Part 2 . September 15, 2025. Stop Calling Hip-Hop a Young Man’s Game

Stop Calling Hip-Hop a Young Man’s Game. Hear more on this topic on today's podcast.

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Episode Transcript

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 one
of the best video game players of Destiny Too, of
all time. I had to look that up. He is
one of the best in the world. He is the

(00:21):
hunter in the game. He's the Q in the QR code.
He goes by the name of qboard.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
You never had somebody put your business on the street.
I used to be really good at that game. Though
that part is actually accurate. What you just heard. Who
was you know, disclosing things about my personal life with
no permission slip at all? Is the R in QR code.
My brother the person who I would follow down one
way street in my car because that's the way he turns,

(00:47):
so I guess we're going the wrong way now if
he goes by the name rams is Jah stick around.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
We were going to talk about how it's time to
stop calling hip hop a young man's game, and a
Fox News host saying the government should just kill homeless people,
but right now it is time for Q words clapback
talking to us about how now mass media is behaving
like state controlled media. Cure.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
The fourth Estate has fallen and really really let us down.
They failed us, and I have to say it plainly, man,
I'm thoroughly disappointed in our industry and our colleagues. The

(01:35):
so called watchdogs of democracy have turned into lap dogs
for those in power. I mean rams, Look around, it's
all of corporate media. Now. There used to be a network,
and we all know that network that already seemed like

(01:59):
not quite state media because they were very, very partisan,
and there's some partisan in all media. But again, I
think we can all well know, I know, we can't
all agree. Some of us agree that this network took
it a little bit far, and once upon a time,
the courts did as well, to the tune of almost

(02:20):
eight hundred million dollars. Yeah, let me get this straight.
CBS fires Colbert for mocking Donald Trump. ABC fires Terry
Moran for calling Stephen Miller a world class haters. NBC

(02:41):
fires Matt Dowd for saying the obvious that hateful thoughts
lead to hateful actions. Meanwhile, Fox stands proudly by Brian
kill Me after he called for Nazi style executions for
six hundred thousand homeless people a propaganda press pass if

(03:09):
you will. And let's be clear, people aren't being punished
for lying, They're being punished for telling the truth, for
daring to call out Trump and his cronies in plain language. Meanwhile,
calls for mass violence that apparently safe speech is only

(03:31):
safe if you cater to his base. Fox won't blink.
The double standard is very, very obvious. They silence moral
clarity but amplify extremist cruelty. If mocking power gets you fired,
but advocating for murder gets you a primetime paycheck, are

(03:57):
we still called the free press or is that flat
lea state media? The duty of the fourth estate has
always been simple, to speak truth to power, to keep
the democracy honest, to be a guardrail between the people
and authoritarianism. But corporate media has abandoned that mission. They

(04:22):
no longer serve the truth. They serve shareholders, sponsors, and
access to that same power that they're caping for. They've
traded courage for clicks, accountability for advertising, and, as Fox
News explain, journalism for entertainment. And this betrayal matters because

(04:44):
when the watchdogs stop barking, authoritarianism feels free to break
down the door. So here's the cost lies spread, unchecked violence, normalized,
public trust gone, and the very people who need honest reporting,
the American public, are left foot propaganda disguised as journalism.

(05:10):
Every journalist fired for honesty sends a message telling the
truth is dangerous and being obedient can help you keep
your job. Every extremist left unchallenged says that violence is
acceptable just as long as it serves power. And don't
think this is unique to us. Around the world, state

(05:32):
media works the same way. Punished ascent reward propaganda make
the powerful untouchable Russia, Hungary, China. We've seen this playbook
over and over again, and now it's playing out here
right under our noses, under the banner of corporate media

(05:55):
and the Fourth Estate, the one institution meant to protect
us from this slide, it seemingly help increase the rails.
So Ramses charges me with the clapback. The Fourth Estate
has failed us and currently is continuing to do so.

