December 30, 2025 • 28 mins
On part 2 of today's program, Hosts Ramses Ja and Q Ward pay tribute to Black Pioneers Lost in 2025
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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.
The man you are about to hear from is a
man where paranormal stuff just seems to keep happening to
him for some reason. He is the Q in the
QR code. He goes by the name.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Of q Ward, and the voice that you just heard
tries to find a way to make normal these paranormal
things that happens. He is the R in the QR code.
He goes by the name RAMS this.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Job, we're going to have to explain what that means.
But in the meantime, I want you to stick around
because later on the show, we're gonna have a bit
of a tribute to some of the black pioneers we've
lost in twenty twenty five, some of the great names
that have succumbed this year. We're also gonna have some dialogue.
Q and I are gonna ask the question, what is
the most hurtful thing you've experienced and how did you survive?
(00:55):
But right now, at this time, for qwar's clap back
and Q tell me how you filming.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
You know this this thing that we do used to
be something that, even though we understood it, might make
some people upset because they didn't want to be criticized
or power did not want truth spoken to it. There
was a freedom and a protection that came with the
(01:28):
space that we occupy that no longer seems to exist,
because everything about the world that we live in is
different than it was a year ago. And in just
a year, the world has become a less safe, less happy,
(01:49):
less healthy, less decent place because close to eighty million
people sol fit to elect the least decent person in
my mind's memory. And there are days lately where this
(02:11):
outrage that I used to have doesn't exist anymore, because
it's been replaced by grief, like deep grief and sadness,
the kind that like sits in your chest as you
watch empathy fade away. Our willingness to care for each other,
(02:41):
to see the humanity and others seems to be eroding,
but not by a little bit, by a lot. Like
every day I've heard people ask how did we get here?
And the unfortunate truth is that history has answers to
(03:02):
questions like that we were warned about authoritarian movements and
that they don't just seize power politically, they reshape culture
through emotion. They drain society a society of its empathy.
They normalize cruelty. They convince ordinary people that compassion is
(03:29):
a weakness and that only loyalty to power matters. This
was described as the banality of evil, the quiet, every
day accepting of harm, because people convince themselves that it's justified.
(03:49):
We're watching that now, not just in our country, but
all over the world. And white supremacy didn't just reappear suddenly.
It reorganized itself. It rebranded, It hired a marketing team.
It put on suits and lapel pins and flags, created
(04:12):
slogans about saving or making America great. But underneath all
of that, it's the same story. Step one, create fear.
Step two, name an enemy. Step three, convince people that
(04:33):
cruelty towards that enemy is necessary. Social psychologists have written
about this for decades. How fear narrows an eroades empathy.
When your leader tells you someone is replacing you, or
(04:55):
invading your country, or stealing your culture or your jobs,
it rewires your brain so that it doesn't see people
or human being anymore. It sees threats. And when you
can frame someone or an entire culture or an entire
ethnic group as a threat, empathy disappears. The Great Replacement
(05:23):
conspiracy was designed to do this, and it's not just
a racist lie. It's a psychological weapon meant to make
a demographic shift or change feel like extinction, to make
(05:47):
equality feel like loss, to make people feel like sharing
a space means that they're being disappeared. We've seen versions
of this in America before, or cultures and people thought
only one group is worthy, and now millions of people
(06:11):
have been trained to believe if it doesn't hurt me
or people like me, it doesn't matter. I E. Slavery,
I E. Jim Crow, I either political or I'm sorry.
The prison industrial complex, white supremacy convinced mass segments of
(06:31):
this country that cruelty was order, which meant safety, which
eventually led to patriotism. Today, that same emotional poison has involved,
has grown, has evolved, I'm sorry, has changed people's psychological makeup.
(07:00):
Web du Boy warned us that systems of racial hierarchy
don't just exploit people of color, but holistically corrupt white
Americans as well, teaching them that it's okay to deny
(07:20):
the humanity. Of others, and that initial sin, that initial
moral damage has rippled for generations, from MAGA to conspiracy
forms to unfortunately, entire media ecosystems multi billion dollar media
(07:50):
corporations built on that fear and outrage algorithm. Researchers will
tell you the system that shape our online realities reward provocateurs.
