July 23, 2024 • 43 mins
Award-winning filmmaker and CEO of 24-7 Live Culture Enterprises, Omar Cook, joins us to share his secrets to producing high-quality films on a shoestring budget. From his latest projects, including the sequel to "LA Undercover" and the buzzworthy "Black Spartans," to his ambitious 12-book series, "The Billionaire Book Club," Omar provides an insider look at the creative process behind compelling storytelling. We also introduce our exciting new segment, "Two Truths and a Slap," and touch on controversial topics like the potential return of the draft and Justice Alito's comments on godliness in America.
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SLAP the Power is written and produced by Rick Barrio Dill (@rickbarriodill) and Aja Nikiya (@compassioncurator). Associate Producer Bri Coorey (@bri_beats). Audio and Video engineering and studio facilities provided by SLAP Studios LA (@SLAPStudiosLA) with distribution through our collective home for progress in art and media, SLAP the Network (@SLAPtheNetwork).
If you have ideas for a show you want to hear or see, or you would like to be a featured guest artist on our show, please email us at info@slapthepower.com
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Our target audience has been Black America and
really telling stories thatreally kind of resonate with
them and that they can relate toin some type of way For us, you
know, we knew that crime dramawas kind of big right now at
this time especially with showslike Power and Snowfall.
So, we knew that we could putsomething out that was going to
reach them right now and thatwas LA Undercover.
You know, you can't go wrongwith a crime, with a cop movie,
(00:22):
right.
So we did that and that kind ofgrabbed our fan base a little
bit right now and now we reallywant to be able to tell the
stories that we want, you know.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
What we call slap today.
Alright, alright, the world maynot need another podcast, but
it could definitely use a Hugeslap in its face.
That's right.
Welcome to Slap to Power, theshow where we bring artists
together who use their powersfor progress.
I'm your host, rick Barrio-Dill, and I am Maya Sykes.
On the show today is the draftback, maya, you know the house
(01:05):
tells is the draft back?
Speaker 3 (01:05):
You know, the House tells us that the draft is back
and they did it on the low low.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
On the low low.
That's right.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
I don't know if y'all were paying attention.
But on Friday that passed.
Now will it pass?
The Senate is what we need toknow.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Yeah, well we'll talk about that a little bit later.
We also have one nine SupremeCourt justices.
Justice Alito says America mustreturn to a quote place of
godliness in a secret recording,which is fine, but we're going
to unpack that.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
We're going to unpack that, but wait, but wait though
.
Separation of church and state.
Okay, I'm done, I'm done.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
I'm done.
That's cool.
Back by popular demand, we'regoing to do two truths and a
slap.
It's our new segment where wego over three ridiculous
realities together that eitherMaya or myself have never heard
and we try to determine whichone is a slap in the face.
And a little later we'll slapthe topic with climate again,
but first in studio today.
It's been a long time coming.
We've been trying to make thishappen.
(01:54):
Omar Cook he is a 31-timeaward-winning filmmaker.
Listen.
He's the founder and CEO of247liveculturecom.
This is an amazing mediacompany that we're going to get
into more and more, but he's aman of a lot of trades and he's
also extremely handsome.
Welcome to the studio, OmarCook.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Omar, thank you for coming in, man, I appreciate
that intro man.
Hey, it's a blessing to be herewith all you guys.
Yeah, let's go Well, thank youfor making the time that Right,
that's right.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Absolutely.
I know we've been trying to getthis for a little while.
For the people that may notknow, introduce yourself and
talk about what you got going on.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Absolutely.
What's up, family?
I'm Omar Cook, like he alreadysaid.
You know, I'm a filmmaker,actor, stuntman and CEO of my
own company, 24-7 Live CultureEnterprises, a black
entertainment and media companythat's pretty prevalent right
now, making some movies, severalpodcasts and whatnot and
(02:47):
positive black news, somethingthat's very much needed in
today's society.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
So that's, more so what my?
Speaker 1 (02:52):
focus is Also an author.
I just released a 12-bookseries.
That's on Amazon right nowcalled.
The Billionaire Book Club.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
You make me realize I don't get up early enough.
I feel like I'm slacking on mypants.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Yeah, man.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Omar makes me realize I got to get up earlier, but
that's good.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
12 books 12 books dog , my goodness.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And for those I know this is anaudio medium, but for those
that can see it, there's achoice shirt you got on today,
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Respect.
It is very quality.
That's right baby, you knowwhat it is.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, thank you for coming in.
One of the reasons I wanted tohave you in was number one lift
up.
You've got so many good thingsgoing on on 24-7 Live and we've
been talking for a while and Iknow you're in the process of a
second movie and I know there'sa lot that we can't talk about.
We kind of do offline.
We're trying to figuresomething we can work together,
but, um, how is that going?
(03:43):
Are you?
You're in where you're in apart, you're in a sequel, right?
Speaker 1 (03:47):
yep, so uh, we've got our sequel to a movie that's
already out on amazon right now,which is la undercover.
La undercover, look it up, goto amazon.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Yeah, yeah, no, it's fucking great okay, this is the
thing that I like to do.
I sometimes go on Amazon Primeand I just look at what the
independent things are, becausepeople are really coming up, and
one of the things that I haveto compliment you on was the
production value.
(04:16):
Yes, the production value wasso well done.
And I wanted to ask as a newcompany with not, you know, not
the same resources as a majorstudio, how do you pull that off
?
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Whew, that's a good question.
I would say it's been outsideof the norm of how we usually
produce movies in the industryhere.
So, really, how LA Undercovercame about, I wanted to do
something that showcased ourskills as filmmakers.
With my team, we had put outseveral short films in 2022 that
(04:49):
hit the circuit and we won alot of awards 31 of them
apparently.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
You know news counting right.
You should definitely checkthis out because it was really
well done and I was veryimpressed that this got done on
like a shoestring budget.
This got done on like ashoestring budget.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Yeah, I actually was in Atlanta shooting another
movie called Black Spartans,which is supposed to be coming
out sometime I don't know when,cool name.
But I was out there and I camehome and I told my business
partner, adonis Armstrong heybro, let's just shoot a movie
real quick, you know, just throwit on Tubi, you know that type
of deal, so we can kind of getour names out there.
Um, so we ended up writing thescript in within a week, um, and
(05:26):
we ended up actually casting alot of our friends you know it
was a passion project uh,getting them on board, um, and
then we actually foundfilmmakers, uh from, or
cinematographers from, the lafilm school, so they were all
students.
You know they're all students.
So, yeah, um, we put thisproject together literally
within three weeks and shot it,so probably from the end of
(05:48):
October 2022 to the end ofNovember 2022 was when the
project was finished.
Wow.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Ladies and gentlemen, that is how you do it.
That's how you do it.
That's why you listen to Slapthe Power Exactly.
Stuff like that.
That's how you do it Exactly.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
So utilizing your friends, utilizing your network
and what's around you, and notnecessarily having to network up
, but literally networkingacross.
And that's literally how we gotit done.
We did everything in-houseedited, wrote, produced and
self-distributed.
We found, obviously, aworldwide distribution company
with Bondi and Buffalo 8, andthey signed us to a deal and the
rest is history.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
So I have a question just with that.
It seems like this is now thefuture, where people are doing
more in-house things and findingdistribution.
But distribution is the greatbarrier.
How do you break thedistribution ceiling?
Because it seems like it's abit of a tough climb.
So can you elaborate on how youwent about that?
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Yeah, for me.
I had to connect with an agentalready with one of my reps that
connected me through severalcompanies.
So once the project was done,they pretty much took it and
pitched it to several differentcompanies.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
And it speaks for itself, right?
I mean, that's the thing, it'sdope.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
So we had several deals on the table literally by
January.
Wow, I mean, that's the thing,it's dope.
So we had several deals on thetable literally by January, wow,
okay.
So they would move pretty fastfor us.
And once we got in the door,you know.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Yeah.
Are you looking to do storiesthat you specifically develop
in-house, or are you looking forwriters?
How do you find the contentthat you want to do?
