Part 2 - What is the Chopped Man Epidemic? / Kendrick Sells Out Back-to-Back Shows in Drake’s Hometown.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Still broadcasting from the Civic Cipher Studios. This is the
QR code where we share perspective, seek understanding, and shape outcomes.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I am your host, Ramsey's ja. He is ram Jo.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
They call me q Ward four days a week. My
mom calling me off kind of names, but she's mad
and they need different than that.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
I love that.
Speaker 4 (00:19):
We want you to stick around for this part of
the show as well, because we are still going to
be discussing whether or not Gavin Newsom is the man
to stand against Donald Trump.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
This is something that a lot of people are not
happy with Donald Trump, and a lot of people are
not happy with Republicans. A lot are, but you know,
for those that aren't, Gavin Newsom is trying to make
a case for himself and a lot of people have
some thoughts about that. Q Ward certainly does. We're also
going to be talking about how Kendrick Lamar sold out
back to back shows in Drake's hometown.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Man.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
The culture has has shifted and this is something we've
talked about before, but we're excited to talk about it again.
So first we are going to discuss qwords, clapback, and
uh Q. I want to ask you a question please,
can doctors refuse to treat democrats?
Speaker 4 (01:14):
Ah?
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Man, that's uh, that should sound like a strange question, right,
And there's headlines today. If you just google that exact question,
you'll see a bunch of headlines and a bunch of answers.
The problem is people would lead you to believe, if
you say it the way that you just said it,
that that's not what the intentions are.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Ramses.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
They didn't remove the protections from you being able to
be discriminated against by how you vote or your marital
status so that they could target target unmarried democrats.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
They would never do something like that.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
And it's funny because I've been gas lit so many
times with regards to this administration and as president that
every time a headline like this hits, I pause myself
to to think, are you being fearmonger too?
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Are you being distracted?
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Are you, you know, scaring yourself and letting the Democrats,
you know, manipulate you.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
The liberal media? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Am I being a woke leftist? And you know, whatever
the case? And what I realized is I've been right
one hundred percent of the time on this one. Yeah,
all of my worst fears have come to pass. And
I called them all out as soon as some type
of loophole like this happened. Right, So, this is this
interesting thing that happens with this particular administration.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
And I remember when.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
They started talking about deportations, long before we ever saw
an American citizen be arrested, detained and deported. I called
it because I knew they had no interest in doing
the right thing. It was never a good faith argument.
It was never let's get the criminals out of here.
It was, as I've called out before, flat xenophobic, white nationalists,
(03:02):
white supremacist racism.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
They're eating the cats, they're eating the dogs.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Yeah, you target people who fit anything you need them
to fit, so that it doesn't sound so reprehensible in
the moment. So the first time that I reacted that way,
we have a video that's up on Beyonce's Internet that has,
you know, tens of millions of views of me being
very upset about what I saw coming, long before he
(03:28):
was ever the president, and everything I thought would happen
is happening now and lands on my front door, you know,
a couple of times a month, because you know, check
out that clip and you'll know the Because so when
people who know me personally accuse me of you know,
being you know, prone to fear mongering and distracted. It's
(03:52):
not fear mongering when the fear is historically justified. Our
president has a long, well documented pattern of exploiting legal
and institutional loopholes to serve his own cruel bully power,
(04:14):
to punish people that disagree with him, to further marginalize
already marginalized in vulnerable communities. This idea that he wouldn't
weaponize ambiguity and policy language like, you have to not
been paying attention all these years. It's all he's ever
(04:34):
done the entire time we've known him as a public figure.
Before he was even a politician, he was cruel to
marginalize people, Black people in particular. Right, So when legal
protections are stripped that forbid people like va doctors from
discriminating against people based on their political affiliation or their
marital status, this is not like this idea of theory
(04:57):
that we're talking about. We're giving him legal permission to
abuse people, and we know that he will. So this
idea that well, you know, the language doesn't say that
they'll directly discriminate, And it's still up to the it's like,
you know, leave the decisions to the states, you know,
remove the federal protections and let the states do it.
(05:18):
It just opens up the gate and open up the
door for them to further punish and abuse people. So
these aren't hypotheticals. Rams like I get a little emotional,
so you have to forgive me. But we saw them
separate children from their families and put them in cages. Right, yeah,
we saw him retweet share and amplify white and nationalists
(05:40):
talking points and stand with forgive and pardon and empower
and embolden insurrection is correct. We now see him attacking
judges and journalists and immigrants and veterans and disable people,
making fun of disabled people, making fun of military vets
while then pretending to celebrate them on his birthday with
(06:01):
a big, ridiculous parade. Did we see that attacking LGBTQ
people repeatedly with no consequences, with impunity, and now mass
deportations with no due process. He said he would be
a dictator on day one. Some of us believed him.
Some of us were told that we were being fearmongered.
(06:25):
Some of us were gas lit because our very very
obvious fears.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Were about to come true.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
And this is why for days after the election, I
couldn't really talk to anybody because I was just so
blown away that of course far right wing people support him,
but people that consider themselves well meaning and decent and
allies and kind and good and decent human beings also
(06:53):
support him. He has not done any of this stuff
in the cover of darkness. He's done it in broad daylight.
He said he was going to do it. He continues
to do it. And you all who can hear me,
keep finding, just like him, loopholes to keep supporting him,
to keep backing him, and to keep allowing yourself to
(07:14):
sleep good at night, so you can forgive yourself for
backing a cruel, racist, xenophobic, adjudicated sex offender who's been
cruel to every person that doesn't serve him his whole life.