(08:15):
The system actually rewards anger, division, humiliation, and punishment. That's
the highest engagement rams And I wonder how come we're
shadow band and how come we don't get the reach
that we once got it. Well, if we were more
angry and more divisive and more hateful, we were more
(08:35):
popular in a society. Were more popular means more money
and a capitalist system, you get to see how so
many will flock to the conspiratorial, contrarian provocateur space. People
(08:58):
are literally getting opamine hits from being unkind intentionally once again,
cultural engineering that has become the everyday reality for people
like myself, sleepless nights, sad days, and then I hear
(09:22):
people ask again, how did we get here? Part of
the answer is because people have somehow decided that it's
okay to profit from this type of dangerous divisiveness. Because
(09:47):
there are people who benefit from us losing empathy and
compassion toward one another. Politicians who become more powerful from
division media platforms to get more from fear movements that
literally require hatred for oxygen to even exist. We have
(10:09):
to hate each other, and it is insanely effective. It
worked then, it works now, and it has for centuries.
We see it when people cheer for policies designed to
hurt immigrants or trans kids or poor families. We see
(10:36):
it when injustice becomes entertainment, when they film movie trailers
of them abusing people of their dignity and robbing them
of their civil rights. We see it when people smugly
laugh at other people's pain because they've been told those
(10:58):
people don't even count rams. And I went to museums
and saw photos of people having parties and picnics with
their children, with burned and hanged black bodies behind them
in the photos. This was a normal family outing once
upon a time. So forgive me if the historical familiarity
(11:22):
terrifies me. And every authoritarian regime ever studied Germany, Chile,
South Africa under apartheid scholars documented the same emotional trajectory.
(11:43):
First comes humiliation, then grievance, then scapegoating, then moral numbness
so much that cruelty becomes the norm. No one's even
offended by it anymore. Again, some even cheer when it happens.
(12:06):
So this is why so many of us feel sad.
And I say so many of us because I assume
it's not just me. And I don't mean being dramatic.
I don't mean this any abstract. I mean deep human
grief because unfortunately we've seen this movie before. We know
(12:29):
what happens when all that's left of empathy dissipates, disappears,
goes away. We know that history does not end well
for societies that stop caring. So I will try to
say this and try to sound like I mean it.
(12:52):
If you, like me, feel that sadness, there is something
very important to call out about. That that sadness is
evidence that your humanity is still present. James Baldwin, someone
(13:14):
that I miss and look up to as if I
knew him, said once beautifully, to be aware and conscious
in this country is to be in a constant state
of heartbreak. Because when you love, you actually care about life, justice, dignity,
(13:38):
and watching dignity and empathy die feels like watching oxygen
leave the room. We cannot allow that heartbreak to turn
into surrender. And I almost tremble when I say that,
because it's dangerously close. Empathy does not die by accident.
(14:04):
It's killed, deliberately destroyed, and unless we deliberately defended it
will cease to exist. We cannot forget.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
That.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
You can't just fight with votes and courts. It takes
a moral refusal, a moral resolve, to not let hatred
and division become the norm. Insisting that human beings remain
human beings even when a movement tells you to stop
(14:46):
seeing them that way. Staying human takes courage in a
time like this, Trust me, it is very easy to
become numb, easier to be be cruel in response, easier
to just unplug and disconnect altogether. I don't know if
(15:11):
there is hope left. I won't pretend to. But if
there is any hope left for this country, it lives
in the people that refuse to stop caring, people who
are made deeply sad by this reality that we live in.
(15:32):
People who understand that democracy is not just a system,
It is a commitment to each other. So to anybody
that can hear my voice that this resonates with, who
also feel tired, who feel heavy, who feel their heartbreaking.
That is not weakness. You are not naive, You are
(15:55):
not soft, and you are not alone. Those of us
that still feel are the last line of defense. Do
not let them steal our empathy. Do not let them
take your heart. Do not let this propaganda teach you
(16:15):
whose lives matter and whose don't care anyway stubbornly, loudly
care like history depends on it, because it literally does.