Speaker 1 (07:20):
All of our content has been produced in-house so
far, but I definitely would liketo do some best-selling novels,
that type of deal, some truestories, maybe some biographies.
I definitely would like to dosome musicians' lives that type
(07:40):
of deal.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
So I'm open.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
I'm really open.
Nice, we know a couple, we dothere we go.
Nice, we know a couple, we dothere, we go.
Absolutely Now is it asituation where, of all the sort
of slash things that youconsider yourself, you know CEO,
writer, you know producer, whatdo you?
What probably gives you themost joy, if you had to say the
(08:02):
most?
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Man?
That's a good question.
To be honest, I really enjoyall of it.
The biggest part for me is justbeing able to control my own
day and control my own time andcontrol my own creativity.
You know, being an actor beingan actor is fun, but you know, a
lot of times when you're're anactor, you're given roles or
(08:25):
you're given lines.
Yeah, um, for me, being able tocontrol what I say, um, and be
able to tell my own stories is amajor, major deal for me.
Yeah, um, so I really justvalue freedom, um and freedom of
creativity.
So whatever that looks like,whether it's acting, writing,
producing um or just running onbusiness, you know, I think that
all just falls into being acreator.
(08:46):
So I would probably just sayI'm more of a creator than
anything.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Now, who is your target audience?
Because you're young and you'reblack.
Is that who you're going for,or who are you specifically
looking to talk to?
Speaker 2 (09:01):
With the movies that they're working on now.
Or you mean, yeah, yeah, yes,with the content that you're
working on now.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Or you mean yeah, yeah, yes, with the content that
you're putting out, yeah,definitely, I would say.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
my target audience right now is literally between
18 and 45.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
That's a good target audience right there.
Our target audience has beenBlack America and really telling
stories that really kind ofresonate with them and that they
can relate to in some type ofway.
For us, you know, we knew thatcrime drama was kind of big
right now at this time,especially with shows like Power
and Snowfall.
So, we knew that we could putsomething out that was going to
reach them right now and thatwas LA Undercover.
(09:32):
You know, you can't go wrongwith the crime, with the cop
movie, right.
So we did that and that kind ofgrabbed our fan base a little
bit right now and now we reallywant to be able to tell the
stories that we want, you know.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
You know, the thing that I thought was really
interesting about LA Undercoverwas that it looked at the
relationship between blackpeople in LA with the police in
a very specific way that youdon't see.
How important is it to tellthat narrative, especially in
today's climate.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Man, major, major, you know.
Obviously police relations withyou can even just say the black
community has been a huge thorn, you know, over the past
decades.
You know what.
I'm saying and I think there isthere has to be some type of
connect between that policecommunity and the black
(10:30):
community you know realistically, because you know there's a lot
of issues that have arose overdecades you know, between those
two parties and just being ableto show a different landscape.
Like a cop that looks like youknow like us Right and and goes
(10:50):
through those types of scenariosthat these people are going
through Right.
So I wanted to show what itwould actually look like from
that landscape you know fromfrom the eyes of so-called
criminals.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Right.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
So I think that was a dope point of view and I I got
that kind of point of view fromthe movie In Too Deep with Omar
Epps, how he was able to playthat character and also jump
back into the cop role, becausethere's two sides to every story
.
There is the cop perspective andthere also is the other
perspective of the young blacktargeted people that are going
(11:24):
through these things.
So I like to look at thingsfrom different angles.
Right, Some people might justlook at things from saying, oh,
he's a drug dealer, he's this,but why is he a drug dealer?
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Right right.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
What are his circumstances that pushed him to
there?
Some people are just bad people, but some people really just
get caught up in bad situations,exactly no-transcript, but it's
(12:05):
.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
I mean, it's a weird coin, right?
Because on the one hand, youhave people who are literally
driving over an hour and a halfaway to police communities that
they don't know anything about,but on the other hand, they
aren't being paid enough to livein the communities that you
know that would need policing,that you know that would need
policing.
(12:25):
So there's this dichotomy of youknow people who are living in
these communities who can nolonger afford their own housing
because they're being kicked outby developers, right, and the
police, who are supposed tobasically make this area safe
for developers, but they don'tknow these people at all.
There's a huge disconnect, andthe one thing that I loved about
that film is it wouldn't havegone down had the officer not
(12:47):
had a community tie.
And that's a story we don'thear anymore, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
One quick fact there about that is the community that
we shot it in.
We actually lived there, yeahright.
So we actually told a realstory of where we were, and
that's a key point that you'reright.
You know, some of those copsreally aren't in tune with the
community.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
They don't know anything about it and I think
that's a huge difference.
A friend of mine, his dad was acop and he was telling me that
because he's been retired, heactually just passed away.
So, mike Bennett, I'm thinkingof you and your dad, but Mike
was telling me about his dadthat his dad was saying this
very same factor.
He was like back in the day, Iknew all the major drug dealers,
(13:30):
I knew all the major gangleaders, and when things got too
hot I could come to them and belike, hey, look, yeah Right,
because I knew them all.
I lived, you know, I lived 16blocks away.
So these are all people I know.
Now you go these areas, nobodyknows anybody.
And half these shootings he'slike I think that they're
happening because people areshooting first and asking
(13:50):
questions later because of fear.
They're not because of a lackof knowledge, they're just being
like, well, I'll just write ona report later, rather than
really investigating andinvesting in the community that
would service this kind ofrelationship.
So I think it's highlyimportant to be having these
kinds of conversations, becausewe stopped, we just started
(14:12):
yelling at each other and saying, either defund the police or
we're pro-police, but we haven'treally gotten into the nuances
of why these communalrelationships have broken down,
absolutely.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Yeah, one thing that we did leave out in this movie,
which we will be touching in thesequel Ah, Just a little you
know A little candy
Speaker 3 (14:29):
for you.
Okay, a little touchback, right.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Is you know a little conspiracy about?
You know about how maybe thepolice is making some of these
things happen?
Yes, you know maybe, how dosome of these drugs end up in
the communities?
Let's talk about it.
So are we on the cover.
Two, on the way.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
That's right, that's how you do it.
That's how you do it.
I want to touch on something,but I got to make sure I don't
forget I would be remiss.
My mom's, one of my mom'sfavorite shows is All American.
How was your time like kind oflike working on that?
And I want to make sure so mymom's like ask him about
All-American.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
I appreciate that too , because one of my first
licensed songs was onAll-American Okay, okay.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Man All-American has been an amazing experience for
me, man.
It really was my deep dive intothe industry.
I really wasn't working in theindustry like that.
I was playing football.
Around 2019 was when I wasplaying football.
From 2019, around 2019, thatwas when I started playing ball,
Because you were a professionalball player.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
We were going to put that in, but we don't have that
much time.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
He was a professional ball player man In between
writing his 12 books.
Writing his 12 books ordirecting his films.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
That's right.
It must get up very early inthe morning, Omar.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
It's crazy because, like 2018, I was actually
coaching at LA Valley Collegefootball and I got a message
from Game Changing Films whichdoes like the Hollywood football
stunts or sports stunts youknow, that type of deal.
They wanted me to audition fora role on Ballers to do some
football stuff, and I turnedthem down.
(16:03):
I'm not gonna miss work to doan audition.
I wasn't even an actor at thetime, right.
So next year I ended up signingwith the San Diego Arena
Football Team and I played theseason in the spring.
And then, right after theseason, they reached back out
and they just casted several ofmy teammates and we all got on
ballers, right.
So I did the episode.
It was dope.
It was dope to see the rock inthat episode.
(16:24):
Yeah, I was one of the KansasCity Chiefs players on there and
then going through the wardrobe, literally going through
wardrobe.
The cast and director for GameChanging was like hey, we've
been trying to get at you for aminute.
We want to use you forAll-American 2.
So I was like, okay, cool, I'mthinking this is going to be one
episode.
You know that type of deal, andso I showed up to set, you know
, did my deal.
I was, you know, backgroundblur.
(16:46):
You know what I'm saying right,I'm one of the football teams
for the episode, right?
