January 8, 2021 • 44 mins
On this episode of Street Politicians, Tamika D. Mallory and Mysonne take the people into the New Year discussing “Music For The Movement“. They discuss the marketing aspect of building a platform through instagram with specifically speaking on woman selling sexuality. Moreover they had special guest Rapsody who shares her thoughts on being an artist in HipHop and the obstacles she faces when it comes to people comparing her to other artist such as Cardi B, and why there is not a balance in the music industry for female rappers.
Moreover, they also highlight youth activist Mary Pat Hector, Georgia State Coordinator of the ‘Black Youth Vote’ organization and discuss the Atlanta election,
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, y'all, I'm to make a d. Mallory and I'm
so in the general and welcome to street Politicians, the
place where the streets and politics meet, and we're talking
about critical issues that matter in our communities from the
streets all the way to the sweets. So my today
because you know, I think all the time. You know,
(00:28):
I just I've been watching on social media, even some
of my great friends that have banging bodies, they take
certain types of pictures, certain types of profiles. And I
guess my question is, in order to blow up, I
have two questions today. I got two thoughts. In order
to blow up and and become successful and get the
(00:50):
type of attention and build your platform, do you have
to take a picture with your butt turned towards the
camera showing your back side? Like you know, I never
really take pictures like that, but perhaps I'm not doing
it right. And then I guess the second part of
that question is because I'm not hating on those who do,
(01:10):
because like I said, these are people who these are
people who they got it to turn around and show you.
So it's all good, but is that what sells and
what gets you a man like? Is that what men
want to see the as shot um. To be quite frankly, yes,
men want to see it right. And it depends on
(01:31):
what it is that you're trying to accomplish. This is
just from a man's point of view. You know, if
you're trying to sell your sexuality, then people who want
to buy sexuality are gonna buy it, you know. And
if you're trying to find a man who's into that,
(01:53):
you know, then that's the type of man you're gonna attract. Now,
is this person going to be somebody that you can
have a long standard relationship who knows you know, you
don't know you. You have to understand who you are
as an individual, you know. And and that's why if
you if you feel your sexual and you want somebody
who likes you because you've got a fat backside, or
because you're just this sexy person who doesn't care about
(02:15):
the intellect you have, who doesn't want to get to
know you, who you know, who doesn't really care about anything,
and they just attracted to this physical being that you present,
then cool, that's what it is. Because there's some people
that that's all they want. They trying to have a
good time. They want somebody that looks at them for
a good time. Men look at you as a good
time when you when you were physically shown yourself, they
(02:36):
look at you. The first thing they view you as
is a sexual image somebody that they see sexually, you know,
So that can mature into something else. A lot of
times it really doesn't, because that's what you portrayed. So
that's how they see you, and that's the level of
engagement you're gonna get. Because I see even some of
my friends who have businesses, right and they sell products
(03:01):
or their styling, or they're designing, or they're you know whatever.
Sometimes when I look at their social media, I'm not
sure exactly what we're selling. I don't know if we're
selling the outfit, if we're selling you, if we're selling tail,
if we're selling you know, expression. I'm not always sure,
and so I'm just like, maybe I'm looking at it
(03:24):
wrong and maybe I'm being a too sensitive or whatever,
and instead I should actually be doing it myself. I'm
saying once again, once again, you have to figure out
what you're trying to sell. Sex is one of the
biggest thing in the world. Like that's why I w
when people say what like you said the number one
seller or time. So the bottom line is, if you're
(03:47):
using a marketing strategy. I tell people all the time,
it's a marketing strategy. You know what I'm saying, because
sex is a marketing strategy. Like people who are pleasing
to the eye, who advertise certain things, who make people
engage and pay attention, are able to sell something, you know,
So it's it's definitely a market of strategy. The way
(04:08):
that you look, the way that you present yourself is
a market of strategy. But you have to figure out
who is your target market. That's what you have to understand.
I think a lot of times people don't even understand
their own target market. So if you if you're doing
something more conservative spaces, but yet you're trying to target
a market that's not conservative and you're trying to sell sex,
(04:29):
then it gives a mixed message, you know. That's why
everybody don't do the same thing. That's why when you
watch Whop and you see Megan and Cardi doing that,
it's not gonna work for everybody, you know, because it doesn't.
You can't sell Everybody can't sell the same thing. So
I don't think it's anything wrong with women being sexy.
You know, it's enjoying the sexualities individuals that I'm talking about.
(04:53):
They are like I mean, and I'm using this word
um stallions right, like you know, but clearly I'm not
talking about Meg, although Meg is a bad and that's
and that's the thing for me, right when you watch
Meg right and you see the level of either love
or hate that she gets right now, and it's it's
(05:16):
either or right because what she represents either people love
it so much or they're angry because they feel that
it is a message that does a courside with them
is negative. It's telling young girls this. It's not it's
who she is. It's who she's representing who she is
to the fullest of her you know, ability is and
(05:38):
that's what she's She's selling so many things ated she
is passionate about issues. You know, I've had numerous conversations
either with Meg directly or her team about things that
she cares about, ways that she applies her resources and
education to try to help causes. You know, she's in school,
(06:02):
and it's almost like people really hate that. It's like
not everybody, of course, but there is an element of
folk in society that are angry that she's like all
of these different diverse things and and we no hate
because we see it. It just happened to me recently.
I said something in the TMZ interview, and you know,
(06:24):
and I know what I'm talking about. I know it's
in proper context for the issue that I'm dealing with
in that moment, and people just you know, they're making
their whole career off of trying to post about it
and talk about it and get their clicks and shares.
And in the past, I would go out and go
arguing with them and going online and you know, be
(06:45):
sitting there all day long, typing back and forth like
the frog when you see the frog going in. That's
what I generally would do. But I have grown past that.
My thing is, if you're trying to get your clicks
and shares off of me, you go ahead and do that.
Because most people who heard my statement, and you know,
you can go find it yourself. And we don't have
(07:07):
to get into that today. Um, but you know, most
people who heard it, they know exactly what I was
talking about, you know, And and you know, anyway, that's
a topic for a different day. And so you know,
with with even with Cardi, and you know how much
I love Cardi again, another person that I talked to
and and have have really come to learn love and
(07:28):
understand who she is as a person outside of music.
And you you see the hate that she receives as well,
and it's deep, deep, It's a deep hate because people
are afraid of your own confidence. They're afraid to see
confidence in somebody else that they don't have. For this
stiff when you can say and do something and be
(07:49):
unapologetic and be like, this is who I am and
I don't care if everybody else is doing it or not.
I'm so comfortable and like Cardi shows up as her
full self every time, no matter no matter what. She's
gonna being rollers in the house. She's gonna have no
makeup on, she's gonna have a baby, she's gonna talk
broken English. She's gonna talk about political issues. She's gonna
tell you how she feels, she might curse about it.
(08:12):
She's gonna talk about her why she gonna do whatever
she wants to do. She's a great entertainer and a
great story of personality. Her person she has a personality.
That's why she got there. Because she's from my hood.
You understand I'm saying, write down the block from my mother.
You know what I'm saying exactly. So when I used
(08:33):
to see her on Instagram, she had a million followers
before she did anything. She was just because people paid attention.
She was somebody who captivated you, who you gravitate, whether
she was having a fight on the street, whether she
was talking about yo, y'all, y'all, y'all, b I TC,
y'all know, it's what it is, is popping and she
coming from the strip, whatever it is. People paid attention,
(08:54):
and you know, and she has a personality because it's authentic.
You know. That's what That's what that and that's what
we always been attracted to. I don't care. You don't
got to be politically correct. You don't have to be
the best person, the smartest person, nothing, long as you
are authentic, you know what I'm saying. I will always
respect you if Cardy is authentic to the fullest man.
And that's why we receive hate because at the end
(09:17):
of the day, we don't care what you think about us.
I don't care what you think about I've never cared.
I don't think I care what you think. I just did.
I hate to be lied on. I hate for you
to state something like see, I'll still argue on my
page because you're not gonna go on my page and
state something that's wrong. That's not too much. It's too
much for you to lie on me. You can't lie
(09:38):
on me and try to discredit the sts be talking about. Yeah,
because I'm still listening. I'm too, I'm still parallel. You
understand saying even though I'm removed from the street life,
I'm not removed from the streets. And that's where most
of the people that I'm trying to save. They're not
from the street. They're not You don't even see them.
(09:58):
They don't even gotta profile pick. So I'll talk about
the ones who actually lead the attacks. But anyway, I
hope they get them some extra followers. My name brings
them a little more. I know, people who I've pretty
much barked their whole career, they got whole YouTube pages
built off talking about me. So I'm gonna, well, hey,
(10:20):
that's I guess that's a good thing. It's an excellent thing.