If we can find a way to hold on to
that and each other, if we can fight for empathy
(16:36):
as fiercely as others are now fighting for power, maybe
we can build something worth handing down to our children
so they don't inherit a nation defined by cruelty. But
somehow we can try to leave them one that's still
(17:00):
capable of compassion.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Well said, every so often we have these like sobering moments,
we take inventory of where we are, what we've lost,
and how far we have to go to get back
to where we were. And it's heavy. But you know,
(17:37):
they say, knowing it's half the battle. So I appreciate
making that clear. You know, I have those feelings sometimes too,
I feel like I was born like who would choose
to be born black in this country? You know what
I mean? Like, I feel like there's just people mad
at you for no reason, but there's other people that
(18:03):
have their own journeys.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
That are.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
I don't know, don't know, but we'll get there. I
appreciate the words, and we have our marching orders. Thank you, Q.
As we wind down the year, of course, there's a
job that we have to do. We're gonna make sure
(18:30):
to share a bit of a tribute to some of
the great names that we lost. Again, these are black
folks that you know, the world lost, and you know
these are names that might not appear on other lists. Indeed,
(18:53):
this list is a lot longer than what I'm going
to be able to share here. There's plenty more great names,
but we chose a handful of the ones that we
lost in twenty twenty five that we thought were relevant
to our audience and people that we certainly have looked
up to different points in the time. For folks that
(19:14):
are just coming to the show, I want to make
it known that Q and I both have a musical background.
You know, we're both DJ's Q's background goes even further
than that. Deeper than that, I should say, you know,
Q is an accomplished individual as far as the music
industry is concerned, certainly more accomplished than I am. But
(19:39):
some of these names really matter to us, and so it's.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
A little sad, But.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
We're going to approach this with the spirit of gratitude
that we were able to know some of these folks
and live in the time of some of these other,
you know, great individuals that we lost this year. So
I'll share from the bion in twenty twenty five, the
Black community across entertainment, sports, politics, and culture more than
(20:08):
the loss of influential figures whose workshap generations. From soul
legends like Sam Moore, Gwyn McCrae and ROBERTA. Flack to
hip hop architects such as IRV Gotti and DJ Unk,
these figures helped define eras and influence global culture. The
year also claimed beloved actors including Malcolm Jamal Warner, Lynn Hamilton,
and Danielle Spencer, as well as trailblazers and boxing football,
(20:28):
civil rights in public service like George Foreman, Charles B. Wrangel,
and Hazel and Dukes. Together, their lives reflect a legacy
of creativity, resistance, excellence, and enduring impact. Heep scrolling to
remember the black stars we lost in twenty twenty five.
So I'm gonna scroll down here, all right. First up
is dj Unk. His real name is Anthony Anthony Platt.
(20:53):
He's a hip hop artist. His big song that many
people would know is called walk It Out, the song
I played. I still played song. That song is a hit,
and I believe he died of an illness. He was
forty three when he passed. He died January twenty fourth,
twenty twenty five. IRV Gotti is another hip hop legend.
(21:14):
His real name is Irving Lorenzo Junior. He's a record
producer and a Murder Inc. Records founder. He lived to
be fifty four years old, and he passed on February fifth,
twenty twenty five. Valletta Wallace this is another hip hop titan.
She was the mother of the notorious Big So. She
(21:34):
is a hip hop matriarch. She lived to be age
seventy two. She died on February twenty first, twenty twenty five. ROBERTA.
Flack funnily enough, another artist that you know. I know
that I played her music quite a bit. She was
someone who was sampled quite a bit and just a
beautiful singer and multiple Grammy winners. She lived to be
(21:57):
eighty eight years old. She died February twenty four, twenty
twenty five. Walter Scott, the co founder of The Whispers
the R and B Group, passed at age eighty one.
He died June twenty six, twenty twenty five. Kevin Yarborough
I was a musician for Yarborough and People's. He lived
to be seventy two. Died June nineteen, twenty twenty five.
Malcolm Jamal Warner. This was a This was a heavy one.
(22:22):
I remember when this happened. Of course, the actor from
The Cosby Show, and he's also known for being in
The Resident But he did. He's an actor, so he's
decades worth of films and TV shows. He lived to
be fifty four. He died July twenty, twenty twenty five.
I believe it was rip tide or something like that.
(22:42):
It was a swimming accident. He was vacationing with his
daughter and he lost his life there. Sly Stone Sylvester
Stewart is the funk pioneer from sly in the family Stone.