And then they just kept callingme.
So one episode led to two, twoled to three and three led to
four.
So by the time I got to thefourth episode, you know, I
really started to look aroundlike, okay, guys are making some
money here doing this.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
And this, this, yeah, and um, this is a dope
opportunity.
And um, I started to get theacting bug right, so I started
to ask questions and I obviouslyI got those questions answered
from you and um, next thing youknow, I'm on casting networks,
um, and I started to do the, thebackground circuit, and, uh, I
ended up getting on so manydifferent shows and just
learning so much and taking thatand you know my career evolved
from there, but i'm'm still anAll-American today.
I think it's been over like 30episodes now.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
I've doubled for literally pretty much every
major character on there.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Done some stunts.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
It's been a dope experience, that's so cool.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
That's super cool.
Check out season six, you knowwhat I'm saying hey, hey, hey.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
And now you also have one of the first things I think
we talked about was HighestLevel Academy, and you know, we
kind of Maya and I created thisshow to have a sort of ground
where artists could also usetheir power for progress, right?
And so tell people a little bitmore about that and let me know
how's that going.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Oh, yeah, so I think it's 2018.
I'm'm gonna get my years right,right, so 2018.
I co-founded a non-profitcalled highest level academy, um
, with my uh, one of my formerarena football coaches, russell
shaw um, and we uh came togetherand built an athletic uh
non-profit which basically helpskids and youth to get recruited
(18:27):
, helps train them up, mainlyfocusing on football.
So we have severalseven-on-seven spring football
teams that we do for middleschool through high school.
We've had several kids over theyears go on to you know, play
college and whatnot, and weactually just had a kid that was
an All-American this past year.
He's going on to the.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
University of Washington.
Yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Absolutely so.
I love to devote my time goingout there in spring and working
out with those kids.
I used to coach collegefootball, so not being involved
in that.
That's such a busy life, sobeing able to at least still be
involved in the game and stillbeing able to teach a little bit
is big for me, you know, so Ienjoy it, it's going well.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Excellent.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Absolutely, and one of the things I want to do is
kind of ask you your partner in24-7 is Adonis Armstrong, which,
by the way, come on, adonisArmstrong, it's the greatest
name ever.
Like I think it's like done,like you're just I mean, it's
the greatest name ever ever.
Like I think it's like done,like you're just, like it's a
wrap.
Nobody can come up against hisname and stuff like that.
But you guys, you guys havebeen working together for a
(19:34):
while and how do you, assomebody who's had three other
partners and a bus, you know,and a bunch of other people, how
have you found managing andmaintaining Because you guys
have such a good relationshipGetting to kind of work with you
guys, even peripherally, fromthe outside, here you have such
a great relationship.
How do you maintain that?
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Man well, our relationship goes deeper than
business.
You know, We've got abrotherhood that type of deal.
We literally have the same story, you know what I'm saying Same
amount of sisters, got foursisters, I got four sisters,
that type of deal, a deal.
And um, crazy, uh, 2009, um, wewent to, uh, southern
university, um in louisiana, andwe recruited.
(20:13):
We recruited to play the sameposition in football.
Wow.
And so I can literally remembersitting in the coach's office,
like in the summertime, and hewas right next to me and the
coach was talking to usbasically like, oh yeah, you
know reason why we want you guysto come and not.
You know the recruiting pitch,right, yeah, um, so we ended up
going to school together for youknow, the first semester and
had a couple classes together,whatnot, that type of deal.
(20:33):
And you know, we were cool,right, and something happened
with the coaching staff.
They ended up getting fired andhe ended up going and
transferring schools and whatnot, and played his football
journey somewhere else and weended up meeting again
professionally.
I was playing in montana, he wasplaying in south dakota um same
position yeah, same positionyeah right, so, uh, we ended up
(20:53):
playing against each otherwhat's your position?
Speaker 3 (20:55):
I played safety okay yeah, hit.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
You know, uh, headhunter yeah yeah um, and
then, uh, after that, uh, we, uh, I was.
I came back to la.
You know, he went on the samejourney that I did.
He did the college footballcoaching I did.
He did college footballcoaching route as well after his
football journey.
And one day I was literallyjust on a random short film set
and I was.
It was my first short filmactually and he just happened to
(21:21):
be the lead actor, you knowwhat I'm saying shut up right.
I didn't even know he was outhere, so I was like, oh, what's
up, bro?
Or acting yeah, yeah so, oracting right.
So we connected again on thatset.
It was like, oh wow, what arandom occurrence, right.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
So then the pandemic hit and it gave us an
opportunity to move in togetheras roommates, and I had already
kind of already put 24-7 outthere in 2018.
So this was around 2021, right,and us being together doing the
(21:54):
same thing, acting auditionsyou know we're literally doing
the same exact thing, right?
So we thought it was fitting toliterally just join forces and
do it that way and become a duo.
So really, you know, he wasbought in the same way that I
was and believed in the visionthe same way that I do, and him
already having that sportsmindset and sports background.
(22:15):
His work ethic matches mine anddrive.
Where's his 12 books?
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Where's his 12 books?
Oh, he's got some books too.
He's got some books.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Donald's got some books, yeah he actually just
wrote a book called DirectingActors.
Okay, he's got some books too.
He's got some books.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Donald's got some books, yeah he actually just
wrote a book called DirectingActors.
Okay, there it is.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Sorry sorry, you know .
Speaker 2 (22:31):
I was going for the joke, man.
He's like no, he got books.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
man, we got to represent the brand no, he got
books, he got books.
He got those too.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
That's my boy man.
You know what like the wayyou've succeeded is finding that
brotherhood and really relyingon it, and I feel like that's
been a key to longevity in thisbusiness for a lot of entities,
Like we know each other througha couple of different entities
and that's how we've cometogether for this.
So I love that narrative ofwhen you find the people of your
(23:06):
tribe.
They never go away from you,and that's how we come up
together.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Of course you saw him on that movie set.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
Oh yeah, Because it was going to happen anyway.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Right, right, right yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Absolutely.
Yeah, I definitely think thatfinding the right people to
believe in your vision isextremely important, you know,
because we can only go so far byourselves.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Right.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
I can do a lot by myself, but really, I mean, if
you really want to take thingsto the next level, you got to
have a team.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
I mean that's for Slap the Power.
It was always one of thosethings where, early on, we
didn't have enough juice as aband for any individual in the
band to kind of really, and aswe sort of grew collectively,
the band had so much more powerthan any of us individually,
right, and it became you'restarting to figure out about,
(23:54):
about power, because ultimatelyI I mean I hate to kind of
synthesize it to that, but itreally it's there's a, there's a
thievery of power.
That's, that's been, that'sgoing on right now underneath
our eyes.
And one of the things thatconcerns me the most is I
understand, I understand we can,we can, we can get on a side
diversion about the choicethat's going to be coming up in
(24:15):
november, but you do have a athing where, like biden in a lot
of key battleground states, isdown with black and brown men uh
, specifically 30 points in alot of those than he was in 2020
, which that's everything.
That's the entire election.
So if you're like, oh okay, theguy with 34 felony counts, the
guy who's gotten rid of women'sright to choose, he's not going
(24:38):
to make it, it's like no, no,actually, with the electoral
college right now, if theelection were to be held today.
This is a situation wherenobody has done more to probably
take rights away with respectto the systemic racism that has
come from him and I'm surprisedwith the stop and frisk that
black men you know.
Would want yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
Yeah, like the stop and frisk alone.
I was like y'all remember that.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Yeah, what do you think Y'all remember the Jay-Z
song.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
Right Okay, what do you think Y'all remember the
Jay-Z song?
Right Okay.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Especially after doing movies like you're doing,
where you're kind of, you aremaking statements of you know
power from the inside and fromthe different perspectives.
How do you see your role as amedia company these next five
months, specifically Becausethere's no denying there's a
different reality for us as anauthoritarian country, versus
(25:27):
say what you want about JoeBiden, but you know something
that would still be relatively ademocratic Right yeah, no
that's a good question.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Um, I definitely have already thought about that too.
