April 29, 2025 • 46 mins
The Buffalo-born rapper and entrepreneur explains the difference between the weed business and the cannabis industry- how is this semi-legal system working for people trying to come off the sidelines and out of the black market and criminal justice pipeline and do it legitimately? How can we ensure those people get to play the game and aren’t thrown right back into the underground by a system that favors deep-pocketed corporate players? Benny strikes a positive optimistic tone as he talks about the need for a collective of smaller sized business owners, and the need for a coherent national policy to realize the promise of the early progress of legalization and decriminalization.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I want to see more entrepreneurs do it the right way.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Maybe it would be a thing where it's really getting
back to the community where people work there. You understand,
instead of just buying weed there, you actually work there.
That's the Awtime and Gold.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Lava for Good and Stand Together in Music Present The
War on Drugs Podcast Season two. This season, we're diving
deeper into the real stories behind the War on Drugs.
It's impact, it's failures, and the people offering a better
path forward. Today on the show, rapper, songwriter, storyteller, member
of famed Buffalo, New York hip hop collective Griselda, collaborator
(00:33):
with Lil Wayne, Buster Rhymes, Eminem and Snoop Dogg, and
modern cannabis impresario Benny the Butcher. All Right, welcome to
another addition of season two of The War on Drugs. Yeah,
and again this is the season we're talking to people,
real people, talking about some of the problems that we
still face today in the drug war. And we have
(00:54):
an amazing one, someone that has seen the drug war
from the illegal side to the legal side to.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
It.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Yeah, very well, one of the best to do it, man,
Benny the Butcher.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
We got him right, here on the world drugs and
I think you said it's kind of Rick James and
and Benny are the two names you might know from
yeah music.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
Community, that's you know, that's the click and Benny Bennie
is one of the coldest to do it. It was
great meeting him, solid dude. Man, I didn't realize he's
in Atlanta, So yeah, that.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Was that was amazing. I was pretty excited that we
didn't have to go to Buffalo November.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
Yeah, that might have been one of the only zoom
ones we had to.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Talk about even then. We just dragged your ass from
Atlanta to d C. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Yeah, but hey, we gotta make it work, make it work.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
No, but Benny was amazing. I'm you know, I'm thirty seven,
so I grew up in my hip hop was like
g unit. Yeah, sending kind of these foundations of like
soul and hip and things, and Benny raps like that,
and his music like that and feels nostalgic but still
progress and if people have kind of been a little
bit squeezed about, like I don't really like the route
(02:08):
that's been coming out. Benny kind of has this old
school new school sound. If you grew up in that time.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Beer.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
I think you'll if you haven't listened to music.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
He's got that gritty feel that nineties hip hop they
really held down the New York sound that's kind of
been abandoned by New York. And the fact that Buffalo
upstate New York area, who has never really been on
the map on the hip hop scene, is carrying that torch.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
That's cool, man.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
And I think people get hyper focused on the mainstream stuff.
But if you want gritty street tales that talk about
the war on drugs, it's no place better than Bennie
the Busch.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
I agree, Yeah, no, it was. He's an amazing artist.
He was again kind of like you were in all
these guys that had, you know, seen the struggles head
he's dealt with, you know, getting convicted on drug charge.
He's seeing the in and out of everything.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
He listen to his music, not only will he you know,
he doesn't just glamorize it, are glorified the real side
of things.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
It was really cool when we were in a studio
in Atlanta when we did this, and it was just
an awesome scene. And you know, he has his logos
around two butcher and eyes with the blood and yeah,
very like and it was on it was on election day, Yes,
it was that day.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
We didn't even know at that point.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
We ended up recording. We're like, yeah, we'll try to
get the flights out of the Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Yeah, it's like.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Yeah for the poles close. But yeah, No, everything was
great and he was really amazing with his time. And
you know, like we teased before, the last episode really
takes us through the differences between the weed business cannabis industry.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
Broke that down perfectly, and I don't think I've look
I'll let him break it down for you because I've
never heard it broke it down.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
When I saw your eyes light up about it, I
was like, well, this isn't you know if claim hasn't
heard about it.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
I mean, it's one of those things that it makes
sense what you hear about it, but I've never heard
it put in that manner were made that much sense.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
No.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
I mean that's why he's such a poet. I mean,
he is a he puts things in ways that makes
you think. No, without further Ado can't wait for you
to hear about this. Just amazing stories. Growing up in
the inner city of Buffalo, what he dealt with. It's that,
you know, very similar story that we hear about the
drug game kind of in prohibition, the war just hurting
and harming, damaging community. Someone rising up through music and
(04:27):
arts and being able to potentially now you know, become
a businessman into this industry and again, very someone.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
To be real.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
We talk about a lot of the problems with the
the you know, the small business, and we get into
that with the who we've been as cannabis industry and
why that weed business continues to pliffer rate. So yeah,
i'maa shut up. Yeah, let's get it.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
Yeah, Me and Greg, our guests and sponsors may sound smart,
we may even make some good points, but at the
end of the day, we're not medical profession Okay, Please
don't get your medical advice from a podcast. Anything we
say on here does not constitute official medical advice. Relax,
(05:07):
consult your doctor before you start any new treatment plans.
Got it, man, We got Benny the Butcher right now
live on the War on Drugs podcast. Let's do it, man, let's.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Go, but you come out. Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
That's what I'm saying. I needed to hear that.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Thanks for coming on many.
Speaker 4 (05:26):
Yes, Buffalo's finest. Let's jump in, man, because I think
you tie into a lot of what we talk about
on this podcast. First season, we were kind of just
talking about the War on drugs and broader strokes overall,
how it started, where it came from, how it's still happening.
And this season we want to get in with people
(05:47):
who have actual experience dealing with the War on drugs
and you know, so tell us a little bit about
Buffalo man, just coming from there and making it out
of Buffalo as big as you Because Rick James Ben
in the Butcher, that's what I read like.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
I know, as far as like music, it's a lot
of us.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
It's a lot of us from there, you know what
I'm saying. But Man, Buffalo is a blue collar city.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Uh, real independent hustle, real grinders come from there, right
on the steel belt. Yeah, close to Canada. It's a
bunch of culture in Buffalo.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Mm hmmm.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
It's like the was in the backdrop of like the
underground railroad.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
A lot of you know what I'm saying, ding during.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
That Yeah, I was, we was up there kicking it
basically almost purchasing the farm and the people tell them
they's to call this like Freedom Way because this is
with the slave scene when they was coming across the
green after they got what I mean. So Buffalo just
that place, man. You know what I'm saying, Niagara Falls
right there, the Buffalo bills. You know what I'm saying,
(06:51):
Ben too, A Bell's game. That was That was awesome.
Man's that's that's a crazy right there. I feel like
a lot of times in the music, I kind of
paint the city dark.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
You feel what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
But it's just it's just my overall view what I've
seen because it's it's definitely that there. You know what
I'm saying. It's definitely the oppression there. It's definitely the
uh well all the good ship.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
I said.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
It's like we always top five and poor cities in
the nation always, like you said, no rappers ever came
from Buffalo.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
You know what I'm saying. And you know that ship
is important. You feel what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Because everybody not gonna look to an NFL player, NBA player,
or a hockey player.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
Or everybody got the analytic. Everybody ain't got the sad
exactly like, yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
So you need you need different kind of pillars from
your city to represent different communities. And I feel like,
you know, we were that and we are that, you
know what I'm saying now. So, man, you know, Buffalo
Buffalo cold as fuck.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
A few times I got to get back up there, man, Yes, yeah,
you know, I know Buffalo has been, you know, in
the last couple of years kind of in the news
and as a divisive town.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Like I think when people kind of think it's either
kind of the bills or like, oh yeah, there's been
a lot of you know, history of you know, racial discrimination.
And can you talk about what's unique about Buffalo. We
were kind of talking about that a lot before this,
like what's unique about Buffalo and how was it growing
up there?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Man? As far as the racial tension, it really wasn't
a thing. But it's America, so it definitely was a thing.
But we always hear about the neighborhood and the love
Joy where they say where they always chase the black
kids out of that neighborhood, you fee what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
And uh, I like that.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
I like that neighborhood love Joy, right, neighbor exactly, man,
But I love love joy. I loved that neighborhood. I
lived in that neighborhood before I got fellelm me who
live in that neighborhood as we speak right now. So
but I'm pretty sure that was going on before my era.
I'm pretty sure people older than me to have a
different story about that. But still in all, it's a
city of neighbors. You feel what I'm saying, we definitely
(08:55):
rally together. Is the racial tension is definitely a part
of Buffalo, but it's not I can't, I don't want
to say, it's not nothing that you you blatantly see
every day. You know, it's around and like you going
to a restaurant and like get out and no ship
like that though, But it's just a it's a bunch
of no hats, no shirts, no white tea's, you know
what I'm saying. It's a bunch of shit like that.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Yeah, I got you.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
But like I said, just just just American American ship
that I know that's happening everywhere else.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
But I love my city, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
And I feel like we do rally together no matter
what color, no matter where you're from. You know what
I'm saying. So Buffalo is a strong place, but just man,
just that east Side when you come, when you come
from an urban neighborhood.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
To think about the thing about this job that I
got as a rapper, taking me abroad and getting me
to travel, is I get to see so much what
you really think. Them people who in the ghettos every day,
they think that's real life. You see what I'm saying,
They think that it's real fucking life. That's not real life.
Just because you go through that, you know what I'm saying,
And it's a small percentage of not a small percentage,
(10:02):
but it's a greater percentages of the population who don't
even know what that type of life is about. You
feel what I'm saying. So to feel like what we
go through is normal is normal for us. You feel
what I'm saying. So getting to see that, you know,
it was different. It's a bunch of meanings to life,
and it's a life is beautiful. It's not just you know,
(10:23):
east Side trying to stay alive and surviving and trying
to have more than the next man and not get
tooken under. You know, Just like I said, I still
love the city. But I just wish, you know, everybody
in that life get a glimpse of what it's like
to be outside that life. You know what I'm saying,
just a glimpse because it sounds crazy, but people really don't.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
They really don't, like that's all they fucking know.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
And that's survival mode. There's so much stuff you can't
even deal with. You don't even know how to relax
a lot of times, you know, I'm just thinking too,
like lyrics and stuff you put in your song, like
five mm, I don't know if y'all are still.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
To get my wife's okay. You know, you know how
celebrity India shout out India. I wanted to make sure
that's good. Okay, cool.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
So she she basically got kind of like a little
interlude on there in between you spitting about how the
door got in by the uh well, I don't know
it was.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
It was it was it was the Buffalo City Police.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
But she had always told me a story that she
was like, yo, she was like, my father told me
about you.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
I'm like your father she was like yeah, I'm like
I don't know your father.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
But he kind of knew my area, like I said,
my neighborhood is known like for for heroin, you know
what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
So he was like, be careful with him. You know
what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
It's like that guy he from over there. You know
what that's not. You know that drug is different. You
know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
It's like he was basically basically giving her the ropes
and ship like that. And she had told me, and
I'm like, that's crazy.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
So when years passed and I want I want to
give her, I want her to give her point of
view on my life. I'm like, I didn't make up
the stories for I'm like, tell tell something. I did
tell her to say that. I'm like, tell that story.
