The End of the World As We Know It

This week, hosts Dope KNife and Linqua Franqa kiss 2021 goodbye with a look back at the year's wins and losses, from the suckerpunches of the faux-end of the pandemic in early summer, the assassination of Haitian president Jovenel Moise, and the electoral defeats of Nina Turner and India Walton, to the uplifting victories Senators Warnock and Ossoff and Minneapolis city councilperson Robin Wonsley Worlobah, as well as fire albums from Little Simz, Mach-Hommy and Goldlink.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
You were now listening waiting on reparation production. I heart rate.
Hey hey hey, hey, hey, hey hey, it's the dope
one open knife. It's the frank one f r A
th q u A. I even spell my own name wrong, man,
I definitely don't know what I spelled that. I forgot

(00:24):
what I spelled in between the time I sent it.
As we prepared to record, I reflected on the fact
that this week and a half I had off work.
I haven't day drink once, and that's a cry and shame.
But then I caught on here and couldn't even spell
my own name myself. Perhaps libations are not necessary drink today? No, no, no, sir. Yeah,

(00:45):
not that there's anything wrong with that, but no, I'm
just learning my words off the sheer, just the sheer
strength of being a dumbass. Okay, well I just saw that.
Nobody mixed any of that up. But you know, we
might have some new people listening. They might not know
I am Dope Knife coming with right, and we are
waiting on reparations. Maybe two is the year. Maybe it's

(01:05):
the year. Yeah, it is the year. You know what,
like speaking of the year, like this episode, we're going
to be recapping the year that we all just had,
just you know, going going over some of you know,
the personal things, some of the things that happened in
politics and news and hip hop, you know, and just
particularly a lot of accomplishments both you know, glad tidings
in the political sphere as well as dope ship that

(01:28):
we did in our own lives. Because a lot of
time when we talked about the news, it's pretty bleak,
it's pretty dark out here sometimes. But a lot of
good stuff happened this year, and we're gonna talk about
that as well. And I mean, the year just went
by so fast. I mean, bro, I can't believe when,
oh man, I've been so I've in this time I've
had off. I've been sitting down every day to write
about extensively about a month that happened. And like I

(01:51):
had pages and pages and pages on just January alone,
Like I haven't even I'm like on March. Like it's
taken me so long because how much happens in a
single month, And it's so hard for me to believe
the January, for example, was only eleven months ago. Yeah,
I mean, none of the stuff seems like it was
a terribly long time ago. I it feels like I

(02:14):
was just living in Athens and you know, like whatever
news story we're gonna talk about right now, it feels
like it was just like when you think about like
how long ago July was, like bro, you know, like anyway,

(02:34):
December itself I s felt long as hell. Yeah, yeah,
it definitely has um. I would have to say the
longest month for me was probably I don't know why.
November felt like it lasted forever. Well, honestly, as much
as we're talking about twenty one right now, I think
the longest month on record with April. Oh yeah, everybody

(02:54):
had lockdown, started to go start crazy and loosen, loosten
a little bit. A lot of people started to drink
a lot because they're unemployed. And you know what, would
you say it was April or would you say because
the pen the penny like fully the penny fully like No,
May it was the fastest month of all time. You

(03:15):
think it's actually, no, that's inaccurate because the uprising started
like May twenty five. For me, it was like in
between the uprising and like after the first month of COVID,
because I still kind of feel like at least for
me my personal I still kind of feel everyone was
expecting the ship to be over monthly, right, Yeah, the
first month was over and it was like, oh no,

(03:35):
this is years. Yeah, April everyone was like, you know,
we were a little spoked. We're like, oh, six weeks,
we'll be out of this. It's cool. And then May
rolled around. I was like, I can't think it was
still bad. Yeah, and then and then clearly it took
it such a tall and people that probably collectively snapped
and dude just completely lost in dually dually. So but
like most people who got in the qua, I got

(03:57):
into it around this is some bad stuff. But I mean,
we're definitely not in this year, so we're not going
to talk about like a bunch of like downer stuff.
So now let's send them off into with some fond
remembrances that we have had in some lessons as well. Well,
we'll be back with that after the jump. Alrighty, alrighty,

(04:26):
we are back, and as you guys are hearing this,
it is going to be New Year's even Day and
stuff over the weekend, right, so you know, it's only
right that we recapped the year that we had. So
what do. We got first. So yeah, I mean we
started off with a bang in January, Uh got us
off and Warnock elected to the Senate um to you know,

(04:50):
supposedly secure a democratic majority or democratic control of all
three branches of government. We had some hands on on
sort of relation to that. Oh yeah, Nikolas was out
here like the people we assemble, we being like myself,
the mayor of Athens, couple of my fellow commissioners, Tate

(05:12):
House Representatives, Center for I put together a team mac
concluded that went out and knocked on thirties over thirty
thousand doors in our city alone, which was roughly the
amount of votes that they these two senators got, you know,
to win them out of Athens, to win them the election. Um.
And so that she was wild and so for a

(05:33):
brief glimmer it looked very hopeful, like, oh, yes, democratic
control all three house government. We're gonna in COVID, We're
gonna I don't know, in child poverty, whatever. At least
we're gonna beat back fascism for a time. UM do
anything like that in oh my god, like at least
like fifteen years, like the like the last time that

(05:54):
I had done any sort of oh, I'm going out
knocking on doors for like a political campaign. Before we
did this stuff for we'reknocking us off was probably like
the John Carey days and ship it has been. It's
been so long that it's like in my head, I
always try to like recollect, like damn, like what what
was it that made me like not be like involved

(06:18):
with like you know what I'm saying, like boots on
the ground like activists, Like what was it that killed
my spirit and ship? You know? I mean I know, yeah,
you know, carry ended up losing and that, but was
it really that? And then you know, we did this
and we go into this year and well the influx
of cashion to Georgia on these elections and then that
the democratic control of the legislature was on the line,

(06:40):
Like is that a new precedent for elections that you
gotta pay people and go do this, Like it's not
enough to just do it on faith alone. Like sure,
when Bernie Sanders running, I drove to South Carolina like
four times knock on Doe brom because I was just
in insane person. But but yeah, but like not like
not everybody can be a believer. We got dame jobs
we got like kids and it you know, we got

(07:00):
like we're just depressed because the world is terrible. Um
And even if you want the world to be better,
it's like hard to get up and go knock on
those doors unless you pay people. If you pay people,
they'll find that spark of like that enjoyment of fighting
for a cause that they believe in because materially they
are supported in doing so. Um. So that was like
a shift in at least Georgia politics that came out
from around that election. But around the same time, low

(07:23):
Wayne and Kodak Black were both pardoned by President Donald
Trump on his last full day in office. Lo Wane
had admitted to a weapon's charge back in December of
twenty was facing up to ten years in jail before
Trump gave him the pardon, and then Kodak was in
federal prison after pleading guilty to a firearms possession charge
after being detained at the Canada detained at the Canadian

(07:45):
American border back in March of and both of them
scott free least for those charges, and you know, gave
their thanks to the then president for um, you know,
getting their neck out the noose. I mean, I think
we've you know, I think all of our thoughts on
this have been clearly aired out, you know. But I'm

(08:07):
just I'm just happy, you know, any happy when anybody
gets out of jail, right, only good for nobody, And
it's wild how like, you know, I tend to take
really bold stances on prisons and policing, but when I
get out and talk to average every day folks, like
a lot of people know that president is not a
good place for anyone. Um, you know, like shorty, Oh,