Why are we so sure that he'll ever change or
(07:37):
that he won't exploit every loophole like this one every
single chance that he gets.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Well, he's very.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Good at playing the middle because he only needs a
fraction to play the middle. And I think that this
leads us to our next topic about Gavin Newsom right
so by comparison, Donald Trump will pardon a black person
(08:11):
for a crime or something. Right, they'll have dinner or
take a photo with some black folks or something like that. Right,
And everyone can plaint to that, say, Donald Trump's not racist,
ignoring the mountain of like objectively racist stuff that he
does or sneakily like shadowy racist stuff that he does.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Right.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
I think a lot of racist people want to be
racist and they don't want to bear the shame, like
the shame that comes with it, because they do get shunned.
You know, like as a rule human beings, we don't
really like that. But some people that's just kind of
their their thing, and they want to be able to
be racist without kind of dealing with the negative aspects
(08:52):
of being known as being racist.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Right.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
I think Donald Trump kind of falls into that, and
his administration too, and all these other people.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Now.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
To be fair, I know, some people are well intentioned,
well meaning, and they just turn a blind eye to
stuff that they're Like if I was in that position,
I wouldn't love it. But you know, like these people
should have come here legally, you know, and ignoring all
the the fact that we have a broken immigration system.
(09:22):
It's not easy for everyone to do so for years.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
But forgive me for cutting you off, but also ignoring
that people are being arrested and detained. That that's where
that's where.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
I was going. Yeah, like where I was going next.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
So you know, as far as being like, like, I
really like being woke.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
You know, I think that's we want to be asleep,
you know, but you like being actually woke?
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Yeah, not like this thing that they've hijacked and redefined
and renamed and turned into something else.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Being woke is actually a flex.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Yeah, I like it being informed and enlighten and curious
and kind perpetually and kind and empathetic.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
That's that's actually a flex.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
They've hijacked woke, turned it into a pejorative, and we've
like allowed it to happen. Now me even we like
cringe at the idea of being called woke.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Well, uh, I again, I thought, I think that was
a good pivot to where we are now, which is
looking forward.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
What do we do with.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
This guy in this administration? So is Gavin Newsom the
man is stand against Donald Trump. I'm gonna share a
little bit from this article. All right, So back in March,
we said that the Democratic Party needed a charismatic white
boy to stand up. Oh, by the way, this article
is from the Root, so you know it gives you
(10:49):
some some context here. Back in March, we said that
the Democratic Party needed a charismatic white boy to stand
up to President Donald Trump and charm his maga army.
The problem was that the Dems had all but given
up the fight. Everyone in the House and Senate who
could appeal to Republicans were either toothless or so far
left as to be radical. The best we could come
(11:10):
up with was Matthew McConaughey, minus the banging on Bongo's
naked and copious marijuana use. Since then, another white boy
entered the chat. Two weeks ago, US Immigration and Customs agents,
or ICE agents, arrested one hundred and eighteen immigrants during
operations in LA. In response to that, Trump went over
the head of California Governor Gavin Newsom to not only
send into Los Angeles the state's National Guard, but also
(11:33):
seven hundred marines to deal with the protest. Newsom quickly
and rightly identified Trump's actions as a reach of state sovereignty.
The thing that defenders of the Confederacy swear up and
down that that was the reason for the Civil War,
all right, and California's Attorney general quickly filed the lawsuit,
(11:53):
claiming the President Trump's actions were unlawful and infringed on
California's right to control its own national guard. All right,
que talk to me about what folks are saying about
Gavin Newsom and your thoughts.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
So what folks are saying about him, I'm not as
familiar with, just because that's such a wide range of
things that folks from all these different backgrounds are saying
about Gavin Newsome.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
I can. I'm much more expert at my opinion on him. Okay,
that's that's what.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
And it's an interesting one because once upon a time
saw him as like a dark horse, almost night and
shining armor candidate to come up and challenge this somehow
charismatic president that we have. And I say that with
this weird expression on my face because.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
He I know what you mean.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
He's not how it describes as that to seventy million people,
like he does that weird dance and they get excited
about it. It's just I won't get into how strange
that whole thing is. But Gavin Newsom has done a
lot to let me down. Yeah, he's done a lot
to make me. I think a lot of people would
say this part go ahead. He's done a lot to
(13:08):
make me discouraged. He's done a lot to make me.
I was someone that would have loudly supported him a
year ago. Yeah, and since then he's friendled up and
cozied up to right wing provocateurs for his podcast and
had them on as guest and like fist bumped and
laughed and joked and like shared these really strange interpersonal
(13:30):
moments with people that out of one side of his
neck he's saying are reprehensible and a danger to our society.
And you know these are like not just vocal supporters
of Donald Trump, but like sickophants, like part of the
zeal it cult following that he has.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
And he's cozied up to these people.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
And even agreed on some things that made me say,
the Governor of California, like forget that you're Gavin Newsom,
you're the governor of California. You're cozying up to those guys,
Charlie Kirk, like that's who you're You're agreeing on potential
policy decisions with Steve Bannon and Charlie Kirk, like what wait?