Um, where we're going to bepositioned over the next few
months with this election comingup, um, and one of those things
that we wanted to do was, uh,educate our people on the actual
voting process.
You, know, so that they canunderstand what they're voting
for Absolutely so providingdifferent information and tips
(25:55):
that they can, you know, utilize.
You know, Politics is a crazygame that a lot of people really
don't understand, you know.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
I think less and less we're being taught the tools to
be able to listen to acandidate say from this person's
rhetoric, I digest these fivepoints and these either resonate
with me or they don't.
People are just picking uptaglines and saying I like that
(26:24):
tagline better than this tagline.
So we're not being taught todisseminate information.
We're also being taught to notbe able to get into a room and
have a just, civil discussionwith a person who may have an
opposing viewpoint from you andstill be able to have a cogent
and civil conversation.
We're moving away from theseideals and I think it's by
(26:48):
design.
Because the more you canfraction people on this side or
this side, the easier they areto manipulate and control.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Absolutely.
I definitely can see that partof it too.
One thing I've noticed aboutactually running a media company
is the attention spans of thegenerations you know what I'm
saying?
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Yeah, sure.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
And what people want to focus on right.
So, like we say, our targetaudience is 18 to 45, right.
I can see a huge differencebetween 18 and 30, and then 30
to 45.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Yeah, sure.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
So even just some of the tactics that are by the
candidates right.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
Yeah right.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
And.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
I'm not here endorsing anybody.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
No, not yet We'll get them.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
I can speak to both sides of what they are doing
right.
One thing I noticed one wasKamala Harris was going to do a
gun seminar, a gun safetyseminar, with Quavo you know
right.
So I think, that's interesting,you know, because obviously
you're choosing Quavo because heresonates with a, you know
right.
So I think that's interesting,you know, because obviously
you're choosing Quavo because heresonates with a certain
(27:52):
audience, right, and a certaintarget, you know right.
So if you're not really hip toit, you're going to just buy
into that.
Oh, it's Quavo, he's endorsingKamala.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
Whereas I would much.
I mean not that.
I'm against that, but I thinkit would be so much better if
they had done it with KillerMike.
He's more of an advocate forthat, and because he
disseminates the argument in away that it like, in a way that
these groups would understand,but he's found a way to digest
(28:23):
the argument.
I don't know that Quavo hasthat same, and no disrespect to
Quavo.
I don't know that Quavo hasthat same, and no disrespect to
Quavo.
I don't know his politicalprowess or what he can digest
and disseminate to the masses.
You know Quavo could surpriseus all.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
But you got to think also, like you know, disrespect
anyone right, but you know, ifI'm listening to certain lyrics
and I'm listening to certainthings that you're putting out,
you know what makes me thinkthat what you're?
About to put onto.
This seminar is valid now,because I just feel like you'll
be like Cracking up, it's thingslike that, right.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
This entire demo.
I just want to be like Lamp up,stay.
I just want to be doing that.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
The entire time.
We just want to be doing that,we just want valid, we want
valid conversations and we wantreal things to come about this
election.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Gold sneakers $400 sneakers as a play, where he
says this makes me cool with theblack community.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
It's so.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
Disingenuous and at the same time, there's like
Because he's shameless, there'sa version where he sat, just
because he's shameless, right,there is a.
There's a version where he satthere the other day and they
were talking about section eighthousing.
He had two black people on thestage so that he could get the
shot.
That was close to him.
They panned around the room.
Wasn't black person in the room?
Okay, but he's talking aboutnobody's done more for section
eight housing than mia, you knowI built.
I built these places.
(29:42):
Yeah, you did stuff for sectioneight housing, motherfucker.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
Nobody's talking about the bigger argument is
that you're attaching Section 8housing to a black face when,
overwhelmingly, the people wholive in Section 8 housing are
white people.
Yeah, Overwhelmingly the peoplethat receive welfare are white
people, passing off thisnarrative of black and brown
(30:06):
people as the face of povertyand as the face of degenerative
poverty.
That will be of danger to youwhen the reality we're looking
at numbers see, like this justkind of goes back to numbers
again yeah you can say, and Idon't understand how you can
just allow this to come out ofyour mouth, but then the lay
(30:28):
person doesn't go okay, well,let me check out what he's
saying.
And that's the disconnect isthat the lay person is no longer
saying hey, yo, I call bullshitbecause it's a very easy
statistic to look up that thepeople who benefit the most from
welfare affirmative actionsection eight white people
people you know why?
(30:49):
because they still are themajority of this country so you
still can't keep selling me thislie that you know these
immigrants are taking your jobsand they're making it unsafe for
you, when the numbers don'treflect that and it's I.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
It's incredibly, just disingenuous to now be leading
with.
Well, I'm a convicted felon, soI can relate.
Black people will relate to mea lot better because I'm a
convicted felon and it's so onits face.
It's so bad, but we've baked into Trump a certain degree of
ridiculousness that we give hima pass.
This is the thing that I'mconcerned about.
(31:26):
Is you give that guy a passlong enough and put him back in
power, and now you've got aproblem because he's never
leaving.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
But we baked in a certain amount of ridiculousness
about Joe Biden, which is whywe don't give him a pass.
So it's one of these things ofwho controls the narrative, and
that's what I think it's reallycoming down to these days which
I think is all the more reasonwhy we're in media in the first
place, because 98% of theworld's communication is run by
(31:52):
four companies.
So how do we get any kind ofopposing view?
Is one even possible these days?
Speaker 2 (32:02):
We got to make it.
That's why we make it here.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
We cook it up in the kitchen.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
That's what we got to do, Well we could be talking.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
To add, we could talk a long, long time because
you're a very fascinating person, but I do want to make sure
that we've given you theopportunity to tell all of our
viewers where to find you allabout your upcoming projects and
what's next for you.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
Cool.
Well, you guys can follow mepersonally on OmarCook
underscore.
That's my Instagram and Twitter.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
My mom's already all over it too, man.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
She's smashing that.
Then you can follow our mainaccounts 24-7 Live Coach on
Instagram.
On Twitter, 24-7 LC.
You can follow us on TikTokThreads, facebook any pretty
much major platform that youguys have.
We have several differentaccounts that are subdivisions
of that as well.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
Yeah, you get on 247liveculturecom and you can go
down the rabbit hole in thebest way.
You guys have so much goodstuff there.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
We've also got, obviously, LA Undercover 2,
which is going to be droppingtowards the end of sometime this
fall.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
Nice.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
And we've got another project, Sounds of the Streets,
that we're producing.
That's going to drop this fallas well.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
Excellent.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
That one's coming too .
That's going to be dope.
It deals with fentanyl, thefentanyl crisis.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Oh wow, so you've got to come back and talk to us on
that one, absolutely.
Speaker 4 (33:20):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
We've been trying to work up a what's the pens where
we do like a pen.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
Narcan.
Yeah, the Narcan pen kind ofthings where we make sure
everybody, any of our friendsthat are partying anywhere, it's
like, make sure you have one ofthese on hand.
My friend, a young lady that Iused to babysit, but now she's
grown and she goes by the DJname Hades and she's doing
really, really well in theelectronic music scene but she
was the first person that toldme about the Narcan thing and
(33:48):
she made me get pens.
And because of her just tellingeverybody that she knew about
this and I'm talking about likeseven years ago she started on
this campaign.
And just making sure you knowright before the pandemic okay,
I saved a kid wow, that'samazing.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
I mean that has to be a great feeling I was just.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
It was one of those things where you are grateful to
god for putting all the thingsthat you needed in because I
just saw kids yelling, beinglike somebody call an ambulance,
our friend, friend, our friendand I just happened to run over
because of the club I was comingout of working in and I saw the
kid and I was like this lookslike a fentanyl overdose and I
(34:32):
was like what'd he take?