(06:19):
When mocking Trump gets you fired, but promoting Nazi style
of violence gets you airtime, the press is no longer free.
It's been captured. We can't call it journalism when silence,
when we silence truth, tellers and protect propagandas we can't

(06:41):
call it the fourth estate when it becomes the first
tool of authoritarian power. If democracy dies in the darkness,
corporate media is busy selling the light bulbs to the
highest bidder. And until we demand better, until we support
independent voices, shout out to civic Cipher, the QR code

(07:02):
and KPFK, until we refuse to confuse obedience with news,
our so called free press will remain what it is now,
sadly a disgrace.

Speaker 1 (07:22):
It's a scary time to live in because we use
these media outlets often enough to tell stories and to
verify and validate stories. And I worry that there are
going to be stories that go untold that need to

(07:44):
be told. Now. I'm grateful for our relationship with the
BI in with iHeart, et cetera. But you're right, I
do worry about the future. So whatever comes, man, we'll
face it together. All right. Moving on, and I have
some dialogue about the very thing we've been talking around,

(08:06):
how the Fox News host said the government should just
kill almost people crazy. All right, so let's get right
into it. This from Variety, Brian Kilmead's controversial remarks came
during a Wednesday broadcast of Fox and Friends, where he
and his co host Lawrence Jones and Ainsley Earhart were

(08:27):
discussing the death of.

Speaker 2 (08:31):
Ernya.

Speaker 1 (08:32):
I believe that's how I said that, or Erna.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
I think that's.

Speaker 1 (08:36):
It Zurutska, the twenty three year old Ukrainian woman, was
stabbed and killed on a train in North Carolina in August.
I saw that video and it's it's really sad. According
to CNN, the assailant de Carlos Brown, had a record
of mental illness and multiple former convictions. Lawrence first claimed

(08:56):
that a lot of homeless people don't want to take
the government and don't want to get the help. He
suggested that the only solution for home is people refusing
government assistance is for them to get locked up in jail.
Kill me, then added, or volunteer sorry, or involuntary lethal
injections or something. Just kill them unquote. I know how

(09:20):
this has been going. We should note before we get
started that. He subsequently apologized. But I want to make
sure that I give you the floor and a wide
berth here to share your thoughts, because you actually brought
this to my attention.

Speaker 2 (09:34):
Q MS. I don't I was going to clap back
on this story. Yeah, I remember you said that, but
it I'm not allowed to be as upset on these

(09:59):
airways as I am in real life and my person
right now, because these are the same people asking for
us to be solemn and solidarity in the mourning of
one of their colleagues, one of the people who they
agree with, one of the people who hates the same

(10:20):
people they hate, one of the people who sows division,
who's made millions off of that division, who's made millions
off of d demonizing and dehumanizing everyone who doesn't look,
love and think like he does. We were supposed to
all in solidarity, be respectful and reverent and mourning the

(10:44):
death of a single person. These same people, without hesitation,
without a regret in the world, throw out ideas like yeah,
let's involuntarily kill all of our homeless, and like I
did mention in my clad back when people on the

(11:07):
quote unquote our side of the aisle are even critical
of people on their side, they get fired even when
they're telling the truth. But they get to mention things
like yeah, just kill everybody. No one back, Tony, No

(11:28):
one loses their job, No one even suggests anything, no
pushback from the decent people sitting on the show with him,
who I'm sure are mothers and fathers and have children,
because you know, you have to say that about the
right when they do something despicable, as if they're the
only people who have license to being parents and having children,

(11:54):
as if they're the only person that have license to
being cared about or being shown some empathy. The same
people on the same network, on the same show, would
suggest we just kill hundreds of thousands of people for

(12:16):
the crime of being poor, and even other poor people
applaud it, even people who are one emergency, one setback,
one mispay check away from being in the same circumstances.
They vote for it, they organize on its behalf, they