Speaker 2 (14:16):
What? So it's like.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Sometimes the sad truth is that and this is said
out of context intentionally, but it's not a lie on
his face. It's just a lie in the context that
it's often used. Democrats and Republicans have so much in
common sometimes, white Christian, straight and male politicians have so
(14:41):
much in common sometimes and being able to retreat into
being a white man in moments that we couldn't. We
couldn't cozy up next to Charlie Kirk. It would look
and feel disgusting. It would be jarring to our audience,
to our listeners, to our friends, to our supporters, to
(15:01):
our spirit, to our soul. But to Gavin Newsom, it
was cool. It was cool when they spoke down on
transgender children for the sake of sports. It was cool,
even though they have co ed sports all over the
country all the time forever, but they found a way
(15:23):
to make their hate the same, you know what I mean.
So it's I don't know rams how everybody feels about them,
but my feelings are very very inconsistent. Because he might
be one of those people that has a chance to
kind of free us from the chains of Donald Trump,
But how much different would he be?
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Right?
Speaker 3 (15:46):
Because there's Trump has created a new bottom, a new floor,
a new normal, and any normal politician would take us
a thousand feet back up and it would feel better.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
But how progressive, you know, how far back left?
Speaker 4 (16:06):
You know that?
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Does he really align with us? You know?
Speaker 3 (16:11):
It's it's it's hard, man, It's it's hard to watch
people and then be made kind of a fool of
when they go back to their yeah where they're saying
say stuff to us like how are you? And Ramsa's
so disappointed by a white man being a white man,
(16:31):
And it's like, when you put it that way, you know,
it makes us feel kind of ridiculous sometimes, if I, if.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
I may Gavin Newsome, he is charismatic. Gavin Newsom is
the person that when you talk about him sitting down
with Charlie Kirk and these other people, Steve Bannon, et cetera.
I've been in that position myself, having to sit across
(17:02):
the table and have a conversation with you and I
both been in this position where we have to talk
with people who feel very differently about a thing, or
maybe several things, or maybe everything. Then we feel we
have a difference of opinion on how Israel should respond
in Palestine. We have a difference of opinion on transgender athletes,
(17:23):
which is like we're talking about like seventeen people and
we have to have conversations about that in a country
of three hundred and seventy million or something crazy like that.
And so I can look over all that stuff because
I will say for myself, and I think for a
lot of people, that Gavin Newsome would be a better
(17:45):
president than Donald Trump. Now whether or not he's the
man to stand against him, that remains to be seen.
But if he was running, he would get my vote,
and I'm sure a lot of people would come out
and vote for him, and that's got to count for something,
all right. Moving on, let's talk about how Kendrick Lamar
(18:05):
sold out back to back shows in Drake's hometown. So,
you know, Q and I we followed Kendrick and Drake
back and forth pretty closely. Q certainly followed it a
little more closely than I did. I really didn't have
(18:26):
to follow it. Q will will second this for me,
But as big a fan of Drake as I am,
I'll say it was, but you know I still am.
But you know, he kind of lost a lot of
cool points, and there was one particular moment when he did.
Kendrick is from Compton, and so it really didn't matter
(18:51):
how that battle went for me because Kendrick is from Compton.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
I'm from Compton.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
So no matter what anybody would have told me, I
would have said Kendrick one, I am very biased in
that way. I rock with my people. That's why I
rock with You need an opinion this other than what
I'm gonna give you, you got to go somewhere else
for it. I just I don't know how to be
any different. I'm sorry, Okay. So I really didn't need
to pay attention to it beyond that, So that's on me.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Q did exactly what he should do. He was a journalist.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Q was paying attention and so forth, and so we
ended up having some conversations about this back and forth
between Kendrick and Drake as it developed, and that of
course got a lot of attention from the Black Information
Network from you know, you know, we work in media,
so a lot of folks were paying attention and wanted
to know our thoughts. As the saga unfolded, Drake said
(19:47):
something in one of his songs. I couldn't tell you
which one, but Q probably knows it. If not, you're
welcome to look it up. But he said something like,
Kendrick's always rapping, like he's trying to get the slaves free.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Set the slaves for youth song is called family Matters. Yep.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
And that's where Drake lost his cool points because Kendrick
not only is he from comfort, but Kendrick makes that
timeless music, that music that really speaks to the culture.
Right from me, hip hop music is black music, full stop.
Is meant to express, you know, the plight of black people,
(20:24):
to articulate it, to share it. You know, good bad, activism, streets,
you know all of that. This is our story, it's
our music, it's our culture, for better or worse. And
I look to the artist that can encompass all of
those facets of the culture and preserve them for posterity's sake.
(20:47):
As you know, my short list of the greatest of
all time those goats, right, And that means you have
to make those activist songs. You have to make songs
like Dear Mama, You have to make songs like he
your head up. You have to make those type of
songs Brenda's got a baby, right, that's Tupac, because Tupac,
in my opinion.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Is the goat.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
So when Kendrick comes along and he makes a song
that says, if God got us, then we're gonna be
all right. Kendrick is good in my book, and as
many hits as Drake had, he didn't have no songs
like that. But it wasn't until he attacked Kendrick for
having those songs. You know, I love myself, I got loyalty,
got royalty inside my DNA. Right when Kendrick attacked or sorry,
(21:33):
when Drake attacked Hendrick for that reason, I'm like, ah, right,
and I suspect a lot of people felt that way too.
Now Kendrick famously drops you know, not like us, has
the most incredible victory lap I've ever seen, and it
culminates in him selling out back to back shows in
Drake's hometown where the crowd is shouting for an encore.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
I'm gonna read this and then.