(08:28):
we gotta put we gotta put the most heinous criminals
off us in lock them up for life. That's not
the majority of people that are in jail, though, like,
like not at all, like not even by like a percentage,
you know, I mean most people in jailer and jail
for not doing heinous violent things. And even if I
mean even folks that you know have been convicted of

(08:48):
serious crimes. They get in jail, they like brush shoulders
with the worst people, you know, like, oh, fellow criminals.
So they learned, oh this is act. This is how
you could avoid getting pop for that burglary. Oh this
is how you like installed silencer on your gun next time. Um,
they get their hatred and social alienation, retrench because all
of their connections with society are cut off. Um, But

(09:10):
it just doesn't That doesn't make a place that's gonna
make you a better person. Yeah, exactly. You know, you
know there's you're when you go to jail and they
come out, it's like you're already working on like the
most most up of up hills to like come out
of that ship as a better person, because everything about
from the from the systemic way the prisoners run to

(09:34):
just the way it's organized in that, you know, like
the recidivism and you know how many people keep coming
back and who you're rubbing shoulders with. Like you said,
it's like everything stacked against you of coming out of
jail of more experienced criminals as opposed to like somebody
who's ready to turn their life around, and normal people
know that. I just talked to this cat yesterday that

(09:54):
I collaborate with on a lot of organizing projects, and
he was on his way to like juvenile or to
try to convince the court to not take this kid
away from his parents because I don't know, it's been
constealing or the able trash bassing or some ship and
like you don't even gotta be explicitly like a prison
abolitionist or anything to know, like having the kids taken
away from their parents, it's not gonna it's not gonna

(10:16):
make your life better. It's not gonna like their lives better.
But anyway, a little February, I'm sorry, Oh yeah, let's
move on the February. So um, Prince Marquis D of
the Fat Boys die very sadly. Yeah, what's your experience
with the Fat Boys? Zero? None? So wait you've never have?
Have you ever like at least heard a song? No? Absolutely,

(10:38):
As I was like looking into them, I like it.
It was like definitely familiar. It's one of those cakes
where you're familiar with someone's work without like really attributing
it to them, like oh that was Fat Boys. Okay, yeah,
they were like kind of I'm gonna like give explained
one dated reference with another dated reference. But it's like
the Fat Boys were doing kind of what Fresh this

(11:00):
was doing before, you know what I mean, like a
few years before a fresh Prince is doing. It was
like I don't want to say like family friendly, but
it was it was like the record industries, you know,
really figuring out like how to market, how to like
mass market some like this hip hop thing that's going on,
it's like you know what I'm saying, It's like something
that's preventable, presentable. It's funny, it's catchy. It was like

(11:23):
all of all of those things that are like tropes
about hip hop. At this point, it was like Fat
Boys embodied it. It was like the perfect It's like
the perfect like pop rap type ship. Um yeah, you
know that. That's sad. Yeah. I didn't even remember him
passing away until like I was looking up the end
of the year stuff. But when I was doing think

(11:45):
it was bis markis this year we did it is
an understate. We'll just go off before we go further,
and saying r I p to all the rappers who
passed away this year, because there were many, and then
also like a special like you know, keep your head
up to like all the motherfucker's who got arrested, because yo,

(12:07):
motherfucker's got arrested this year. It wasted, but some people
got out. Bobby Schmarda was released after serving almost seven
years in prison. Oh yeah, that's dope. Um yeah, I
can't really say I'm a fan of Bobby murder. But
you know, I'm glad that he's out of jail. What
do you think that we're doing well? He seems like
he was doing a good like, you know, looking after

(12:28):
his health, you know, rejecting society's poisons upon release. So
that I was I was like, I was like, you know, Bobby,
I appreciate you. Every time that I've seen every piece
of footage I've seen of him since he's been out,
he's got a smile on his face. So yeah, I'm
always happy about that. Um. What else happened in Yeah
and Deer is a big one for me because after

(12:49):
two years of working with the descendants what we call
the descendants of first descendants of Lendtown, so at least
for kids that grew up in a black community here
in Athens that saw that community pretty much burned to
the ground. Um, it's part of urban federal Urban Renewal
project to turn it into student high rise dorms. We
actually passed the resolution that was the you know, the

(13:11):
first after reparations in the state of Georgia to like
apologize for what happened to them and commit to a
number of measures of redress. Like I've been collaborating with
them ever since I'm trying to get a Black History
center funded and you know, off the ground space for that,
et cetera. So that was a big deal that you
know in Black History months actually like not just like

(13:32):
lift up, oh we love be you know, m ok
and let's you know, to turn the truth or whatever,
but like, yo, honoring the people that were harmed in
our own community because off of times, like civil rights
struggles are like pasted as something that happens in other places,
like oh, you know the Edmund Pettis Bridge or the
March on Washington, but like every single community had a
civil rights struggle of some kind, and so I think

(13:53):
it was an important act to do in the month
of February to bring new context to black history, Like
black history is also something that happened here. How long
did it take you to get that, just that whole
proposal two years to two years? Yeah, and we're so fighting,
like it's not over just because we agreed we would
do these things. Now we actually got to do them

(14:13):
because the government so oftentimes promises stuff that doesn't actually materialize.
So do you mean it's not over when they just
just because when they promise you things. No, no, it
was not um but yeah, alright, so moving on to
uh March, March April is okay, so this seem like

(14:36):
I'm sorry, sir. So yeah, March to April started to
seem like everybody was gonna get vaccinated and the pandemic
was gonna be over. Its gonna be like the return
of hour al summer, only we could just retain that sweet,
sweet naivete to day. Yeah. That's certainly not in the
air around like April where it felt like, oh ship,

(14:57):
this is over, hooray go down on like yeah, no,
Like definitely around around of April March, I was starting
to be like, yeah, let's go take trips, you know
what I mean. I was. I started visiting Savannah more
and stuff like that, and it definitely did have Like

(15:18):
I do remember having conversations with people back then and
I would be saying, oh, man, you know back during COVID,
and like were looking at me, like what are you
talking about back during COVID? Do you not know what's coming?
You know? It's like we transitioned from like yeah, during
the pandemic, like it's over now, and then that like
that like phrasing has not gone away, and in those

(15:40):
cases are now higher than they were of January of
this year. Um, I it's blowing my mind. But yeah,
we thought, like, yeah, I think that's one of the
reasons that we're still in The ship is just like
and I don't know precisely how it is overseas, but
it's like we never really locked down lockdown. I know,

(16:03):
everybody's got it in their head, especially like the people
who are like anti vacs, anti COVID regulations, stuff like that,
they've got it in their head that that the country
has been you know, in some strict quarantine. Ship. We
were only like super duper lockdown for like two weeks
real talk to it was two weeks where everyone was

(16:27):
rinsing off their their their fruit with bleach and ship
and like you know what I mean, motherfucker's were really
scared about the ship. But other than that, a large
chunk of people went back to life as normal, you
know what I'm saying, very shortly into the pandemic. So
I don't think any of that ship helped us. A
year and a half later, two years, whatever it is,

(16:49):
be in any sort of condition where it's we're gonna
be out of it and where we're Scott Clean, I
don't think that's I don't think that's in the cards
first with Yeah, well, we'll talk more about that towards
the end as we struggle back around to this Scember.
But this is when March and Aprils, when a little
nos X started kind of like trolling the America real hard. Yeah,