(12:40):
cheer for it, they wear the merch, they defend it.
They'll fight you over it. While you're standing next to
them saying they deserve more. They say, well, you don't,
so I'm willing to not have it. Imagine in the world, world,

(13:03):
don't imagine that we're here. I will forgive my language.
You don't have to imagine that we're here. We're right
wing quote unquote journalist, TV show host, broadcasters can get
on the air and suggest in a serious tone that

(13:26):
we should involuntarily kill fellow citizens again for the crime
of being poor. Yeah, but when one of theirs is
killed for sowing division and hate, they demand that we
all solemnly and in solidarity show reference, perform sadness and

(13:49):
perform morality. This is a very very sick time and
a very very sick place for us to be.

Speaker 1 (13:59):
At. I think that that you're more right than you know. So,
you know, for folks that caught the first part of
the show, we were talking about how the right is
just so angry. It's kind of what they should perpetually
angry about something. They'll figure it out. And this is

(14:22):
like something that's very consistent with the MAGA, like I
guess philosophy or culture. I suppose culture is probably a
better word, because Yeah, as soon as the Charlie Kirk thing,
before anybody found anything out about who actually does it
did it, these people were champing at the bit waiting
something's got to set this civil war off so we

(14:44):
can get out there and kill us some libs. And
you know, we got the guns and we got you know,
this is kind of what they're on and they're angry,
and they're going to go and all these people have
relatives and you know the industries that are in blue
states and blue state, you know, all this sort of
stuff that prop up all of these like poor places

(15:08):
around the country that don't really have their stuff together
while the education is awful and all that sort of stuff. Right,
But nope, they want that war, right and they're just
waiting angry and it sets them off, right, And we're
talking about this guy right here. Look, man, just lethal injection,

(15:28):
involuntary lethal injection. Just get rid home. Now, this is
something important to me. In q Q and I, for
ten years, we had a five oh one c three
we put on an event every month called hashtag Lunchbag,
and we actually went out and fed the homeless. We
galvanized the community because we're on the radio. So we

(15:48):
get to say, Harry, folks, come down meet us at
Monarch Theater and Barsmith and we're gonna package some lunches
and going and some hygiene kids, et cetera, and going distribute.
And you know, in our time there, we learned that
a lot of these people are simply people with health issues,
some mental health, some other health issues that prevent them

(16:11):
from being able to work. Some of them are on
the spectrum and their caretaker passed away and they can't
take care of themselves, so now they're wandering the streets.
You know, I've heard it said more than once that
the United States prison industrial complex is the largest mental

(16:33):
health facility in the country. And that's just a shame
because people that can't get their health care needs met
because they don't have the resources. Because despite what this
black man said on this show, making resources available to
people who cannot learn about them, cannot access them. What
it's you got to do more? And you know I

(16:55):
want to I want to share this too. Gavin Newsom
says something super potent just for everybody that walks past
homeless people and turns their nose up at them. Gavin
Newsom quoted Proverbs twenty one thirteen sor whoever closes his
ear to the cry of the poor will himself call
out and not be answered. I'm going to share another
quote from the Statue of Liberty. Give me you're tired,

(17:17):
you're poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. That's
from the Statue of Liberty. Okay, and then I want
to let folks know just how many homeless people there are,
because if you live in a densely populated area, you
might think there's a lot of homeless people. Whatever. Watch
this in twenty twenty four. This is the highest it's
ever been. By the way, In twenty twenty four, about

(17:39):
zero point two to three percent of the US population,
or seven hundred and seventy one four hundred and eighty
people experience homelessness on a single night, representing a significant
increase from previous years. This is the highest number recorded
since data collection began, with rates varying by state. So
this is a fixable, per problem, and one that requires

(18:02):
empathy and people to be humane, and it cannot. It
does not have space for that maga anger. All right,
let's move on.

Speaker 2 (18:14):
We saved the best.