Speaker 4 (21:58):
Again too, you're off to the racism. I'm sorry, but
actually you know a cute jump in go ahead, no,
go ahead, bro okay, let me get this off. This
from Fader all right, the Fader dot com if you
want to check it out all right. With two Toronto
dates at the city's biggest venue, Lamar promised Canada a
victory lap unseen in modern hip hop history. Beyondre Canada
(22:21):
has never been a site of watershed moments in rap,
and the temptation of witness one is too much to resist,
even if it's coming at the Boy's expense. The boys
a nickname for Drake. I stand around. This is from
the author of this article at the Fader dot Com.
I stand around observing the protest for about thirty minutes.
This protest is people protesting Kendrick's contract, all right. It's
(22:43):
hard to tell who's part of the protest and who's
just waiting for friends. Near the same bronze statue. The
only things close to signage are one guy in a
Canadian tuxedo blasting girls Love Girls from a tiny blue
tooth speaker, and the ostensible ringleader, dressed in a for
All the Dog lettermen, speaking to a steady stream of
TV cameras. The protest official Instagram promised free pizza and
hoodies in its initial announcement, but the doors to the
(23:07):
Rogers Center are open and there's no food or merch.
Yet there is an ig post asking for donations to
cover a eleven thousand dollars bill for expenses. Four cops
on bicycles stand six feet away, glaring intently, just a
taste of the absurdly elevated police presence outside. Somebody walks
past me, shaking his head and sneers. They not like us.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
I retreat into the venue in case I'm mistaken for
a supporter.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
All right, cute, What a time.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
I have to pause for a second, though, because you
said something a few minutes ago that's I know to
be blatantly.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
That I know to be blatantly false.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
What's up. You're not a sick ophant. You are not
someone who decides to subscribe to a certain thing and
then regardless some new information facts are more information to
that position, no matter what. Actually, people, you're one of
the more fair people I've ever seen, even with things
that we directly oppose. So I'm not going because I
(24:13):
see what you described. I see it online and it's
kind of disgusting. Oh okay, I see we see it
with Trump supporters, and ironically, and we've made this parallel before,
we see it with a lot of Drake supporters. It's
like they've decided that this person is right no matter what.
And you said that was true about you and Kendrick
and it's not. Yeah, that's been able to hold your
(24:35):
position because he's not wrong.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Yeah, it makes it right, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
So I want to point that out because I don't
want to let you describe yourself in that way. Just
on a serious note, we know people that are that way.
We see people that are that way, and that's it's
not a cool thing, and it's it's part of the
balance that is required for us to do the work
that we do. You actually do give facts and new
information and different points of view a real shot. Even
(25:01):
when going into the conversation you already know you disagree.
You're still very very pragmatic and fair when it comes
to that. So I won't let you describe yourself as
anything different. I'll take it, thank you, because somebody that
is that way about Drake has been making a habit
of embarrassing himself over the last year with their Drake
(25:22):
Takes from the Rory and Mal podcast Mountovers mal or Mal.
He said that Drake could sell out Crypto Arena in
La but that Kendrick couldn't sell out Scotia Bank, which
is the Raptors Basketball Arena in Toronto. Well, he was
kind of right, because Kendrick sold out the Baseball Stadium,
(25:45):
which holds twice the capacity of that building.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
Then he also argued that if he ever did sell
out a show in Canada, those people would just buy
tickets to boot him. And as you said, two nights
in a row, those people begged for an encore of
Not Like Us, the most catastrophic disc record of all time. So,
you know, having this Drake and Kindred conversation, I guess
(26:08):
I can say I used to be a fan of
Drake just because I'm watching the decisions that he's making
and the way he's carrying this. Before Rams and I
were journalists, before we were radio hosts, we were DJs,
we were creators, We produced music, we wrote music. And
watching Drake get into a hip hop battle, lose that battle,
and then sue because he lost that battle. Attacking creative freedoms,
(26:33):
trying to make it to where you cannot express yourself
the way that you want without fearing litigation is cowardice.
Is anti hip hop'st anti culture So I used to
be a fan because he made some incredible music in
his time, but the decisions that he's made and the
way that he's handled losing this battle have been beneath
him and really really disappointing man. Kendrick, as Rams has said,
(26:58):
this is the greatest victory lap of all time. This
is the greatest rap beef win of all time, and
not like us.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
We'll go down in.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
History as the most powerful, catastrophic and destructive beef song
battle rap song ever, selling out twice in your hometown
and fifty thousand people begging him to do an encore
of a song calling you.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
A yeah yeah, pdat file crazy. Well check this out.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
I think that what I spoke to earlier, there's there's.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
An authenticity to Kendrick Lamar that is is definitely necessary
in these interesting times. You know, all these these songs
came out post you know, Trump one point zero's election,
and the people need that. And I think when I
think he lost his footing, Drake lost his footing when
he when he went at Kendrick for that rapping like
you're trying to set the slaves free bar, and that
(27:59):
was critical. So we're gonna leave it right there. That's
going to do it for us here on the QR Code.
A big shout out to Chris Thompson. Today's show was
produced by the one and Only. If you have some
thoughts you'd like to share, you can use the red
microphone talkback feature on the iHeartRadio app. While you're there,
be sure to hit subscribe and download all of our episodes. Also,
(28:19):
be sure to check us out on all social media
at Civic Cipher. You can also find me on all
social media at Ramsey's Job.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
If you just go to ramses page, you'll see me
on there.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Yeah, we got a lot of photos together.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
We don't have too much else.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Right, that's it man, Oh yeah man, And but yeah,
lock in with us. Let us know, you know, the
kind of show you want us to do, topics you
want us to cover. And of course be sure to
join us tomorrow as we share our news with our
voice from our perspective right here on the QR code.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
And until then, y'all peace,
Still broadcasting from the Civic Cipher Studios. This is the
QR code where we share perspective, seek understanding, and shape outcomes.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I am your host, Ramsey's ja. He is ram Jo.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
They call me q Ward four days a week. My
mom calling me off kind of names, but she's mad
and they need different than that.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
I love that.