The streets is talking. The streets are always talking. Streets
talking too damn much that people going to jail. But
you know, we we gotta have some debate about that
because this whole I keep saying, I get the concept
of the nostic sitching piece. I totally get it, but
(10:44):
I'm not sure these kids get it from the right perspective.
And I think it's kind of dangerous. But we can't
today is not to but we need to have a deep, deep, deep, deep,
deep conversation. It's really just common sense. But what's this
Streets talking about? The streets are talking about the Grammars.
Streets was definitely talking about them talking about the same
(11:10):
we know already. But even though you know something right,
every time that you faced with it and you actually
see it, it just I think for individuals it gets hard,
especially as an artist. Right as an artist, when you
know you put your heart into something, you know the
people have embraced it, you know, it's been celebrated by
(11:30):
the people that you actually make music for, and then
you have an institution that doesn't respect that, you know,
because they don't respect our culture, don't respect us in general,
you know, and to constantly see that it doesn't it
doesn't feel any better. Every time you know, you you say, whatever,
I don't care about the girls, But you know, it's
a prestigious it's a very important you know, it's a
(11:50):
it's important awards, especially for artists when you create worldwide
and universal music. So when you don't get recognized, you know,
and you don't win awards, especially from our culture, it
feels a way, you know, So even if you don't
expect it, you're like them. I know, I deserve it
and we can't. And the thing is it doesn't lose
any credibility even though we say we notice in that
(12:14):
we have not done the proper way, we have not
done the proper you know, going taking the proper steps
to make that Grammy lose the credibility and put something
in place of it that represents us properly. Well, I
know they've they've made some internal changes, um and you know,
I know my sister Felicia, our sister Felicia Butterfield Jones
is they're doing diversity work, So I know there's change
(12:37):
is happening, but you're talking about an old institution and
it's gonna take some time for them to actually align
with First of all, there's probably people fighting against it,
so you know, you can't just hire one or two
people and think that the whole culture is gonna shift,
so you don't. We'll see what happens. But you know,
I agree with you because I feel snubbed because I'm
(12:57):
in a few songs that I know I should have
won Grammy. But all those songs should have been they
just came out to me. The songs Daddy came. That's
been months ago. You're telling me that the song that
came out seven six months ago David Bann and them
had and what David being the song burning Ship. We
(13:21):
go this, okay, but I like that song, and so
that's been months it was it was before there was
like when to time. I don't know anyway, with a
lot of those songs that you are in, I should
have received the Grammy. I'm I better get one next year.
(13:41):
For Traded Truth, we got a song with him. I'm
on tas album, I'm on who Else album out on
Jeezy or you know, we gotta win a Grammy. You
know what I mean. Listen to you, just like a
real artist, most an artist. This don't work out, you
go give it meg Listen in Vogue had me and
it wasn't a song. It was a performance that they
(14:04):
did for one of the award shows. I can't remember
exactly which one, but I was in an in Vogue performance.
That's amazing. So it's a lot of kin I understand.
We are upset because she don't know where is that.
It's don't know nothing, but I know I should have
(14:28):
been in it. Just keep on keep going. Yeah, you're
a new artist. You could have been new artists. As
our young brother Travis would say, keep going, Travis. Before
we go to the next segment and have our special
guests joint, we're gonna take a quick break for our sponsors.
Speaking of lyricists, we have one of my all time favorites.
(14:53):
I would put her in a gold category. And it
ain't just as a girl, you know, like, oh she's
wanting girl. No, she is a dope. Just artists and
rapper and female artists. And she's actually my sister friends,
(15:14):
your sister friend, first star. You know how you make
up words. We have our sistar rap City, my home girl. Yes, yes,
look at what's going on with love one A little bit,
(15:40):
clean up a little bit sometime. Listen, we miss you.
We haven't seen you in a in a few weeks
um since you were out with us. Organizing and getting
people out to vote. And I have to say congratulations
to you because I know that one of the reasons
why you were out there on the ground helping to
get people to the polls because you believe that we
(16:01):
need a new administration and we while we have one. Yes,
finally it was nerve racking, but we didn't. I wasn't
in the politics before at all. Like I didn't vote,
I ain't nothing, But I've learned so much the last
three elections for elections, um about the process, and you know,
(16:21):
I understand even more how important every one person counts,
Like we saw it in the numbers, like you know,
it could be five thousand people that can make the difference,
you know, it going one way or the other. So, yeah,
it was a good moment. I'm happy that y'all brought
me along. Yeah. No, you've been with us. You've been
with us. It's incredible to have you as a friend
(16:42):
and a sister. And what we've been debating are talking about,
I won't say debating, uh, is this idea of the
difference between a lyricist and a rapper. And my son,
as you know, believes you're one of the best lyricists
in the world shout out to my son, who was awesome,
but absolutely, I mean, you know, when you when you
(17:04):
believe and you understand the craft, you bet you have
to acknowledge other people who take the craft as serious
as you and actually push you. Like I listened to
Wrap and be like, Okay, I gotta wrap now. Do
you know how dope you are? Like do you be like, Yo,
I'm really dope. Some days I'm gonna tell you. I'm
gonna tell you what it is for me, Like I
gotta I gotta kind of trick myself out right. I
(17:25):
hear some stuff and I'll be like, as of lately,
I'll be like, hey, I'm really nice at what I do,
you know. And then there's some days I'm like, I
don't even want to think that way because I like
feeling like I'm an underdog, so I always stay hungry,
you know. I mean, I don't want to be comfortable,
you know, And I don't know if that's right or
wrong or whatever, but that's my process. So um, I
don't you know, I don't even I don't even think
(17:46):
I'm better now though my confidence is because before my
confidence wasn't always there. I felt like I had to
be be validated, you know, and when people didn't validate
your you didn't feel like you any spaces that you
were supposed to be. You kind of look inward when
I ain't always the case, you know what I'm saying.
So I understand where to five value in myself. Man,
(18:07):
you have to be your biggest champion. I feel like
there are rooms that you know we're not in, right
because I have that same issue in terms of a
lack of confidence at times, feeling like I don't necessarily
have the education or the background that some of the
greats in terms of leaders activists you know have and
(18:29):
um and don't know how to say all the big
words and all of that, right. So I struggle with that.
But I feel like if I'm not in a room
at this point, it's something wrong with the room. It's
not me, you know, because even though I may not
be at their level, I still bring something to the table.
And if you feel like this is not a place
that I should be, then hey, that's now I'm starting
(18:51):
to be like, oh, that's y'all. You you're missing out
by not having Rhapsody as part of whatever You're missing
out by not giving that Grammy, it's say something about you.
But you've been nominated three times or two times. Uh,
I just got my fourth this year by way of
artist by the name of Jacob colly um. But three
(19:12):
three for me to with Laylas wasn't a woman Kendred. Wow,
that's amazing, just you know, just to just to not
have the celebrity that everybody else has because a lot
of these war shows, you know, celebrity is a big
part of it. So you know, to to at least
be acknowledged four times, I'll take that. But you know,
(19:33):
I've come to also understand, like you know, even if
you don't, that doesn't change anything for you. You know
what I'm saying again, you don't need anybody to validate you.
But it feels good to be acknowledged. It's dope. It's
dope to be acknowledged. And you just have such a
humble spirit. You know, when you just hanging out with
you and just being with you, you just so humble.
(19:55):
But when you get on that Mic she just and
then Mike, you see this level of like aggression and
confidence and fire that you just is a star quality.
You know that that is so unique you understand. I
think you're on this pace for greatness. It's not just
(20:15):
given to you. A lot of artists have this. They
just pop on the scene and have just this major
co san or they get this one song and then
they move into it real fast. I think the gradual
growth of you as an artist and people paying attention
is what is just making you into this grid, is
putting you in that gold category. Look, and I think
(20:37):
about Oprah, Right, I'm in the video just I Jamica Mallory.
I'm in the video just so people don't but the
song is about money, right, like black women using our
economic power. First of all, who came up with that concept?
And what's the artist's name who's also in the in
(20:59):
the song? Kaylee Ford? He said, amazing, like one of
my favorites. Um, as far as the concept for the
song itself, that was that was you know, that was
me at That was on the Eve album And again
I named every record for those who haven't heard it
after a black woman. And I wanted to touch on,
you know, our economic power and how black women are
(21:21):
the most educated. You know, we own the most businesses too,
and um, you know, just just talk about that side,
like we could talk about money in so many different ways.