He lived to be age eighty two. He died June nine,
twenty twenty five. George Foreman, the heavyweight boxing champion that
we mentioned earlier, He lived to be seventy six years old.
(23:05):
He died March twenty first, twenty twenty five. Here's a
big one. Asada Shakur. She was the civil rights activist
the Black Liberation Army. She lived to be seventy eight
years old. She died September twenty six, twenty twenty five,
and critically, I remember people were celebrating her. We were
on the ground in DC when we're in DC for
(23:26):
the Congressional Black Caucus. I think she had passed right
before we had gone out there, Q and I just
remember people saying over and over again, at least she
died free. She's got a fantastic story. For folks that
don't know, it's worth finding out. You know who she
was and what she did and what she was accused of,
(23:48):
and why when we say she died free, that that
feels special to many of us. A sad one. Angie Stone.
She was a singer and a nil soul pioneer. She
lived to be sixty three years old. She died March first,
(24:08):
twenty twenty five. This is another one whose music that
her music is going to live forever because she just
made the right kind of music. And her one time
partner DiAngelo also lost his life. This was another heavy
one for those who don't know D'Angelo. He was the
(24:30):
Neil soul singer and producer. He lived to be fifty one.
He died October fourteen, twenty twenty five. A lot of
folks didn't expect that one. A lot of the you
know Angie don't want expect Angie. I think Angie passing
a car crash. The Angelo was sick, I'm not mistaken,
But d' angelo was very private, and so when that happened,
(24:51):
it was a lot. Carl Carlton soul slash, R and
B singer. The song you had known him from is
She's a Bad Man and Jama. He loved to be
seventy three years old. He died December thirteen, twenty twenty five.
Young Scooter is one I know you might not know,
but I know he's a rapper. He sing a song
(25:15):
called Columbia. He sings a lot of songs that I know.
I shared lots of his songs with really close friends
of mine, and he's always going to have like a
cool place in my story. I played so many of
his songs. He lived to be thirty nine years old.
He died March twenty eight, twenty twenty five. Roy Ayers.
He was a jazz funk, vibraphonist and acid jazz pioneer.
(25:38):
He looked to be eighty four. He died March for
twenty twenty five. And again, this list is a lot longer,
but these were some of the names that you and
I thought were important to commemorate before we move on
with the year. We were grateful to have the time
that we had and have the gifts that they gave
the world. And so you know, rest in peace. Thank you,
(26:04):
uh for the for the songs, and for the leadership,
and for the entertainment and for the you know, whatever
it is that you've done. You are all now ancestors,
and I'll speak for both of us, and I'll let
you say your piece, Q, But UH, I know that
we intend to honor your legacy by continuing to remember you.
(26:26):
Even if this country has decided that your legacy is
not worth commemorating, you know, we'll do it ourselves. And
if we're not willing to go first, you know, then
shame on us. But that's not our reality. Anything to
add q.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
You know, being a DJ and a songwriter put you
in a position where you develop relationships with complete strangers,
but you you learn to care about them. You missed them,
people you've never met before, or because their music, their message,
their words, their lyrics, their voices connect on a spiritual level.
(27:07):
There's an actual connection that's made and that's why you
see music go across ethnicities, across borders, across oceans to
touch people in ways that they cry and they like
they feel it on a like in their soul. Somehow
(27:29):
you lose people like this, people that you've never met,
it feels like you're losing family because these ties that
bind us and these things they did with their talents
transform the world in many ways and connect to people
in ways that I think people without the instruments ever
(27:49):
could So, you know, gone but never forgotten to all
of these legends.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
So that's going to do it for us here on
the QR Code Today show, as always, was produced by
Chris Thompson. If you have any thoughts you'd like to share,
do us a favor and use the red microphone talkback
feature on the iHeartRadio app. While you're there, be sure
to subscribe and download all of our episodes. Also, do
us a favor, follow us on all social media. You
can find us at Civic Cipher. That is c I
(28:19):
v I C c I p h e R. We
see all the follows, We see all the support, and
that does mean a lot to us. The show grows
with your support, and we have a lot of growing
to do in the coming year. It'll be your support
that gets us there, So once again, be sure to
check us out c I b I C c I
(28:41):
p h e R, give us a follow, leave a
nice comment. You can find me on all platforms at
ramses Jah.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
I'll just repeat that c I v I C c
I p h e R on all platforms
Still broadcasting from the Civic Cipher studios. This is the
QR code where we share perspective, seek understanding, and shape outcomes.