Speaker 4 (00:19):
We want you to stick around for this part of
the show as well, because we are still going to
be discussing whether or not Gavin Newsom is the man
to stand against Donald Trump.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
This is something that a lot of people are not
happy with Donald Trump, and a lot of people are
not happy with Republicans. A lot are, but you know,
for those that aren't, Gavin Newsom is trying to make
a case for himself and a lot of people have
some thoughts about that. Q Ward certainly does. We're also
going to be talking about how Kendrick Lamar sold out
back to back shows in Drake's hometown.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Man.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
The culture has has shifted and this is something we've
talked about before, but we're excited to talk about it again.
So first we are going to discuss qwords, clapback, and
uh Q. I want to ask you a question please,
can doctors refuse to treat democrats?
Speaker 4 (01:14):
Ah?
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Man, that's uh, that should sound like a strange question, right,
And there's headlines today. If you just google that exact question,
you'll see a bunch of headlines and a bunch of answers.
The problem is people would lead you to believe, if
you say it the way that you just said it,
that that's not what the intentions are.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Ramses.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
They didn't remove the protections from you being able to
be discriminated against by how you vote or your marital
status so that they could target target unmarried democrats.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
They would never do something like that.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
And it's funny because I've been gas lit so many
times with regards to this administration and as president that
every time a headline like this hits, I pause myself
to to think, are you being fearmonger too?
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Are you being distracted?
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Are you, you know, scaring yourself and letting the Democrats,
you know, manipulate you.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
The liberal media? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Am I being a woke leftist? And you know, whatever
the case? And what I realized is I've been right
one hundred percent of the time on this one. Yeah,
all of my worst fears have come to pass. And
I called them all out as soon as some type
of loophole like this happened. Right, So, this is this
interesting thing that happens with this particular administration.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
And I remember when.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
They started talking about deportations, long before we ever saw
an American citizen be arrested, detained and deported. I called
it because I knew they had no interest in doing
the right thing. It was never a good faith argument.
It was never let's get the criminals out of here.
It was, as I've called out before, flat xenophobic, white nationalists,
(03:02):
white supremacist racism.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
They're eating the cats, they're eating the dogs.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Yeah, you target people who fit anything you need them
to fit, so that it doesn't sound so reprehensible in
the moment. So the first time that I reacted that way,
we have a video that's up on Beyonce's Internet that has,
you know, tens of millions of views of me being
very upset about what I saw coming, long before he
(03:28):
was ever the president, and everything I thought would happen
is happening now and lands on my front door, you know,
a couple of times a month, because you know, check
out that clip and you'll know the Because so when
people who know me personally accuse me of you know,
being you know, prone to fear mongering and distracted. It's
(03:52):
not fear mongering when the fear is historically justified. Our
president has a long, well documented pattern of exploiting legal
and institutional loopholes to serve his own cruel bully power,
(04:14):
to punish people that disagree with him, to further marginalize
already marginalized in vulnerable communities. This idea that he wouldn't
weaponize ambiguity and policy language like, you have to not
been paying attention all these years. It's all he's ever
(04:34):
done the entire time we've known him as a public figure.
Before he was even a politician, he was cruel to
marginalize people, Black people in particular. Right, So when legal
protections are stripped that forbid people like va doctors from
discriminating against people based on their political affiliation or their
marital status, this is not like this idea of theory
(04:57):
that we're talking about. We're giving him legal permission to
abuse people, and we know that he will. So this
idea that well, you know, the language doesn't say that
they'll directly discriminate, And it's still up to the it's like,
you know, leave the decisions to the states, you know,
remove the federal protections and let the states do it.
(05:18):
It just opens up the gate and open up the
door for them to further punish and abuse people. So
these aren't hypotheticals. Rams like I get a little emotional,
so you have to forgive me. But we saw them
separate children from their families and put them in cages. Right, yeah,
we saw him retweet share and amplify white and nationalists
(05:40):
talking points and stand with forgive and pardon and empower
and embolden insurrection is correct. We now see him attacking
judges and journalists and immigrants and veterans and disable people,
making fun of disabled people, making fun of military vets
while then pretending to celebrate them on his birthday with
(06:01):
a big, ridiculous parade. Did we see that attacking LGBTQ
people repeatedly with no consequences, with impunity, and now mass
deportations with no due process. He said he would be
a dictator on day one. Some of us believed him.
Some of us were told that we were being fearmongered.
(06:25):
Some of us were gas lit because our very very
obvious fears.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Were about to come true.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
And this is why for days after the election, I
couldn't really talk to anybody because I was just so
blown away that of course far right wing people support him,
but people that consider themselves well meaning and decent and
allies and kind and good and decent human beings also
(06:53):
support him. He has not done any of this stuff
in the cover of darkness. He's done it in broad daylight.
He said he was going to do it. He continues
to do it. And you all who can hear me,
keep finding, just like him, loopholes to keep supporting him,
to keep backing him, and to keep allowing yourself to
(07:14):
sleep good at night, so you can forgive yourself for
backing a cruel, racist, xenophobic, adjudicated sex offender who's been
cruel to every person that doesn't serve him his whole life.