I wanted to about it in a different way, in
a boss way as far as like the video, and
we had to have you, um and uh, who else
do we have? Oh my home girl Erica. Um. You
(21:43):
know I got with Mesa Hilton, you know, the legendary
creative Um. You know, we just bounced ideas on you know,
how we wanted to look um. But you know, we
definitely wanted to highlight nothing but black women businesses, ownerships.
Wanted to have y'all at the table with the bag
of money and talk about like where where is our
money and our power? Most beneficial? You know. They see
(22:05):
your college courses based upon ye music from E which
is amazing the highest bar I think I could ever
be given. You get the awards and everything, but when
you reach you know, institutions of education, you live forever
(22:25):
like they are. They are teaching you and preparing you
in the same way they teach you math and science
and history, how to critically think things that stick with
you forever. Like to be in those spaces like I
think that's the highest bar that anybody can give you.
An acknowledgement gratitude like that's bigger than any grammar and
any award for me, it sure is. Has there been
(22:46):
times throughout your career where you was like, you know,
let me just make a song like this so people
can pay attention, not to pay attention, because it's more
so sometimes you're just like, yo, I just want to
have fun today, and like people look at me and
they put me in a box on who they think
(23:07):
I am based on the music I make. When you
don't really know me, like you don't know how I group,
You don't know what I listened to. You don't know
what I like to do because I choose to show
up a certain way, you know, for the purpose of
bringing balance or whatever. That don't mean that I don't
like to have fun. I don't mean I don't like
to shake my butt in the mirror to that I
don't go to the club and back it up, want
to do as well, Like that's who I am as well.
(23:29):
So it's some days you just want to be like,
I don't really want to think about it. I just
want to have fun like everybody else having fun, That's
what it's about. For me. It's not it would only
be about trying to be seen if I copy what
you did, like if I'm trying to be you and
I'm trying to sound like you, na, but sometimes it's
just like yo, I just wanna I want to do
(23:50):
my version of what fun is for me, you know. Yeah?
And that's what we've been talking about. What why? Because
people I posted it on my page and people lost
their minds, and somehow or another, you ended up getting
my trolls. I don't know exactly how, but they went
to you and and and they were really upset like
(24:11):
that you are U and and organized a leader and
you're out here talking and celebrating why. And you and
I were looking at each other like yeah, because, first
of all, as we have said a million times, why
is the number one selling product whatever you want to
call in the world. Okay, so stop acting like, all
(24:35):
of a sudden, when women start talking about their own bodies,
when we take agency over our message and put out
whatever it is that you know, the art that artistry
or whatever word you use, Um that all of a sudden,
there's are are whatever he makes up words? Um that
that now, all of a sudden, there's an issue because
(24:55):
guess what men have been selling our way for years
we and selling what forever? Now? Because Cardi and Meg
decide they're gonna put a song together, which actually is
a dope song, there's a problem. Yeah, I had to
do some critical thinking, right, and because let me tell you,
they'd be at my neck anytime. Anytime something sexual comes out,
(25:19):
I always get thrown into mentions and then haters coming
me and I don't even say nothing. I just like,
I'm open in minding my own business. But I had
a critical thing like, okay, what is the real issue?
You know? And I think that people have an issue
and that they're putting it towards the wrong place. Right.
It's not about Cardi, it's not about Megan, it's not
(25:39):
about whoever else. It's about you want to see more balanced,
But that comes from the industry, from eating, from fans
supporting it. So you know, don't put that energy towards them,
like celebrate them that they let them do what they
want to do. But if you want to see more balance,
you have to ask yourself what can I do right?
If you want to if you love a La Kaylie
(26:00):
forty seven and what comes out and goes crazy, but
you want to dope Lokyle forty song that should get
the same love. You gotta go out and buy that
music by those concerts. Like you know, if you're seeing
a media outlet that don't have the balance that you want,
don't support it. You know. For me, I understand that
side of wanting to have more variety because yet men
(26:23):
have been selling why but you they also have space
for Kendricks and Jake Cole's from you know what I'm saying,
it can's the rappers and we don't have that space
for a rhapsody Lakley forty seven a three D natty
Like you know, they don't get the same attention. That's
just how I look at him, Like, Okay, I understand
your argument, but it's displaced, like it can't it can't
(26:45):
be about Cardian men like they hot that that song
is dope. The sample that use I was like, oh
that was Joust I was. But speaking of support, um
Dock Nation is very supportive of Until Freedom, and you
have also been extremely supportive of our work, not just
(27:07):
with your Rock Nation, but just in general. J and
Desiree and the entire team. Uh. They met with us
and Charlemagne was the one to push and say y'all
need to be working together, and they met with us
and since then they have been so into and for
our work UM and trying to support us. And Jay
(27:27):
understands that support means putting dollars behind the work that
we're doing. And you sign with them, and I'm just
I want to know when you talk about support, how
different does it feel to be with a company and
organization that cares about everything that Racity stands for, not
(27:48):
just your music, but also your concerns of community and
they're involved in just so many philanthropic efforts. What is
that like for you? Man? That's that's so the feeling. Um.
You know, it feels like family. It feels like you're
part of something that's bigger in business, I've had a
few emails with Jay Z and we talk about He'll
(28:10):
He'll say, this ain't a business. This is culture for me,
and that's that's what I want to be attached to.
I don't want to be attached to, you know, a
business that's just empty and it's all about money, money, money.
You get with an organization like rock Nation, you know
that that care about the culture, the people in it.
You know, it's not just about the bottom line. It's like,
you know, how can we help and enrich not only
(28:30):
our artists but our people at the same time, So,
you know, to be with an organization like Jay you
know what. Yeah, I was talking to him one day.
He was like, you know, it's I could go be
rich somewhere. It could like I could, you know, but
I choose to show up because that's what that's the
right thing to do, and that's what I want to do.
And people that you see care like that and take
(28:53):
care of the people and think outside of themselves, They're
gonna treat you right as an artist as well. I
want to ask you this question, like do you want
your legacy when we're sitting as old ladies on the
beach saying on our backs drive five year old, then
that's right right you are here and trying, oh my god,
(29:17):
like seven years old with the forty five year old
hottie running around like with the you might have some debt,
have a little debt on the beach at seventy years
old with the without forty five yo. Boo. What you
want people to say about Rapsody? I mean, I think
(29:40):
at the end of the day, I just want to
be known as somebody, uh, you know who who went
against the green, who didn't follow the flow, who was
the flow? Who fired people? Who um who also showed
up for people? You know, it was a voice for
people and hopefully you know that wide in the door
other for other females especially to come through. You know,
(30:03):
I definitely want to be one that impacted the culture
in that way and made even more space, you know,
for women to show up however they want to show up,
you know whatever that looks like. Um and to be
one of the greatest to ever do talk that. That's
what I'm talking about. Man talk it across from gender.
(30:26):
Not not the best woman to ever do it, but
just the best to ever do it. I didn't go
with the flow. That is the quote that I'm going
to having graves. I might put that on my Instagram
and I'm still in it. It's gonna be gonna with
your name. Rhapsody said this because you are the flow.
(30:49):
Both before we leave, could you take us out with
something real quick? You know that, because listen, this is
one of the greatest that ever did it. Like this
is what we do. We wraps. We gotta wrap all right,
talk flesh, Bob mar speak mind wh you thought the
ninety nine problems was were on Druggs legality. They got
(31:11):
us on fallacies recorded in casualties. I was supposed to
resort in the mouthieves. Now we're in the rallies, now
boxing and I G now boxing and I D and
the memory point Hennessey and Bamboo shot reaching for the
I D get off my neck, nigga nless Cuban link.
I think like the Cubans think, you'll never get the
side of back. I got your back, team Mallory, carry
(31:32):
on like a product bag. That's it. Then we go
get off my neck unless you Cuban Lane. That's what
I'm talking. We love you, appreciate you, love one. Thank
you y'all. Look fly today too. Yeah we do that,
you know, politicians do that. Before we go to the
(31:56):
next segment and have our special guests joint, we're gonna
take a quick break for sponsors now in our activist
moment that um is really really important to the street
politicians family into this show. I am extremely proudly have
one of my mentees, although the other day she told me, listen,
(32:19):
I don't have time for you because I'm a law student.