And they were like we don't know, and I just I literally had the
pen in my bag and I was like Ithink he's having an overdose.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
You were the angel for the day, and I gave the pen
to the bouncer.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
The bouncer put the pen in and we revived the kid
and he lived.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Oh, wow.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
That's bigger than anything.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
I think that it's very, very important for these
voices to be happening in theblack and brown community
because it's very specific tosay Savannah is a white girl who
was noticing this amongst awhite community and trying to
tell white children, but she wasalso vehemently trying to get
to black and brown communitiesbut wasn't being heard because
it was still being seen as not ablack and brown problem.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Absolutely, and it's a problem that's affecting a lot
of communities.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
And that was her point and she was trying to make
that point seven freaking yearsago.
But it's interesting that whather point and she was trying to
make that point seven freakingyears ago.
But it's interesting what ittook.
You know what I mean, yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
Well you are so fascinating.
Yes, that's a lovely person.
Yes, and we're going to bedoing something.
We're going to be doing alittle slap and warn and Adonis
combo.
We're trying to work onsomething.
Yes, but that's another one ofthose teasers.
Te.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but thank you, omar.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
We're just dangling these little carrots for you
because we like you.
That's right, that's right.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
Stay tuned here at SlapThePowercom.
You'll make sure to.
We'll have all links,everything for Omar as well.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
Thank you, Omar Cook, for coming through.
Slapthepower man.
Speaker 3 (35:57):
Yes, omar Cook underscore I appreciate it being
here.
Yeah, hey, I had to do it likethat.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
We talk about underscore up in here.
Thanks brother, AbsolutelyThank you.
Speaker 4 (36:06):
Hi, I'm Anjali Bhimani and I'm Julia Bianco and
we are so excited to bebringing you our new creative
baby, the Character Selectpodcast.
I've wanted to save the worldsince I was four.
There has been no characterlike him up to that point, and
there really hasn't been acharacter since Every episode of
Character Select.
We we're gonna be takingfantastic video game
(36:26):
performances and talking aboutwhat makes them tick, what makes
them exciting as players, asperformers, as sound designers,
as casting directors.
That was, I feel like I've beenambushed.
I don't even have a podcast totalk about a video game.
So there's a big old love festhere.
That's how we start this andyou're just gonna have to deal
with it.
Recognized by the 2013 editionof the Guinness World Book of
(36:46):
Records, gamers Edition, as themost prolific female video game
voice actor in the world, youknow it's a special project when
you hold on to the people youcreated it with.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
Careers are born by being in the right place at the
right time where you can'tcontrol the right time, but you
can control the right place.
Okay, before we go, a littlehousekeeping, real quick.
Slap Studios LA is proud toannounce not only have we moved
(37:16):
to new studios in Beverly Hillscheck out the new photos at
slapstudioslacom but we alsohave our first co-production
with our new partners and we'reover the moon to announce
Gambling Mad with Norm Chad.
Norm and Chad he's kind of thereason I used to love listening
to poker.
He's hysterical.
He's a legend.
They're going to probably put astar on the Walk of Fame for
(37:38):
the man, so we're really proudto have him here.
So make sure to check outGambling Madwoman, norm Chad,
anywhere you get your podcastsand what else.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
Also check out.
That's it, that's All.
Their new season is underwayand it's looking like it's going
to be really, really fun andreally in depth, so I've been
really loving the new episodesand the teasers that I've seen
thus far.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
Yes, and we were just talking to Casey the other day
about all the plans coming up,so make sure to check that out.
That's it, that's all.
And also we have a new showcalled Character Select.
It's about the video game space, where these amazing voiceover
actors recreate their sort oficonic roles and talk about the
sort of stresses anddifficulties in navigating a
(38:23):
comment-filled world whereeverybody can be as rude as
possible.
So make sure to check that outfor some therapy.
And Omar Cook I mean, how aboutthat guy?
Speaker 3 (38:33):
Oh, he's delightful.
He's just such a light.
It's such a privilege to beable to sit down with him.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
Yeah, I mean, just what a special talent.
Look forward to having him backagain.
And before we get out of here,maya, we're going to, by popular
demand, we're bringing back TwoTruths and a Slap.
I should say, bring it back.
It just started.
We're running again Two Truthsand a Slap, and this week it's
on me and there are threeheadlines.
(39:02):
Now I know you're pretty astute, you stay on top of the
headlines, okay, but I want youof the three.
It's my understanding you arenot aware of any of these.
So what I'm going to do is I'mgoing to tell you three
headlines lately and you tell mewhich one is there's.
Two of them are true and one ofthem is a slap.
So you tell me which one is allright, you ready.
Okay, all right, cool I'mterrible at this.
(39:23):
You're not terrible at it, allright.
So the first one is Chiquita.
The banana company was foundliable for financing a
paramilitary group.
So basically they are the, youknow the.
Speaker 3 (39:37):
But that's how they actually started.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
So that tracks.
Okay, that's interesting.
Okay, number two fox is pushinga debunk.
Claim that biden will sitduring the debate.
Okay, which is.
Which is which is great.
And number three justice alitoagrees in a secret recording
that the us should return to aquote place of godliness.
Of all three of those, what doyou think a, b or C would be a
(40:01):
slap in the face?
Speaker 3 (40:02):
I feel like C is definitely true.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (40:05):
Because that was the one where he agreed to godliness
.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
Now he's a Supreme Court justice and there's
separation of church and state.
Speaker 3 (40:12):
No but he's kind of giving me non-separation vibes
lately.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (40:18):
So I'm going to go with that, is true, uh-huh.
So I'm going to go with that istrue.
The other two, that's hardbecause, okay, the Chiquita
Banana Company basically startedas a banana revolution by this
one dude who became known as theBanana man.
I don't know that.
A lot of people know that, butbasically he started a puppet
government in Honduras to getbananas.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
The Banana man?
Uh-huh Yo, I learned that onDrunk History, so you should
definitely be watching DrunkHistory reruns if you're not and
then, okay, fox is making a.
Speaker 3 (40:47):
I feel like the Fox one would be true too, because
it just sounds Foxian yeah.
It sounds okay, so I'm going togo with.
Those are the two true ones,the Fox one and the Justice guy.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
It's a trick question .
They're all true, becausethey're all ridiculously slapped
from the faces.
Maya, it was a trick question,yeah when you need a
paramilitary group.
Speaker 3 (41:06):
I thought that the, but that again, if y'all this is
where history will help youokay, the man who started the
Chiquita Banana Factory did itby first making a banana right
Republic hence the name inHonduras.
So he basically co-opted theHonduran military to basically
(41:32):
co-opt them to give him control,and then he promised them
kickbacks, and that's how theChiquita Banana Company
initially started.
Speaker 2 (41:41):
I mean the Biden thing, too, about sitting during
debate.
First of all, I've heard whocares.
I mean the Biden thing, too,about sitting during debate.
First of all, I've heard whocares.
I mean exactly, I don't care ifhe's upside down, it's like,
just do it he could be on one ofthem, little scooter things to
get old people around.
Speaker 3 (41:54):
He could be on a kick and go.
I don't care.
Like, whatever Like.
Why is this?
And the fact that you weredistracting the country with
who's standing, who's gonna sitdown instead?
Speaker 2 (42:08):
It's not a good faith argument.
Speaker 3 (42:10):
It's just stupid.
It's not even a good faithargument.
Now we're in levels ofstupidity I'm telling you.
We're just like one year awayfrom watering the crops with
Gatorade and it's so frightening.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
Well, you heard it there, but reach out to us, let
us know what your mostconcerning slap is from this
past week, and you know.
Thanks again, maya.
It was a fun one.
Thank you for coming on down.
Thank you, guys for listening.
We appreciate it and we'll seeyou next time.
Bye.
Speaker 3 (42:39):
Slap the Power is written and produced by Rick
Bariodil and Maya Sykes.
Associate Producer, brie CoreyAudio and Visual Engineering and
Studio Facilities provided bySlap Studios LA, with
distribution through ourcollective home for social
progress in art, slap theNetwork.
If you have any ideas for ashow you want to hear or see, or
(43:01):
if you would like to be a guestartist on our show, please
email us at info atslapthepowercom.