Speaker 1 (18:15):
For last sorry entertainment segment. Let's talk about why it's
time to stop calling hip hop a young man's game. Okay,
So I will let you know that I was born
in the eighties. I was born in eighty two, so
I grew up alongside hip hop. Hip hop has me

(18:37):
by a few years. Hip hop just had its fiftieth birthday.
I have the fiftieth anniversary Timberlands in my studio Unworn
by the way. I'm so proud of having those the
Purple Ones. But yeah, I grew up watching hip hop

(18:57):
grow up, you know. To be fair, I spent kind
of my early years listening more to church music than
anything else. But I, like many of us, all grew
up with hip hop, and yeah, for a long time,
we kind of knew and understood that hip hop was
a young man's game. Indeed, when I first got on
the radio, one of my old program directors, who I

(19:20):
love dearly, he told us, He's like, hey, listen, if
you guys think you're going to be here well into
your thirties, If you guys think you're going to be
here in your forties, don't plan on it. This is
not that kind of industry. These people that are here
need to be talking to young folks.

Speaker 2 (19:37):
That's it.

Speaker 1 (19:38):
So stay tapped into the culture, ride the wave as
long as you can, but don't make this your everything. Right,
And I'm so glad that he was largely wrong about that,
right because at the time we had not seen really
any examples of hip hop for adults. It was still
very much maturing. I'm going to share something here from

(20:01):
up Rocks Slash hip Hop DX, and I think it's
very potent. So basically it says the idea that hip
hop is strictly a young man's genre is a total myth.
Twenty twenty five and the last decade as a whole
really is proof that there is no age limit when
it comes to making rap music that elevates the art form,

(20:24):
resonates with listeners both young and old, and moves the
needle in the culture. Just ask Clips, Nas, Killer, Mike,
Two Chains, Black Thought, or any of the other ogs
who are still delivering at a high level late in
their careers. So I just thought that this was something
that was like some interesting fodder for conversation. And you know,

(20:45):
last year was a huge year for hip hop. And
you know, folks don't really know this, but kind of
the inception of this show, the QR Code was based
around covering aspects of the culture at large that really
didn't lend themselves to civic ciphers. So Q and I

(21:07):
are great folks to offer some perspective here. And as
I'm learning, let me make sure I give you a
wide berth because I know you have a lot to
offer this queue, just because I spend so much time
with you, so talk to me.

Speaker 2 (21:22):
It's a really interesting thing that it can be argued
that the album of the year is The Clips. You sure, yeah,
And these are not young men. These are very grown men, fathers.
There's an interesting thing with our genre, the one that

(21:43):
they've allowed us to hold on to because they're kind
of all ours. We've gotten followed most of popular music.
But I think that's the reason they try to keep
it bottled in in a box, to just serve young people.
Where you two can tour the world forever playing hits

(22:08):
from forty years ago or thirty years ago, and we're
supposed to just give it up. You know, you got
your couple albums in, you got your couple hits, your
five minutes of fame. Go figure out something else to do.
And we are now at a point where we have
legacy acts where I can simultaneously say the best hip
hop album out right now is The Clips, and ironically,

(22:32):
the one that's most anticipated from what I'm watching is
possibly something from jay Z people too.

Speaker 1 (22:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (22:41):
There seems to be people who really really want that.
And you know, the the moment that hip hop had
last year could have been a blip. But you know,
and it's interesting that things kind of come back full

(23:03):
circle to Compton's own Kendrick Lamar Duckworth because his form
of hip hop, his style of hip hop, his commitment
to hip hop, his commitment to the art and the
culture of the music, not just the capital gains of
it is what I think has calibrated the audience to

(23:25):
crave hip hop in its truest form, almost spoken word,
almost poetry, lyricism on tandras, you know, rhyme patterns, the science,
not just the art, and that makes space for true

(23:47):
lyrics and true lyricists who tend to be our kind
of godfather hip hop artist. A lot of the younger
artists are making commercial friendly music that's catch and doesn't
have the same depth where you have to listen to
it a bunch of times and break the lyrics down
and hey, Rams, what do you think he meant when