You always tell me about your pops. So she told me.
She's like, yeah, my father told me be careful around
him and this and that. And then she told the
story about the h the police one day.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
I mean, because that was her own she that was
her own decision to tell that story.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
But this is like the last raid I've ever been in.
Thank God man. The police come and I remember I
got like I got like two ounces a dope and
I'm trying to figure out I always like put it
up before I go to sleep, so I know, like
if they kicked the door, and I know exactly where
it's at. I know what I'm doing, and I remember,
I remember putting it up. So I hear somebody knock
(12:40):
at the door and I go to the door and
I look and I see the police cars parked out there,
and shit, I'm like, fuck, you know what I'm saying.
But I stayed with my homeboy. India got her own
her crib at the time. She just it's me and
my homeboy.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
We lire together.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
She just he really never went home. She could just
staying with me, but it's our cribby so he lay there. So,
you know, me and him both were both doing our thing.
We really wasn't doing it out the house. But come
on now, I went out and I'm like police, I went,
and I'm telling her, like yo, the police at the door.
She's like, you want me to get it? And I'm like, yeah,
go get it. So why she's going to go get it?
(13:15):
I get the shit. And then my first time I
sold the shovel, I'm looking for it, but like I said,
I just put it up, and shit, I.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
End up finding it.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
But I go to the bathroom and then I can
hear them coming up the back steps. You know Buffalo's houses.
They coming up the back steps, and I can hear
them coming up the front steps. So I got the
dope in my hand and I just flushed. They like,
he's flushing, He's flushing. They coming there and I'm like, yo,
I just woke up. I was taking a piss. They
came in there, they sat me down. You know, the
crazy thing about it is this is not crazy, But
(13:44):
when it happened, I thinking, like, they never asked me
my name.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
But like, I think, they don't know my fucking name.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Why would they got to ask me my name. I
had three fellow knees in, three bids in by then.
They don't got to ask me my name. They know
who I am. So they was just asking me for
my boy. Shut out my boy, Josh.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
You're like, where Josh at? I don't know.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
But he just really sleep in the back room so
he could hear this ship going. So once they did
some work and went in the back room and got him,
they just they just took him because it was for him.
It wasn't for me. It was an a restaurant. Maybe
not a search one. I don't know how that should go,
but yeah, that was that. That was what the story
was about. That was shipless that day. You know what
I'm saying, shipless. I'm a type of person man, I
(14:22):
went to I went to church. It's people who know
me whould have said, like, man, this guy, this guy
gonna be a precherse and ship.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
You feel what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
I could have seen that.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Sometimes it makes sense.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
I was a guy who got there, who got there, really,
who got to see from both sides? You know what
I'm saying. I always speak on my mom. I always
mentioned in my music, shout out my mom. You know,
she had her druggle, her struggle with drug addition. She's clean,
you know what I'm saying. She's got the crib.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
She lived with me. You know what I'm saying. And
you know what I mean. I love my mom.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
And and you know the burdens that she went through
and carried that we inherited, you know, made us who
we are today.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
So I love my mom. Book.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
It's like, man, growing up a lot of times we
only see the dope dealers with the ship. We only
see them, so we think, man, that's the easiest path. Jesus,
Remember how you said the guys said, like, Yo, you're
pretty funny, Like those be the dope boys telling.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Us that, like yo, you cool. Show Like damn, he
told me I'm cool.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
Exactly, you know.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
What I'm saying, Like, those are only guys who really
looking man. I've seen you man, you know, man, I
like how you put that together. So it's like man watching.
And I'm from a block that did twenty thousand dollars
every day when I come up my door and I
walked down the stairs walking to the bus stop. Niggas
making money for six in the morning was some of everything,
(15:43):
but it was generally heroin. You know what I'm saying that,
And we've seen that. You know, my block made a
lot of millionaires, rats, gangsters, stand up guys everything. You
know what I'm saying, And we've seen that.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Coming from that neighborhood had an influence on us. You know,
of course we could have been other things. But who
showed us that?
Speaker 3 (16:03):
Right exactly?
Speaker 1 (16:03):
You know they told us. Who showed us that? That's
so important?
Speaker 2 (16:07):
You know what I'm saying, To show people something is
so important, even me being in my position. So I'm like,
why we gotta show people. I'm telling you could believe
it or just go it's on you as your life.
But man, to show people's it's a totally different thing
than to tell them.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
Let me get into it too. You're still dealing with
the harassment from the police. You become that target, and
like you said it, but it's an easy target.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Here we talk about like drugs were the thing that
allowed the federal government to control people because you know,
you can't say you're going to do like a war
on murder. It's like a state thing and war and
robbery or what are you gonna do? War on what drugs?
That's physical, it's money. It's going across state lines, and
people don't like it. And now we can target people
(16:58):
that we don't like.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
It's like it is good now because you get smoked
in New York State, they're smoking in front of a
police officer. Down here in Atlanta. Is not legal, right,
I don't know how to fuck it ain't legal?
Speaker 4 (17:08):
Okay, So look, Atlanta, I put it like this, Atlanta,
I think we on the ounce or less. It's just
a ticket in the city of Atlanta. But you know,
the way Atlanta set up. You go, you get off
of exit. This ain't Atlanta no more. You and Cobb County.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Yesterday in you know, I got a weed charge down here. Yeah,
I got you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
Okay, So I got a lawsuit going on with Eric
Andre and a few other people because they harassing people
in the airport. The Clayton County like police department basically
using the airport as atm. They stopped me at the
jet bridge when I'm getting on the plane, this is
past security. They asking me do you got drugs? You
got any money?
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Whoop? Whoop.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
So got with him. He told me they doing this lawsuit.
The lawyers did research. They found out they call it
a drug intervention program that came across ten people the
whole time.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Like they looked at eight.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
Months from when air got stopped and when I got stopped.
Ten times they stopped people. The most they found was
maybe like seven grams of weed. But in that timeframe
they confiscated over a million dollars people like foreigner.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
I think it was like four hundred fifty people over
that time. And I think like through Atlanta Hartsfield it
was like eight percent is non white and they're saying
it was randomized, and I think, what over happened?
Speaker 1 (18:21):
We're non white.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
They were actually stopped, I think. And so it's that
sort of thing. Have you ever been Have you ever
had an experience, you know, someone that like where it's coming.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
And cast myself, I'm saying, yeah, I'm assuming so myself
because I Ain'm not gonna talk too much about it,
but like you caught my case in the airport and
I'm saying, I wasn't like smuggling no shit like that.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Like I said, it's.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Like I was on tour. I had weed in my bag, right,
and I wanted to bring my weed.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
You know what I'm saying. It was legal from where I.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Was leaving at When I layed, I'm like, oh shit,
that's in a bag, you know what I'm saying. And
they locked me up for that shit, right, So me,
I just attested it to that, you know what I'm saying.
Every time I go they pulled me over like yo, less,
we got to go through your bags, you know what
I'm saying, Or start staying over here because I get
that all the time.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Even when I go through Claire.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
You go through clear this like random random idea Like
how I always get random, I like all the time.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
You fee what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
So I'm pretty sure this wasn't that random.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
You're like, something's changed, Something's changed, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
But you know, in New York getting the legalization of weed,
how's that affected Buffalo? Has it made any you see
any positive changes? You see anybody like us? You see
any black people that are allowed, you know, to get
the license or however they're going about.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
It one hundred percent because it's like this in New
York State, people who who had drug felonies, those was
the first people eligible to open up dispensaries.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Okay, that's what I'm saying. They did that.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
So like a couple of years ago, people was hitting
my phone, you know what I'm saying, like Yo, I'm like, damn,
I you know, I got feeling like yo, you want
to dispensary?
Speaker 4 (19:52):
Man?
Speaker 2 (19:53):
They shooting it at us first. So from that time
to this one, you got two things. You got the
we business, right, you got the cannabis industry. The cannabis industry.
The cannabis industry happens in dispensaries, is on farm. You
know what I'm saying, maybe after six pm when those
clo when those dispensary lights go off and other lights
(20:15):
come on, you know, it's still weed being sold in
like America everywhere that's not through dispensaries. Because I'm gonna
say the quality, and I'm gonna say the access. You know,
some people don't. Some people don't. They don't got access
to to go to dispensaries. It's a drug still now.
And I'm learning too. I'm learning how to shop for
(20:35):
marijuana dispensaries. You gotta learn, you know what I'm saying.
You gotta get familiar with the brands and everything like that.
But man, it definitely changed so much. And I probably
know two or three guys who got dispensaries, and I
want to see two or three hundred, you know what
I'm saying, and around the nation two or three thousand,
two or three million, because you know, they threw it's.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
A bone, you feel me. They threw it's a bone,
and it could work.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
I see it working for a lot of people, you
know what I'm saying, And.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
So I do feel like it be changed for the good.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
And how much you know, cannabis is like the kind
of gateway into a lot of people, like the government
to be able to intruse like the smell smelled, the
odor of marijuana coming from the car to sarch the car,
those types of things, and so even just getting it,
you know, determinalized and legalized, to be able to remove
those types of like kind of arrows in the quiver
from government to kind of in true in your life,
(21:26):
is is a good stuff for it. And obviously from
the commercial side, so you're in the cannabis business.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
The cannabis industry, industry, industry, and so it's I'd be curious, uh,
kind of talk about what you've seen just as a
small you know, small business owner, would have been some
of the impediments that you've seen.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
I know we've talked seen a lot about like how
there's like kind of big cannabis kind of coming in
and taking over. Seeing we have similar stuff with like alcohol,
where there's like you think there's all these brands, but
there's really like four huge mega brands owns like every
drink you've ever had. Some times they get the first
foot forward in a lot of states because they write
the laws if it goes to a ballot. I know
we've seen that in a lot of places, so talked
(22:06):
about that, like, what are some of the things that
you've seen that have been great, like kind of improving
in the cannabis industry. What has been impediments Still, I'm
just curious to kind of hear about all that.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Yeah, well, like the cannabis industry, Like when I go
to dispensaries and I see uh, you know, middle class
people walking the dispensaries and they buy they weed and
shit not like that, you know what I mean, that
shows growth in the industry. But that's what you which
is what you want to know. It's like it's certain
neighborhoods that the dispensary is never going to effect. You
know what I'm saying. It's like it's like it's it's
(22:36):
it's regular neighborhood dudes who got them under a foothold.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
You you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
Friend loyalty.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
But when when the goal the goal is because like
I said, I want to see I want to see
more entrepreneurs do it the right way.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
So so the goal is afford to happen.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
And when it do happen, like we said, it's only
like a few big companies hopefully they reach out, you
know what I'm saying, not saying that, not saying that
like one of the top company is gonna call a
trapper or pull up in the hood, but it's like
hopefully those opportunities through through educating ourselves and learning more
on about it, you know what I'm saying, with those
guys who those guys who trapping, who are doing shit,
through educating themselves, learning more about learning more about that shit,
(23:13):
and building their team up, those more opportunities because guess what,
maybe maybe maybe it will kind of like turn into
a McDonald's type of thing, you feel what I'm saying,
where the neighborhood is eating off of it, because like
just like McDonald's when you're going I'm from the hood.