Our target audience has been Black America and
really telling stories thatreally kind of resonate with
them and that they can relate toin some type of way For us, you
know, we knew that crime dramawas kind of big right now at
this time especially with showslike Power and Snowfall.
So, we knew that we could putsomething out that was going to
reach them right now and thatwas LA Undercover.
You know, you can't go wrongwith a crime, with a cop movie,
(00:22):
right.
So we did that and that kind ofgrabbed our fan base a little
bit right now and now we reallywant to be able to tell the
stories that we want, you know.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
What we call slap today.
Alright, alright, the world maynot need another podcast, but
it could definitely use a Hugeslap in its face.
That's right.
Welcome to Slap to Power, theshow where we bring artists
together who use their powersfor progress.
I'm your host, rick Barrio-Dill, and I am Maya Sykes.
On the show today is the draftback, maya, you know the house
(01:05):
tells is the draft back?
Speaker 3 (01:05):
You know, the House tells us that the draft is back
and they did it on the low low.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
On the low low.
That's right.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
I don't know if y'all were paying attention.
But on Friday that passed.
Now will it pass?
The Senate is what we need toknow.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Yeah, well we'll talk about that a little bit later.
We also have one nine SupremeCourt justices.
Justice Alito says America mustreturn to a quote place of
godliness in a secret recording,which is fine, but we're going
to unpack that.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
We're going to unpack that, but wait, but wait though
.
Separation of church and state.
Okay, I'm done, I'm done.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
I'm done.
That's cool.
Back by popular demand, we'regoing to do two truths and a
slap.
It's our new segment where wego over three ridiculous
realities together that eitherMaya or myself have never heard
and we try to determine whichone is a slap in the face.
And a little later we'll slapthe topic with climate again,
but first in studio today.
It's been a long time coming.
We've been trying to make thishappen.
(01:54):
Omar Cook he is a 31-timeaward-winning filmmaker.
Listen.
He's the founder and CEO of247liveculturecom.
This is an amazing mediacompany that we're going to get
into more and more, but he's aman of a lot of trades and he's
also extremely handsome.
Welcome to the studio, OmarCook.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Omar, thank you for coming in, man, I appreciate
that intro man.
Hey, it's a blessing to be herewith all you guys.
Yeah, let's go Well, thank youfor making the time that Right,
that's right.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Absolutely.
I know we've been trying to getthis for a little while.
For the people that may notknow, introduce yourself and
talk about what you got going on.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Absolutely.
What's up, family?
I'm Omar Cook, like he alreadysaid.
You know, I'm a filmmaker,actor, stuntman and CEO of my
own company, 24-7 Live CultureEnterprises, a black
entertainment and media companythat's pretty prevalent right
now, making some movies, severalpodcasts and whatnot and
(02:47):
positive black news, somethingthat's very much needed in
today's society.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
So that's, more so what my?
Speaker 1 (02:52):
focus is Also an author.
I just released a 12-bookseries.
That's on Amazon right nowcalled.
The Billionaire Book Club.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
You make me realize I don't get up early enough.
I feel like I'm slacking on mypants.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Yeah, man.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Omar makes me realize I got to get up earlier, but
that's good.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
12 books 12 books dog , my goodness.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And for those I know this is anaudio medium, but for those
that can see it, there's achoice shirt you got on today,
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Respect.
It is very quality.
That's right baby, you knowwhat it is.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, thank you for coming in.
One of the reasons I wanted tohave you in was number one lift
up.
You've got so many good thingsgoing on on 24-7 Live and we've
been talking for a while and Iknow you're in the process of a
second movie and I know there'sa lot that we can't talk about.
We kind of do offline.
We're trying to figuresomething we can work together,
but, um, how is that going?
(03:43):
Are you?
You're in where you're in apart, you're in a sequel, right?
Speaker 1 (03:47):
yep, so uh, we've got our sequel to a movie that's
already out on amazon right now,which is la undercover.
La undercover, look it up, goto amazon.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Yeah, yeah, no, it's fucking great okay, this is the
thing that I like to do.
I sometimes go on Amazon Primeand I just look at what the
independent things are, becausepeople are really coming up, and
one of the things that I haveto compliment you on was the
production value.
(04:16):
Yes, the production value wasso well done.
And I wanted to ask as a newcompany with not, you know, not
the same resources as a majorstudio, how do you pull that off
?
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Whew, that's a good question.
I would say it's been outsideof the norm of how we usually
produce movies in the industryhere.
So, really, how LA Undercovercame about, I wanted to do
something that showcased ourskills as filmmakers.
With my team, we had put outseveral short films in 2022 that
(04:49):
hit the circuit and we won alot of awards 31 of them
apparently.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
You know news counting right.
You should definitely checkthis out because it was really
well done and I was veryimpressed that this got done on
like a shoestring budget.
This got done on like ashoestring budget.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Yeah, I actually was in Atlanta shooting another
movie called Black Spartans,which is supposed to be coming
out sometime I don't know when,cool name.
But I was out there and I camehome and I told my business
partner, adonis Armstrong heybro, let's just shoot a movie
real quick, you know, just throwit on Tubi, you know that type
of deal, so we can kind of getour names out there.
Um, so we ended up writing thescript in within a week, um, and
(05:26):
we ended up actually casting alot of our friends you know it
was a passion project uh,getting them on board, um, and
then we actually foundfilmmakers, uh from, or
cinematographers from, the lafilm school, so they were all
students.
You know they're all students.
So, yeah, um, we put thisproject together literally
within three weeks and shot it,so probably from the end of
(05:48):
October 2022 to the end ofNovember 2022 was when the
project was finished.
Wow.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Ladies and gentlemen, that is how you do it.
That's how you do it.
That's why you listen to Slapthe Power Exactly.
Stuff like that.
That's how you do it Exactly.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
So utilizing your friends, utilizing your network
and what's around you, and notnecessarily having to network up
, but literally networkingacross.
And that's literally how we gotit done.
We did everything in-houseedited, wrote, produced and
self-distributed.
We found, obviously, aworldwide distribution company
with Bondi and Buffalo 8, andthey signed us to a deal and the
rest is history.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
So I have a question just with that.
It seems like this is now thefuture, where people are doing
more in-house things and findingdistribution.
But distribution is the greatbarrier.
How do you break thedistribution ceiling?
Because it seems like it's abit of a tough climb.
So can you elaborate on how youwent about that?
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Yeah, for me.
I had to connect with an agentalready with one of my reps that
connected me through severalcompanies.
So once the project was done,they pretty much took it and
pitched it to several differentcompanies.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
And it speaks for itself, right?
I mean, that's the thing, it'sdope.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
So we had several deals on the table literally by
January.
Wow, I mean, that's the thing,it's dope.
So we had several deals on thetable literally by January, wow,
okay.
So they would move pretty fastfor us.
And once we got in the door,you know.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Yeah.
Are you looking to do storiesthat you specifically develop
in-house, or are you looking forwriters?
How do you find the contentthat you want to do?
Speaker 1 (07:20):
All of our content has been produced in-house so
far, but I definitely would liketo do some best-selling novels,
that type of deal, some truestories, maybe some biographies.
I definitely would like to dosome musicians' lives that type
(07:40):
of deal.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
So I'm open.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
I'm really open.
Nice, we know a couple, we dothere we go.
Nice, we know a couple, we dothere, we go.
Absolutely Now is it asituation where, of all the sort
of slash things that youconsider yourself, you know CEO,
writer, you know producer, whatdo you?
What probably gives you themost joy, if you had to say the
(08:02):
most?
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Man?
That's a good question.
To be honest, I really enjoyall of it.
The biggest part for me is justbeing able to control my own
day and control my own time andcontrol my own creativity.
You know, being an actor beingan actor is fun, but you know, a
lot of times when you're're anactor, you're given roles or
(08:25):
you're given lines.
Yeah, um, for me, being able tocontrol what I say, um, and be
able to tell my own stories is amajor, major deal for me.
Yeah, um, so I really justvalue freedom, um and freedom of
creativity.