(17:10):
he started doing the press rollout and stuff like that
for his album Montenero, and that's when he did like video,
what's it Montero? And um, he came out is that
when the video dropped. I think that's about round the
time the video dropped, and then he announced his Satan
shoes that he got sued by Nike over because it

(17:32):
copied their design. Remember you know, uh they had like
a drop of his own blood in the in the
tongue or something like a vial or something. Um. And
the music is the video itself was highly controversial because
he's like given Satan a lap dance and all this ship.
But like it just won the internet for that period.
Everyone was everyone was talking about it, whether you loved
it or hated. I personally thought I was hilarious. Um

(17:54):
And in general, I've really enjoyed Little nos x is
um social media presence this year. He's been quite entertaining,
very hilarious, and the album Yourself was pretty good. At myself,
if I do say something myself, I'd like a couple
of tracks. You know, there's um, there's a few joints
that they're always playing on the radio that I can't
help it here, but it's just catchy. It's like, you know,

(18:15):
the thing about Little not Sex is like I think
everything about Little nos X is dope. I'm just not
particularly into popular. Yeah, you can recognize someone's artistry, but
like also recognize that it's not for you. Yeah, exactly,
And yeah, this is a very well crafted piece of
art that I don't personally like because it's not just
it's just not my thing. Yeah, yeah, that part, I'm all.

(18:37):
I'm all about that, like the kids a Teacher on
his album from Elton John, like you can't like like
you know, yeah, do you do you remember when I
think that stuff like that's important and even you know,
even just like his whole um public persona, I think

(19:00):
all of that ship is important too, and like shifting
attitudes culturally and stuff like that, even if it's incrementally,
I think it matters. And even if it's you know, um,
here's a question about the video. Do you think that
I don't even know what qualifies as an uproar in
one because it's like, you know, motherfucker's like tweet about

(19:22):
some ship for a day and then if no one
cares the next day, So I don't even know if
it's qualifies as that. But do you think that his
video would have gotten like the same sort of feverish
response to it, whether it be negative or positive, if
it was just him just giving dudes a lap dance

(19:45):
and it wasn't the same sataness angle if he hadn't
he had at all, If he had that at all
expressed his sexuality anyway in any kind of music video,
it would have received back last so we might as well.
And he did just go all links y'all gonna like
me anyway. I think I am who I am at
all for you. I think the satan part was like

(20:06):
the icing on the king for that, because he has
another video that's got like Jack Harlow and all those
dudes and they're in prison, then they're wearing pink and
it's like hella gay and like you know what I mean, people,
but yeah, but I mean people didn't like it, but
it wasn't like you don't really hear about that, you
know what I mean, Like unless like that wasn't as
big of like a cross worked the outrage about the

(20:29):
Montera music video. But if it hadn't been, if it
had been a standalone video, the collaborl Jack Harlow, that
would have itself garnered Hue Eyer from conservatives. You know,
has anybody um, has anybody like notable? Like then like

(20:49):
a super prude about it? Benja. Yeah, within the black community, Yeah,
tons of people that have been, um, I've never got
my kids, let's do your music again. That's ongoing thing
with Little Boozy. Yeah, he's like talking his homophobic ship.
But may It was also a good year for music.

(21:09):
J Cole came out with the new album in the
off season, which was a more relaxed UM project that
you know, kind of let Cole's talent shine, and then
also featured some Collapse, which is new for UM. For him,
a part of his like I don't know sheen or
you know, like his stature has been that he liked
typically never featured anyone on any of his albums as

(21:32):
a way of just showing that he can put out
an album or a series, a whole discography without the
support of anyone else. What's the meme like platinum no
feature or like double platinum. Yeah, yeah, yeah, um. I
thought that he leveled up significantly, Like on the lyrical
m on this album. I was really feeling like I
just just from a technical aspect, I think, you know,

(21:55):
whatever it is that that that our individual rapper needs
to do to like start being a lot more intricate
and interesting with their word playing stuff. Jacole did that
ship for this project. I think I'm kind of torn
whether I feel this one or Ko d More that
was the last one. I feel like this is often

(22:16):
the case with me music, where like, even if a
new piece of art is like aesthetically a higher sets,
a higher bar, nothing can compete with a piece of art,
an earlier piece of art that like just it is
deeply nostalgic to you now, and so like Ko d Well,

(22:37):
like It's all will always be like a really special
album to me, even if lyrically Dicle kind of popped
off on the off season, you know, you know what
I mean, Like he definitely stepped his game up, but
like it doesn't hold a special place in my heart. Yeah,
like KOT and definitely from I think from a content standpoint,
I think I was working with ko D a lot more.
You know what, if he was rapping on ko D

(22:59):
like he's wrapped it on the on the niche who
would have been over would have been over. I would
have quit the rap game. That's some God conversations right there, right. Yeah.
May it was also a good month for politics. Larry
Krasner got re elected as District Attorney of Philadelphia was
pretty lit um when he first ran in two seventeen.

(23:21):
His story made him like a figurehead of the new
progressive prosecutor movement, which I have opinions about. Um. We
did a whole episode on him back and in in May,
I believe, And since then, Philly has had the most
violent year on record with spike was one of the highest,
you know, homicide rates on record for the city. Um.

(23:43):
You know, many large cities have seen spikes in homicides though, um,
violent crime in general is down, but people were killed
in Philly alone this year. But as Meek Mill put it,
in defensive d A. Krasner and a tweet in April.
I believe, you know, a lot of people want to
blame Krasner for the crime, given his compassionate, compassionate approach prosecution.

(24:09):
But Meek Mills said, Larry Krasner did not put three
thousand ghost guns, and Billy is not the blame for
the rising morder rate. We don't do three D printing
in the hoods. So something happened. So I love the
I love the veiled implication that like something like somebody's
putting guns in the hood ship. I mean, you know what,

(24:29):
this can also kind of be added in because the
thing is, like I guess the rising rising murder rate
this year, Um yeah, I think you know. I don't.
I don't know how specifically I guess the conspiracy goes.

(24:49):
But I can see what mean be all the same?
Yeah yeah, um, like I don't. I'm not gonna get
to I'm not gonna foment conspiracy. Are you here? But
what I will say is from a policy perspective, like
I think it's so important to understand why things happen,
and in general, there's a confluence of factors in society

(25:10):
right now. Pandemic stress, you know, due to a number
of things from unemployment to food and security, housing and security, etcetera.
But like, I really wish that we I don't know
if this exists in other places, but at least we
had some sort of tracking mechanism in place where we
sat people down and they got get brought into the jail,

(25:31):
and we do a profile on them, uh, just the
interview to understand why they did what they did, and
to extrapolate patterns from those interviews to like look at
like why homicides are happening at anything, like you know,
an increase rate and then invest in the prevention. Like
all right, all these cats killed somebody else because there
was a moment of stress and they did the wrong thing.