When you're going McDonald's, it's like everybody in the hood
working that motherfucker, you know what I'm saying. So maybe
it would be a thing where it's really giving back
(23:33):
to the community where people work there, you understand, instead
of just buying weed there, you actually work there, and
it's three of them to this neighborhood. That's the ultimate goal,
because it's a weed trap in every hoood, you know
what I'm saying. So it really can turn into a
thing like that, you know what I'm saying. And I think,
like that's years years down the line, though. I think
you know what I'm saying, because it's gonna take. It's
gonna take two different sides how it did with the government.
(23:55):
You know what I'm saying, the government, the weed business,
cannabis industry.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
You know I'm saying. Let me speak on this too.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
I don't feel like the the cannabis industry affects the
weed business. It's two different things. You feel what I'm saying.
It's like, uh, you know, it's it's seafood to McDonald's. Man,
when you want seafood, you're going you know what I'm saying.
You don't got to taste for them, both of them motherfuckers.
At the same time. You feel what I'm saying. You know, Okay,
the difference between the cannabis industry and the weed business
(24:23):
is this first and foremost.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
I'm gonna start with the with the product.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
You feel what I'm saying, because federally, you can't go
state the state with right, Yeah, the state has to
grow the flower. You know, a lot of states is not.
You know, they don't got top notch growers. Like everybody
don't got them green thumbs like that. Some people grow
up better. Like I said, it ain't like you can
have legally. Ain't like you can have this place supplying everything.
(24:50):
So you know, what's that a one ship and then
the second is the uh it's where you're getting it from, right,
you know? We know like you got to maybe call
somebody with the phone. Old school called somebody with the
phone and they pull up on you.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
But now the cannabis industry helped the weed business because
a lot of these dudes got traps and you walk
in them and it looked just like a dispensary, and
you don't you can't, you can't tell the difference.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
But you're really in a legal weed and everything.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Yeah, I don't know how it is in New York
State or in other places where weed as legal is at,
but I'm pretty sure they can't. The police can't put
up like crazy efforts to shut this building down.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
It's more regulators and stuff. There's not like criminal penalties
as Yeah, as.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Much where you where the product, definitely the product.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Like I said, sometimes the weed business got better product
than the cannabis industry, and then like the location where
you get it from, because maybe ten years from now,
if a middle class person wanted to go get their
weed and shit, they had to still go to the
hood or call their dealer, if whoever he was.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
You used to have to like almost be in a
sketchy situation to get it. Now it's not like that.
You could walk in even in a weed business. You
could walk up some shit like, man, this is a
nice dispensary. It's illegal.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Fuckers got eight k's back in the back, you know
what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
But people willn't go fully legit when they got all
the abilities to do. They invest in money in and
putting it together or you know what I'm saying, and
they got that ship rocking and rolling already. Man, the
guy who runs that is nowhere around it, right, you
know what I'm saying. And the people who are in there,
by the time the police stop hearing and do what
they're gonna do and say what they're gonna say, we
(26:29):
made a lot of money and it's gonna be a
slap on the risk by the time of come and
people did this. People do this ship when it's dangerous.
Let alone a slap on a risk. People do this
ship when they making a tiny bit of money and
gonna get life. Let alone, you're making a bunch of
money and police don't give a fuck, right, So it's like,
why you know what I'm saying. But like I said,
through educating them them fellas more, I can say if
(26:50):
them fellas was a little bit educated, a little bit more,
because I'm pretty sure they know they shit, they switch
it up because because why he even had that looming
over your head.
Speaker 3 (26:59):
Right, And the more it comes down in the open,
it's well, why wouldn't I do this?
Speaker 2 (27:03):
And one thing I think is the government not gonna
stand for that because everybody got people paying taxes on it.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Now. Because when I open up.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
When I open up the Butcher's dispensaries and I open
up ten in the neighborhood, I don't want motherfuckers just
you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
You don't see yeah liquor stores there, right.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
So I think it's going to get there.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
Man, It's gonna get so refined in the next ten
ten years that it'll be something totally different than what
it is today.
Speaker 4 (27:30):
You know what I'm saying, but now that you said it,
we business cannabis industry. I lived out in LA for
about three years. I would even see it out there,
because of course you got the cookie store, you got
the mid man, you got the store to do it right,
and then you got stores where you can't have your
phone out. You know what I'm saying exactly, You're like,
(27:51):
hold on, are y'all running power off a generator in
this bitch? Sh Yeah? And so you see and so
like that makes perfect sense. And I know I knew
what was going on, but I never made that distinction
and separation like that.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
That's how it go ooh, it's a big fucking difference
between the cannabis industry and the weed business. Because I
want people to know the difference. And I'm thinking about
we're talking. Another thing is it's the players in the game.
You feel what I'm saying. They all hustlers. They just
hustlers from different aspects of life. They all hustlers.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Man.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
I was in Buffalo one day. I was at a rooftop.
I lived in this name I lived, I lived in
this building. We're going away to the rooftop. I was
coming in a building I've seen tall motherfucker with jewlry
and ship your outfit on him, and no, this is Buffalo.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
Somebody fucking come here. If it ain't me, I'm like,
I don't know this guy. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Me and my nigga, right, you know what I'm saying.
But he looked familiar though, so he came came and
spoke to me. He came like, Yo, I fuck with
your ship. So I'm not realizing it's James Johnson play ball,
you know what I'm saying. So I'm like, oh shit,
I'm like, think a man, like what the fuck are
you doing here? And he's here with an investment group
of people. And they opened up a dispensary in Buffalo,
(29:02):
you know what I'm saying, coming to look at the land.
And they asked me up there. It's like, Yo, we
need somebody with skinning the gang who from here, So
be a partner and don't got to give no money
or know nothing.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
You know what I'm saying. You know what I mean,
shout out my boys.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
You know what I'm saying. It's a few of them.
And a that was that was to what you were saying.
What I was saying. The players of the game is different.
Those are cannabis industry guys who made their money elsewhere
who are looking to make investments.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
Right, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
Any other investments, Yeah, they won't return all exactly.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
So those are the players.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
And then you know you got the you know, you
got the street guys stay the same way they made
their money. They're trying to get the heat off of them.
You know what I'm saying, They're trying to go legal.
But to what you were saying, it's like, open up
your network, you know what I'm saying. You know, James
JJ with his people and they and they kicking it
with me about you know what I'm saying, These guys
who I wouldn't have met on a regular basis.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
So open up your fucking network. That's important thing.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
And opening people that made it in other places that
you would never have even thought about in your entire life.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
You know what I'm saying. It's like me, what I'm
what I'm what I'm doing is I got the I
got my my brand, and I'm putting the brand in stores.
I'm pretty sure, like I said, it's so premature right now.
It came a long way from where it was. But
I'm pretty sure, you know, dudes is getting all type
of ideas of how they're gonna do this and work together.
I'm pretty sure the wills is turning with these guys
(30:21):
where they're trying to figure out how we're going to
take this to the next level you feel, I'm saying,
and the consumption is the next is that's the next thing.
But your answerment, I really don't know. But the guys
who I meet, they are smart dudes who do that ship.
They are smart dudes. They come from they come from
a lifestyle where they made money already, or they made
(30:42):
money from the game, you know what I'm saying, or
they just super ambitious and they gonna figure it out.
Speaker 4 (30:47):
You know what hustlers say, if you can make it,
you can make it again.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Hunt saying, that's that's what that's about. That's what it's about.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
One of the things we know where some of the
investments are not coming because you know, cannabis industry is
still treated so differently than so many other industries you
alluse to earlier, Like you know, if you you have
to grow in your state, you can't ship it across states.
You can't ship it internationally. There's limits on what types
of products you can have, the type of financial institutions.
(31:23):
You know, there's a lot of it's still a lot
of big cash only business where you're carrying around lots
of cash, so you're not actually in the regular market,
and that still spooks people a lot. And actually, really,
you know, if we want to have you know, when
you're talking about two three million, you know, cannabis iners
coming out there, obviously those are the limits because then
your competition is only going to be domestic and only
limits how much we get to sell. And I know
(31:44):
that's been a big issue with where kind of the
black market starts coming in, because all these people sell
as much weed as they possibly can, and then any
other offload from their fields, you know, maybe you can
go over here over here, And so yeah, I'm just curious,
like do you have you seen some of those impediments
like to seeing like, okay, we could see the cannabis
(32:05):
industry getting to this point, but you know, being from
inside the game, like what are you seeing from that
that you see like there's impediments that like, hey, we
got to destroy these barriers and this is how we
can get to that next level, either government, private or
whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
I think it's I think it's a government thing first.
I think it's a government thing first. Where the transpole
the transpole because it's some big brands right in the
WE business, some big popular brands, and if you put
that that might drive some some consumers to the dispisaries
who from the streets.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
It's like, yo, they got that ship right, We're going
over there, right.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
So I think it's like definitely definitely governmental. And it's
like guys just got to integrate with the cannabis industry
and WE business. Now a lot of these guys, Man,
I don't want to put nobody the fucking business out there,
but sometimes the same people.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
Right, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
It's it was like they really got to figure it
out and take this loophole and run with it. And man,
I'm just now realizing that. It's like it's like one
day we're going to be able to be like fucking
Morgan Freeman doing the fucking joint commercial.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Like when it gets to that, when the government like
let's just full all the way off, because like I said,
through through motherfucker's a bone. But when they let they
foot all the way off and then people looking at
it like yo, it's like alcohol.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
Eat what I'm saying, Like once they once it fits
the agenda again, you know what I'm saying. Maybe it'll
go further, but I think it's a lot of integration.
Like I said, I believe we in the premature states
of this shit. You know what I'm saying, Cause I
remember going to I remember seeing it change over time
in California. My first time ever going to California was
like was only twenty seventeen, and I remember the prices
being low and they being high, and they being low
(33:46):
and being different. So even them over there, they're going
through shit. So like I said, man, we just caught
the We just caught the early stages and figs for
this whole thing right now, exactly.
Speaker 4 (33:55):
Like you said, they're figuring it out legally to where
everybody get big, everybody.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
It's not blurred. It's really one thing, and I think
that'll work for everybody. Know what I'm saying. There's one thing.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
You know, we're taping this on election day, which.
Speaker 4 (34:07):
Is crazy, and.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
But it's the first time in United States history where
the two parties both the candidates have advocated for legalizations.
Start crazy change, yes, dynamic. Yeah, it feels like it's
happened in such a short period of time, at least perception.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
I think so too.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
I think so too, because we went like we illegal
for fucking ever. Yeah, you know what I'm saying just now,
in the past few years, you could like do this
in front of a police officer.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
It's like they find some ship on you and be like,
you know what I'm saying, well that this is legal now.