So whatever that looks like,whether it's acting, writing,
producing um or just running onbusiness, you know, I think that
all just falls into being acreator.
(08:46):
So I would probably just sayI'm more of a creator than
anything.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Now, who is your target audience?
Because you're young and you'reblack.
Is that who you're going for,or who are you specifically
looking to talk to?
Speaker 2 (09:01):
With the movies that they're working on now.
Or you mean, yeah, yeah, yes,with the content that you're
working on now.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Or you mean yeah, yeah, yes, with the content that
you're putting out, yeah,definitely, I would say.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
my target audience right now is literally between
18 and 45.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
That's a good target audience right there.
Our target audience has beenBlack America and really telling
stories that really kind ofresonate with them and that they
can relate to in some type ofway.
For us, you know, we knew thatcrime drama was kind of big
right now at this time,especially with shows like Power
and Snowfall.
So, we knew that we could putsomething out that was going to
reach them right now and thatwas LA Undercover.
(09:32):
You know, you can't go wrongwith the crime, with the cop
movie, right.
So we did that and that kind ofgrabbed our fan base a little
bit right now and now we reallywant to be able to tell the
stories that we want, you know.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
You know, the thing that I thought was really
interesting about LA Undercoverwas that it looked at the
relationship between blackpeople in LA with the police in
a very specific way that youdon't see.
How important is it to tellthat narrative, especially in
today's climate.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Man, major, major, you know.
Obviously police relations withyou can even just say the black
community has been a huge thorn, you know, over the past
decades.
You know what.
I'm saying and I think there isthere has to be some type of
connect between that policecommunity and the black
(10:30):
community you know realistically, because you know there's a lot
of issues that have arose overdecades you know, between those
two parties and just being ableto show a different landscape.
Like a cop that looks like youknow like us Right and and goes
(10:50):
through those types of scenariosthat these people are going
through Right.
So I wanted to show what itwould actually look like from
that landscape you know fromfrom the eyes of so-called
criminals.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Right.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
So I think that was a dope point of view and I I got
that kind of point of view fromthe movie In Too Deep with Omar
Epps, how he was able to playthat character and also jump
back into the cop role, becausethere's two sides to every story
.
There is the cop perspective andthere also is the other
perspective of the young blacktargeted people that are going
(11:24):
through these things.
So I like to look at thingsfrom different angles.
Right, Some people might justlook at things from saying, oh,
he's a drug dealer, he's this,but why is he a drug dealer?
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Right right.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
What are his circumstances that pushed him to
there?
Some people are just bad people, but some people really just
get caught up in bad situations,exactly no-transcript, but it's
(12:05):
.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
I mean, it's a weird coin, right?
Because on the one hand, youhave people who are literally
driving over an hour and a halfaway to police communities that
they don't know anything about,but on the other hand, they
aren't being paid enough to livein the communities that you
know that would need policing,that you know that would need
policing.
(12:25):
So there's this dichotomy of youknow people who are living in
these communities who can nolonger afford their own housing
because they're being kicked outby developers, right, and the
police, who are supposed tobasically make this area safe
for developers, but they don'tknow these people at all.
There's a huge disconnect, andthe one thing that I loved about
that film is it wouldn't havegone down had the officer not
(12:47):
had a community tie.
And that's a story we don'thear anymore, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
One quick fact there about that is the community that
we shot it in.
We actually lived there, yeahright.
So we actually told a realstory of where we were, and
that's a key point that you'reright.
You know, some of those copsreally aren't in tune with the
community.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
They don't know anything about it and I think
that's a huge difference.
A friend of mine, his dad was acop and he was telling me that
because he's been retired, heactually just passed away.
So, mike Bennett, I'm thinkingof you and your dad, but Mike
was telling me about his dadthat his dad was saying this
very same factor.
He was like back in the day, Iknew all the major drug dealers,
(13:30):
I knew all the major gangleaders, and when things got too
hot I could come to them and belike, hey, look, yeah Right,
because I knew them all.
I lived, you know, I lived 16blocks away.
So these are all people I know.
Now you go these areas, nobodyknows anybody.
And half these shootings he'slike I think that they're
happening because people areshooting first and asking
(13:50):
questions later because of fear.
They're not because of a lackof knowledge, they're just being
like, well, I'll just write ona report later, rather than
really investigating andinvesting in the community that
would service this kind ofrelationship.
So I think it's highlyimportant to be having these
kinds of conversations, becausewe stopped, we just started
(14:12):
yelling at each other and saying, either defund the police or
we're pro-police, but we haven'treally gotten into the nuances
of why these communalrelationships have broken down,
absolutely.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Yeah, one thing that we did leave out in this movie,
which we will be touching in thesequel Ah, Just a little you
know A little candy
Speaker 3 (14:29):
for you.
Okay, a little touchback, right.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Is you know a little conspiracy about?
You know about how maybe thepolice is making some of these
things happen?
Yes, you know maybe, how dosome of these drugs end up in
the communities?
Let's talk about it.
So are we on the cover.
Two, on the way.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
That's right, that's how you do it.
That's how you do it.
I want to touch on something,but I got to make sure I don't
forget I would be remiss.
My mom's, one of my mom'sfavorite shows is All American.
How was your time like kind oflike working on that?
And I want to make sure so mymom's like ask him about
All-American.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
I appreciate that too , because one of my first
licensed songs was onAll-American Okay, okay.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Man All-American has been an amazing experience for
me, man.
It really was my deep dive intothe industry.
I really wasn't working in theindustry like that.
I was playing football.
Around 2019 was when I wasplaying football.
From 2019, around 2019, thatwas when I started playing ball,
Because you were a professionalball player.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
We were going to put that in, but we don't have that
much time.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
He was a professional ball player man In between
writing his 12 books.
Writing his 12 books ordirecting his films.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
That's right.
It must get up very early inthe morning, Omar.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
It's crazy because, like 2018, I was actually
coaching at LA Valley Collegefootball and I got a message
from Game Changing Films whichdoes like the Hollywood football
stunts or sports stunts youknow, that type of deal.
They wanted me to audition fora role on Ballers to do some
football stuff, and I turnedthem down.
(16:03):
I'm not gonna miss work to doan audition.
I wasn't even an actor at thetime, right.
So next year I ended up signingwith the San Diego Arena
Football Team and I played theseason in the spring.
And then, right after theseason, they reached back out
and they just casted several ofmy teammates and we all got on
ballers, right.
So I did the episode.
It was dope.
It was dope to see the rock inthat episode.
(16:24):
Yeah, I was one of the KansasCity Chiefs players on there and
then going through the wardrobe, literally going through
wardrobe.
The cast and director for GameChanging was like hey, we've
been trying to get at you for aminute.
We want to use you forAll-American 2.
So I was like, okay, cool, I'mthinking this is going to be one
episode.
You know that type of deal, andso I showed up to set, you know
, did my deal.
I was, you know, backgroundblur.
(16:46):
You know what I'm saying right,I'm one of the football teams
for the episode, right?
And then they just kept callingme.
So one episode led to two, twoled to three and three led to
four.
So by the time I got to thefourth episode, you know, I
really started to look aroundlike, okay, guys are making some
money here doing this.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
And this, this, yeah, and um, this is a dope
opportunity.
And um, I started to get theacting bug right, so I started
to ask questions and I obviouslyI got those questions answered
from you and um, next thing youknow, I'm on casting networks,
um, and I started to do the, thebackground circuit, and, uh, I
ended up getting on so manydifferent shows and just
learning so much and taking thatand you know my career evolved
from there, but i'm'm still anAll-American today.
I think it's been over like 30episodes now.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
I've doubled for literally pretty much every
major character on there.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Done some stunts.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
It's been a dope experience, that's so cool.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
That's super cool.
Check out season six, you knowwhat I'm saying hey, hey, hey.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
And now you also have one of the first things I think
we talked about was HighestLevel Academy, and you know, we
kind of Maya and I created thisshow to have a sort of ground
where artists could also usetheir power for progress, right?
And so tell people a little bitmore about that and let me know
how's that going.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Oh, yeah, so I think it's 2018.