(25:53):
All right, how do we how do we like implement
programs in the community to help people do the conflict
resolution and stress better, they killed each other, etcetera. Like
I we we will never really know, and various people
will argue for different reasons why is the homicide rate
is spiking? But until we actually ask these questions of
the people doing these times, we're never we're not ever
going to actually make a dent in it. It's literally

(26:16):
outrageous that that's not already done. Perhaps it is somewhere.
I don't know, I haven't done. If it is done somewhere,
that's not enough. That doesn't that feels like it. That
feels like that's just a given, you know what I mean? Yeah,
it feels like such a common sense, like like approach
to do in this ship that it's like, man, are
you are you really saying that nobody's looking in, because

(26:39):
then all we have to rely upon is anecdotal evidence,
either from the convicted individuals or people in their life
or you know, guards were going to jail who talked
to them day in and day out. But we need
like a comprehensive like data bank, data base, scientific approach
to do, scientific approach to understanding this. Yeah, yeah, so

(26:59):
I mean you can science scientific stuff. So um. In June,
the federal government admitted to knowing about UFOs and they
said they would not rule out alien activity. I can't
believe aren't talking about this still, Like it was the
craziest thing in the world to me when it came out.
And then like just like the you know, natural truck

(27:21):
bombing of last Christmas, just memory hold completely, memory hold.
I've been rewatching my x files too, and it's like,
what are y'all like, people aren't tripping over that ship?
Let's get into As part of the nine page report
released by U. S Intelligence, there was no formal way
within the government to record UFO sightings until the Navy

(27:42):
started one two thousand nineteen, and the Air Force didn't
follow suit until roughly a year ago, which shows how
resistant the government had been to acknowledging UFOs and implies
we have a lot less sightings on record than have
actually happened. As well, the number of reported UFOs may
have been kept artificially low because of the stigma lung
attached to reporting these sort of things. Now again, you

(28:05):
want to talk about ship, that like sounds like it's
common sense. I have no direct knowledge of any of
this ship, but I've seen enough of those goddamn shows
and read enough ship with people who really been in
the ship. And on top of that, like just you know,
come from military family, don't put anybody in blast. I
talk to people and ship like that that it just,

(28:25):
you know, the absolute skepticism of the ship is just
always been ridiculous to me. So you know, I guess
like even though it's it's a little late, because we're
not really like UFOs don't have as much of a
UFO sightings and UFO culture and UFO believers and stuff.

(28:46):
It's not like as it's not as popular as like
a you know, as it was back in the nineties
and ship when I was a kid. So even though
it's late that the government's acknowledging, at least they are
acknowledging at the very LEAs said, hey, they're ship. That
happens that with all the trillions of dollars that we
spend that we can't explain what it is. All I

(29:08):
want somebody to say, thank you. Come on, don't act
like you know ship for real. Well, Jim was also
a fairing months over here because now as we passed
the historic budget, raised the minimum ways for city employees
picking dollars an hour, including part time seasonal employees, made
we will public transit. It's been fair free the whole pandemic,
and we just made it free for life. UM implemented

(29:31):
a new kind of crisis response team that is non police.
As you know, if you're having mental health crisis, substance
abuse issue, you didn't need a wellness check. They send
in like a social worker in an empty to like
treat the situation from like a public health perspective, um,
and a ton of other good ship, and it really
felt like I was finally hit my stride as a politician.
Was very proud personally, so like, how do you get

(29:56):
an award for that? How do you get an awards
for that? Like I feel like you should well but
only Yeah, I rewarded myself by like I sent out
a newsletter at the end of the year, and all
my haters no, I mean, it's funny. There's a lot
of people that hate follow me, like to like catch
me slipping and like, and they stay real silent when

(30:17):
I send out like here's like twenty one amazing things
I did this year. It includes like all of the
ship like peep, no, not a not a it's not
a pat So my reward is just living in peace
and quiet. I don't want no accolades. I ain't trying
to get no trophies, no special ribbons. I don't want
people to leave me alone. Well, this next next topic

(30:38):
is definitely not peace and quiet. So also going down
and um June is double XCEL released. There one freshman class.
Now for those of you who don't know what that
is like Double Excel is a hip hop publication. I
would say at this point it's the most popular one
that's still in print. Do they still print Double looks Out?

(31:00):
I don't even know any kind of magazine. I just don't.
I mean, okay, I'll put it this way. I haven't
seen Double Exel in like stores and stuff where I
normally would see it back in the past. I don't
know if Double Exel is still print or if it's online.
But anyway, I digress. Long story short. Every year they

(31:20):
put out a list of the new Ish rappers who
they think are destined to become the next top cats
in the game and ship and they put out their
list and we're only mentioning it because it's something that happens,
and it happened this year. I cannot say that I
am aware of any of the names on it. It's

(31:40):
probably because I'm sixty five years old. But we've got
forty two. Doug Moray to see Bick bixed Ian Door,
I've heard Coil before heard, I've heard I've heard her,

(32:02):
um Folly of course, um Ruby Rose. I'm not sure
who that is. Shysty, Yeah, I know who that is.
D d G. And I don't know how to say
that last one. Okay, have you heard have you heard
any of those sides for Flow Million? No? Actually, um,

(32:22):
I mean posh. I see, like a lot of these
names I'm familiar with, but as is generally the case
with me, though I am like deeply you know, indebted
to and fascinated by hip hop, I'm a bit slow
on the come up sometimes, like even artists that I
funk with, Like recently I discovered this Mick Jenkins album
from thousand eighteen that I've been super obsessed with us
Like why did I take? Why did it take me?

(32:43):
This song? I love Mick Jenkins, I don't understand, I
don't send. And so in fact, in previous years, I
think sometimes recently actually, I went back and looked at
all the Double XCEL honorees over the last like ten years,
and it was like really nostalgic of like maybe not
in that moment did I see the you know, like
the grandeur of the artistry of people like Chance the Rapper, uh,

(33:05):
you know, instead of like big names that have basically
list previously. But I mean they're they're influence fans out
in the culture, particularly like Amplified by making it on
a list like this, So I think we we will
definitely see these people keep moving. Move to all of them.
Some of the sing the old folks fault fell off,
like after that year they were on the cover and
we've never heard of again. But you know, I'm like,

(33:25):
I'm a nerd about these certain things. I've always been
a nerd about these certain things. I wish this is
one of the moments where I wish I was like
a bigger media figure because just in my personal life
I have called like most of who is going to
be around for the Double Xcel list, you know what
I mean? After they come up, like once I do
get to like listen to everybody. It's like I have

(33:47):
a pretty good track record of like you know what
this Kendrick of mar Kid Yeah and back Miller, Yeah,
he's gonna do you know what I mean? And like
I so, I don't know, I gotta list to know
some more of these cats. I do. Got to give
them their due diligence, but um check them out though
if if you haven't, because you know, even if the

(34:08):
batting average is low, there usually is always a diamond
in the Double Excel. Let's so somebody usually blows up.
It becomes that next person for like the next five years.
So and then I must say Mac and I made
some moves this year musically, quite exciting. I finished up
an album in July that uh, I can't wait some

(34:32):
one else, but I'm not. I can't say nothing yet.
But you can't tell us what the name is yet. Na,
I'm gonna not just in case I'm not trying to
get in trouble. All right, we'll tell us. Tell us
about its production. I don't know. So it was pretty
much executive produced by my friend Reindeer Games, who's my

(34:55):
like you know DJ when I perform. Longtime friends, very random,
how we matt each other, that's like, but remain friends
ever since. So he, you know, produced the album for
the most part. Mac is on the album um on
Um one of the songs. And then we got a
lot of dope features from folks like Kishi Bashi, Jeff
Rosenstock and Davis Is on their Western Rulers on there

(35:19):
my buddy, you know, a long time collaborator um from
I forgetting Oh, Kevin Barnes from Montreal. So it's gonna
really cool. But I became a lipt sealed about it
until we formally announced it next month. Well, in that
same month, I was moving into my studio, and that's
you know, I took me like that whole month to

(35:41):
get everything moved in and and all that stuff. But
once I did get moved in, I promptly started working
on the albums that I have coming up. I I'm
doing the two albums in one year thing. But it's
like two different labels that drastically different sounds. One of
them is me wrapping over a lot of a lot

(36:03):
of trap tiki taki, you know, modern beats that I
don't usually wrap wrap over. And then the second project
is more like an industrial rock rap sort of vibe
to it. So I'm really excited about both of those
about this web. Only one of them is done and

(36:25):
the other one, i'd say is like in the stages
right now. Um It's that that one's like a a
pretty big task from a production standpoint because I'm you know,
working with a bunch of different musicians and stuff like that.
I'm just trying to get it to sound as much
of like a nine inch Nails album as I can.