The man you are about to hear from is a
man where paranormal stuff just seems to keep happening to
him for some reason. He is the Q in the
QR code. He goes by the name.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Of q Ward, and the voice that you just heard
tries to find a way to make normal these paranormal
things that happens. He is the R in the QR code.
He goes by the name RAMS this.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Job, we're going to have to explain what that means.
But in the meantime, I want you to stick around
because later on the show, we're gonna have a bit
of a tribute to some of the black pioneers we've
lost in twenty twenty five, some of the great names
that have succumbed this year. We're also gonna have some dialogue.
Q and I are gonna ask the question, what is
the most hurtful thing you've experienced and how did you survive?
(00:55):
But right now, at this time, for qwar's clap back
and Q tell me how you filming.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
You know this this thing that we do used to
be something that, even though we understood it, might make
some people upset because they didn't want to be criticized
or power did not want truth spoken to it. There
was a freedom and a protection that came with the
(01:28):
space that we occupy that no longer seems to exist,
because everything about the world that we live in is
different than it was a year ago. And in just
a year, the world has become a less safe, less happy,
(01:49):
less healthy, less decent place because close to eighty million
people sol fit to elect the least decent person in
my mind's memory. And there are days lately where this
(02:11):
outrage that I used to have doesn't exist anymore, because
it's been replaced by grief, like deep grief and sadness,
the kind that like sits in your chest as you
watch empathy fade away. Our willingness to care for each other,
(02:41):
to see the humanity and others seems to be eroding,
but not by a little bit, by a lot. Like
every day I've heard people ask how did we get here?
And the unfortunate truth is that history has answers to
(03:02):
questions like that we were warned about authoritarian movements and
that they don't just seize power politically, they reshape culture
through emotion. They drain society a society of its empathy.
They normalize cruelty. They convince ordinary people that compassion is
(03:29):
a weakness and that only loyalty to power matters. This
was described as the banality of evil, the quiet, every
day accepting of harm, because people convince themselves that it's justified.
(03:49):
We're watching that now, not just in our country, but
all over the world. And white supremacy didn't just reappear suddenly.
It reorganized itself. It rebranded, It hired a marketing team.
It put on suits and lapel pins and flags, created
(04:12):
slogans about saving or making America great. But underneath all
of that, it's the same story. Step one, create fear.
Step two, name an enemy. Step three, convince people that
(04:33):
cruelty towards that enemy is necessary. Social psychologists have written
about this for decades. How fear narrows an eroades empathy.
When your leader tells you someone is replacing you, or
(04:55):
invading your country, or stealing your culture or your jobs,
it rewires your brain so that it doesn't see people
or human being anymore. It sees threats. And when you
can frame someone or an entire culture or an entire
ethnic group as a threat, empathy disappears. The Great Replacement
(05:23):
conspiracy was designed to do this, and it's not just
a racist lie. It's a psychological weapon meant to make
a demographic shift or change feel like extinction, to make
(05:47):
equality feel like loss, to make people feel like sharing
a space means that they're being disappeared. We've seen versions
of this in America before, or cultures and people thought
only one group is worthy, and now millions of people
(06:11):
have been trained to believe if it doesn't hurt me
or people like me, it doesn't matter. I E. Slavery,
I E. Jim Crow, I either political or I'm sorry.
The prison industrial complex, white supremacy convinced mass segments of
(06:31):
this country that cruelty was order, which meant safety, which
eventually led to patriotism. Today, that same emotional poison has involved,
has grown, has evolved, I'm sorry, has changed people's psychological makeup.
(07:00):
Web du Boy warned us that systems of racial hierarchy
don't just exploit people of color, but holistically corrupt white
Americans as well, teaching them that it's okay to deny
(07:20):
the humanity. Of others, and that initial sin, that initial
moral damage has rippled for generations, from MAGA to conspiracy
forms to unfortunately, entire media ecosystems multi billion dollar media
(07:50):
corporations built on that fear and outrage algorithm. Researchers will
tell you the system that shape our online realities reward provocateurs.