I'm running the until freedom Atlanta Division. I'm working with
several organizations, and I'm helping with my little brother's business
that has now become a family operation, Mason super Dogs. Okay,
you know, Mason is like, I don't even know we're
(32:39):
gonna talk about extraordin there. Okay, And Mary said, so,
I don't got time to be on text messages and
phone calls with you whatever. But this is my mentee
who is an incredible organized that she's been organized and
since nine years old, maybe even eight years old, doing
great work in a community around gun violence, around civil
(33:02):
rights issues. Um and not just in Georgia, but across
the country. She is well known as being a and
a well at one point it was a young activist
and now she's an adult who just recently graduated from
Spellman and now is a law student. And I'm super
proud to have Mary pat Heck there to join us
(33:24):
today on street Politicians. What's going on? Mary pat thank
you all so much for having me. Are we gonna
win the Senate election? Oh? I'm sorry, my son, did
I jumped to ask your question? Lord have mercy? Are
we gonna win the Senate race in Atlanta? Mary Pett,
are we gonna win on the young people gonna come
(33:45):
out and vote. I'm hoping that we will win us
in an election. Who would have thought that young people
would have pushed Joe Biden over the top in the
state of Georgia. Many people were looking at Pennsylvania and Wisconsin,
UM in other cities thinking that, you know, Joe Biden
was gonna win, But no one even predicted that Georgia
would be in a physician that it is in right now.
(34:05):
And so I believe that young people will show up
to the polls, and I believe that we will win.
But I think we're gonna need to do a lot
more mobilizing, which is what we're doing every weekend, going
to different cities across the state UM of Georgia and
those world black communities to ask them to turn back up.
Statistics show that UM normally and runoff elections here in
(34:26):
the State of Georgia, that Conservatives and Republicans turn up more.
Uh So, I'm hoping that if we continue to push
the importance of the Senten set and the fact that
we always criticize the fact that President of Bamas wasn't
able to do much for people of color. If we
tell them due to political gridlock, we can't afford for
this to happen again for another four years. We are
(34:48):
depending on the synecy that young people will show back up.
A lot of people don't really understand, like when we
talk about Obama's presidency and a lot of people said
Obama didn't do anything, he didn't have this done, and
they don't understand how in relation to the presidency, the
Senate is very important. Could you kind of break down
why it's important for us to win these two seats
(35:10):
right now? And you're talked a little bit about the
bottleneck r and that's and so, so just talk a
little bit more about that. You just break it down
for the average person at home that just doesn't get it. Yeah, Well,
our government is broken down into three branches of government.
And the reason why we call it the iron triangles
because we need the iron triangle to basically ensure that
(35:34):
one position in government doesn't control the entire government, like
we all need everything in order to go around in
a circle. Um. And so the president can't do much
without the support of the Senate. UM. And the President
nor the Senate. Can you really outlaw what the report
Justice says so there's like a balance in power months
(35:55):
those branches of government. Um. And so the Senate is
there to ensure that the president does or doesn't do something.
But if the Senate um is against the president party wise, uh,
it's really unfair because anything that the president pushes won't happen.
There were so many seats that the President of the
United States when Barack Obama was president, tried to um
(36:16):
uh vote for for the Supreme Court, and every time
the Republican Senate would just knock it down and knock
it down. It was President Barack Obama's goal to ensure
that our woman had that see the black woman, and
it never happened. For us. It's important for us to
understand like the fact that this Senacy, I want to say,
is almost just as important as the presidential see, like
(36:38):
if not more important. Before you go, just want to
ask you because you know again you told you told
me the other day, don't call you while you in
law school, um, in terms of what you're learning. Right, So,
we were going through this situation where we now know
that a committee in Kentucky has said that they will
(37:01):
established or assign assign a new special prosecutor to deal
with Brianna Taylors the case and and and the matter
of Brianna Taylor. Do y'all learn that stuff in law school? Like,
while you're in law school, are you learning about current cases?
Or is it all pretty much our case? You know,
(37:22):
it's all our chag As was like the public policy portion.
I'm doing dual degree and with the public policy portion,
we didn't even talk about the election one um. In
a master's program, everything that we're learning right now is
very archy and old, um, And it's really just up
to you, like in your personal time, to really investigate
and learn those things around you. Continue to do the
(37:45):
work Mary pet I see Mary pat working. You know
what I'm saying. Every time we go, Mary Patt is
on the ground. She's ordering us around, telling this week
she needs us to do. She's controlling everything, you know
what I'm saying. So, but we love you. Keep doing
the work. She's got to go. She had super at
Mason super Dogs right now on the line helping her
(38:06):
young brother to get the work done. Mason told me,
he said, listen, how old is Mason? Mary Mason at
fourteen years old has his own business, a real it
has there's a facility, just so y'all know there's an
actual building where he sells his hot dogs. He started
out selling hot dogs on the corners and doing you know,
(38:30):
and the work at more House and uh, you know,
being sort of like a street vendor, and now he
has an actual facility. He said, I watched my sister
as an activist, and I see that she cannot make
real money from that. So what I'm gonna do is
build the business model so i can support my sister.
And I loved that concept black business as well as
(38:54):
organizing to come together. Thanks Mary Pat love you, Mary Pat.
See you. That's how we are that I don't every
week you don't get something. I don't get a lot
of stuff, man. And since we're talking about music, I
just don't get why we don't promote, celebrate, you know,
(39:17):
reward good music and we push the most negative trash
music in the world, like, like literally literally when you
look at the people who look like Rhapsody, you understand
I'm saying, like the fact that Rhapsody is not celebrated
(39:37):
to the highest degree with the level of artistry she
puts in lyricism like that. But it's a body of
work even is a body of work, you know, and
it's not celebrated nearly as much as somebody like Little
Pump or something like that. Like, how how do how
(39:58):
do we not celebrate something that's that dope? She said it,
She gave the answer, She said that we have. It's
not just looking at one side of the coin. You
have to flip that coin over and look at media
in general and how we are portraying the industry what
they actually want to sell to. But that's what I'm saying,
(40:21):
because people benefit from us going into prison, People benefit
from us um you know, not being as educated as
we should be. People benefit from us not It's not
even about education, it's just about quality. It's just about
when you hear music that has a message that has
(40:41):
substance that that is gonna last be eternal. You know
what I'm saying. Why would you not celebrate music that
has an eternal feeling that the emotion that's in that
song it's going to transcend just this time period. But again,
who are you talking about an element that we as
(41:04):
a people, where we as people need to support those things.
But what I'm saying to you is that there are
people who benefit from our stupor that they need us
to stay doped up on pills, going to prison, glorifying.
We know, I understand those images are being promoted over
(41:28):
and over and over again, and it sells as what's cool.
So if you are making, if you can make millions
of dollars being ignorant, where you can't you you damned
and sleep all the time. You're mumbling everything and nobody
even knows what the hell you're talking about. And you're
selling popping pills and wearing chains and all of that stuff,
and that's all that's your whole message. If you make
(41:50):
millions of dollars doing that, and the same companies will
not pay a mice on a Rhapsody and other Knelon
and others, then these young kids are taught that the
direction they have to follow is the one that actually
can take care of your family and get you out
the hood. So that's why, because it's designed like that,
(42:11):
it is and I just but I don't get it,
though I get it, but like we should just know
like this this sounds good, This is good, Dan, this
is real. Because most people hear the same music and
be like, yo, that that's just dope. It's dope, but
they don't support it. They don't go out like people
will love you in private. It is artists who have
(42:33):
the biggest statue in the world come to me and
be like, yo, yo, you're so dope. They tell you that,
but they won't go any platforms and promote. They won't
come and say, put you on this song. They won't
push let me promote this song for you like. They
won't do it like radio heads and all of that
to tell you how much they love you. I love
what you do. Your music is dope, but they don't
(42:53):
push it, you know, because you and I think that's
what rap she was saying. She was like, we can't complain.
We got to go out and support that. You know,
there's no boss that we don't support that. And I'm
just I just don't know why we don't why we
we know we love it. We hear it, were like,
this is dope, this and that, but why won't we
support things that we actually love that's good for us
(43:15):
and to us. I mean, what you're saying makes perfect
sense that we complain and we say there's too much violence. Um,
you know, there's there's not enough support resources in our
community and then we we we actually perpetuate those things
by supporting the stuff. That's completely so, I guess I
(43:39):
don't get that one with you see kind of don't
don't get too exct Listen, we're not always gonna agree.
I'm not gonna always be right, and even though she's
mostly wrong, she's not gonna always be wrong. But we're
always going to be authentic. Always make sure that you
(44:01):
come give us your feedback. Let us know what you
want to hear, what guests you want to see, what
topics you want us to discuss. You know we're already
the number one podcast. You can let us know that.