(36:48):
I'm excited. I'm very excited for it, and then in August,
you finished recording that album, right, Yeah, yeah, in August
I finished recording the first one. I guess I could
save the name for that one. That one's going to
be the one that's like the more traditional hip hop one.
It's called the Dope one. And yeah, that's probably looking
at maybe uh may for a drop for that. Yeah.

(37:16):
Well I've been, I've been, you know, And like for
anybody who does, you know, follow us on the music
tips and you should if you're listening to this podcast.
But if you do, you know, I put out like
a new song every month. If not a new song,
I always have something that I'm putting out. So it's like,
you know, I'm not just gonna make you wait years

(37:36):
for me to drop an album. Yeah. Um, I honestly
don't feel like talking about Kanye's. I'm talking about Kanye
s has gotten I mean even not talking about him.
We're kind of talking about it right now. But Kanye
dropped Donda and then they could camp out in the
Mercedes Benz studio like a weirdo. Honestly, I just want

(37:58):
to keep moving that Donny until you know. In August,
Corey Bush also won an extension of the eviction moratorium
after camping out of the steps of the Capitol when
Congress went on recess to the end of July. I mean,
unfortunately it was ultimately struck down again in late August.
But I think it's a really inspiring example of the
way that UM politicians can wield their influence as activists

(38:22):
UM even though they are elected, like oh, people like, oh,
why are you camping out? Or why are you doing
this or that? Or why are you tweeting? Like why
can't you just go in there and vote? But this
is the power of like she called people like yo,
come down to the capital camp out with me. They
put pressure on him and public pressure on him, not
like behind closed doors of like you know, lobby and
trying to get votes, but they put pressure enough to

(38:42):
get it to happen, and yeah, didn't. Then they have.
Then some people try to dismiss it as being like theatrics,
theatrics performative, like yeah, protests this theater, like I don't
know what what y'all want me to say, Like you
how als we're supposed to give people's attention in order
to make any sort of change that And really, I
think that argument is in bad faith because they just

(39:02):
really don't want to see people fight. They want so
badly for the government to lose that they're like, don't
don't go over and above to make something positive happen.
I would you know that this wrounts my narrative, So
I don't know, you know, I think uh immortal technique
once he had a line that kind of like described
what you were just talking about. But it's like, just

(39:25):
because you and about ship, don't project that everybody else
is that way too right, you know what I mean.
It's like, don't don't be cynical just because you know
you're not, like you ain't about that life right, just
because you're sitting in your gass on the couch not
doing it, it it doesn't mean you can like clap back
at Cory Bush when she's out there actually trying to

(39:46):
help people exactly, speaking of people who are fighting and helping.
Uh Nina Turner that same loves Her bid for the
Democratic nominee Congress in Ohio, running to replace Mercia Fudge,
who was appointed head as the Housing and Urban Development Secretary,
became a proxy fight between the leftmost wing of the
party and the establishment democrats see, and people always want

(40:10):
to use things like this, um, you know, inclusive of
like just's a variety of progressive losses, even like the
loss of Bernie Sanders in this point to my presidential election,
as indicators that like progressivism isn't popular and that like
progressive wins are impossible. But everyone always wants to use
an anecdotal example as like definitive evidence of whatever they

(40:33):
already believe. Um, Like we like have had numerous victories
as well, like we were just talking about da Krass,
they are getting reelected. Um, the fact that we have
the quote unquote squad Now, UM, I think that it's
a lot more complicated than that than um. Even even
on the left word side of things that like progressions

(40:54):
want to say like, oh, the establishment is stacked against
us and we can't win because they cheat, And it's
like that narrative isn't helpful either. All of usus have
to understand that, Um, the dynamics and each race are
different and are complicated, and there's no foregone conclusion to
the you know, um, the sturdy andness and durability of

(41:16):
the establishment, or the inability for progressives to get elected,
or the sure fired, Uh, sure fired, like assurance that
progress as well get elected. Like whatever you think is possible,
whatever you think is inevitable, is wrong. Like so you know,
we seem like, right, it seemed inevitable that Lena would

(41:37):
win because she was pulling really highly early on in
the race. But like you know, like national Pundance didn't
know acually happened in the ground. We were out there
in Cleveland walking around talking to people, and so it's
just more complicated than like one side is pure and
right and will always win. Like it's just it's just
you know, complex confluence of factors in each in every

(41:58):
single race. Son and did not win, No, she didn't, unfortunately,
but she has her fighting though. Yeah, I'm sure she'll
run for something again. But I think now one of
the things I normally see her doing is she uh
co ho guest host on a t y T every
now and then. Oh that's nice. Yeah, well, I don't

(42:18):
even want to say every now and then. It kind
of seems like she's doing her regularly now, so she's
like like actually like on the show like that, Um,
we're gonna take a little break right there, and then
we're gonna come back and recap the next of these
uh the rest of these uh happenings over the course
of the year. But um, we will be right back
after the jump. All right, we are back, and we

(42:50):
are in the month of September. Now, So September saw
rapper Little Sims drop her album. Sometimes I might be introvert.
The British Nigerian rappers fourth album seamlessly incorporates grime, hip hop, soul,
and old school R and B. Did you really does?
It really does blend the different genres together very seamlessly,

(43:11):
in a way that I think a lot of albums
could end up sounding like like a like a mission,
like an awkward missmatch from people try to incorporate too
many different concept styles together. But really it feels like
it was flowing down the river and you like pass
you know you you know, pass the banks of grime,
you pass the shores of hip off and soul. Um like,

(43:31):
it really weaves it all together really well. So she's
worth checking out if you haven't heard her new album.
It might have been one of my favorites from this year. Honestly, Yeah,
it's definitely one of my favorites from the show. I'm
glad that she's getting like the recognition that she's getting
now because she's been around for a minute. Like you
you know, I just said it was her fourth album.
And sometimes I feel like when artists have this sort

(43:52):
of blow up that, um, I don't know, people have
a tendency to think, you know, not only that it's overnight,
but to think that there are a new artist, you
know what I'm saying. So hopefully her blowing up off
of this ship is going to put some shine onto
like her second album. Yeah, yeah, exactly the same way
that I was talking about earlier, where like, uh, you

(44:13):
get stuck on like a like a singular facet of
someone's tystography, and it's like, oh, I love this album,
and you fail to go at the times and like
go back and see what other work people have created.
I do also hope that people will given some of
the acclaim this album has gotten, you know, go back
and check out somewhere early stuck because we dove too.