(08:15):
The system actually rewards anger, division, humiliation, and punishment. That's
the highest engagement rams And I wonder how come we're
shadow band and how come we don't get the reach
that we once got it. Well, if we were more
angry and more divisive and more hateful, we were more
(08:35):
popular in a society. Were more popular means more money
and a capitalist system, you get to see how so
many will flock to the conspiratorial, contrarian provocateur space. People
(08:58):
are literally getting opamine hits from being unkind intentionally once again,
cultural engineering that has become the everyday reality for people
like myself, sleepless nights, sad days, and then I hear
(09:22):
people ask again, how did we get here? Part of
the answer is because people have somehow decided that it's
okay to profit from this type of dangerous divisiveness. Because
(09:47):
there are people who benefit from us losing empathy and
compassion toward one another. Politicians who become more powerful from
division media platforms to get more from fear movements that
literally require hatred for oxygen to even exist. We have
(10:09):
to hate each other, and it is insanely effective. It
worked then, it works now, and it has for centuries.
We see it when people cheer for policies designed to
hurt immigrants or trans kids or poor families. We see
(10:36):
it when injustice becomes entertainment, when they film movie trailers
of them abusing people of their dignity and robbing them
of their civil rights. We see it when people smugly
laugh at other people's pain because they've been told those
(10:58):
people don't even count rams. And I went to museums
and saw photos of people having parties and picnics with
their children, with burned and hanged black bodies behind them
in the photos. This was a normal family outing once
upon a time. So forgive me if the historical familiarity
(11:22):
terrifies me. And every authoritarian regime ever studied Germany, Chile,
South Africa under apartheid scholars documented the same emotional trajectory.
(11:43):
First comes humiliation, then grievance, then scapegoating, then moral numbness
so much that cruelty becomes the norm. No one's even
offended by it anymore. Again, some even cheer when it happens.
(12:06):
So this is why so many of us feel sad.
And I say so many of us because I assume
it's not just me. And I don't mean being dramatic.
I don't mean this any abstract. I mean deep human
grief because unfortunately we've seen this movie before. We know
(12:29):
what happens when all that's left of empathy dissipates, disappears,
goes away. We know that history does not end well
for societies that stop caring. So I will try to
say this and try to sound like I mean it.
(12:52):
If you, like me, feel that sadness, there is something
very important to call out about. That that sadness is
evidence that your humanity is still present. James Baldwin, someone
(13:14):
that I miss and look up to as if I
knew him, said once beautifully, to be aware and conscious
in this country is to be in a constant state
of heartbreak. Because when you love, you actually care about life, justice, dignity,
(13:38):
and watching dignity and empathy die feels like watching oxygen
leave the room. We cannot allow that heartbreak to turn
into surrender. And I almost tremble when I say that,
because it's dangerously close. Empathy does not die by accident.
(14:04):
It's killed, deliberately destroyed, and unless we deliberately defended it
will cease to exist. We cannot forget.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
That.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
You can't just fight with votes and courts. It takes
a moral refusal, a moral resolve, to not let hatred
and division become the norm. Insisting that human beings remain
human beings even when a movement tells you to stop
(14:46):
seeing them that way. Staying human takes courage in a
time like this, Trust me, it is very easy to
become numb, easier to be be cruel in response, easier
to just unplug and disconnect altogether. I don't know if
(15:11):
there is hope left. I won't pretend to. But if
there is any hope left for this country, it lives
in the people that refuse to stop caring, people who
are made deeply sad by this reality that we live in.
(15:32):
People who understand that democracy is not just a system,
It is a commitment to each other. So to anybody
that can hear my voice that this resonates with, who
also feel tired, who feel heavy, who feel their heartbreaking.
That is not weakness. You are not naive, You are
(15:55):
not soft, and you are not alone. Those of us
that still feel are the last line of defense. Do
not let them steal our empathy. Do not let them
take your heart. Do not let this propaganda teach you
(16:15):
whose lives matter and whose don't care anyway stubbornly, loudly
care like history depends on it, because it literally does.