Speaker 4 (34:45):
I mean, man, the places that that has happened has
surprised me. Man, I'm driving to do a show. Alabama
got a little bit on me. They pulled me over.
I don't even want to deal with I told him.
I said, hey, I got a little bit. I'm thinking
it's Alabama. I'm already here, and like, let me go ahead,
call somebody to get to buy. But he said, man,
dump it out and step on it and I'm gonna
(35:07):
let you go. And I was like, is this a trap?
Like right?
Speaker 2 (35:12):
But it's definitely like that. And I've been I've been
let off too, but still with that. That's why they
need to get rid of this ship and just do
away with it, because I still have I got another
open case for weed for half a blunt. No, you know,
I'm when I talk too much ship to the police
(35:33):
some time I just tell them some ship, like if
you want to do your day doing paperwork, I'm willing
to do it with you.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
This ship gonna last me till the next morning. Whatever.
If you really want to throw your day away, let's go.
You know what I'm saying. They don't like that ship.
Still roll something up, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
I had to go to court and I'm still going
to court for this shit happened like almost a year
and a half ago, and for a literal half a blunt.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
You know what I'm saying. The weed was bullshit too.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
You had I did talk to my attorney and it
was like it's going to get when I go to court.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
It's going to get resolved, okay, right, But it's like it's.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
Particular how many resources and harassing you. I was. I
work in like policy and things like that. So we
were looking at a situation in Tennessee actually as a
family from Alabama, going to Tennessee or vice versa cop
stop them did this like field drug test kit thing
where it's like a two dollars kit and it test
substances and then it said it was like, oh, you
(36:29):
have cocaine and you had like all this stuff in
your system. Took their kids away because of like cannabis,
because they had like someone had used and they did
like a follicle test and said like, you can't be
around your kids anymore. And if that sort of stuff,
it's not always just like the arrests the jail, because
you know, you hear a lot of saying there's not
a bunch of people in prison for a joint in
their and it's like, you know what, that's right, But
(36:50):
it's all the other stuff that comes around with that.
It's the harassments, the criminal record that doesn't get you
a job anymore. It's all the other things that makes
you a second class citizen in our society that still
is around the cannabis industry wall it's still being legalized
and people are making millions around the country.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
That's gonna happen crazy, it's going to be more. It's
gonna end up being more conflicting then then then smooth.
So they're going to have to figure that out. There's
too much shit going on, you know what I'm saying. Yeah, Yeah,
for sure when a bunch of those cases when it
when it become when people start like you know, like
raising hell about ship like that, then they're gonna come
like why not, you know what I'm saying. But that's
(37:28):
what I was thinking about it, like maybe it's about
to be legal everywhere because that's what they're gonna do.
They're gonna fucking rake in all the money they can
because this ship when it's gone, it might be gone forever.
Speaker 1 (37:37):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
That's like millions of dollars, if not billions a year
that people pay through fines and bills and all types
of crazy shit, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
Yeah, And you see that with like you know, after
like Ferston happened in that time period of the dj came
in Department of Justice and did a report about what
was going on in the in the city. Before that,
they toiled all these emails from like the city council
telling the police like hey, we need ten percent more revenue,
can you take it more? People?
Speaker 4 (38:02):
So all right, man, what do you think you know this,
this whole thing needs to go. What needs to happen
to give Benny the Butcher's vision, because I like your vision.
If you was running for office today, I put it.
I vote for you, brother, vote yeah you get put
him on the red and blue folks. Yeah, but go
(38:22):
back to what you said in the beginning. You what
you're shown and what you're showing people exactly is don't
you're showing people all sides?
Speaker 2 (38:30):
Yeah, man, I appreciate the opportunity to do this. Man,
you appreciate Drugs over are still going on, still going.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
Thanks for coming through and doing this.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
Man.
Speaker 3 (38:44):
Positivity on the day that is, we're gonna be very unpositive.
Speaker 1 (38:49):
Watch the election like it's the super Bowl. There it is, there,
it is. Man. The story about their raid crazy.
Speaker 4 (39:10):
Just think about what would have happened if he wasn't
able to flush that, or if he would have got
caught at that point.
Speaker 3 (39:18):
Yeah, or he thought the people that you know sprang
in and into this place were trying to rob them
or cause harm. Yeah, Baronna Taylor incident is a great
I mean literally, when he was describing it, I mean
the broad strokes sounded almost identical.
Speaker 4 (39:34):
Yeah, and I hope people can hear that and understand
that these types of things is not uncommon for somebody
to come and rob somebody. Well, why would she shoot back?
Why would this person have a gun? Why would It's
all it's always why did they do this? Or if
they did that, then it must be this. And I
(39:55):
think everybody is going to try to protect theyselves and
those no knock warrants.
Speaker 1 (39:59):
Man, it is dangerous for everybody involved.
Speaker 3 (40:02):
It is. No, it's it's dangerous for the people. It's
dangers for the police officers. Mistakes happen, honest, mistakes happen,
you know, miss like where you get the wrong address
or again, it's.
Speaker 1 (40:11):
Just we've seen this happen so many times.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
When you're working in an organization where you know, certain
people may come.
Speaker 4 (40:18):
To your house and yes that have nothing to do
with law enforcement, yes, you know, and they'll have the
same tactical gear, just no badge.
Speaker 3 (40:26):
Yeah, I love you know, Benny coming from another time.
Sometimes we're you know, we're always like, oh it's doing
loom and bad and there's always these things. But like
you could really tell, you know, even asks like oh,
the drug wars still going on because you know, in
a lot of ways, a lot of those things have
ended like that. You know, he sees as like the
real you know major, you know the things that we're
(40:46):
going on, and so we have made that progress, but
we still have a lot of bad thing. No knock
warrants are still going on all the time, all day
every day.
Speaker 4 (40:55):
It still places where there's not progress, and even where
there is progress, it may just be in one small
are like we talked about with Atlanta, Like he got
arrested outside of Atlanta for having the wheel and that's
an Atlanta thing. If you're in Fulham County, you're good.
If you have a little bit of weed. I think
they give you up to an ounce and it's a ticket.
(41:15):
But you cross the county line going anywhere, you know,
you could be in the cab. You could be in Clayton,
you could be in Cobb. You're not going to see
a sign or anything. You just go see those lights
and it's going to be a different type of car
pulling you over. And now you're sitting in jail for
something that half a mile a mile up the road
would have been a.
Speaker 1 (41:34):
Ticket as rot.
Speaker 3 (41:35):
It's kind of it's crazy, this piecemeal like system that
we have, and you know, Benny getting you know, he
was telling a story like being in a legal county,
crossing over a non legal we're a legal ones over there,
and then getting busted in between and like and that
happens all the time, and so it allows for this
drug war to kind of still proliferate and you're kind
(41:56):
of supposed to be able to move around. I think
people would be shocked to know that drug possession arrests
is still by far the largest types of arrest that
happened in the United States, overwhelmingly, and the majority of
those are for cannabis related defenses. So it is even
with all the progress that we've made, it is still
the driver of the criminal joze. Even if people, you know,
(42:18):
the processer's allowed to say like, hey, no one's going
to prison for a joint, they might not be, but
they might be getting harassed for it. They might be
able to get their car search for it, they might
be able to have to go to jail for it
for a second. They might miss their.
Speaker 4 (42:29):
They might not they might not go to prison, but
they might lose their job, which results in them losing
where they live, which results in them losing their kids,
which so the results can go on and on and
in so many ways that the whole war on drugs
rears its head, Like even when you try to get
(42:49):
out of it, you know, I mean, and we call
it the trap you're selling drugs. Even if you try
to get out of that, like Benny did, he's still
getting looked at. He's from You're the easiest target, so
let's harass you some more, even when you're trying to
make a transition to a better life.
Speaker 3 (43:07):
Yeah, And so I mean, condition of a lot of
people's probation is keeping their job. And so so many times,
so many times someone loses their job because they've had
to sit in jail or something else has happened, and
then it just goes back in the cycle. So just
something that worth noting. You know, as we continue to
make this produc there are still a lot of you
know a lot of people still sitting in prison right
now for things that people are making millions out in
(43:29):
the real world. Yes, it's going to be mindful.
Speaker 4 (43:31):
Of Yeah, when Benny was talking about everybody coming together,
like creating a collective, and that kind of brought me
back to the conversation we had would be.
Speaker 3 (43:42):
Really absolutely yeah, you said the same thing. So it
is like two entrepreneurs, you know, kind of on the
opposite side, the kind of being like, yeah, this is
actually what we need to do and come together. So again,
may we're just uh, we're going to go back on
the recruitin trail, just bringing people behind us here, man, one.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
Get them together.
Speaker 4 (43:59):
And like you said, that's coast to coast, So it
is we're feeling it on both sides. And both of
them have their own brands exactly as far as yeah, yeah, and.
Speaker 3 (44:08):
It's felt like they were kind of saying like, oh,
they don't really know like who's else is in the industry.
It just feels because you're working on so much try
to build your own stuff, like there does need almost
be like oh yeah, we're all doing kind of the
same thing here and dealing with the same issues. Like
we came together. We could really show some of these
So maybe by the time you hear this, we'll uh
lots some more announcements.
Speaker 1 (44:26):
Yeah, it'll be some stuff working. Yeah, stuff in the works.
Speaker 3 (44:29):
Yeah, But again, thank you so much, Benny for real appreciate.
Speaker 4 (44:33):
It, man, I appreciate it. Took it took longer than
he had to. We only had it for a little
a little while, and he stayed longer with us.
Speaker 3 (44:39):
So yeah, I think his manager was like, come on, man, yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:42):
Time let's go.
Speaker 4 (44:43):
He was like, man, so everything you heard, super genuine,
super real. Didn't have to do it, but did so
we appreciate it, man. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (44:51):
And then uh, next week, Uh, one of literally the
best voices you'll ever hear come out of your radio,
Brent Smith from Shine Down and you know he has
he talks in the interview. I'll just tease it here
about like almost like a Hollywood blockbuster, you know, moment
where he's struggling with addiction. He's about to make it
and his addiction is about to bring it all down.
(45:11):
And it's almost like this moment with his manager who
comes on with us as well, and they kind of
are like, which way are you going to go? And
one of the most successful bands, you know, not only
of our time but all time. So an amazing conversation
with him. So with that, I'm Greg Lott. It's the
War on Drugs. Yes, The War on Drugs is a
production of Lava for Good and Stand Together Music and
(45:33):
association with Signal company number one. Stand Together Music unites
musicians and their teens with proven change makers to co
create solutions to some of the most pressing issues in
our country, including criminal justice, reform, addiction recovery, mental health, education,
free speech, and ending the War on drugs. Learn more
at Stand Together Music dot org. Be sure to follow
(45:56):
Lava for Good on Instagram, Facebook and threat at Lava
for Good. You can follow Clayton English on Instagram, n
X at Clayton English, and you can follow Greig Laude
on Instagram and on X at Greg Lott. Executive producers
Jason Flamm, Jeff Kempler, Kevin Wardis, and Collette Wintraub. Senior
producers Kelsey Stenecker, Zak Huffman and Nick Stump. Post production
(46:21):
by ten ten, Audio Talent booking by Dan Resnick Rez
Entertainment Head of Marketing and Operations, Jeff Cleiburn, Social Media
director Ismadi Gudarrama, Social media manager Sarah Gibbons, and art
director Andrew Nelson.