(44:34):
What else we've gotten. Oh this is just a little
side thing, but I feel like it's a little relevant now. Um.
Also in September, Justice Samuel Alito, the Supreme Court he
uh he issued a statement saying amongst other things, promising
that the Supreme Court was not a dangerous cabal of

(44:55):
partisan political hecks. Now what prompted him to just right?
It's like when you when you say, like, don't think
of an elephant. Immediately the first thing thing of a
jinas like, oh, we're not a dangerous couple. They wait,
why would you say, why would you even say that?
What's happening in the Supreme Court? We'll given that like
a month later, so they would be weighing in on

(45:17):
the rovy way. That kind of seemed like an ominous foreshadowing,
which is why a lot of people were expecting that
to to just completely get stricken down in the first place. Yeah, like,
please ignore our dangerous cabal like us behind the scenes,
I promise we are not a dangerous cabal. Uh, nicely done, simboltels.

(45:39):
It's like when it's like when you catch somebody and
they're like, I didn't do nothing. It's like, yo, I
didn't even accuse you anything with the Yeah October, oh man,
so my my hands sound. Favorite album of the year,
well maybe not actually, okay, number two favorite album the
year Maxi Creams The Weight of the World. I loved it.

(45:59):
So much Houston rapper. He's been dominating the scene down
there for like a decade now. It's been wrapped with
like a rarely seen emotional clarity in his music. He
just like openly reckons with the demons in his life.
And also it's like his cadence, like the way he
switches up its flow, it makes it sound it's like
very unassuming and like disarming in the way it's like,

(46:22):
oh wow, that was really creative, but like you don't
sound like you're trying hard, Like it's not like those
like not to hate on, like lyrical miracle rappers like myself,
where it's like it sounds like they're like sweat and
bullets to try to like compile like people like sucking
what's his name logic, Like he sounds like squeeze a
lot of stuff in there to make it really impressed Matt.
So it's just like sitting back like with his feed

(46:43):
up blow in your mind, like without even trying. It
sounds like in the way he in his delivery. And
so the way to the World I think album, I
think it all comes down to style though, you know,
or even I just think that like the byproduct of
that is what makes your style, you know, Like I think, uh,
Maxe Cream he's got He's got like a flow that

(47:05):
sounds laid back. But I think that's just how we
interpret his delivery of his style, you know what I'm saying,
because it's meant to be like that. But I think
he probably does sweat bullets to like to like, you
know what I mean, to execute that, you know, which
is why it sounds impressive when he does. It is

(47:26):
because he's so good, Whereas like somebody could just be
like I mean, I don't even need to say somebody.
Lots of other fucker's are like, yo, I just gotta
laid back style, and then you hear it. It's like,
man probably wrapped like you care because this back fire,
it can backfire. But no, I really appreciate the way
he sounds so easy going in his wraps. This, though,

(47:47):
does make me think of my actual favorite rap album
from this year that I hey, that did not mentioned
for Jude because in Jude gold Link dropped haram Oh,
I haven't heard that. Oh my god. It's like, Okay,
so y'all were talking on my about how I really
love radio Heads. It's like if radio Head made an
R and B rap album. She was just like so

(48:09):
almost in outer space, like hovering just above the atmosphere,
riding around and like real stealth spaceships. Just smooth as
hell dark, but like like warm dark, like when you're
sitting in your bed with the covers off your face. Um.
Really yeah, it's it's so I mean, it's wrapping, it's

(48:29):
it feels. Its got an R and B feel to
it and some of like the vocal like vocals, hooks
and things like that. Um, but yeah, it's just really
dark and creamy adventure. I got it. What's what's it
called again, It's called and they are a M I
am on it, I am on it. Yeah. This was

(48:50):
the whole like end of our year to avoid the
bad stories, which just it's like a music review. But
in November Mac Commie drop what I would say is
album of the Year Pray for Haiti and Grizona. It
was number two on Rolling Stones Top ten Top t
hip Hop Records of the Year. It's bonkers. It's like

(49:13):
I'll tell you, I'll tell you this is what I
thought about Pray for Haiti. You know how I'm always
complaining about like hip hop I feel and this is
all could be in my head. But I feel that
hip hop doesn't get like the artistic praise until it
incorporates a bunch of ships that's not hip hop into it,

(49:37):
which there's nothing wrong with at all. That's like a thing.
But it's like, if it's very rare that just a
dude or a woman or whoever, just a person wrapping
over beats full stop is like you know that people
really looking as like, oh man, this is mind blowing,
this is crazy, this is amazing, this is like, let's

(49:59):
take to me places I've never been blah blah blah.
And and I want to say, the last time I
saw people get like a rap act to get props
like this for doing that was probably when Run the
Jewels first came out. And and it's really dope to
see that happening for mac Commy right now, because this
is like as stripped down in bare bones as you
can get. It's just it's sample based beats, sample based

(50:23):
boom bat beats, and just a really really dope lyrical
rapper going in and it it cast asides every trope
that we think we need in modern hip hop, of like, hey,
you don't need to have catchy hooks on every song.
You know, the songs don't even necessarily have to have
like a like a hard topic or concept or anything

(50:46):
like that. And it's just it's beautiful. It's just a
beautiful piece of music and a beautiful piece of rap
music through and to cross over a little bit into politics,
into directions and facts. It was out from Griselda Records,
just based in Buffalo, New York, where Democrats socialist India
Walton earlier this year won the Democratic primary for mayor,

(51:08):
but in November was ultimately trounced by a write in candidate,
the incumbent Byron Brown, who was backed by you know,
establishment Democrats as well as Republicans who were really scared
of a Democratic socialist becoming the mayor of Buffalo um
as well, you know, to speaking speaking of prayers for Haiti,
um in May, we had on Eugene per year of
Breakthrough News to discuss his trip to Haiti and document

(51:30):
that spring uprisings there. And at the time we had
no idea that just two months later President Jovina Moyes
Pubnel moys Um would be assassinated. Should hit the fans
just when he saw things were really topsy turvy down there. Um,
I mean it made a bad situation worse. Like it
did make a bad situation worse. I mean it was

(51:51):
like he was already not great, um, you know, having
said things like um, you know, having done things like
dismantling Haiti's leg just ad of bodies and at one
point saying, after God, there is only me. Well, I
mean definitely, because we definitely covered his fascist tendencies and stuff. Yeah. Yeah,
hiring like gangs to like do the government's violent bidding

(52:15):
and then without a president, the gangs just turned on
the community just willy nilly, and they're just out there
causing terror. Shouldn't definitely make a bad situation a lot worse.
Oh yeah, that's the situation right now. Yeah, so you know,
pray for Haiti and ed Man for real. November had
some other positive tidings, you know. Um, India Walton may

(52:35):
have lost, but Robin Ones and Wallah Blah, who we
interviewed um in August, won her election to the Minneapolis
City Council. Um and yeah, just oh you know that's
openly socialisty fund the police lady among many actually uh
women and women in color with you know, strong left
politics that won the city council. Uh. There even though

(52:57):
at the same time, interestingly, the measure to effectively abolished
the police department failed And so I've seen that held
up as like indication that, like the fund of the
police movement had like failed. But like, how can you
say that when at the same time multiple people got
elected to the City Council of Minneapolis on that very platform,