Why are we so sure that he'll ever change or
(07:37):
that he won't exploit every loophole like this one every
single chance that he gets.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Well, he's very.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Good at playing the middle because he only needs a
fraction to play the middle. And I think that this
leads us to our next topic about Gavin Newsom right
so by comparison, Donald Trump will pardon a black person
(08:11):
for a crime or something. Right, they'll have dinner or
take a photo with some black folks or something like that. Right,
And everyone can plaint to that, say, Donald Trump's not racist,
ignoring the mountain of like objectively racist stuff that he
does or sneakily like shadowy racist stuff that he does.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Right.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
I think a lot of racist people want to be
racist and they don't want to bear the shame, like
the shame that comes with it, because they do get shunned.
You know, like as a rule human beings, we don't
really like that. But some people that's just kind of
their their thing, and they want to be able to
be racist without kind of dealing with the negative aspects
(08:52):
of being known as being racist.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Right.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
I think Donald Trump kind of falls into that, and
his administration too, and all these other people.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Now.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
To be fair, I know, some people are well intentioned,
well meaning, and they just turn a blind eye to
stuff that they're Like if I was in that position,
I wouldn't love it. But you know, like these people
should have come here legally, you know, and ignoring all
the the fact that we have a broken immigration system.
(09:22):
It's not easy for everyone to do so for years.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
But forgive me for cutting you off, but also ignoring
that people are being arrested and detained. That that's where
that's where.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
I was going. Yeah, like where I was going next.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
So you know, as far as being like, like, I
really like being woke.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
You know, I think that's we want to be asleep,
you know, but you like being actually woke?
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Yeah, not like this thing that they've hijacked and redefined
and renamed and turned into something else.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Being woke is actually a flex.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Yeah, I like it being informed and enlighten and curious
and kind perpetually and kind and empathetic.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
That's that's actually a flex.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
They've hijacked woke, turned it into a pejorative, and we've
like allowed it to happen. Now me even we like
cringe at the idea of being called woke.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Well, uh, I again, I thought, I think that was
a good pivot to where we are now, which is
looking forward.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
What do we do with.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
This guy in this administration? So is Gavin Newsom the
man is stand against Donald Trump. I'm gonna share a
little bit from this article. All right, So back in March,
we said that the Democratic Party needed a charismatic white
boy to stand up. Oh, by the way, this article
is from the Root, so you know it gives you
(10:49):
some some context here. Back in March, we said that
the Democratic Party needed a charismatic white boy to stand
up to President Donald Trump and charm his maga army.
The problem was that the Dems had all but given
up the fight. Everyone in the House and Senate who
could appeal to Republicans were either toothless or so far
left as to be radical. The best we could come
(11:10):
up with was Matthew McConaughey, minus the banging on Bongo's
naked and copious marijuana use. Since then, another white boy
entered the chat. Two weeks ago, US Immigration and Customs agents,
or ICE agents, arrested one hundred and eighteen immigrants during
operations in LA. In response to that, Trump went over
the head of California Governor Gavin Newsom to not only
send into Los Angeles the state's National Guard, but also
(11:33):
seven hundred marines to deal with the protest. Newsom quickly
and rightly identified Trump's actions as a reach of state sovereignty.
The thing that defenders of the Confederacy swear up and
down that that was the reason for the Civil War,
all right, and California's Attorney general quickly filed the lawsuit,
(11:53):
claiming the President Trump's actions were unlawful and infringed on
California's right to control its own national guard. All right,
que talk to me about what folks are saying about
Gavin Newsom and your thoughts.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
So what folks are saying about him, I'm not as
familiar with, just because that's such a wide range of
things that folks from all these different backgrounds are saying
about Gavin Newsome.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
I can. I'm much more expert at my opinion on him. Okay,
that's that's what.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
And it's an interesting one because once upon a time
saw him as like a dark horse, almost night and
shining armor candidate to come up and challenge this somehow
charismatic president that we have. And I say that with
this weird expression on my face because.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
He I know what you mean.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
He's not how it describes as that to seventy million people,
like he does that weird dance and they get excited
about it. It's just I won't get into how strange
that whole thing is. But Gavin Newsom has done a
lot to let me down. Yeah, he's done a lot
to make me. I think a lot of people would
say this part go ahead. He's done a lot to
(13:08):
make me discouraged. He's done a lot to make me.
I was someone that would have loudly supported him a
year ago. Yeah, and since then he's friendled up and
cozied up to right wing provocateurs for his podcast and
had them on as guest and like fist bumped and
laughed and joked and like shared these really strange interpersonal
(13:30):
moments with people that out of one side of his
neck he's saying are reprehensible and a danger to our society.
And you know these are like not just vocal supporters
of Donald Trump, but like sickophants, like part of the
zeal it cult following that he has.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
And he's cozied up to these people.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
And even agreed on some things that made me say,
the Governor of California, like forget that you're Gavin Newsom,
you're the governor of California. You're cozying up to those guys,
Charlie Kirk, like that's who you're You're agreeing on potential
policy decisions with Steve Bannon and Charlie Kirk, like what wait?
Speaker 2 (14:16):
What? So it's like.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Sometimes the sad truth is that and this is said
out of context intentionally, but it's not a lie on
his face. It's just a lie in the context that
it's often used. Democrats and Republicans have so much in
common sometimes, white Christian, straight and male politicians have so
(14:41):
much in common sometimes and being able to retreat into
being a white man in moments that we couldn't. We
couldn't cozy up next to Charlie Kirk. It would look
and feel disgusting. It would be jarring to our audience,
to our listeners, to our friends, to our supporters, to
(15:01):
our spirit, to our soul. But to Gavin Newsom, it
was cool. It was cool when they spoke down on
transgender children for the sake of sports. It was cool,
even though they have co ed sports all over the
country all the time forever, but they found a way
(15:23):
to make their hate the same, you know what I mean.