I want to see more entrepreneurs do it the right way.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Maybe it would be a thing where it's really getting
back to the community where people work there. You understand,
instead of just buying weed there, you actually work there.
That's the Awtime and Gold.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Lava for Good and Stand Together in Music Present The
War on Drugs Podcast Season two. This season, we're diving
deeper into the real stories behind the War on Drugs.
It's impact, it's failures, and the people offering a better
path forward. Today on the show, rapper, songwriter, storyteller, member
of famed Buffalo, New York hip hop collective Griselda, collaborator
(00:33):
with Lil Wayne, Buster Rhymes, Eminem and Snoop Dogg, and
modern cannabis impresario Benny the Butcher. All Right, welcome to
another addition of season two of The War on Drugs. Yeah,
and again this is the season we're talking to people,
real people, talking about some of the problems that we
still face today in the drug war. And we have
(00:54):
an amazing one, someone that has seen the drug war
from the illegal side to the legal side to.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
It.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Yeah, very well, one of the best to do it, man,
Benny the Butcher.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
We got him right, here on the world drugs and
I think you said it's kind of Rick James and
and Benny are the two names you might know from
yeah music.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
Community, that's you know, that's the click and Benny Bennie
is one of the coldest to do it. It was
great meeting him, solid dude. Man, I didn't realize he's
in Atlanta, So yeah, that.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Was that was amazing. I was pretty excited that we
didn't have to go to Buffalo November.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
Yeah, that might have been one of the only zoom
ones we had to.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Talk about even then. We just dragged your ass from
Atlanta to d C. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Yeah, but hey, we gotta make it work, make it work.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
No, but Benny was amazing. I'm you know, I'm thirty seven,
so I grew up in my hip hop was like
g unit. Yeah, sending kind of these foundations of like
soul and hip and things, and Benny raps like that,
and his music like that and feels nostalgic but still
progress and if people have kind of been a little
bit squeezed about, like I don't really like the route
(02:08):
that's been coming out. Benny kind of has this old
school new school sound. If you grew up in that time.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Beer.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
I think you'll if you haven't listened to music.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
He's got that gritty feel that nineties hip hop they
really held down the New York sound that's kind of
been abandoned by New York. And the fact that Buffalo
upstate New York area, who has never really been on
the map on the hip hop scene, is carrying that torch.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
That's cool, man.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
And I think people get hyper focused on the mainstream stuff.
But if you want gritty street tales that talk about
the war on drugs, it's no place better than Bennie
the Busch.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
I agree, Yeah, no, it was. He's an amazing artist.
He was again kind of like you were in all
these guys that had, you know, seen the struggles head
he's dealt with, you know, getting convicted on drug charge.
He's seeing the in and out of everything.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
He listen to his music, not only will he you know,
he doesn't just glamorize it, are glorified the real side
of things.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
It was really cool when we were in a studio
in Atlanta when we did this, and it was just
an awesome scene. And you know, he has his logos
around two butcher and eyes with the blood and yeah,
very like and it was on it was on election day, Yes,
it was that day.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
We didn't even know at that point.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
We ended up recording. We're like, yeah, we'll try to
get the flights out of the Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Yeah, it's like.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Yeah for the poles close. But yeah, No, everything was
great and he was really amazing with his time. And
you know, like we teased before, the last episode really
takes us through the differences between the weed business cannabis industry.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
Broke that down perfectly, and I don't think I've look
I'll let him break it down for you because I've
never heard it broke it down.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
When I saw your eyes light up about it, I
was like, well, this isn't you know if claim hasn't
heard about it.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
I mean, it's one of those things that it makes
sense what you hear about it, but I've never heard
it put in that manner were made that much sense.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
No.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
I mean that's why he's such a poet. I mean,
he is a he puts things in ways that makes
you think. No, without further Ado can't wait for you
to hear about this. Just amazing stories. Growing up in
the inner city of Buffalo, what he dealt with. It's that,
you know, very similar story that we hear about the
drug game kind of in prohibition, the war just hurting
and harming, damaging community. Someone rising up through music and
(04:27):
arts and being able to potentially now you know, become
a businessman into this industry and again, very someone.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
To be real.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
We talk about a lot of the problems with the
the you know, the small business, and we get into
that with the who we've been as cannabis industry and
why that weed business continues to pliffer rate. So yeah,
i'maa shut up. Yeah, let's get it.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
Yeah, Me and Greg, our guests and sponsors may sound smart,
we may even make some good points, but at the
end of the day, we're not medical profession Okay, Please
don't get your medical advice from a podcast. Anything we
say on here does not constitute official medical advice. Relax,
(05:07):
consult your doctor before you start any new treatment plans.
Got it, man, We got Benny the Butcher right now
live on the War on Drugs podcast. Let's do it, man, let's.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Go, but you come out. Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
That's what I'm saying. I needed to hear that.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Thanks for coming on many.
Speaker 4 (05:26):
Yes, Buffalo's finest. Let's jump in, man, because I think
you tie into a lot of what we talk about
on this podcast. First season, we were kind of just
talking about the War on drugs and broader strokes overall,
how it started, where it came from, how it's still happening.
And this season we want to get in with people
(05:47):
who have actual experience dealing with the War on drugs
and you know, so tell us a little bit about
Buffalo man, just coming from there and making it out
of Buffalo as big as you Because Rick James Ben
in the Butcher, that's what I read like.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
I know, as far as like music, it's a lot
of us.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
It's a lot of us from there, you know what
I'm saying. But Man, Buffalo is a blue collar city.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Uh, real independent hustle, real grinders come from there, right
on the steel belt. Yeah, close to Canada. It's a
bunch of culture in Buffalo.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Mm hmmm.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
It's like the was in the backdrop of like the
underground railroad.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
A lot of you know what I'm saying, ding during.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
That Yeah, I was, we was up there kicking it
basically almost purchasing the farm and the people tell them
they's to call this like Freedom Way because this is
with the slave scene when they was coming across the
green after they got what I mean. So Buffalo just
that place, man. You know what I'm saying, Niagara Falls
right there, the Buffalo bills. You know what I'm saying,
(06:51):
Ben too, A Bell's game. That was That was awesome.
Man's that's that's a crazy right there. I feel like
a lot of times in the music, I kind of
paint the city dark.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
You feel what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
But it's just it's just my overall view what I've
seen because it's it's definitely that there. You know what
I'm saying. It's definitely the oppression there. It's definitely the
uh well all the good ship.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
I said.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
It's like we always top five and poor cities in
the nation always, like you said, no rappers ever came
from Buffalo.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
You know what I'm saying. And you know that ship
is important. You feel what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Because everybody not gonna look to an NFL player, NBA player,
or a hockey player.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
Or everybody got the analytic. Everybody ain't got the sad
exactly like, yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
So you need you need different kind of pillars from
your city to represent different communities. And I feel like,
you know, we were that and we are that, you
know what I'm saying now. So, man, you know, Buffalo
Buffalo cold as fuck.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
A few times I got to get back up there, man, Yes, yeah,
you know, I know Buffalo has been, you know, in
the last couple of years kind of in the news
and as a divisive town.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Like I think when people kind of think it's either
kind of the bills or like, oh yeah, there's been
a lot of you know, history of you know, racial discrimination.
And can you talk about what's unique about Buffalo. We
were kind of talking about that a lot before this,
like what's unique about Buffalo and how was it growing
up there?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Man? As far as the racial tension, it really wasn't
a thing. But it's America, so it definitely was a thing.
But we always hear about the neighborhood and the love
Joy where they say where they always chase the black
kids out of that neighborhood, you fee what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
And uh, I like that.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
I like that neighborhood love Joy, right, neighbor exactly, man,
But I love love joy. I loved that neighborhood. I
lived in that neighborhood before I got fellelm me who
live in that neighborhood as we speak right now. So
but I'm pretty sure that was going on before my era.
I'm pretty sure people older than me to have a
different story about that. But still in all, it's a
city of neighbors. You feel what I'm saying, we definitely
(08:55):
rally together. Is the racial tension is definitely a part
of Buffalo, but it's not I can't, I don't want
to say, it's not nothing that you you blatantly see
every day. You know, it's around and like you going
to a restaurant and like get out and no ship
like that though, But it's just a it's a bunch
of no hats, no shirts, no white tea's, you know
what I'm saying. It's a bunch of shit like that.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Yeah, I got you.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
But like I said, just just just American American ship
that I know that's happening everywhere else.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
But I love my city, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
And I feel like we do rally together no matter
what color, no matter where you're from. You know what
I'm saying. So Buffalo is a strong place, but just man,
just that east Side when you come, when you come
from an urban neighborhood.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
To think about the thing about this job that I
got as a rapper, taking me abroad and getting me
to travel, is I get to see so much what
you really think. Them people who in the ghettos every day,
they think that's real life. You see what I'm saying,
They think that it's real fucking life. That's not real life.
Just because you go through that, you know what I'm saying,
And it's a small percentage of not a small percentage,
(10:02):
but it's a greater percentages of the population who don't
even know what that type of life is about. You
feel what I'm saying. So to feel like what we
go through is normal is normal for us. You feel
what I'm saying. So getting to see that, you know,
it was different. It's a bunch of meanings to life,
and it's a life is beautiful. It's not just you know,
(10:23):
east Side trying to stay alive and surviving and trying
to have more than the next man and not get
tooken under. You know, Just like I said, I still
love the city. But I just wish, you know, everybody
in that life get a glimpse of what it's like
to be outside that life. You know what I'm saying,
just a glimpse because it sounds crazy, but people really don't.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
They really don't, like that's all they fucking know.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
And that's survival mode. There's so much stuff you can't
even deal with. You don't even know how to relax
a lot of times, you know, I'm just thinking too,
like lyrics and stuff you put in your song, like
five mm, I don't know if y'all are still.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
To get my wife's okay. You know, you know how
celebrity India shout out India. I wanted to make sure
that's good. Okay, cool.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
So she she basically got kind of like a little
interlude on there in between you spitting about how the
door got in by the uh well, I don't know
it was.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
It was it was it was the Buffalo City Police.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
But she had always told me a story that she
was like, yo, she was like, my father told me
about you.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
I'm like your father she was like yeah, I'm like
I don't know your father.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
But he kind of knew my area, like I said,
my neighborhood is known like for for heroin, you know
what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
So he was like, be careful with him. You know
what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
It's like that guy he from over there. You know
what that's not. You know that drug is different. You
know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
It's like he was basically basically giving her the ropes
and ship like that. And she had told me, and
I'm like, that's crazy.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
So when years passed and I want I want to
give her, I want her to give her point of
view on my life. I'm like, I didn't make up
the stories for I'm like, tell tell something. I did
tell her to say that. I'm like, tell that story.
You always tell me about your pops. So she told me.