(53:18):
And like how and and indeed how shocking it is
that in a major American city of voters would opt
to replace their police department with something entirely different Like
that is unprecedented, even if to some it may look
like a failure. Do you think, you know, glad tings
all around on that is it? Do you think of
the particular city might come into play on a notion

(53:43):
like that, Because wasn't Minneapolis having issues with the Minneapolis
PD for years leading up to George Floydiapolis with the
ground zero of of of everything that happened last summer,
and for years have been having issues with mpd uh
And so I do think again, the specific context in
which has happened is very important. People overlook the fact
that UM earlier this year as well, UM under Mayor

(54:06):
Sponte Mirrack up in Ithaca, New York, they passed a
plan to get rid of their police department and replace
it like very very I mean not quietly, like it
was reported in the news, but it wasn't such a
marquee moment because Minneapolis was the epicenter of the uprising
last summer, and so all eyes were on it. I'm sure,
like countless resources reporting on both sides to try to,

(54:29):
you know, influence the outcome of his ballot measure, whereas
very you know, relatively sneakily the city, the Common Council
of Ithaca, which is like, yeah, we're doing this, what's up?
So I don't know, um, just about back in the
present moment, December Body James Alchemist dropped super Techmobo, which

(54:49):
I think is an excellent album as well that sounds
range from like spooky, get a little early two thousands
radio wrapping. There you get something like booming, bludgeoning, thunderous basse,
and then you got Boldi James telling dead pan like
pretty much horror stories about telling drugs. I mean that's
not let's not beat around the bush. Boldi James and

(55:10):
Alchemists have like successfully carved out like a whole new
sub genre of hip hop that is thriving, you know
what I'm saying, Like they are doing their thing, and
I mean it's not really like it's not quite gangster rap.
It's coke rap. I mean it's it's I mean when

(55:32):
just about every word on every song is about like
the day to day nuts and bolts of like the
drug trade. It's just this is a different experience to
listen to and like the abstract way they go about
doing it. It's it's fresh man, I dig it again.
This is all the sort of things where it's like
all the dusty niggas out there who are always complaining

(55:53):
about hip hop this and the young worersvers and the
jeans are too tight, blah blah blah. Calm down, Calm down.
There's plenty of good ship out there. There's plenty of
different stuff out there. You just gotta look for it,
and like, you know, don't don't get mad because the
stuff that you want to listen to isn't like on

(56:15):
TikTok and Ship, you know what I mean, It's not
supposed to be like going band camp and go download
that Boldy James Alcholists supported Nick is doing the ship
that you like, God damns rather than riding off the
entire genre and culture. Is hereable Lord of mercy. So yeah,
Boldi James and Alcolm has has always been one of
my favorite producers, just saying what yeah, um, I hate

(56:38):
we We've got to make sure not to end on
a bummer note. So we're gonna go through this last
two things and then let's talk maybe about some stuff
looking forward to two because I hate to announce that.
In December, Elon Musk was named Person of the Year
by Time magazine. Oh my God, like essential workers, Hello, anyone,
the labor movement, strike Shelberg anything, No, you're gonna give

(56:59):
it to like the billionaire who inherited his plans from
a blood Emerald diamond South you know mine in South Africa,
Like go fund yourself. Okay, Look, so we we might
we might have to check this out or reapproach this
on another date or something, or dive deeper into this.
But part of his you know tour, like press tour

(57:20):
for the I won the Time magazine, he did a
interview with what was it called bumble b or some
ship like that bumble something. It's like some right wing
Twitter media comedy thing of the jig. He did an
interview with them, and in this interview he made some

(57:41):
news because not only was he going after Elizabeth Warren
and talking about birth rates and space and all sorts
of ship, but he also stated that wokeness is the
biggest threat to modern civilization and that at its heart
will go nos is divisive and hateful. YadA, YadA YadA.

(58:04):
Some think something critical race theory. Look, I think that
that's not good. Like I think that that's like something
that needs to be addressed. And I don't I don't
know how to like, I don't know why I think
so as hard as maybe, like I said, we'll deal
with it, we'll talk about this later. But I feel

(58:26):
like that's a bigger deal then it then the press
that it got because like for better or worse, and
it's most likely for worse. But Elon Musk, there's a
lot of fucking stupid people out there who like, thank
Elon Musk is literally Tony Starks from iron Manship, like
for real, for real, and like they think everything he says,

(58:47):
he's like a genius and everything is like right and
blah blah blah. So for me, it's just like, man,
you got this like super rich, kazillionaire dude who's got
like a fucking almost like fanatical following out there, and
there's nothing, there's nothing that Elon Musk can think about
that happened in the last five years. That's like a

(59:10):
threat to society other than effectively, because when you really
go into the context of what he was talking about
in the interview, the biggest threat to society is that
some people wrote mean comments about de Chappelle's comedy special yea,
essentially what he's talking about. Excuse me again, it's not

(59:33):
the it's not the it's not the topic that I
care about. The guy has nothing to do with it.
It's just the people who are saying these things because
like they're allegedly supposed to be real smart leaders and
gatekeepers of society and ship, right, So why would someone
like even you know, why would he say something so
stupid unless there was like an insidious like intent behind it.

(59:58):
It's like it's like the idea of so plastic terrorism,
where like someone says something inflammatory that then inspires acts
of violence. They themselves didn't drop, you know, order a
drone strike on someone, but then you get the l
passa shooter spraying up of spraying up a Walmart because
they Latino people because of Donald Trump and so like,

(01:00:19):
I don't think it's quite that insidious with Elon Musk
and that like he does, Like it's not like he's
going out like you know, kill trans people or anything.
But there's there's all there's a couple of steps between
wokeness is wokeness is sucked up. And I don't like
the don binary people to like someone taking that and
running with it, like well, like you know, I killed
everyone at the Trans Day of Remembrance visual because I

(01:00:43):
go biomission though, you know what I'm saying, Like what's
happened in the last five six years? That okay? Like Elon, Like,
how come Elon Musk didn't come out and say, hey man,
whatever Dylan Ruth believed in that ships like a threat
to modern civilization? Like what how we didn't come out
after the Apostle shooter. Hey, you know what, whatever the

(01:01:03):
funk that dudes into that ship's a real threat to
modern civilization. I think at its core, it's really hateful
and divisive and we gotta do something to stuff. You
know what I'm saying, so he's like, it's like for me,
the omission is is is the thing that's like a
red flag to me. And then also, like you just mentioned,
it's really not shocking that like a fucking descendant of

(01:01:24):
apartheid is talking about wokenness is the biggest thread right,
and so unlike unlike other major figures, like let's think,
for example, politicians who feel beholden to comment on you know,
current events, like you know, in the aftermath of like
the Charleston you know church shooting or the All Passo shooting,
you know, issuing statements of condemnation or recently talking about

(01:01:47):
a mod are very He's not accountable to anyone, so
he can just chime in when it like feeds his
ego and just stay out when like I shouldn't have
an opinion on that, because I don't because I'm not
a good person. Um, just the contrast there's really interesting
to me. I just feel that it's the whole My
last bit I'll say in it, it's just the whole,
like anti woke debate, regardless of how you fall personally

(01:02:13):
on it. It is like right wing game, like you
gotta you know what I'm saying, like at the end
of the day, that's what it is. So for me,
like people who are on that ship, you're either susceptible
to like right wing propaganda or you're like in on it,
either one of those things. I can't fuck it, you
know what I mean? So I don't funk with us

(01:02:34):
that no, um. And then before we move on to
our hopes injurienso me, I gotta stop and address where
we're at with a macron right now, man. I mean,
like I said earlier in the show, numbers case numbers
are I have shattered you know, previous records, including for

(01:02:54):
earlier this year when we thought we were at the
height of like a winter surge. Danny wins, she's gotta
she's got covid right to get the sons like I can't.
I can't like open my phone without getting a new
text message from someone that has gotten covid. Um and
show for New Year's Eve this year. Yeah, I'm probably

(01:03:14):
chilling hard um. And this comes just as uh, the
CDC has revised his recommendations with regards to quarantine. Now
it's somewhat complicated and tiered based on whether you're symptomatic
or not. But effectively shortening the recommended quarantine in time
from ten to five days, and it has become very
explicit in interviews with senior officials involved in these conversations.

