with his women about his women
as she came home and he had that same conversation
and be like, yo, you mom, what the fuck is
you doing over there? That might have been just a debate, Well,
come on, what are you talking about? I'm sexy this,
But but I don't think it was all right. I
see you in this man face and this and that
you like we're supposed to be in a relationship. I
think it was disrespect. Whatever it was, it could have

(01:22:08):
been a dialogue that they had amongst each other that
could have got settled. Now you putting your personal business
on the internet has caused so much, so much. We
got think pieces, we got dissertations, we got everybody in
the world is playing in on your relationship, right, and

(01:22:29):
then what it does is it either lessens your value
or it lessens her value, because now you got men
trying to disrespect her, You got women disrespecting you, the
other men disrespecting you. You got so it's so many
different things, and the world is divided, and now you
can't even have your own personal relationship normal, right, So

(01:22:50):
why I just don't get why people or who told
people that it made sense for you to take your
personal relationship and your personal issue with people that you've
known for years, people that you share intimate space with,
people you got the phone, the people you could text,
people you know where they live, that you can knock
on the door, that you sharing your personal information and
differences on the internet. I don't get what the fuck

(01:23:13):
that is. I just I'm it's so far from me.
I get you might have a moment, you know, you're
writing I just literally just see some other shit that
somebody some of our friends just sent me and I'm like, Lord,
have somes Why is people putting a personal business on
the internet. We gotta listen. It is a recipe for
a disaster because at two seconds that you mad at

(01:23:37):
your friend, your girl, this and that that you write
so and anger it. Don't it don't disappear. Now, it's
in the cloud. This ship is in the it's in
the algorithm, and it's showing up every time when you
over it and you you're trying to be cool and
you walking by and nigga like, Kiki, you shouldn't be
with that. Nigga too weak? Come fuck with a player

(01:23:59):
and a type of shit or the girls walking up
to to him. Yeah, she don't respect you. You need
to like, why are you putting people in your personal business?

Speaker 3 (01:24:10):
Well, here's the thing. I mean, it's a lot that
conversation is a whole different. There's so many layers to
personal business on social media. A lot of people feel
like it's their only outlet, and.

Speaker 1 (01:24:24):
The majority you feel like it's your only outlet.

Speaker 3 (01:24:29):
The majority of people who go to social media. And
this is what I have to say about the Kiki thing.
And I ended here, and there's much more. We can
talk about this every week. But the majority of the
reason why people go to social media is because they
are looking to embarrass and or yeah, they're looking to

(01:24:54):
harm a person. They want to harm their their their brands,
they want to expose them, embarrass them. They are looking
to do something to negatively impact that person's life, right,
That's the reason why they do it. So that's what
makes this whole situation with you know, with Kiki's boyfriend.

(01:25:20):
That's the reason why it's problematic. It's problematic because in
my opinion, I don't know him, so I can't but
in my opinion, he literally was doing it to shame her, right,
And that's what people that's why people go to social
media because they want to shame the person who they
feel hurt them, betrayed them, or whatever.

Speaker 1 (01:25:42):
They want to shame them. They want to hurt them.

Speaker 3 (01:25:44):
They want to hit them where it hurts, where they
feel like everybody knows about it.

Speaker 1 (01:25:48):
The problem is, as.

Speaker 3 (01:25:50):
With every situation that I have watched play out, when
you try to shoot at somebody on social media, the
shit backfights.

Speaker 1 (01:26:02):
It always backfights, It.

Speaker 3 (01:26:04):
Always somehow because as you said, the intention for what
you're trying to do, you can't control what the response
is gonna be from millions of people who are now
able to weigh in on your situation. So while you
think that you're just gonna harm that one person and
isolate them, what generally happens is that people who share

(01:26:28):
a variety of perspectives have loud voices, and you find
yourself having to shut your social media down or having
to protect your family maybe or your whatever whatever things
that you care about, your own brand. Because now when
when people when you google the brother's name because I

(01:26:51):
did it, I just wanted to see, the headlines are
like so and so, shame, such and such, like it's
it doesn't work out for you the weigh in which
you think it should, It just doesn't. It never it, never, ever,
ever does. I have watched this happen so many different
times where to your point, you open up the door
and by the.

Speaker 1 (01:27:11):
Way, you actually might be freeing like he might have
freed Kiki.

Speaker 3 (01:27:16):
From the relationship, because now you're giving people a reason
to say, oh, you went to the end of that.

Speaker 1 (01:27:25):
That's like, I'm not saying she's gonna do that.

Speaker 3 (01:27:27):
I'm just saying that it is counterproductive, and it's hard
because sometimes we all feel like we want people to know,
or we want to rally people together around our feelings
or our thoughts or whatever, but it just never works out.
And it didn't work out in this situation. And if
I'm in a relationship with a man, I don't give

(01:27:48):
a damn what has happened.