Tell us how dope we are. Know they gotta help
us com number one, but we are zero zero, were
before number one. Just keep on, you know, giving us
your feedback you want to hear it. If you hate us,
(44:23):
which I don't understand how you could possibly do that,
tell us that also. You know, so hashtag astree politicians
to give us your feedback and you can watch episodes
every single week on our Woman TV Old and New,
and of course you can listen to us every single
Wednesday on the Black Effect Network on I Heart Radio.
Piece Bag
Hey, y'all, I'm to make a d. Mallory and I'm
so in the general and welcome to street Politicians, the
place where the streets and politics meet, and we're talking
about critical issues that matter in our communities from the
streets all the way to the sweets. So my today
because you know, I think all the time. You know,
(00:28):
I just I've been watching on social media, even some
of my great friends that have banging bodies, they take
certain types of pictures, certain types of profiles. And I
guess my question is, in order to blow up, I
have two questions today. I got two thoughts. In order
to blow up and and become successful and get the
(00:50):
type of attention and build your platform, do you have
to take a picture with your butt turned towards the
camera showing your back side? Like you know, I never
really take pictures like that, but perhaps I'm not doing
it right. And then I guess the second part of
that question is because I'm not hating on those who do,
(01:10):
because like I said, these are people who these are
people who they got it to turn around and show you.
So it's all good, but is that what sells and
what gets you a man like? Is that what men
want to see the as shot um. To be quite frankly, yes,
men want to see it right. And it depends on
(01:31):
what it is that you're trying to accomplish. This is
just from a man's point of view. You know, if
you're trying to sell your sexuality, then people who want
to buy sexuality are gonna buy it, you know. And
if you're trying to find a man who's into that,
(01:53):
you know, then that's the type of man you're gonna attract. Now,
is this person going to be somebody that you can
have a long standard relationship who knows you know, you
don't know you. You have to understand who you are
as an individual, you know. And and that's why if
you if you feel your sexual and you want somebody
who likes you because you've got a fat backside, or
because you're just this sexy person who doesn't care about
(02:15):
the intellect you have, who doesn't want to get to
know you, who you know, who doesn't really care about anything,
and they just attracted to this physical being that you present,
then cool, that's what it is. Because there's some people
that that's all they want. They trying to have a
good time. They want somebody that looks at them for
a good time. Men look at you as a good
time when you when you were physically shown yourself, they
(02:36):
look at you. The first thing they view you as
is a sexual image somebody that they see sexually, you know,
So that can mature into something else. A lot of
times it really doesn't, because that's what you portrayed. So
that's how they see you, and that's the level of
engagement you're gonna get. Because I see even some of
my friends who have businesses, right and they sell products
(03:01):
or their styling, or they're designing, or they're you know whatever.
Sometimes when I look at their social media, I'm not
sure exactly what we're selling. I don't know if we're
selling the outfit, if we're selling you, if we're selling tail,
if we're selling you know, expression. I'm not always sure,
and so I'm just like, maybe I'm looking at it
(03:24):
wrong and maybe I'm being a too sensitive or whatever,
and instead I should actually be doing it myself. I'm
saying once again, once again, you have to figure out
what you're trying to sell. Sex is one of the
biggest thing in the world. Like that's why I w
when people say what like you said the number one
seller or time. So the bottom line is, if you're
(03:47):
using a marketing strategy. I tell people all the time,
it's a marketing strategy. You know what I'm saying, because
sex is a marketing strategy. Like people who are pleasing
to the eye, who advertise certain things, who make people
engage and pay attention, are able to sell something, you know,
So it's it's definitely a market of strategy. The way
(04:08):
that you look, the way that you present yourself is
a market of strategy. But you have to figure out
who is your target market. That's what you have to understand.
I think a lot of times people don't even understand
their own target market. So if you if you're doing
something more conservative spaces, but yet you're trying to target
a market that's not conservative and you're trying to sell sex,
(04:29):
then it gives a mixed message, you know. That's why
everybody don't do the same thing. That's why when you
watch Whop and you see Megan and Cardi doing that,
it's not gonna work for everybody, you know, because it doesn't.
You can't sell Everybody can't sell the same thing. So
I don't think it's anything wrong with women being sexy.
You know, it's enjoying the sexualities individuals that I'm talking about.
(04:53):
They are like I mean, and I'm using this word
um stallions right, like you know, but clearly I'm not
talking about Meg, although Meg is a bad and that's
and that's the thing for me, right when you watch
Meg right and you see the level of either love
or hate that she gets right now, and it's it's
(05:16):
either or right because what she represents either people love
it so much or they're angry because they feel that
it is a message that does a courside with them
is negative. It's telling young girls this. It's not it's
who she is. It's who she's representing who she is
to the fullest of her you know, ability is and
(05:38):
that's what she's She's selling so many things ated she
is passionate about issues. You know, I've had numerous conversations
either with Meg directly or her team about things that
she cares about, ways that she applies her resources and
education to try to help causes. You know, she's in school,
(06:02):
and it's almost like people really hate that. It's like
not everybody, of course, but there is an element of
folk in society that are angry that she's like all
of these different diverse things and and we no hate
because we see it. It just happened to me recently.
I said something in the TMZ interview, and you know,
(06:24):
and I know what I'm talking about. I know it's
in proper context for the issue that I'm dealing with
in that moment, and people just you know, they're making
their whole career off of trying to post about it
and talk about it and get their clicks and shares.
And in the past, I would go out and go
arguing with them and going online and you know, be
(06:45):
sitting there all day long, typing back and forth like
the frog when you see the frog going in. That's
what I generally would do. But I have grown past that.
My thing is, if you're trying to get your clicks
and shares off of me, you go ahead and do that.
Because most people who heard my statement, and you know,
you can go find it yourself. And we don't have
(07:07):
to get into that today. Um, but you know, most
people who heard it, they know exactly what I was
talking about, you know, And and you know, anyway, that's
a topic for a different day. And so you know,
with with even with Cardi, and you know how much
I love Cardi again, another person that I talked to
and and have have really come to learn love and
(07:28):
understand who she is as a person outside of music.
And you you see the hate that she receives as well,
and it's deep, deep, It's a deep hate because people
are afraid of your own confidence. They're afraid to see
confidence in somebody else that they don't have. For this
stiff when you can say and do something and be
(07:49):
unapologetic and be like, this is who I am and
I don't care if everybody else is doing it or not.
I'm so comfortable and like Cardi shows up as her
full self every time, no matter no matter what. She's
gonna being rollers in the house. She's gonna have no
makeup on, she's gonna have a baby, she's gonna talk
broken English. She's gonna talk about political issues. She's gonna
tell you how she feels, she might curse about it.
(08:12):
She's gonna talk about her why she gonna do whatever
she wants to do. She's a great entertainer and a
great story of personality. Her person she has a personality.
That's why she got there. Because she's from my hood.
You understand I'm saying, write down the block from my mother.
You know what I'm saying exactly. So when I used
(08:33):
to see her on Instagram, she had a million followers
before she did anything. She was just because people paid attention.
She was somebody who captivated you, who you gravitate, whether
she was having a fight on the street, whether she
was talking about yo, y'all, y'all, y'all, b I TC,
y'all know, it's what it is, is popping and she
coming from the strip, whatever it is. People paid attention,
(08:54):
and you know, and she has a personality because it's authentic.
You know. That's what That's what that and that's what
we always been attracted to. I don't care. You don't
got to be politically correct. You don't have to be
the best person, the smartest person, nothing, long as you
are authentic, you know what I'm saying. I will always
respect you if Cardy is authentic to the fullest man.
And that's why we receive hate because at the end
(09:17):
of the day, we don't care what you think about us.
I don't care what you think about I've never cared.
I don't think I care what you think. I just did.
I hate to be lied on. I hate for you
to state something like see, I'll still argue on my
page because you're not gonna go on my page and
state something that's wrong. That's not too much. It's too
much for you to lie on me. You can't lie
(09:38):
on me and try to discredit the sts be talking about. Yeah,
because I'm still listening. I'm too, I'm still parallel. You
understand saying even though I'm removed from the street life,
I'm not removed from the streets. And that's where most
of the people that I'm trying to save. They're not
from the street. They're not You don't even see them.
(09:58):
They don't even gotta profile pick. So I'll talk about
the ones who actually lead the attacks. But anyway, I
hope they get them some extra followers. My name brings
them a little more. I know, people who I've pretty
much barked their whole career, they got whole YouTube pages
built off talking about me. So I'm gonna, well, hey,
(10:20):
that's I guess that's a good thing. It's an excellent thing.
The streets is talking. The streets are always talking. Streets
talking too damn much that people going to jail. But
you know, we we gotta have some debate about that
because this whole I keep saying, I get the concept
of the nostic sitching piece. I totally get it, but
(10:44):
I'm not sure these kids get it from the right perspective.