If we can find a way to hold on to
that and each other, if we can fight for empathy
(16:36):
as fiercely as others are now fighting for power, maybe
we can build something worth handing down to our children
so they don't inherit a nation defined by cruelty. But
somehow we can try to leave them one that's still
(17:00):
capable of compassion.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Well said, every so often we have these like sobering moments,
we take inventory of where we are, what we've lost,
and how far we have to go to get back
to where we were. And it's heavy. But you know,
(17:37):
they say, knowing it's half the battle. So I appreciate
making that clear. You know, I have those feelings sometimes too,
I feel like I was born like who would choose
to be born black in this country? You know what
I mean? Like, I feel like there's just people mad
at you for no reason, but there's other people that
(18:03):
have their own journeys.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
That are.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
I don't know, don't know, but we'll get there. I
appreciate the words, and we have our marching orders. Thank you, Q.
As we wind down the year, of course, there's a
job that we have to do. We're gonna make sure
(18:30):
to share a bit of a tribute to some of
the great names that we lost. Again, these are black
folks that you know, the world lost, and you know
these are names that might not appear on other lists. Indeed,
(18:53):
this list is a lot longer than what I'm going
to be able to share here. There's plenty more great names,
but we chose a handful of the ones that we
lost in twenty twenty five that we thought were relevant
to our audience and people that we certainly have looked
up to different points in the time. For folks that
(19:14):
are just coming to the show, I want to make
it known that Q and I both have a musical background.
You know, we're both DJ's Q's background goes even further
than that. Deeper than that, I should say, you know,
Q is an accomplished individual as far as the music
industry is concerned, certainly more accomplished than I am. But
(19:39):
some of these names really matter to us, and so it's.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
A little sad, But.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
We're going to approach this with the spirit of gratitude
that we were able to know some of these folks
and live in the time of some of these other,
you know, great individuals that we lost this year. So
I'll share from the bion in twenty twenty five, the
Black community across entertainment, sports, politics, and culture more than
(20:08):
the loss of influential figures whose workshap generations. From soul
legends like Sam Moore, Gwyn McCrae and ROBERTA. Flack to
hip hop architects such as IRV Gotti and DJ Unk,
these figures helped define eras and influence global culture. The
year also claimed beloved actors including Malcolm Jamal Warner, Lynn Hamilton,
and Danielle Spencer, as well as trailblazers and boxing football,
(20:28):
civil rights in public service like George Foreman, Charles B. Wrangel,
and Hazel and Dukes. Together, their lives reflect a legacy
of creativity, resistance, excellence, and enduring impact. Heep scrolling to
remember the black stars we lost in twenty twenty five.
So I'm gonna scroll down here, all right. First up
is dj Unk. His real name is Anthony Anthony Platt.
(20:53):
He's a hip hop artist. His big song that many
people would know is called walk It Out, the song
I played. I still played song. That song is a hit,
and I believe he died of an illness. He was
forty three when he passed. He died January twenty fourth,
twenty twenty five. IRV Gotti is another hip hop legend.
(21:14):
His real name is Irving Lorenzo Junior. He's a record
producer and a Murder Inc. Records founder. He lived to
be fifty four years old, and he passed on February fifth,
twenty twenty five. Valletta Wallace this is another hip hop titan.
She was the mother of the notorious Big So. She
(21:34):
is a hip hop matriarch. She lived to be age
seventy two. She died on February twenty first, twenty twenty five. ROBERTA.
Flack funnily enough, another artist that you know. I know
that I played her music quite a bit. She was
someone who was sampled quite a bit and just a
beautiful singer and multiple Grammy winners. She lived to be
(21:57):
eighty eight years old. She died February twenty four, twenty
twenty five. Walter Scott, the co founder of The Whispers
the R and B Group, passed at age eighty one.
He died June twenty six, twenty twenty five. Kevin Yarborough
I was a musician for Yarborough and People's. He lived
to be seventy two. Died June nineteen, twenty twenty five.
Malcolm Jamal Warner. This was a This was a heavy one.
(22:22):
I remember when this happened. Of course, the actor from
The Cosby Show, and he's also known for being in
The Resident But he did. He's an actor, so he's
decades worth of films and TV shows. He lived to
be fifty four. He died July twenty, twenty twenty five.
I believe it was rip tide or something like that.
(22:42):
It was a swimming accident. He was vacationing with his
daughter and he lost his life there. Sly Stone Sylvester
Stewart is the funk pioneer from sly in the family Stone.
He lived to be age eighty two. He died June nine,
twenty twenty five. George Foreman, the heavyweight boxing champion that
we mentioned earlier, He lived to be seventy six years old.