So it's I don't know rams how everybody feels about them,
but my feelings are very very inconsistent. Because he might
be one of those people that has a chance to
kind of free us from the chains of Donald Trump,
But how much different would he be?
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Right?
Speaker 3 (15:46):
Because there's Trump has created a new bottom, a new floor,
a new normal, and any normal politician would take us
a thousand feet back up and it would feel better.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
But how progressive, you know, how far back left?
Speaker 4 (16:06):
You know that?
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Does he really align with us? You know?
Speaker 3 (16:11):
It's it's it's hard, man, It's it's hard to watch
people and then be made kind of a fool of
when they go back to their yeah where they're saying
say stuff to us like how are you? And Ramsa's
so disappointed by a white man being a white man,
(16:31):
And it's like, when you put it that way, you know,
it makes us feel kind of ridiculous sometimes, if I, if.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
I may Gavin Newsome, he is charismatic. Gavin Newsom is
the person that when you talk about him sitting down
with Charlie Kirk and these other people, Steve Bannon, et cetera.
I've been in that position myself, having to sit across
(17:02):
the table and have a conversation with you and I
both been in this position where we have to talk
with people who feel very differently about a thing, or
maybe several things, or maybe everything. Then we feel we
have a difference of opinion on how Israel should respond
in Palestine. We have a difference of opinion on transgender athletes,
(17:23):
which is like we're talking about like seventeen people and
we have to have conversations about that in a country
of three hundred and seventy million or something crazy like that.
And so I can look over all that stuff because
I will say for myself, and I think for a
lot of people, that Gavin Newsome would be a better
(17:45):
president than Donald Trump. Now whether or not he's the
man to stand against him, that remains to be seen.
But if he was running, he would get my vote,
and I'm sure a lot of people would come out
and vote for him, and that's got to count for something,
all right. Moving on, let's talk about how Kendrick Lamar
(18:05):
sold out back to back shows in Drake's hometown. So,
you know, Q and I we followed Kendrick and Drake
back and forth pretty closely. Q certainly followed it a
little more closely than I did. I really didn't have
(18:26):
to follow it. Q will will second this for me,
But as big a fan of Drake as I am,
I'll say it was, but you know I still am.
But you know, he kind of lost a lot of
cool points, and there was one particular moment when he did.
Kendrick is from Compton, and so it really didn't matter
(18:51):
how that battle went for me because Kendrick is from Compton.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
I'm from Compton.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
So no matter what anybody would have told me, I
would have said Kendrick one, I am very biased in
that way. I rock with my people. That's why I
rock with You need an opinion this other than what
I'm gonna give you, you got to go somewhere else
for it. I just I don't know how to be
any different. I'm sorry, Okay. So I really didn't need
to pay attention to it beyond that, So that's on me.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Q did exactly what he should do. He was a journalist.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Q was paying attention and so forth, and so we
ended up having some conversations about this back and forth
between Kendrick and Drake as it developed, and that of
course got a lot of attention from the Black Information
Network from you know, you know, we work in media,
so a lot of folks were paying attention and wanted
to know our thoughts. As the saga unfolded, Drake said
(19:47):
something in one of his songs. I couldn't tell you
which one, but Q probably knows it. If not, you're
welcome to look it up. But he said something like,
Kendrick's always rapping, like he's trying to get the slaves free.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Set the slaves for youth song is called family Matters. Yep.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
And that's where Drake lost his cool points because Kendrick
not only is he from comfort, but Kendrick makes that
timeless music, that music that really speaks to the culture.
Right from me, hip hop music is black music, full stop.
Is meant to express, you know, the plight of black people,
(20:24):
to articulate it, to share it. You know, good bad, activism, streets,
you know all of that. This is our story, it's
our music, it's our culture, for better or worse. And
I look to the artist that can encompass all of
those facets of the culture and preserve them for posterity's sake.
(20:47):
As you know, my short list of the greatest of
all time those goats, right, And that means you have
to make those activist songs. You have to make songs
like Dear Mama, You have to make songs like he
your head up. You have to make those type of
songs Brenda's got a baby, right, that's Tupac, because Tupac,
in my opinion.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Is the goat.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
So when Kendrick comes along and he makes a song
that says, if God got us, then we're gonna be
all right. Kendrick is good in my book, and as
many hits as Drake had, he didn't have no songs
like that. But it wasn't until he attacked Kendrick for
having those songs. You know, I love myself, I got loyalty,
got royalty inside my DNA. Right when Kendrick attacked or sorry,
(21:33):
when Drake attacked Hendrick for that reason, I'm like, ah, right,
and I suspect a lot of people felt that way too.
Now Kendrick famously drops you know, not like us, has
the most incredible victory lap I've ever seen, and it
culminates in him selling out back to back shows in
Drake's hometown where the crowd is shouting for an encore.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
I'm gonna read this and then.