She's like, yeah, my father told me be careful around
him and this and that. And then she told the
story about the h the police one day.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
I mean, because that was her own she that was
her own decision to tell that story.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
But this is like the last raid I've ever been in.
Thank God man. The police come and I remember I
got like I got like two ounces a dope and
I'm trying to figure out I always like put it
up before I go to sleep, so I know, like
if they kicked the door, and I know exactly where
it's at. I know what I'm doing, and I remember,
I remember putting it up. So I hear somebody knock
(12:40):
at the door and I go to the door and
I look and I see the police cars parked out there,
and shit, I'm like, fuck, you know what I'm saying.
But I stayed with my homeboy. India got her own
her crib at the time. She just it's me and
my homeboy.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
We lire together.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
She just he really never went home. She could just
staying with me, but it's our cribby so he lay there. So,
you know, me and him both were both doing our thing.
We really wasn't doing it out the house. But come
on now, I went out and I'm like police, I went,
and I'm telling her, like yo, the police at the door.
She's like, you want me to get it? And I'm like, yeah,
go get it. So why she's going to go get it?
(13:15):
I get the shit. And then my first time I
sold the shovel, I'm looking for it, but like I said,
I just put it up, and shit, I.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
End up finding it.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
But I go to the bathroom and then I can
hear them coming up the back steps. You know Buffalo's houses.
They coming up the back steps, and I can hear
them coming up the front steps. So I got the
dope in my hand and I just flushed. They like,
he's flushing, He's flushing. They coming there and I'm like, yo,
I just woke up. I was taking a piss. They
came in there, they sat me down. You know, the
crazy thing about it is this is not crazy, But
(13:44):
when it happened, I thinking, like, they never asked me
my name.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
But like, I think, they don't know my fucking name.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Why would they got to ask me my name. I
had three fellow knees in, three bids in by then.
They don't got to ask me my name. They know
who I am. So they was just asking me for
my boy. Shut out my boy, Josh.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
You're like, where Josh at? I don't know.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
But he just really sleep in the back room so
he could hear this ship going. So once they did
some work and went in the back room and got him,
they just they just took him because it was for him.
It wasn't for me. It was an a restaurant. Maybe
not a search one. I don't know how that should go,
but yeah, that was that. That was what the story
was about. That was shipless that day. You know what
I'm saying, shipless. I'm a type of person man, I
(14:22):
went to I went to church. It's people who know
me whould have said, like, man, this guy, this guy
gonna be a precherse and ship.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
You feel what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
I could have seen that.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Sometimes it makes sense.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
I was a guy who got there, who got there, really,
who got to see from both sides? You know what
I'm saying. I always speak on my mom. I always
mentioned in my music, shout out my mom. You know,
she had her druggle, her struggle with drug addition. She's clean,
you know what I'm saying. She's got the crib.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
She lived with me. You know what I'm saying. And
you know what I mean. I love my mom.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
And and you know the burdens that she went through
and carried that we inherited, you know, made us who
we are today.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
So I love my mom. Book.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
It's like, man, growing up a lot of times we
only see the dope dealers with the ship. We only
see them, so we think, man, that's the easiest path. Jesus,
Remember how you said the guys said, like, Yo, you're
pretty funny, Like those be the dope boys telling.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Us that, like yo, you cool. Show Like damn, he
told me I'm cool.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
Exactly, you know.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
What I'm saying, Like, those are only guys who really
looking man. I've seen you man, you know, man, I
like how you put that together. So it's like man watching.
And I'm from a block that did twenty thousand dollars
every day when I come up my door and I
walked down the stairs walking to the bus stop. Niggas
making money for six in the morning was some of everything,
(15:43):
but it was generally heroin. You know what I'm saying that,
And we've seen that. You know, my block made a
lot of millionaires, rats, gangsters, stand up guys everything. You
know what I'm saying, And we've seen that.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Coming from that neighborhood had an influence on us. You know,
of course we could have been other things. But who
showed us that?
Speaker 3 (16:03):
Right exactly?
Speaker 1 (16:03):
You know they told us. Who showed us that? That's
so important?
Speaker 2 (16:07):
You know what I'm saying, To show people something is
so important, even me being in my position. So I'm like,
why we gotta show people. I'm telling you could believe
it or just go it's on you as your life.
But man, to show people's it's a totally different thing
than to tell them.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
Let me get into it too. You're still dealing with
the harassment from the police. You become that target, and
like you said it, but it's an easy target.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Here we talk about like drugs were the thing that
allowed the federal government to control people because you know,
you can't say you're going to do like a war
on murder. It's like a state thing and war and
robbery or what are you gonna do? War on what drugs?
That's physical, it's money. It's going across state lines, and
people don't like it. And now we can target people
(16:58):
that we don't like.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
It's like it is good now because you get smoked
in New York State, they're smoking in front of a
police officer. Down here in Atlanta. Is not legal, right,
I don't know how to fuck it ain't legal?
Speaker 4 (17:08):
Okay, So look, Atlanta, I put it like this, Atlanta,
I think we on the ounce or less. It's just
a ticket in the city of Atlanta. But you know,
the way Atlanta set up. You go, you get off
of exit. This ain't Atlanta no more. You and Cobb County.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Yesterday in you know, I got a weed charge down here. Yeah,
I got you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
Okay, So I got a lawsuit going on with Eric
Andre and a few other people because they harassing people
in the airport. The Clayton County like police department basically
using the airport as atm. They stopped me at the
jet bridge when I'm getting on the plane, this is
past security. They asking me do you got drugs? You
got any money?
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Whoop? Whoop.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
So got with him. He told me they doing this lawsuit.
The lawyers did research. They found out they call it
a drug intervention program that came across ten people the
whole time.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Like they looked at eight.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
Months from when air got stopped and when I got stopped.
Ten times they stopped people. The most they found was
maybe like seven grams of weed. But in that timeframe
they confiscated over a million dollars people like foreigner.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
I think it was like four hundred fifty people over
that time. And I think like through Atlanta Hartsfield it
was like eight percent is non white and they're saying
it was randomized, and I think, what over happened?
Speaker 1 (18:21):
We're non white.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
They were actually stopped, I think. And so it's that
sort of thing. Have you ever been Have you ever
had an experience, you know, someone that like where it's coming.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
And cast myself, I'm saying, yeah, I'm assuming so myself
because I Ain'm not gonna talk too much about it,
but like you caught my case in the airport and
I'm saying, I wasn't like smuggling no shit like that.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Like I said, it's.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Like I was on tour. I had weed in my bag, right,
and I wanted to bring my weed.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
You know what I'm saying. It was legal from where I.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Was leaving at When I layed, I'm like, oh shit,
that's in a bag, you know what I'm saying. And
they locked me up for that shit, right, So me,
I just attested it to that, you know what I'm saying.
Every time I go they pulled me over like yo, less,
we got to go through your bags, you know what
I'm saying, Or start staying over here because I get
that all the time.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Even when I go through Claire.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
You go through clear this like random random idea Like
how I always get random, I like all the time.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
You fee what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
So I'm pretty sure this wasn't that random.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
You're like, something's changed, Something's changed, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
But you know, in New York getting the legalization of weed,
how's that affected Buffalo? Has it made any you see
any positive changes? You see anybody like us? You see
any black people that are allowed, you know, to get
the license or however they're going about.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
It one hundred percent because it's like this in New
York State, people who who had drug felonies, those was
the first people eligible to open up dispensaries.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Okay, that's what I'm saying. They did that.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
So like a couple of years ago, people was hitting
my phone, you know what I'm saying, like Yo, I'm like, damn,
I you know, I got feeling like yo, you want
to dispensary?
Speaker 4 (19:52):
Man?
Speaker 2 (19:53):
They shooting it at us first. So from that time
to this one, you got two things. You got the
we business, right, you got the cannabis industry. The cannabis industry.
The cannabis industry happens in dispensaries, is on farm. You
know what I'm saying, maybe after six pm when those
clo when those dispensary lights go off and other lights
(20:15):
come on, you know, it's still weed being sold in
like America everywhere that's not through dispensaries. Because I'm gonna
say the quality, and I'm gonna say the access. You know,
some people don't. Some people don't. They don't got access
to to go to dispensaries. It's a drug still now.
And I'm learning too. I'm learning how to shop for
(20:35):
marijuana dispensaries. You gotta learn, you know what I'm saying.
You gotta get familiar with the brands and everything like that.
But man, it definitely changed so much. And I probably
know two or three guys who got dispensaries, and I
want to see two or three hundred, you know what
I'm saying, and around the nation two or three thousand,
two or three million, because you know, they threw it's.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
A bone, you feel me. They threw it's a bone,
and it could work.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
I see it working for a lot of people, you
know what I'm saying, And.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
So I do feel like it be changed for the good.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
And how much you know, cannabis is like the kind
of gateway into a lot of people, like the government
to be able to intruse like the smell smelled, the
odor of marijuana coming from the car to sarch the car,
those types of things, and so even just getting it,
you know, determinalized and legalized, to be able to remove
those types of like kind of arrows in the quiver
from government to kind of in true in your life,
(21:26):
is is a good stuff for it. And obviously from
the commercial side, so you're in the cannabis business.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
The cannabis industry, industry, industry, and so it's I'd be curious, uh,
kind of talk about what you've seen just as a
small you know, small business owner, would have been some
of the impediments that you've seen.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
I know we've talked seen a lot about like how
there's like kind of big cannabis kind of coming in
and taking over. Seeing we have similar stuff with like alcohol,
where there's like you think there's all these brands, but
there's really like four huge mega brands owns like every
drink you've ever had. Some times they get the first
foot forward in a lot of states because they write
the laws if it goes to a ballot. I know
we've seen that in a lot of places, so talked
(22:06):
about that, like, what are some of the things that
you've seen that have been great, like kind of improving
in the cannabis industry. What has been impediments Still, I'm
just curious to kind of hear about all that.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Yeah, well, like the cannabis industry, Like when I go
to dispensaries and I see uh, you know, middle class
people walking the dispensaries and they buy they weed and
shit not like that, you know what I mean, that
shows growth in the industry. But that's what you which
is what you want to know. It's like it's certain
neighborhoods that the dispensary is never going to effect. You
know what I'm saying. It's like it's like it's it's
(22:36):
it's regular neighborhood dudes who got them under a foothold.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
You you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
Friend loyalty.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
But when when the goal the goal is because like
I said, I want to see I want to see
more entrepreneurs do it the right way.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
So so the goal is afford to happen.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
And when it do happen, like we said, it's only
like a few big companies hopefully they reach out, you
know what I'm saying, not saying that, not saying that
like one of the top company is gonna call a
trapper or pull up in the hood, but it's like
hopefully those opportunities through through educating ourselves and learning more
on about it, you know what I'm saying, with those
guys who those guys who trapping, who are doing shit,
through educating themselves, learning more about learning more about that shit,
(23:13):
and building their team up, those more opportunities because guess what,
maybe maybe maybe it will kind of like turn into
a McDonald's type of thing, you feel what I'm saying,
where the neighborhood is eating off of it, because like
just like McDonald's when you're going I'm from the hood.