Speaker 1 (01:27:50):
I do not care.

Speaker 3 (01:27:52):
At the moment that a man goes to social media
about me, he has his level of man leanness to me.

Speaker 1 (01:28:04):
Has reduced significant. That's just my that's my feeling. I
don't even hear.

Speaker 3 (01:28:09):
I don't even see, you think, because the men that
I know in my family, the men I'm around, they
don't even really do social media first of all, so
you know, they kind.

Speaker 1 (01:28:20):
Of do it, they kind of.

Speaker 3 (01:28:22):
My brother is like, I'm kind of into it because
y'all be on here all the time, so I'm gonna
come over here and see what's going on. So he
posts a picture of his kids and see the nieces
and nephews and you know, sell his products and whatnot.
But for him to get on the internet and write
something specifically towards his loved.

Speaker 2 (01:28:41):
One that will never happen, It don't make sense. It's
just it's just it's just very weird, and it's like,
we have normalized shit that is so whack in this
culture now, you know, And I think I think that's
what the problem is a lot of people. People are
seeing shit and people say that's old school, and it's like, why,
how keeping your family business in your household is old school? Right?

(01:29:04):
I just want to be old school, like my family
business and my personal business with my friends and issues
like I don't need the Internet to know those those issues.
I just don't need it.

Speaker 3 (01:29:14):
And that's precisely why they want to do it, because
they think that you don't want it to You don't
that they're exposing you or there, or they're harming you
by saying, oh, you know, you know, I just thinking
about the fifty cent son, you know, coming out like

(01:29:34):
oh we need money or I don't have any money
or whatever. And it ends up in other situations. It
happened with Masterpiece Son, right. It happened with a number
of young people who tried to come out and say
they their parents were not financially supporting them properly. And
you know what ends up happening. The same kid ends
up going back to the Internet, like y'all could shut

(01:29:56):
up nobody ask you know, nobody asked you for your opinion.
I'm not looking for a handout. You end up having
to try to defend yourself because now when you was
just trying to get a message to your dad or
your aunt or your mama or whoever it is, now
people are like, take your lazy ass to work. Nobody
owe you anything.

Speaker 1 (01:30:14):
And that might not even be right. That might actually
be when the parent might really be wrong, but.

Speaker 2 (01:30:22):
Which you open it to somebody else's perspective.

Speaker 1 (01:30:25):
Look at what happened with Ioki Simmons, same thing.

Speaker 3 (01:30:30):
She she came out and said what she had to
say if I Russell, which I'm sure at the time,
whatever was going on, she was hurt. She was angry
when I saw the video of Russell responding, and you know,
we know Russell's very well. So when I saw the
video of how he was responding, the words that he
was saying, I'm a father, I'm your father, I'm your father, it's.

Speaker 1 (01:30:50):
Some pain, that's clear.

Speaker 3 (01:30:51):
It's pain, and I can no parent is perfect, no parent.
So I'm sure whatever pain is there he has had,
he's been party to it. And she also, you know,
she feels how she feels he's been party to it.
Her mama made part it's party to it, because that's
just the way it goes right as parents. It's the
nature of relationships. But I know that after she came

(01:31:13):
out and said what she said, she's and she could
have everything she said could have been one hundred percent
on point. But she spent the next few days defending
herself and arguing with people online who was now given
their opinion and saying nasty things about.

Speaker 2 (01:31:33):
Some shit that they really don't even know. But somebody
given an opinion based on words that you said, not
even understanding the dynamics, and is drawing a bigger wedge
between the person that you say that you loving, you
care about. So how how do you think that's progressive?
Who have you seen it work for?

Speaker 3 (01:31:53):
I mean, in her defense, in her defense, this is
a young lady, right, she's.

Speaker 2 (01:31:59):
A young so I wasn't even talking about her, right, That's.

Speaker 1 (01:32:02):
What I'm saying. She's a young lady. She's a young lady.
So kids sometimes do things that they have to. We
have to get a lot of grace to our kids.

Speaker 3 (01:32:11):
I was just using those as examples of how you
find I'm sure all of the young people who've been
in the last year in the press school arguing with
their parents and they've had to defend themselves, they probably
would advise another person, let's not do this because it
doesn't really work out.

Speaker 1 (01:32:28):
Exactly as you wanted to do.

Speaker 3 (01:32:29):
I mean, even just something like where Jaden recently said, oh,
my mom, you know, introduced us to psychedelics. That shit
done turned into a whole big thing. And I'm sure
he just was trying to say, my mom introduced us
to something that's been helpful or no, no, no, whether
you agreeve it or not is not the point I'm saying.

(01:32:50):
I'm sure he was in charge his mother exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:32:54):
And now here we go. So you just have to
be careful how you use social media because it's not
it's just as not what people think it's not.

Speaker 4 (01:33:03):
It is.