Speaker 4 (21:58):
Again too, you're off to the racism. I'm sorry, but
actually you know a cute jump in go ahead, no,
go ahead, bro okay, let me get this off. This
from Fader all right, the Fader dot com if you
want to check it out all right. With two Toronto
dates at the city's biggest venue, Lamar promised Canada a
victory lap unseen in modern hip hop history. Beyondre Canada
(22:21):
has never been a site of watershed moments in rap,
and the temptation of witness one is too much to resist,
even if it's coming at the Boy's expense. The boys
a nickname for Drake. I stand around. This is from
the author of this article at the Fader dot Com.
I stand around observing the protest for about thirty minutes.
This protest is people protesting Kendrick's contract, all right. It's
(22:43):
hard to tell who's part of the protest and who's
just waiting for friends. Near the same bronze statue. The
only things close to signage are one guy in a
Canadian tuxedo blasting girls Love Girls from a tiny blue
tooth speaker, and the ostensible ringleader, dressed in a for
All the Dog lettermen, speaking to a steady stream of
TV cameras. The protest official Instagram promised free pizza and
hoodies in its initial announcement, but the doors to the
(23:07):
Rogers Center are open and there's no food or merch.
Yet there is an ig post asking for donations to
cover a eleven thousand dollars bill for expenses. Four cops
on bicycles stand six feet away, glaring intently, just a
taste of the absurdly elevated police presence outside. Somebody walks
past me, shaking his head and sneers. They not like us.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
I retreat into the venue in case I'm mistaken for
a supporter.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
All right, cute, What a time.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
I have to pause for a second, though, because you
said something a few minutes ago that's I know to
be blatantly.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
That I know to be blatantly false.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
What's up. You're not a sick ophant. You are not
someone who decides to subscribe to a certain thing and
then regardless some new information facts are more information to
that position, no matter what. Actually, people, you're one of
the more fair people I've ever seen, even with things
that we directly oppose. So I'm not going because I
(24:13):
see what you described. I see it online and it's
kind of disgusting. Oh okay, I see we see it
with Trump supporters, and ironically, and we've made this parallel before,
we see it with a lot of Drake supporters. It's
like they've decided that this person is right no matter what.
And you said that was true about you and Kendrick
and it's not. Yeah, that's been able to hold your
(24:35):
position because he's not wrong.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Yeah, it makes it right, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
So I want to point that out because I don't
want to let you describe yourself in that way. Just
on a serious note, we know people that are that way.
We see people that are that way, and that's it's
not a cool thing, and it's it's part of the
balance that is required for us to do the work
that we do. You actually do give facts and new
information and different points of view a real shot. Even
(25:01):
when going into the conversation you already know you disagree.
You're still very very pragmatic and fair when it comes
to that. So I won't let you describe yourself as
anything different. I'll take it, thank you, because somebody that
is that way about Drake has been making a habit
of embarrassing himself over the last year with their Drake
(25:22):
Takes from the Rory and Mal podcast Mountovers mal or Mal.
He said that Drake could sell out Crypto Arena in
La but that Kendrick couldn't sell out Scotia Bank, which
is the Raptors Basketball Arena in Toronto. Well, he was
kind of right, because Kendrick sold out the Baseball Stadium,
(25:45):
which holds twice the capacity of that building.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
Then he also argued that if he ever did sell
out a show in Canada, those people would just buy
tickets to boot him. And as you said, two nights
in a row, those people begged for an encore of
Not Like Us, the most catastrophic disc record of all time. So,
you know, having this Drake and Kindred conversation, I guess
(26:08):
I can say I used to be a fan of
Drake just because I'm watching the decisions that he's making
and the way he's carrying this. Before Rams and I
were journalists, before we were radio hosts, we were DJs,
we were creators, We produced music, we wrote music. And
watching Drake get into a hip hop battle, lose that battle,
and then sue because he lost that battle. Attacking creative freedoms,
(26:33):
trying to make it to where you cannot express yourself
the way that you want without fearing litigation is cowardice.
Is anti hip hop'st anti culture So I used to
be a fan because he made some incredible music in
his time, but the decisions that he's made and the
way that he's handled losing this battle have been beneath
him and really really disappointing man. Kendrick, as Rams has said,
(26:58):
this is the greatest victory lap of all time. This
is the greatest rap beef win of all time, and
not like us.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
We'll go down in.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
History as the most powerful, catastrophic and destructive beef song
battle rap song ever, selling out twice in your hometown
and fifty thousand people begging him to do an encore
of a song calling you.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
A yeah yeah, pdat file crazy. Well check this out.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
I think that what I spoke to earlier, there's there's.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
An authenticity to Kendrick Lamar that is is definitely necessary
in these interesting times. You know, all these these songs
came out post you know, Trump one point zero's election,
and the people need that. And I think when I
think he lost his footing, Drake lost his footing when
he when he went at Kendrick for that rapping like
you're trying to set the slaves free bar, and that
(27:59):
was critical. So we're gonna leave it right there. That's
going to do it for us here on the QR Code.
A big shout out to Chris Thompson. Today's show was
produced by the one and Only. If you have some
thoughts you'd like to share, you can use the red
microphone talkback feature on the iHeartRadio app. While you're there,
be sure to hit subscribe and download all of our episodes. Also,
(28:19):
be sure to check us out on all social media
at Civic Cipher. You can also find me on all
social media at Ramsey's Job.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
If you just go to ramses page, you'll see me
on there.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Yeah, we got a lot of photos together.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
We don't have too much else.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Right, that's it man, Oh yeah man, And but yeah,
lock in with us. Let us know, you know, the
kind of show you want us to do, topics you
want us to cover. And of course be sure to
join us tomorrow as we share our news with our
voice from our perspective right here on the QR code.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
And until then, y'all peace,
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