And I think it's kind of dangerous. But we can't
today is not to but we need to have a deep, deep, deep, deep,
deep conversation. It's really just common sense. But what's this
Streets talking about? The streets are talking about the Grammars.
Streets was definitely talking about them talking about the same
(11:10):
we know already. But even though you know something right,
every time that you faced with it and you actually
see it, it just I think for individuals it gets hard,
especially as an artist. Right as an artist, when you
know you put your heart into something, you know the
people have embraced it, you know, it's been celebrated by
(11:30):
the people that you actually make music for, and then
you have an institution that doesn't respect that, you know,
because they don't respect our culture, don't respect us in general,
you know, and to constantly see that it doesn't it
doesn't feel any better. Every time you know, you you say, whatever,
I don't care about the girls, But you know, it's
a prestigious it's a very important you know, it's a
(11:50):
it's important awards, especially for artists when you create worldwide
and universal music. So when you don't get recognized, you know,
and you don't win awards, especially from our culture, it
feels a way, you know, So even if you don't
expect it, you're like them. I know, I deserve it
and we can't. And the thing is it doesn't lose
any credibility even though we say we notice in that
(12:14):
we have not done the proper way, we have not
done the proper you know, going taking the proper steps
to make that Grammy lose the credibility and put something
in place of it that represents us properly. Well, I
know they've they've made some internal changes, um and you know,
I know my sister Felicia, our sister Felicia Butterfield Jones
is they're doing diversity work, So I know there's change
(12:37):
is happening, but you're talking about an old institution and
it's gonna take some time for them to actually align
with First of all, there's probably people fighting against it,
so you know, you can't just hire one or two
people and think that the whole culture is gonna shift,
so you don't. We'll see what happens. But you know,
I agree with you because I feel snubbed because I'm
(12:57):
in a few songs that I know I should have
won Grammy. But all those songs should have been they
just came out to me. The songs Daddy came. That's
been months ago. You're telling me that the song that
came out seven six months ago David Bann and them
had and what David being the song burning Ship. We
(13:21):
go this, okay, but I like that song, and so
that's been months it was it was before there was
like when to time. I don't know anyway, with a
lot of those songs that you are in, I should
have received the Grammy. I'm I better get one next year.
(13:41):
For Traded Truth, we got a song with him. I'm
on tas album, I'm on who Else album out on
Jeezy or you know, we gotta win a Grammy. You
know what I mean. Listen to you, just like a
real artist, most an artist. This don't work out, you
go give it meg Listen in Vogue had me and
it wasn't a song. It was a performance that they
(14:04):
did for one of the award shows. I can't remember
exactly which one, but I was in an in Vogue performance.
That's amazing. So it's a lot of kin I understand.
We are upset because she don't know where is that.
It's don't know nothing, but I know I should have
(14:28):
been in it. Just keep on keep going. Yeah, you're
a new artist. You could have been new artists. As
our young brother Travis would say, keep going, Travis. Before
we go to the next segment and have our special
guests joint, we're gonna take a quick break for our sponsors.
Speaking of lyricists, we have one of my all time favorites.
(14:53):
I would put her in a gold category. And it
ain't just as a girl, you know, like, oh she's
wanting girl. No, she is a dope. Just artists and
rapper and female artists. And she's actually my sister friends,
(15:14):
your sister friend, first star. You know how you make
up words. We have our sistar rap City, my home girl. Yes, yes,
look at what's going on with love one A little bit,
(15:40):
clean up a little bit sometime. Listen, we miss you.
We haven't seen you in a in a few weeks
um since you were out with us. Organizing and getting
people out to vote. And I have to say congratulations
to you because I know that one of the reasons
why you were out there on the ground helping to
get people to the polls because you believe that we
(16:01):
need a new administration and we while we have one. Yes,
finally it was nerve racking, but we didn't. I wasn't
in the politics before at all. Like I didn't vote,
I ain't nothing, But I've learned so much the last
three elections for elections, um about the process, and you know,
(16:21):
I understand even more how important every one person counts,
Like we saw it in the numbers, like you know,
it could be five thousand people that can make the difference,
you know, it going one way or the other. So, yeah,
it was a good moment. I'm happy that y'all brought
me along. Yeah. No, you've been with us. You've been
with us. It's incredible to have you as a friend
(16:42):
and a sister. And what we've been debating are talking about,
I won't say debating, uh, is this idea of the
difference between a lyricist and a rapper. And my son,
as you know, believes you're one of the best lyricists
in the world shout out to my son, who was awesome,
but absolutely, I mean, you know, when you when you
(17:04):
believe and you understand the craft, you bet you have
to acknowledge other people who take the craft as serious
as you and actually push you. Like I listened to
Wrap and be like, Okay, I gotta wrap now. Do
you know how dope you are? Like do you be like, Yo,
I'm really dope. Some days I'm gonna tell you. I'm
gonna tell you what it is for me, Like I
gotta I gotta kind of trick myself out right. I
(17:25):
hear some stuff and I'll be like, as of lately,
I'll be like, hey, I'm really nice at what I do,
you know. And then there's some days I'm like, I
don't even want to think that way because I like
feeling like I'm an underdog, so I always stay hungry,
you know. I mean, I don't want to be comfortable,
you know, And I don't know if that's right or
wrong or whatever, but that's my process. So um, I
don't you know, I don't even I don't even think
(17:46):
I'm better now though my confidence is because before my
confidence wasn't always there. I felt like I had to
be be validated, you know, and when people didn't validate
your you didn't feel like you any spaces that you
were supposed to be. You kind of look inward when
I ain't always the case, you know what I'm saying.
So I understand where to five value in myself. Man,
(18:07):
you have to be your biggest champion. I feel like
there are rooms that you know we're not in, right
because I have that same issue in terms of a
lack of confidence at times, feeling like I don't necessarily
have the education or the background that some of the
greats in terms of leaders activists you know have and
(18:29):
um and don't know how to say all the big
words and all of that, right. So I struggle with that.
But I feel like if I'm not in a room
at this point, it's something wrong with the room. It's
not me, you know, because even though I may not
be at their level, I still bring something to the table.
And if you feel like this is not a place
that I should be, then hey, that's now I'm starting
(18:51):
to be like, oh, that's y'all. You you're missing out
by not having Rhapsody as part of whatever You're missing
out by not giving that Grammy, it's say something about you.
But you've been nominated three times or two times. Uh,
I just got my fourth this year by way of
artist by the name of Jacob colly um. But three
(19:12):
three for me to with Laylas wasn't a woman Kendred. Wow,
that's amazing, just you know, just to just to not
have the celebrity that everybody else has because a lot
of these war shows, you know, celebrity is a big
part of it. So you know, to to at least
be acknowledged four times, I'll take that. But you know,
(19:33):
I've come to also understand, like you know, even if
you don't, that doesn't change anything for you. You know
what I'm saying again, you don't need anybody to validate you.
But it feels good to be acknowledged. It's dope. It's
dope to be acknowledged. And you just have such a
humble spirit. You know, when you just hanging out with
you and just being with you, you just so humble.
(19:55):
But when you get on that Mic she just and
then Mike, you see this level of like aggression and
confidence and fire that you just is a star quality.
You know that that is so unique you understand. I
think you're on this pace for greatness. It's not just
(20:15):
given to you. A lot of artists have this. They
just pop on the scene and have just this major
co san or they get this one song and then
they move into it real fast. I think the gradual
growth of you as an artist and people paying attention
is what is just making you into this grid, is
putting you in that gold category. Look, and I think
(20:37):
about Oprah, Right, I'm in the video just I Jamica Mallory.
I'm in the video just so people don't but the
song is about money, right, like black women using our
economic power. First of all, who came up with that concept?
And what's the artist's name who's also in the in
(20:59):
the song? Kaylee Ford? He said, amazing, like one of
my favorites. Um, as far as the concept for the
song itself, that was that was you know, that was
me at That was on the Eve album And again
I named every record for those who haven't heard it
after a black woman. And I wanted to touch on,
you know, our economic power and how black women are
(21:21):
the most educated. You know, we own the most businesses too,
and um, you know, just just talk about that side,
like we could talk about money in so many different ways.
I wanted to about it in a different way, in
a boss way as far as like the video, and
we had to have you, um and uh, who else
do we have? Oh my home girl Erica. Um. You
(21:43):
know I got with Mesa Hilton, you know, the legendary
creative Um. You know, we just bounced ideas on you know,
how we wanted to look um. But you know, we
definitely wanted to highlight nothing but black women businesses, ownerships.