When you're going McDonald's, it's like everybody in the hood
working that motherfucker, you know what I'm saying. So maybe
it would be a thing where it's really giving back
(23:33):
to the community where people work there, you understand, instead
of just buying weed there, you actually work there, and
it's three of them to this neighborhood. That's the ultimate goal,
because it's a weed trap in every hoood, you know
what I'm saying. So it really can turn into a
thing like that, you know what I'm saying. And I think,
like that's years years down the line, though. I think
you know what I'm saying, because it's gonna take. It's
gonna take two different sides how it did with the government.
(23:55):
You know what I'm saying, the government, the weed business,
cannabis industry.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
You know I'm saying. Let me speak on this too.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
I don't feel like the the cannabis industry affects the
weed business. It's two different things. You feel what I'm saying.
It's like, uh, you know, it's it's seafood to McDonald's. Man,
when you want seafood, you're going you know what I'm saying.
You don't got to taste for them, both of them motherfuckers.
At the same time. You feel what I'm saying. You know, Okay,
the difference between the cannabis industry and the weed business
(24:23):
is this first and foremost.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
I'm gonna start with the with the product.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
You feel what I'm saying, because federally, you can't go
state the state with right, Yeah, the state has to
grow the flower. You know, a lot of states is not.
You know, they don't got top notch growers. Like everybody
don't got them green thumbs like that. Some people grow
up better. Like I said, it ain't like you can
have legally. Ain't like you can have this place supplying everything.
(24:50):
So you know, what's that a one ship and then
the second is the uh it's where you're getting it from, right,
you know? We know like you got to maybe call
somebody with the phone. Old school called somebody with the
phone and they pull up on you.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
But now the cannabis industry helped the weed business because
a lot of these dudes got traps and you walk
in them and it looked just like a dispensary, and
you don't you can't, you can't tell the difference.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
But you're really in a legal weed and everything.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Yeah, I don't know how it is in New York
State or in other places where weed as legal is at,
but I'm pretty sure they can't. The police can't put
up like crazy efforts to shut this building down.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
It's more regulators and stuff. There's not like criminal penalties
as Yeah, as.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Much where you where the product, definitely the product.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Like I said, sometimes the weed business got better product
than the cannabis industry, and then like the location where
you get it from, because maybe ten years from now,
if a middle class person wanted to go get their
weed and shit, they had to still go to the
hood or call their dealer, if whoever he was.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
You used to have to like almost be in a
sketchy situation to get it. Now it's not like that.
You could walk in even in a weed business. You
could walk up some shit like, man, this is a
nice dispensary. It's illegal.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Fuckers got eight k's back in the back, you know
what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
But people willn't go fully legit when they got all
the abilities to do. They invest in money in and
putting it together or you know what I'm saying, and
they got that ship rocking and rolling already. Man, the
guy who runs that is nowhere around it, right, you
know what I'm saying. And the people who are in there,
by the time the police stop hearing and do what
they're gonna do and say what they're gonna say, we
(26:29):
made a lot of money and it's gonna be a
slap on the risk by the time of come and
people did this. People do this ship when it's dangerous.
Let alone a slap on a risk. People do this
ship when they making a tiny bit of money and
gonna get life. Let alone, you're making a bunch of
money and police don't give a fuck, right, So it's like,
why you know what I'm saying. But like I said,
through educating them them fellas more, I can say if
(26:50):
them fellas was a little bit educated, a little bit more,
because I'm pretty sure they know they shit, they switch
it up because because why he even had that looming
over your head.
Speaker 3 (26:59):
Right, And the more it comes down in the open,
it's well, why wouldn't I do this?
Speaker 2 (27:03):
And one thing I think is the government not gonna
stand for that because everybody got people paying taxes on it.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Now. Because when I open up.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
When I open up the Butcher's dispensaries and I open
up ten in the neighborhood, I don't want motherfuckers just
you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
You don't see yeah liquor stores there, right.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
So I think it's going to get there.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
Man, It's gonna get so refined in the next ten
ten years that it'll be something totally different than what
it is today.
Speaker 4 (27:30):
You know what I'm saying, but now that you said it,
we business cannabis industry. I lived out in LA for
about three years. I would even see it out there,
because of course you got the cookie store, you got
the mid man, you got the store to do it right,
and then you got stores where you can't have your
phone out. You know what I'm saying exactly, You're like,
(27:51):
hold on, are y'all running power off a generator in
this bitch? Sh Yeah? And so you see and so
like that makes perfect sense. And I know I knew
what was going on, but I never made that distinction
and separation like that.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
That's how it go ooh, it's a big fucking difference
between the cannabis industry and the weed business. Because I
want people to know the difference. And I'm thinking about
we're talking. Another thing is it's the players in the game.
You feel what I'm saying. They all hustlers. They just
hustlers from different aspects of life. They all hustlers.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Man.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
I was in Buffalo one day. I was at a rooftop.
I lived in this name I lived, I lived in
this building. We're going away to the rooftop. I was
coming in a building I've seen tall motherfucker with jewlry
and ship your outfit on him, and no, this is Buffalo.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
Somebody fucking come here. If it ain't me, I'm like,
I don't know this guy. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Me and my nigga, right, you know what I'm saying.
But he looked familiar though, so he came came and
spoke to me. He came like, Yo, I fuck with
your ship. So I'm not realizing it's James Johnson play ball,
you know what I'm saying. So I'm like, oh shit,
I'm like, think a man, like what the fuck are
you doing here? And he's here with an investment group
of people. And they opened up a dispensary in Buffalo,
(29:02):
you know what I'm saying, coming to look at the land.
And they asked me up there. It's like, Yo, we
need somebody with skinning the gang who from here, So
be a partner and don't got to give no money
or know nothing.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
You know what I'm saying. You know what I mean,
shout out my boys.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
You know what I'm saying. It's a few of them.
And a that was that was to what you were saying.
What I was saying. The players of the game is different.
Those are cannabis industry guys who made their money elsewhere
who are looking to make investments.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
Right, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
Any other investments, Yeah, they won't return all exactly.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
So those are the players.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
And then you know you got the you know, you
got the street guys stay the same way they made
their money. They're trying to get the heat off of them.
You know what I'm saying, They're trying to go legal.
But to what you were saying, it's like, open up
your network, you know what I'm saying. You know, James
JJ with his people and they and they kicking it
with me about you know what I'm saying, These guys
who I wouldn't have met on a regular basis.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
So open up your fucking network. That's important thing.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
And opening people that made it in other places that
you would never have even thought about in your entire life.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
You know what I'm saying. It's like me, what I'm
what I'm what I'm doing is I got the I
got my my brand, and I'm putting the brand in stores.
I'm pretty sure, like I said, it's so premature right now.
It came a long way from where it was. But
I'm pretty sure, you know, dudes is getting all type
of ideas of how they're gonna do this and work together.
I'm pretty sure the wills is turning with these guys
(30:21):
where they're trying to figure out how we're going to
take this to the next level you feel, I'm saying,
and the consumption is the next is that's the next thing.
But your answerment, I really don't know. But the guys
who I meet, they are smart dudes who do that ship.
They are smart dudes. They come from they come from
a lifestyle where they made money already, or they made
(30:42):
money from the game, you know what I'm saying, or
they just super ambitious and they gonna figure it out.
Speaker 4 (30:47):
You know what hustlers say, if you can make it,
you can make it again.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Hunt saying, that's that's what that's about. That's what it's about.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
One of the things we know where some of the
investments are not coming because you know, cannabis industry is
still treated so differently than so many other industries you
alluse to earlier, Like you know, if you you have
to grow in your state, you can't ship it across states.
You can't ship it internationally. There's limits on what types
of products you can have, the type of financial institutions.
(31:23):
You know, there's a lot of it's still a lot
of big cash only business where you're carrying around lots
of cash, so you're not actually in the regular market,
and that still spooks people a lot. And actually, really,
you know, if we want to have you know, when
you're talking about two three million, you know, cannabis iners
coming out there, obviously those are the limits because then
your competition is only going to be domestic and only
limits how much we get to sell. And I know
(31:44):
that's been a big issue with where kind of the
black market starts coming in, because all these people sell
as much weed as they possibly can, and then any
other offload from their fields, you know, maybe you can
go over here over here, And so yeah, I'm just curious,
like do you have you seen some of those impediments
like to seeing like, okay, we could see the cannabis
(32:05):
industry getting to this point, but you know, being from
inside the game, like what are you seeing from that
that you see like there's impediments that like, hey, we
got to destroy these barriers and this is how we
can get to that next level, either government, private or
whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
I think it's I think it's a government thing first.
I think it's a government thing first. Where the transpole
the transpole because it's some big brands right in the
WE business, some big popular brands, and if you put
that that might drive some some consumers to the dispisaries
who from the streets.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
It's like, yo, they got that ship right, We're going
over there, right.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
So I think it's like definitely definitely governmental. And it's
like guys just got to integrate with the cannabis industry
and WE business. Now a lot of these guys, Man,
I don't want to put nobody the fucking business out there,
but sometimes the same people.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
Right, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
It's it was like they really got to figure it
out and take this loophole and run with it. And man,
I'm just now realizing that. It's like it's like one
day we're going to be able to be like fucking
Morgan Freeman doing the fucking joint commercial.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Like when it gets to that, when the government like
let's just full all the way off, because like I said,
through through motherfucker's a bone. But when they let they
foot all the way off and then people looking at
it like yo, it's like alcohol.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
Eat what I'm saying, Like once they once it fits
the agenda again, you know what I'm saying. Maybe it'll
go further, but I think it's a lot of integration.
Like I said, I believe we in the premature states
of this shit. You know what I'm saying, Cause I
remember going to I remember seeing it change over time
in California. My first time ever going to California was
like was only twenty seventeen, and I remember the prices
being low and they being high, and they being low
(33:46):
and being different. So even them over there, they're going
through shit. So like I said, man, we just caught
the We just caught the early stages and figs for
this whole thing right now, exactly.
Speaker 4 (33:55):
Like you said, they're figuring it out legally to where
everybody get big, everybody.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
It's not blurred. It's really one thing, and I think
that'll work for everybody. Know what I'm saying. There's one thing.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
You know, we're taping this on election day, which.
Speaker 4 (34:07):
Is crazy, and.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
But it's the first time in United States history where
the two parties both the candidates have advocated for legalizations.
Start crazy change, yes, dynamic. Yeah, it feels like it's
happened in such a short period of time, at least perception.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
I think so too.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
I think so too, because we went like we illegal
for fucking ever. Yeah, you know what I'm saying just now,
in the past few years, you could like do this
in front of a police officer.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
It's like they find some ship on you and be like,
you know what I'm saying, well that this is legal now.
Speaker 4 (34:45):
I mean, man, the places that that has happened has
surprised me. Man, I'm driving to do a show. Alabama
got a little bit on me. They pulled me over.
I don't even want to deal with I told him.
I said, hey, I got a little bit. I'm thinking
it's Alabama. I'm already here, and like, let me go ahead,
call somebody to get to buy. But he said, man,
dump it out and step on it and I'm gonna
(35:07):
let you go. And I was like, is this a trap?