(24:08):
he said that, Yeah, you get it. The reaction community
created an entire explosion for themselves last year reacting to
Kendrick Lamar and Drake's you know, Godzilla King Kong moment,
But most of what made that so entertaining and we
got into this ourselves was what did that mean? Not

(24:32):
just how much do I like it? Because we could
have just played and said, hey, that was great, I
loved it, but all of us collectively as a community
started to break lyrics down and really get into you know,
what is happening here beneath the layer belief the surface,
I mean. And I think that ushered in an era
where we don't want our ogs to go away. We

(24:56):
were actually looking forward to their work and what they
have to offer. Yeah, you know.

Speaker 1 (25:03):
One of the things that I'm happy to see. It
was one of the things I thought back when when
I was kind of a newer radio personality call it
two thousand and six seven ish is, I wondered, after
hearing those words from my former program director, Well, how

(25:24):
come rock stars can be like a million years old
and still tour the world, And how come all these
other genres, you know, musicians and R and B acts
and gospel like pick up pick a genre doesn't matter,
country music, it doesn't matter. How come all these folks
get to grow up and be older, but hip hop

(25:45):
is not so much. And I know that at that time,
it just felt like hip hop is so cool that
old people cannot possibly be cool, Right, But I think
that what he might have been doing was conflating coolness
with hip hop instead of conflating coolness with blackness, because

(26:08):
black people, these people in particular, have grown up and
still been very cool.

Speaker 2 (26:13):
Right.

Speaker 1 (26:13):
So you could pick a young hip hop artist, like
somebody that makes the modern day equivalent of ringtone rap
right stream stream rap albums right where you want to
stream it, and it's just it's the hit of the day, right,
And they could be number one on streams and you
could check all the charts and their streaming and their
song is doing really well. But could they organize a boycott?

(26:37):
Could they galvanize the hip hop community together to say
we're going to do this and not do that? And
the answer is no. Okay, they're just kind of the
fly by night artist. But the OG's, the Legends, the
jay Zs, the Killer Mike's, those sorts of people. People
listen to them. They're juggernauts in this space, right, clips

(26:58):
Kendrick et cetera. Right, And I don't want to age
Kendrick too much because I know he's still he's kind
of like in the middle class, but he's not a
new artist. He's got what five six albums out now.
But you know, rock stars get to grow up and
you know, as I mentioned, you know, Killer Mikey at
his Grammy win. And the truth is, hip hop has

(27:21):
always sort of had a more enterprising nature to it,
which also helps ensure the longevity of the artists because
they do more than just make music. A lot of
other genres, they make music, that's what they do. Hip
hop artists. Look, I make music, but here go with
my sneakers, here go my headphones. You know, I came
out with a line of video games. I got this,
I got that, you know what I mean. And it

(27:42):
keeps them relevant and contributing to the culture. And you know,
as it turns out, we've grown up with them, and
then young people, people that are younger than us, like
my children, still look up to them, perhaps through me,
perhaps on their own for one reason or another. And
I love it. I'm so happy that hip hop has

(28:03):
made it fifty years. Here's to another fifty. So yeah,
I like when we get to end on a little
bit of a positive note. You know, we were here,
we mattered, we did something cool, so I'll take it.
But you know what time it is, and that's going
to do it for us here on the QR Code.
Today's shoe was produced by Chris Thompson. If you have

(28:26):
some thoughts you'd like to share, please use the red
microphone talk back feature on the iHeartRadio app, and while
you're there, be sure to hit subscribe and download all
of our episodes. Also, be sure to check us out
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Speaker 2 (28:42):
You can find me on.

Speaker 1 (28:42):
All social media at rams' ja.

Speaker 2 (28:46):
I am q Ward on all social media as well,
and be sure to.

Speaker 1 (28:49):
Join us next time as we share our news with
our voice from our perspective right here on the QR Code.

Speaker 2 (28:56):
Peace