Wanted to have y'all at the table with the bag
of money and talk about like where where is our
money and our power? Most beneficial? You know. They see
(22:05):
your college courses based upon ye music from E which
is amazing the highest bar I think I could ever
be given. You get the awards and everything, but when
you reach you know, institutions of education, you live forever
(22:25):
like they are. They are teaching you and preparing you
in the same way they teach you math and science
and history, how to critically think things that stick with
you forever. Like to be in those spaces like I
think that's the highest bar that anybody can give you.
An acknowledgement gratitude like that's bigger than any grammar and
any award for me, it sure is. Has there been
(22:46):
times throughout your career where you was like, you know,
let me just make a song like this so people
can pay attention, not to pay attention, because it's more
so sometimes you're just like, yo, I just want to
have fun today, and like people look at me and
they put me in a box on who they think
(23:07):
I am based on the music I make. When you
don't really know me, like you don't know how I group,
You don't know what I listened to. You don't know
what I like to do because I choose to show
up a certain way, you know, for the purpose of
bringing balance or whatever. That don't mean that I don't
like to have fun. I don't mean I don't like
to shake my butt in the mirror to that I
don't go to the club and back it up, want
to do as well, Like that's who I am as well.
(23:29):
So it's some days you just want to be like,
I don't really want to think about it. I just
want to have fun like everybody else having fun, That's
what it's about. For me. It's not it would only
be about trying to be seen if I copy what
you did, like if I'm trying to be you and
I'm trying to sound like you, na, but sometimes it's
just like yo, I just wanna I want to do
(23:50):
my version of what fun is for me, you know. Yeah?
And that's what we've been talking about. What why? Because
people I posted it on my page and people lost
their minds, and somehow or another, you ended up getting
my trolls. I don't know exactly how, but they went
to you and and and they were really upset like
(24:11):
that you are U and and organized a leader and
you're out here talking and celebrating why. And you and
I were looking at each other like yeah, because, first
of all, as we have said a million times, why
is the number one selling product whatever you want to
call in the world. Okay, so stop acting like, all
(24:35):
of a sudden, when women start talking about their own bodies,
when we take agency over our message and put out
whatever it is that you know, the art that artistry
or whatever word you use, Um that all of a sudden,
there's are are whatever he makes up words? Um that
that now, all of a sudden, there's an issue because
(24:55):
guess what men have been selling our way for years
we and selling what forever? Now? Because Cardi and Meg
decide they're gonna put a song together, which actually is
a dope song, there's a problem. Yeah, I had to
do some critical thinking, right, and because let me tell you,
they'd be at my neck anytime. Anytime something sexual comes out,
(25:19):
I always get thrown into mentions and then haters coming
me and I don't even say nothing. I just like,
I'm open in minding my own business. But I had
a critical thing like, okay, what is the real issue?
You know? And I think that people have an issue
and that they're putting it towards the wrong place. Right.
It's not about Cardi, it's not about Megan, it's not
(25:39):
about whoever else. It's about you want to see more balanced,
But that comes from the industry, from eating, from fans
supporting it. So you know, don't put that energy towards them,
like celebrate them that they let them do what they
want to do. But if you want to see more balance,
you have to ask yourself what can I do right?
If you want to if you love a La Kaylie
(26:00):
forty seven and what comes out and goes crazy, but
you want to dope Lokyle forty song that should get
the same love. You gotta go out and buy that
music by those concerts. Like you know, if you're seeing
a media outlet that don't have the balance that you want,
don't support it. You know. For me, I understand that
side of wanting to have more variety because yet men
(26:23):
have been selling why but you they also have space
for Kendricks and Jake Cole's from you know what I'm saying,
it can's the rappers and we don't have that space
for a rhapsody Lakley forty seven a three D natty
Like you know, they don't get the same attention. That's
just how I look at him, Like, Okay, I understand
your argument, but it's displaced, like it can't it can't
(26:45):
be about Cardian men like they hot that that song
is dope. The sample that use I was like, oh
that was Joust I was. But speaking of support, um
Dock Nation is very supportive of Until Freedom, and you
have also been extremely supportive of our work, not just
(27:07):
with your Rock Nation, but just in general. J and
Desiree and the entire team. Uh. They met with us
and Charlemagne was the one to push and say y'all
need to be working together, and they met with us
and since then they have been so into and for
our work UM and trying to support us. And Jay
(27:27):
understands that support means putting dollars behind the work that
we're doing. And you sign with them, and I'm just
I want to know when you talk about support, how
different does it feel to be with a company and
organization that cares about everything that Racity stands for, not
(27:48):
just your music, but also your concerns of community and
they're involved in just so many philanthropic efforts. What is
that like for you? Man? That's that's so the feeling. Um.
You know, it feels like family. It feels like you're
part of something that's bigger in business, I've had a
few emails with Jay Z and we talk about He'll
(28:10):
He'll say, this ain't a business. This is culture for me,
and that's that's what I want to be attached to.
I don't want to be attached to, you know, a
business that's just empty and it's all about money, money, money.
You get with an organization like rock Nation, you know
that that care about the culture, the people in it.
You know, it's not just about the bottom line. It's like,
you know, how can we help and enrich not only
(28:30):
our artists but our people at the same time, So,
you know, to be with an organization like Jay you
know what. Yeah, I was talking to him one day.
He was like, you know, it's I could go be
rich somewhere. It could like I could, you know, but
I choose to show up because that's what that's the
right thing to do, and that's what I want to do.
And people that you see care like that and take
(28:53):
care of the people and think outside of themselves, They're
gonna treat you right as an artist as well. I
want to ask you this question, like do you want
your legacy when we're sitting as old ladies on the
beach saying on our backs drive five year old, then
that's right right you are here and trying, oh my god,
(29:17):
like seven years old with the forty five year old
hottie running around like with the you might have some debt,
have a little debt on the beach at seventy years
old with the without forty five yo. Boo. What you
want people to say about Rapsody? I mean, I think
(29:40):
at the end of the day, I just want to
be known as somebody, uh, you know who who went
against the green, who didn't follow the flow, who was
the flow? Who fired people? Who um who also showed
up for people? You know, it was a voice for
people and hopefully you know that wide in the door
other for other females especially to come through. You know,
(30:03):
I definitely want to be one that impacted the culture
in that way and made even more space, you know,
for women to show up however they want to show up,
you know whatever that looks like. Um and to be
one of the greatest to ever do talk that. That's
what I'm talking about. Man talk it across from gender.
(30:26):
Not not the best woman to ever do it, but
just the best to ever do it. I didn't go
with the flow. That is the quote that I'm going
to having graves. I might put that on my Instagram
and I'm still in it. It's gonna be gonna with
your name. Rhapsody said this because you are the flow.
(30:49):
Both before we leave, could you take us out with
something real quick? You know that, because listen, this is
one of the greatest that ever did it. Like this
is what we do. We wraps. We gotta wrap all right,
talk flesh, Bob mar speak mind wh you thought the
ninety nine problems was were on Druggs legality. They got
(31:11):
us on fallacies recorded in casualties. I was supposed to
resort in the mouthieves. Now we're in the rallies, now
boxing and I G now boxing and I D and
the memory point Hennessey and Bamboo shot reaching for the
I D get off my neck, nigga nless Cuban link.
I think like the Cubans think, you'll never get the
side of back. I got your back, team Mallory, carry
(31:32):
on like a product bag. That's it. Then we go
get off my neck unless you Cuban Lane. That's what
I'm talking. We love you, appreciate you, love one. Thank
you y'all. Look fly today too. Yeah we do that,
you know, politicians do that. Before we go to the
(31:56):
next segment and have our special guests joint, we're gonna
take a quick break for sponsors now in our activist
moment that um is really really important to the street
politicians family into this show. I am extremely proudly have
one of my mentees, although the other day she told me, listen,
(32:19):
I don't have time for you because I'm a law student.