Like right?
Speaker 2 (35:12):
But it's definitely like that. And I've been I've been
let off too, but still with that. That's why they
need to get rid of this ship and just do
away with it, because I still have I got another
open case for weed for half a blunt. No, you know,
I'm when I talk too much ship to the police
(35:33):
some time I just tell them some ship, like if
you want to do your day doing paperwork, I'm willing
to do it with you.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
This ship gonna last me till the next morning. Whatever.
If you really want to throw your day away, let's go.
You know what I'm saying. They don't like that ship.
Still roll something up, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
I had to go to court and I'm still going
to court for this shit happened like almost a year
and a half ago, and for a literal half a blunt.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
You know what I'm saying. The weed was bullshit too.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
You had I did talk to my attorney and it
was like it's going to get when I go to court.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
It's going to get resolved, okay, right, But it's like it's.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
Particular how many resources and harassing you. I was. I
work in like policy and things like that. So we
were looking at a situation in Tennessee actually as a
family from Alabama, going to Tennessee or vice versa cop
stop them did this like field drug test kit thing
where it's like a two dollars kit and it test
substances and then it said it was like, oh, you
(36:29):
have cocaine and you had like all this stuff in
your system. Took their kids away because of like cannabis,
because they had like someone had used and they did
like a follicle test and said like, you can't be
around your kids anymore. And if that sort of stuff,
it's not always just like the arrests the jail, because
you know, you hear a lot of saying there's not
a bunch of people in prison for a joint in
their and it's like, you know what, that's right, But
(36:50):
it's all the other stuff that comes around with that.
It's the harassments, the criminal record that doesn't get you
a job anymore. It's all the other things that makes
you a second class citizen in our society that still
is around the cannabis industry wall it's still being legalized
and people are making millions around the country.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
That's gonna happen crazy, it's going to be more. It's
gonna end up being more conflicting then then then smooth.
So they're going to have to figure that out. There's
too much shit going on, you know what I'm saying. Yeah, Yeah,
for sure when a bunch of those cases when it
when it become when people start like you know, like
raising hell about ship like that, then they're gonna come
like why not, you know what I'm saying. But that's
(37:28):
what I was thinking about it, like maybe it's about
to be legal everywhere because that's what they're gonna do.
They're gonna fucking rake in all the money they can
because this ship when it's gone, it might be gone forever.
Speaker 1 (37:37):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
That's like millions of dollars, if not billions a year
that people pay through fines and bills and all types
of crazy shit, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
Yeah, And you see that with like you know, after
like Ferston happened in that time period of the dj came
in Department of Justice and did a report about what
was going on in the in the city. Before that,
they toiled all these emails from like the city council
telling the police like hey, we need ten percent more revenue,
can you take it more? People?
Speaker 4 (38:02):
So all right, man, what do you think you know this,
this whole thing needs to go. What needs to happen
to give Benny the Butcher's vision, because I like your vision.
If you was running for office today, I put it.
I vote for you, brother, vote yeah you get put
him on the red and blue folks. Yeah, but go
(38:22):
back to what you said in the beginning. You what
you're shown and what you're showing people exactly is don't
you're showing people all sides?
Speaker 2 (38:30):
Yeah, man, I appreciate the opportunity to do this. Man,
you appreciate Drugs over are still going on, still going.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
Thanks for coming through and doing this.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
Man.
Speaker 3 (38:44):
Positivity on the day that is, we're gonna be very unpositive.
Speaker 1 (38:49):
Watch the election like it's the super Bowl. There it is, there,
it is. Man. The story about their raid crazy.
Speaker 4 (39:10):
Just think about what would have happened if he wasn't
able to flush that, or if he would have got
caught at that point.
Speaker 3 (39:18):
Yeah, or he thought the people that you know sprang
in and into this place were trying to rob them
or cause harm. Yeah, Baronna Taylor incident is a great
I mean literally, when he was describing it, I mean
the broad strokes sounded almost identical.
Speaker 4 (39:34):
Yeah, and I hope people can hear that and understand
that these types of things is not uncommon for somebody
to come and rob somebody. Well, why would she shoot back?
Why would this person have a gun? Why would It's
all it's always why did they do this? Or if
they did that, then it must be this. And I
(39:55):
think everybody is going to try to protect theyselves and
those no knock warrants.
Speaker 1 (39:59):
Man, it is dangerous for everybody involved.
Speaker 3 (40:02):
It is. No, it's it's dangerous for the people. It's
dangers for the police officers. Mistakes happen, honest, mistakes happen,
you know, miss like where you get the wrong address
or again, it's.
Speaker 1 (40:11):
Just we've seen this happen so many times.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
When you're working in an organization where you know, certain
people may come.
Speaker 4 (40:18):
To your house and yes that have nothing to do
with law enforcement, yes, you know, and they'll have the
same tactical gear, just no badge.
Speaker 3 (40:26):
Yeah, I love you know, Benny coming from another time.
Sometimes we're you know, we're always like, oh it's doing
loom and bad and there's always these things. But like
you could really tell, you know, even asks like oh,
the drug wars still going on because you know, in
a lot of ways, a lot of those things have
ended like that. You know, he sees as like the
real you know major, you know the things that we're
(40:46):
going on, and so we have made that progress, but
we still have a lot of bad thing. No knock
warrants are still going on all the time, all day
every day.
Speaker 4 (40:55):
It still places where there's not progress, and even where
there is progress, it may just be in one small
are like we talked about with Atlanta, Like he got
arrested outside of Atlanta for having the wheel and that's
an Atlanta thing. If you're in Fulham County, you're good.
If you have a little bit of weed. I think
they give you up to an ounce and it's a ticket.
(41:15):
But you cross the county line going anywhere, you know,
you could be in the cab. You could be in Clayton,
you could be in Cobb. You're not going to see
a sign or anything. You just go see those lights
and it's going to be a different type of car
pulling you over. And now you're sitting in jail for
something that half a mile a mile up the road
would have been a.
Speaker 1 (41:34):
Ticket as rot.
Speaker 3 (41:35):
It's kind of it's crazy, this piecemeal like system that
we have, and you know, Benny getting you know, he
was telling a story like being in a legal county,
crossing over a non legal we're a legal ones over there,
and then getting busted in between and like and that
happens all the time, and so it allows for this
drug war to kind of still proliferate and you're kind
(41:56):
of supposed to be able to move around. I think
people would be shocked to know that drug possession arrests
is still by far the largest types of arrest that
happened in the United States, overwhelmingly, and the majority of
those are for cannabis related defenses. So it is even
with all the progress that we've made, it is still
the driver of the criminal joze. Even if people, you know,
(42:18):
the processer's allowed to say like, hey, no one's going
to prison for a joint, they might not be, but
they might be getting harassed for it. They might be
able to get their car search for it, they might
be able to have to go to jail for it
for a second. They might miss their.
Speaker 4 (42:29):
They might not they might not go to prison, but
they might lose their job, which results in them losing
where they live, which results in them losing their kids,
which so the results can go on and on and
in so many ways that the whole war on drugs
rears its head, Like even when you try to get
(42:49):
out of it, you know, I mean, and we call
it the trap you're selling drugs. Even if you try
to get out of that, like Benny did, he's still
getting looked at. He's from You're the easiest target, so
let's harass you some more, even when you're trying to
make a transition to a better life.
Speaker 3 (43:07):
Yeah, And so I mean, condition of a lot of
people's probation is keeping their job. And so so many times,
so many times someone loses their job because they've had
to sit in jail or something else has happened, and
then it just goes back in the cycle. So just
something that worth noting. You know, as we continue to
make this produc there are still a lot of you
know a lot of people still sitting in prison right
now for things that people are making millions out in
(43:29):
the real world. Yes, it's going to be mindful.
Speaker 4 (43:31):
Of Yeah, when Benny was talking about everybody coming together,
like creating a collective, and that kind of brought me
back to the conversation we had would be.
Speaker 3 (43:42):
Really absolutely yeah, you said the same thing. So it
is like two entrepreneurs, you know, kind of on the
opposite side, the kind of being like, yeah, this is
actually what we need to do and come together. So again,
may we're just uh, we're going to go back on
the recruitin trail, just bringing people behind us here, man, one.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
Get them together.
Speaker 4 (43:59):
And like you said, that's coast to coast, So it
is we're feeling it on both sides. And both of
them have their own brands exactly as far as yeah, yeah, and.
Speaker 3 (44:08):
It's felt like they were kind of saying like, oh,
they don't really know like who's else is in the industry.
It just feels because you're working on so much try
to build your own stuff, like there does need almost
be like oh yeah, we're all doing kind of the
same thing here and dealing with the same issues. Like
we came together. We could really show some of these
So maybe by the time you hear this, we'll uh
lots some more announcements.
Speaker 1 (44:26):
Yeah, it'll be some stuff working. Yeah, stuff in the works.
Speaker 3 (44:29):
Yeah, But again, thank you so much, Benny for real appreciate.
Speaker 4 (44:33):
It, man, I appreciate it. Took it took longer than
he had to. We only had it for a little
a little while, and he stayed longer with us.
Speaker 3 (44:39):
So yeah, I think his manager was like, come on, man, yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:42):
Time let's go.
Speaker 4 (44:43):
He was like, man, so everything you heard, super genuine,
super real. Didn't have to do it, but did so
we appreciate it, man. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (44:51):
And then uh, next week, Uh, one of literally the
best voices you'll ever hear come out of your radio,
Brent Smith from Shine Down and you know he has
he talks in the interview. I'll just tease it here
about like almost like a Hollywood blockbuster, you know, moment
where he's struggling with addiction. He's about to make it
and his addiction is about to bring it all down.
(45:11):
And it's almost like this moment with his manager who
comes on with us as well, and they kind of
are like, which way are you going to go? And
one of the most successful bands, you know, not only
of our time but all time. So an amazing conversation
with him. So with that, I'm Greg Lott. It's the
War on Drugs. Yes, The War on Drugs is a
production of Lava for Good and Stand Together Music and
(45:33):
association with Signal company number one. Stand Together Music unites
musicians and their teens with proven change makers to co
create solutions to some of the most pressing issues in
our country, including criminal justice, reform, addiction recovery, mental health, education,
free speech, and ending the War on drugs. Learn more
at Stand Together Music dot org. Be sure to follow
(45:56):
Lava for Good on Instagram, Facebook and threat at Lava
for Good. You can follow Clayton English on Instagram, n
X at Clayton English, and you can follow Greig Laude
on Instagram and on X at Greg Lott. Executive producers
Jason Flamm, Jeff Kempler, Kevin Wardis, and Collette Wintraub. Senior
producers Kelsey Stenecker, Zak Huffman and Nick Stump. Post production
(46:21):
by ten ten, Audio Talent booking by Dan Resnick Rez
Entertainment Head of Marketing and Operations, Jeff Cleiburn, Social Media
director Ismadi Gudarrama, Social media manager Sarah Gibbons, and art
director Andrew Nelson.
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