(01:03:39):
UM information that has come to light about lobbying UM
by the CEO of Delta with regards to shortening the
quarantine time that this is not a public health based decision.
This is based on I mean, by their own word,
in their own words and their words of CDC director
I think her name is Winsley, Robin Winsley or something
or I don't remember. UM that like they are about
they're trying to balance public health, the interests of public

(01:04:02):
health and the interests of not impacting society. Now if
they really wanted, if they were, I mean, because on
its face, I can sound like, oh, we don't want
grocery stores to close because they're understaffed. We don't want
the buses to stop running because the bus drivers are sick.
It's like, well, y'all could implement mitigation like strategies to

(01:04:23):
make that not a thing. Like in Vietnam, Like they
are just like the National Guard or whatever equivalent in Vietnam.
It's just delivering food to people's houses. So they ain't
even gotta go the grocery store. Like, if we were
really serious about protecting public health, we could. We could.
We can mandate testing and every work site that's in
person um, all sorts of We can implement another shutdown,

(01:04:44):
surrogate breakers, shot down three weeks or whatever, give everybody
a two dollar check waited out. They literally are just
like I mean, the fact that they could and aren't
doing that is what shows you that this is more
about appeasing uh corporate um gangsters over like actually protecting
the same in lives. I mean the ship I'm worried about,

(01:05:05):
and maybe I'm just I'm not supposed to be worried
about it because maybe the chances are too low. But
it's like, what happens if this ship mutates into something worse?
I think we're on a trajectory for them, but like,
what will the what will the anti vactors say that
wells never got it when it when it turns into

(01:05:29):
something that like is more deadly, you know, or when
the day comes. The last thing I'll say, I don't
want to be a dum or when the day comes,
because like I've heard interviews with like I don't know
if they're virologists, so they study like you know, you
know essentially I've heard I've listened to interviews with scientists
talking about the role of deforestation in driving you know,

(01:05:53):
animal to human transmitted pandemics like these that the more
that we disturb these ecosystems and things like that are
driven into urban centers where then they take a ship
on the you know, sushi that you buy from the
market or whatever. Then suddenly we have a pandemic on
our hands. What we're really looking in addition to this
continuing to mutate is um is parallel pandemics of like

(01:06:15):
COVID not going away, and then the news ship shows them. Yeah,
like I'm sorry, but that is like they won't be
increasingly likely as like ecosystems get thrown into chaos both
by climate change and by man made disruptions in terms
of like development of cities, etcetera. I mean, you know,
they should just they should harp on that aspect of

(01:06:36):
the like push to get people to get vaccinated. That
it's like, well, there's the there's the protecting your fellow
man ship and all that stuff that you should just
like want to do anyway, But like they should really
like harp on even if I don't care what percentage,
if it's point one one percent, I don't know what
the chances, but they should harp like Yo, the more

(01:06:58):
unvaccinated people they're out there, the like war room that
this ship has to turn into something worse. Now. I
don't even know if that would help with the way
people are active. I don't know all we can do,
all we can do to be you know, to transition
warmly into the end of the show's it look after
each other. You know, ultimately we do have a lot
of collective power, um to help keep each other afloat,

(01:07:21):
you know, mutual aid networks and things like that. It
just really stresses the importance of knowing your neighbors, looking
out for each other where you can, and strengthening our
neighborhoods just through just community outreach, just like knowing who
lives around you and supporting them and leaning on them
for support when you need it. And um, increasingly it
looks like the main way ever gonna get out of this.
In addition to you know, like we're looking forward you

(01:07:43):
I mean, I'm excided from album come out, Um, I'm
excited hopefully finish my inssertation and be dumb a fucking school.
I hate it. It's so terrible. Um, why am I
geting this degree? Um? So all that, and you know,
political projects of mine that have seated, you know, bearing fruit,
getting this community garden off the ground, hopefully getting a

(01:08:04):
cure violence esque program implemented Athens. I've talked about a
couple of times in the show, but you know, public
safety something night. It's a very passionate issue of mine.
So addressing some of that through some of the things
that I've been working on for the last couple of months.
So it's could be a tough year, give me a
exciting and rewarding year, though, I think so I feel
like someone optimistic, if not a little bit daunted. But

(01:08:26):
what about you? What's you looking forward to? Um? Oh um,
obviously looking forward to putting out the new album. Um
if covid, If COVID keep backing up, you know, hopefully
it can calm down, because I'm definitely looking forward to
touring more. You know, didn't tour, didn't tour the whole

(01:08:47):
even though other people were. But you know, hopefully that
can that can be a possibility next year. And um,
I'm looking forward to doing more work with my local
anti fascist groups and movements around. Um, that's probably it's
probably like the topic of like most concerned to me

(01:09:10):
right now at this point in my life. So yeah,
I'm looking forward to getting more involved in that. So,
you know, anti fascism and rap music sounds like a
good way. It sounds like some good goals for two
for me, So that's what I'm about speaking of Next week,
we are after you guys come back from celebrating New
Year's and everything, we are going to be recapping the

(01:09:35):
events on the anniversary of January six, and we're gonna
be talking with known anti fascist Christopher Goldsmith about some
of the things that he does to prevent our veterans
from being seduced into right wing extremist groups. But yeah,
thanks so much for listening this year. We'll see you
in the next one. And with that, yall want to

(01:09:56):
want you want to wrap a limit? Yeah, this is
gonna be our last raps one for the show. So
we gotta kick it off right, all right, I gotta
listen to Vocal Cards, get everything loose. You ready, Let's
hit it all right, Joe, Let's do it. Oh uh

(01:10:17):
huh uh huh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, picture perfect. I'm
paint the perfect picture. These niggas thrown the capitol. They
probably work with hit. Let's spell my name with double
capitals to put it on a scripture. I need you
will to go and spare point like I'm the witch
of the pandemic hit and everyone's grandpap the shelter, and
then we thought it was over, and then we ran
the delta record, heat wave, ice caps im and melt you.

(01:10:41):
The social contracts a bad hand that you dealta us,
the whole system fun. You really need of a failsafe.
Democrats suck. These niggas can't even fail straight. I see
the world through some bloodshot eyes. And you might call
him Antifa, but that's just my guys, real ship. Take
a load office for the new year, Go up to
a party and maybe get you a few beers. Pull
some liking out for your home. Uson she had a
few tears Lingua franca h two whol you know my

(01:11:03):
cup's here, I'm dope knife. We are waiting on reparations
the year. Happy New Year. Everybody listen to Waiting on
Reparations on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts or
wherever you get your podcasts,