I'm running the until freedom Atlanta Division. I'm working with
several organizations, and I'm helping with my little brother's business
that has now become a family operation, Mason super Dogs. Okay,
you know, Mason is like, I don't even know we're
(32:39):
gonna talk about extraordin there. Okay, And Mary said, so,
I don't got time to be on text messages and
phone calls with you whatever. But this is my mentee
who is an incredible organized that she's been organized and
since nine years old, maybe even eight years old, doing
great work in a community around gun violence, around civil
(33:02):
rights issues. Um and not just in Georgia, but across
the country. She is well known as being a and
a well at one point it was a young activist
and now she's an adult who just recently graduated from
Spellman and now is a law student. And I'm super
proud to have Mary pat Heck there to join us
(33:24):
today on street Politicians. What's going on? Mary pat thank
you all so much for having me. Are we gonna
win the Senate election? Oh? I'm sorry, my son, did
I jumped to ask your question? Lord have mercy? Are
we gonna win the Senate race in Atlanta? Mary Pett,
are we gonna win on the young people gonna come
(33:45):
out and vote. I'm hoping that we will win us
in an election. Who would have thought that young people
would have pushed Joe Biden over the top in the
state of Georgia. Many people were looking at Pennsylvania and Wisconsin,
UM in other cities thinking that, you know, Joe Biden
was gonna win, But no one even predicted that Georgia
would be in a physician that it is in right now.
(34:05):
And so I believe that young people will show up
to the polls, and I believe that we will win.
But I think we're gonna need to do a lot
more mobilizing, which is what we're doing every weekend, going
to different cities across the state UM of Georgia and
those world black communities to ask them to turn back up.
Statistics show that UM normally and runoff elections here in
(34:26):
the State of Georgia, that Conservatives and Republicans turn up more.
Uh So, I'm hoping that if we continue to push
the importance of the Senten set and the fact that
we always criticize the fact that President of Bamas wasn't
able to do much for people of color. If we
tell them due to political gridlock, we can't afford for
this to happen again for another four years. We are
(34:48):
depending on the synecy that young people will show back up.
A lot of people don't really understand, like when we
talk about Obama's presidency and a lot of people said
Obama didn't do anything, he didn't have this done, and
they don't understand how in relation to the presidency, the
Senate is very important. Could you kind of break down
why it's important for us to win these two seats
(35:10):
right now? And you're talked a little bit about the
bottleneck r and that's and so, so just talk a
little bit more about that. You just break it down
for the average person at home that just doesn't get it. Yeah, Well,
our government is broken down into three branches of government.
And the reason why we call it the iron triangles
because we need the iron triangle to basically ensure that
(35:34):
one position in government doesn't control the entire government, like
we all need everything in order to go around in
a circle. Um. And so the president can't do much
without the support of the Senate. UM. And the President
nor the Senate. Can you really outlaw what the report
Justice says so there's like a balance in power months
(35:55):
those branches of government. Um. And so the Senate is
there to ensure that the president does or doesn't do something.
But if the Senate um is against the president party wise, uh,
it's really unfair because anything that the president pushes won't happen.
There were so many seats that the President of the
United States when Barack Obama was president, tried to um
(36:16):
uh vote for for the Supreme Court, and every time
the Republican Senate would just knock it down and knock
it down. It was President Barack Obama's goal to ensure
that our woman had that see the black woman, and
it never happened. For us. It's important for us to
understand like the fact that this Senacy, I want to say,
is almost just as important as the presidential see, like
(36:38):
if not more important. Before you go, just want to
ask you because you know again you told you told
me the other day, don't call you while you in
law school, um, in terms of what you're learning. Right, So,
we were going through this situation where we now know
that a committee in Kentucky has said that they will
(37:01):
established or assign assign a new special prosecutor to deal
with Brianna Taylors the case and and and the matter
of Brianna Taylor. Do y'all learn that stuff in law school? Like,
while you're in law school, are you learning about current cases?
Or is it all pretty much our case? You know,
(37:22):
it's all our chag As was like the public policy portion.
I'm doing dual degree and with the public policy portion,
we didn't even talk about the election one um. In
a master's program, everything that we're learning right now is
very archy and old, um, And it's really just up
to you, like in your personal time, to really investigate
and learn those things around you. Continue to do the
(37:45):
work Mary pet I see Mary pat working. You know
what I'm saying. Every time we go, Mary Patt is
on the ground. She's ordering us around, telling this week
she needs us to do. She's controlling everything, you know
what I'm saying. So, but we love you. Keep doing
the work. She's got to go. She had super at
Mason super Dogs right now on the line helping her
(38:06):
young brother to get the work done. Mason told me,
he said, listen, how old is Mason? Mary Mason at
fourteen years old has his own business, a real it
has there's a facility, just so y'all know there's an
actual building where he sells his hot dogs. He started
out selling hot dogs on the corners and doing you know,
(38:30):
and the work at more House and uh, you know,
being sort of like a street vendor, and now he
has an actual facility. He said, I watched my sister
as an activist, and I see that she cannot make
real money from that. So what I'm gonna do is
build the business model so i can support my sister.
And I loved that concept black business as well as
(38:54):
organizing to come together. Thanks Mary Pat love you, Mary Pat.
See you. That's how we are that I don't every
week you don't get something. I don't get a lot
of stuff, man. And since we're talking about music, I
just don't get why we don't promote, celebrate, you know,
(39:17):
reward good music and we push the most negative trash
music in the world, like, like literally literally when you
look at the people who look like Rhapsody, you understand
I'm saying, like the fact that Rhapsody is not celebrated
(39:37):
to the highest degree with the level of artistry she
puts in lyricism like that. But it's a body of
work even is a body of work, you know, and
it's not celebrated nearly as much as somebody like Little
Pump or something like that. Like, how how do how
(39:58):
do we not celebrate something that's that dope? She said it,
She gave the answer, She said that we have. It's
not just looking at one side of the coin. You
have to flip that coin over and look at media
in general and how we are portraying the industry what
they actually want to sell to. But that's what I'm saying,
(40:21):
because people benefit from us going into prison, People benefit
from us um you know, not being as educated as
we should be. People benefit from us not It's not
even about education, it's just about quality. It's just about
when you hear music that has a message that has
(40:41):
substance that that is gonna last be eternal. You know
what I'm saying. Why would you not celebrate music that
has an eternal feeling that the emotion that's in that
song it's going to transcend just this time period. But again,
who are you talking about an element that we as
(41:04):
a people, where we as people need to support those things.
But what I'm saying to you is that there are
people who benefit from our stupor that they need us
to stay doped up on pills, going to prison, glorifying.
We know, I understand those images are being promoted over
(41:28):
and over and over again, and it sells as what's cool.
So if you are making, if you can make millions
of dollars being ignorant, where you can't you you damned
and sleep all the time. You're mumbling everything and nobody
even knows what the hell you're talking about. And you're
selling popping pills and wearing chains and all of that stuff,
and that's all that's your whole message. If you make
(41:50):
millions of dollars doing that, and the same companies will
not pay a mice on a Rhapsody and other Knelon
and others, then these young kids are taught that the
direction they have to follow is the one that actually
can take care of your family and get you out
the hood. So that's why, because it's designed like that,
(42:11):
it is and I just but I don't get it,
though I get it, but like we should just know
like this this sounds good, This is good, Dan, this
is real. Because most people hear the same music and
be like, yo, that that's just dope. It's dope, but
they don't support it. They don't go out like people
will love you in private. It is artists who have
(42:33):
the biggest statue in the world come to me and
be like, yo, yo, you're so dope. They tell you that,
but they won't go any platforms and promote. They won't
come and say, put you on this song. They won't
push let me promote this song for you like. They
won't do it like radio heads and all of that
to tell you how much they love you. I love
what you do. Your music is dope, but they don't
(42:53):
push it, you know, because you and I think that's
what rap she was saying. She was like, we can't complain.
We got to go out and support that. You know,
there's no boss that we don't support that. And I'm
just I just don't know why we don't why we
we know we love it. We hear it, were like,
this is dope, this and that, but why won't we
support things that we actually love that's good for us
(43:15):
and to us. I mean, what you're saying makes perfect
sense that we complain and we say there's too much violence. Um,
you know, there's there's not enough support resources in our
community and then we we we actually perpetuate those things
by supporting the stuff. That's completely so, I guess I
(43:39):
don't get that one with you see kind of don't
don't get too exct Listen, we're not always gonna agree.
I'm not gonna always be right, and even though she's
mostly wrong, she's not gonna always be wrong. But we're
always going to be authentic. Always make sure that you
(44:01):
come give us your feedback. Let us know what you
want to hear, what guests you want to see, what
topics you want us to discuss. You know we're already
the number one podcast. You can let us know that.
Tell us how dope we are. Know they gotta help
us com number one, but we are zero zero, were
before number one. Just keep on, you know, giving us
your feedback you want to hear it. If you hate us,
(44:23):
which I don't understand how you could possibly do that,
tell us that also. You know, so hashtag astree politicians
to give us your feedback and you can watch episodes
every single week on our Woman TV Old and New,
and of course you can listen to us every single
Wednesday on the Black Effect Network on I Heart Radio.
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Tamika Mallory
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Dateline NBC
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Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.