Speaker 2 (01:33:03):
And the more and the more viewership you have and
the more voice, bigger your voices, you have to be
a lot more careful about the things that you say.

Speaker 3 (01:33:13):
Oh you know that, because I'm very surprised to hear
you say that, because you one of the main damn people.

Speaker 2 (01:33:20):
I don't you tell me that, But I don't care.
See what I'm trying to tell you. It's not so
much that I don't care about it. The things that
I say, I've already made up my mind that I'm
willing to deal with the consequence of whatever I say.
And I don't talk about my personal business on the internet.
I just don't do that. You know what I'm saying.
I talk about ship that's public knowledge and public opinions,

(01:33:42):
and i give my opinion of public ship. But I'm
not going on there with my own personal shit. That's
not happening. So if somebody has a problem with my
my public view of some public ship, so I give
a fuck about it.

Speaker 3 (01:33:57):
But still still out Yes, what you are saying is
one hundred percent right. Still, the rule applies across the board.
It may not be it is different, it is different,
but the rule generally applies across the board that you

(01:34:18):
have to be careful when you start speaking on social media.

Speaker 1 (01:34:23):
Right.

Speaker 3 (01:34:23):
And there have been some situations in my life, your life,
a lot of it, where we probably would do things
differently from how you know, however we reacted on social
media or how we responded. There are times when you
post things right, and I'm times these are public issues.
It doesn't matter. My opinion of these things is who cares? Right,

(01:34:46):
Nobody but our little followers care about my opinion. And
I get ready to write back to you my opinion,
and then I realized I could just text you and
tell you that right, or I get ready.

Speaker 1 (01:35:00):
And it happens with a lot of the people.

Speaker 3 (01:35:01):
Sometimes you do, like with the situation where ha King
I dropped a very non confrontational perspective in his comments
just so that it could broad into convo.

Speaker 1 (01:35:12):
And you know, and it's cool.

Speaker 2 (01:35:14):
God love needed.

Speaker 3 (01:35:17):
Sometimes when y'all my brothers be posting ship and I
be pissed, like, I don't know. Angelo posted something one
day about relationships or women or some shit, and I
broke back, like and I thought about it, and I
deleted it immediately because one of the things that I
realized is that and this is a different this is
a different conversation. It's one I couldn't I can text him.

(01:35:39):
But two, what it does is open up the arena
for the or the floodgates for people to feel like
there's dissension in my organization with my friends and people
that I'm close to.

Speaker 2 (01:35:54):
And I can't your voice attack them. People will utilize
your voice, your taxing.

Speaker 3 (01:36:00):
Yeah, it's too dangerous, like our work is. It's literally dangerous.
I'm talking about life threatening danger when people feel that
they can see something, because then then then they become.

Speaker 1 (01:36:17):
Infiltrated and attack you and are to harm you exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:36:22):
Ride and come there we go. And with that said,
lead the acts.

Speaker 1 (01:36:27):
Delete everything.

Speaker 3 (01:36:29):
I wouldn't get on a thread if they pay me,
I won't get on those threads.

Speaker 2 (01:36:33):
I never like threads. Is just you can put your
thoughts and people comment. You put ship up there that
you're thinking and get a whole thread of people. It's cool.
It's just a threatening you know. It ain't that conversation.

Speaker 3 (01:36:45):
You know, maybe one day in life, but right now,
I'm gonna let y'all have that. Yeah, I just I mean,
I have too much social media already.

Speaker 2 (01:36:52):
Once in a while I might write something there. For
the most part, it ain't gonna be a thing. It's
it's gonna be like I did Twitter. Twitter wasn't something that.

Speaker 3 (01:36:59):
I kind of thing put on Twitter and learn that
once you go on there, you have to commit to
fighting literally physically fighting.

Speaker 2 (01:37:08):
Was there to fight though, That's the only reason I
went to Twitter.

Speaker 3 (01:37:11):
I went there because to say you know what, you
ended up having to come back to me and say,
you know what, you was right.

Speaker 2 (01:37:20):
Yeah, but I went there to fight, though I definitely
went there to fight. I went there fist the cuffs
balled up, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (01:37:28):
Yeah, but you know whatever, whatever.

Speaker 2 (01:37:31):
Thank y'all for being tuning in to Street Politicians. We
love y'all for making us the number one show in
the world. We appreciate y'all. You have any ideas, critiques, anything,
hit us as Street Politicians pod Let us know what
you want to hear, who you want to see, give
us some ideas for topics everything. We love y'all and
we appreciate y'all. And as always, I'm not gonna always

(01:37:52):
be right to me. It's not gonna always be wrong,
but we will both always and I mean always, be authentic.

Speaker 3 (01:37:59):
List to Street Politicians on the Black Effect Network on iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (01:38:04):
And catch us every single Wednesday for the video version
of Street Politicians on iwomen dot TV.

Speaker 1 (01:38:09):
That's how we own it.