(23:05):
He died March twenty first, twenty twenty five. Here's a
big one. Asada Shakur. She was the civil rights activist
the Black Liberation Army. She lived to be seventy eight
years old. She died September twenty six, twenty twenty five,
and critically, I remember people were celebrating her. We were
on the ground in DC when we're in DC for
(23:26):
the Congressional Black Caucus. I think she had passed right
before we had gone out there, Q and I just
remember people saying over and over again, at least she
died free. She's got a fantastic story. For folks that
don't know, it's worth finding out. You know who she
was and what she did and what she was accused of,
(23:48):
and why when we say she died free, that that
feels special to many of us. A sad one. Angie Stone.
She was a singer and a nil soul pioneer. She
lived to be sixty three years old. She died March first,
(24:08):
twenty twenty five. This is another one whose music that
her music is going to live forever because she just
made the right kind of music. And her one time
partner DiAngelo also lost his life. This was another heavy
one for those who don't know D'Angelo. He was the
(24:30):
Neil soul singer and producer. He lived to be fifty one.
He died October fourteen, twenty twenty five. A lot of
folks didn't expect that one. A lot of the you
know Angie don't want expect Angie. I think Angie passing
a car crash. The Angelo was sick, I'm not mistaken,
But d' angelo was very private, and so when that happened,
(24:51):
it was a lot. Carl Carlton soul slash, R and
B singer. The song you had known him from is
She's a Bad Man and Jama. He loved to be
seventy three years old. He died December thirteen, twenty twenty five.
Young Scooter is one I know you might not know,
but I know he's a rapper. He sing a song
(25:15):
called Columbia. He sings a lot of songs that I know.
I shared lots of his songs with really close friends
of mine, and he's always going to have like a
cool place in my story. I played so many of
his songs. He lived to be thirty nine years old.
He died March twenty eight, twenty twenty five. Roy Ayers.
He was a jazz funk, vibraphonist and acid jazz pioneer.
(25:38):
He looked to be eighty four. He died March for
twenty twenty five. And again, this list is a lot longer,
but these were some of the names that you and
I thought were important to commemorate before we move on
with the year. We were grateful to have the time
that we had and have the gifts that they gave
the world. And so you know, rest in peace. Thank you,
(26:04):
uh for the for the songs, and for the leadership,
and for the entertainment and for the you know, whatever
it is that you've done. You are all now ancestors,
and I'll speak for both of us, and I'll let
you say your piece, Q, But UH, I know that
we intend to honor your legacy by continuing to remember you.
(26:26):
Even if this country has decided that your legacy is
not worth commemorating, you know, we'll do it ourselves. And
if we're not willing to go first, you know, then
shame on us. But that's not our reality. Anything to
add q.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
You know, being a DJ and a songwriter put you
in a position where you develop relationships with complete strangers,
but you you learn to care about them. You missed them,
people you've never met before, or because their music, their message,
their words, their lyrics, their voices connect on a spiritual level.
(27:07):
There's an actual connection that's made and that's why you
see music go across ethnicities, across borders, across oceans to
touch people in ways that they cry and they like
they feel it on a like in their soul. Somehow
(27:29):
you lose people like this, people that you've never met,
it feels like you're losing family because these ties that
bind us and these things they did with their talents
transform the world in many ways and connect to people
in ways that I think people without the instruments ever
(27:49):
could So, you know, gone but never forgotten to all
of these legends.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
So that's going to do it for us here on
the QR Code Today show, as always, was produced by
Chris Thompson. If you have any thoughts you'd like to share,
do us a favor and use the red microphone talkback
feature on the iHeartRadio app. While you're there, be sure
to subscribe and download all of our episodes. Also, do
us a favor, follow us on all social media. You
can find us at Civic Cipher. That is c I
(28:19):
v I C c I p h e R. We
see all the follows, We see all the support, and
that does mean a lot to us. The show grows
with your support, and we have a lot of growing
to do in the coming year. It'll be your support
that gets us there, So once again, be sure to
check us out c I b I C c I
(28:41):
p h e R, give us a follow, leave a
nice comment. You can find me on all platforms at
ramses Jah.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
I'll just repeat that c I v I C c
I p h e R on all platforms
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