I'm'm gonna get my years right,right, so 2018.
I co-founded a non-profitcalled highest level academy, um
, with my uh, one of my formerarena football coaches, russell
shaw um, and we uh came togetherand built an athletic uh
non-profit which basically helpskids and youth to get recruited
(18:27):
, helps train them up, mainlyfocusing on football.
So we have severalseven-on-seven spring football
teams that we do for middleschool through high school.
We've had several kids over theyears go on to you know, play
college and whatnot, and weactually just had a kid that was
an All-American this past year.
He's going on to the.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
University of Washington.
Yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Absolutely so.
I love to devote my time goingout there in spring and working
out with those kids.
I used to coach collegefootball, so not being involved
in that.
That's such a busy life, sobeing able to at least still be
involved in the game and stillbeing able to teach a little bit
is big for me, you know, so Ienjoy it, it's going well.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Excellent.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Absolutely, and one of the things I want to do is
kind of ask you your partner in24-7 is Adonis Armstrong, which,
by the way, come on, adonisArmstrong, it's the greatest
name ever.
Like I think it's like done,like you're just I mean, it's
the greatest name ever ever.
Like I think it's like done,like you're just, like it's a
wrap.
Nobody can come up against hisname and stuff like that.
But you guys, you guys havebeen working together for a
(19:34):
while and how do you, assomebody who's had three other
partners and a bus, you know,and a bunch of other people, how
have you found managing andmaintaining Because you guys
have such a good relationshipGetting to kind of work with you
guys, even peripherally, fromthe outside, here you have such
a great relationship.
How do you maintain that?
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Man well, our relationship goes deeper than
business.
You know, We've got abrotherhood that type of deal.
We literally have the same story, you know what I'm saying Same
amount of sisters, got foursisters, I got four sisters,
that type of deal, a deal.
And um, crazy, uh, 2009, um, wewent to, uh, southern
university, um in louisiana, andwe recruited.
(20:13):
We recruited to play the sameposition in football.
Wow.
And so I can literally remembersitting in the coach's office,
like in the summertime, and hewas right next to me and the
coach was talking to usbasically like, oh yeah, you
know reason why we want you guysto come and not.
You know the recruiting pitch,right, yeah, um, so we ended up
going to school together for youknow, the first semester and
had a couple classes together,whatnot, that type of deal.
(20:33):
And you know, we were cool,right, and something happened
with the coaching staff.
They ended up getting fired andhe ended up going and
transferring schools and whatnot, and played his football
journey somewhere else and weended up meeting again
professionally.
I was playing in montana, he wasplaying in south dakota um same
position yeah, same positionyeah right, so, uh, we ended up
(20:53):
playing against each otherwhat's your position?
Speaker 3 (20:55):
I played safety okay yeah, hit.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
You know, uh, headhunter yeah yeah um, and
then, uh, after that, uh, we, uh, I was.
I came back to la.
You know, he went on the samejourney that I did.
He did the college footballcoaching I did.
He did college footballcoaching route as well after his
football journey.
And one day I was literallyjust on a random short film set
and I was.
It was my first short filmactually and he just happened to
(21:21):
be the lead actor, you knowwhat I'm saying shut up right.
I didn't even know he was outhere, so I was like, oh, what's
up, bro?
Or acting yeah, yeah so, oracting right.
So we connected again on thatset.
It was like, oh wow, what arandom occurrence, right.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
So then the pandemic hit and it gave us an
opportunity to move in togetheras roommates, and I had already
kind of already put 24-7 outthere in 2018.
So this was around 2021, right,and us being together doing the
(21:54):
same thing, acting auditionsyou know we're literally doing
the same exact thing, right?
So we thought it was fitting toliterally just join forces and
do it that way and become a duo.
So really, you know, he wasbought in the same way that I
was and believed in the visionthe same way that I do, and him
already having that sportsmindset and sports background.
(22:15):
His work ethic matches mine anddrive.
Where's his 12 books?
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Where's his 12 books?
Oh, he's got some books too.
He's got some books.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Donald's got some books, yeah he actually just
wrote a book called DirectingActors.
Okay, he's got some books too.
He's got some books.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Donald's got some books, yeah he actually just
wrote a book called DirectingActors.
Okay, there it is.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Sorry sorry, you know .
Speaker 2 (22:31):
I was going for the joke, man.
He's like no, he got books.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
man, we got to represent the brand no, he got
books, he got books.
He got those too.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
That's my boy man.
You know what like the wayyou've succeeded is finding that
brotherhood and really relyingon it, and I feel like that's
been a key to longevity in thisbusiness for a lot of entities,
Like we know each other througha couple of different entities
and that's how we've cometogether for this.
So I love that narrative ofwhen you find the people of your
(23:06):
tribe.
They never go away from you,and that's how we come up
together.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Of course you saw him on that movie set.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
Oh yeah, Because it was going to happen anyway.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Right, right, right yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Absolutely.
Yeah, I definitely think thatfinding the right people to
believe in your vision isextremely important, you know,
because we can only go so far byourselves.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Right.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
I can do a lot by myself, but really, I mean, if
you really want to take thingsto the next level, you got to
have a team.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
I mean that's for Slap the Power.
It was always one of thosethings where, early on, we
didn't have enough juice as aband for any individual in the
band to kind of really, and aswe sort of grew collectively,
the band had so much more powerthan any of us individually,
right, and it became you'restarting to figure out about,
(23:54):
about power, because ultimatelyI I mean I hate to kind of
synthesize it to that, but itreally it's there's a, there's a
thievery of power.
That's, that's been, that'sgoing on right now underneath
our eyes.
And one of the things thatconcerns me the most is I
understand, I understand we can,we can, we can get on a side
diversion about the choicethat's going to be coming up in
(24:15):
november, but you do have a athing where, like biden in a lot
of key battleground states, isdown with black and brown men uh
, specifically 30 points in alot of those than he was in 2020
, which that's everything.
That's the entire election.
So if you're like, oh okay, theguy with 34 felony counts, the
guy who's gotten rid of women'sright to choose, he's not going
(24:38):
to make it, it's like no, no,actually, with the electoral
college right now, if theelection were to be held today.
This is a situation wherenobody has done more to probably
take rights away with respectto the systemic racism that has
come from him and I'm surprisedwith the stop and frisk that
black men you know.
Would want yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
Yeah, like the stop and frisk alone.
I was like y'all remember that.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Yeah, what do you think Y'all remember the Jay-Z
song.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
Right Okay, what do you think Y'all remember the
Jay-Z song?
Right Okay.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Especially after doing movies like you're doing,
where you're kind of, you aremaking statements of you know
power from the inside and fromthe different perspectives.
How do you see your role as amedia company these next five
months, specifically Becausethere's no denying there's a
different reality for us as anauthoritarian country, versus
(25:27):
say what you want about JoeBiden, but you know something
that would still be relatively ademocratic Right yeah, no
that's a good question.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Um, I definitely have already thought about that too.
Um, where we're going to bepositioned over the next few
months with this election comingup, um, and one of those things
that we wanted to do was, uh,educate our people on the actual
voting process.
You, know, so that they canunderstand what they're voting
for Absolutely so providingdifferent information and tips
(25:55):
that they can, you know, utilize.
You know, Politics is a crazygame that a lot of people really
don't understand, you know.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
I think less and less we're being taught the tools to
be able to listen to acandidate say from this person's
rhetoric, I digest these fivepoints and these either resonate
with me or they don't.
People are just picking uptaglines and saying I like that
(26:24):
tagline better than this tagline.
So we're not being taught todisseminate information.
We're also being taught to notbe able to get into a room and
have a just, civil discussionwith a person who may have an
opposing viewpoint from you andstill be able to have a cogent
and civil conversation.
We're moving away from theseideals and I think it's by
(26:48):
design.
Because the more you canfraction people on this side or
this side, the easier they areto manipulate and control.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Absolutely.
I definitely can see that partof it too.
One thing I've noticed aboutactually running a media company
is the attention spans of thegenerations you know what I'm
saying?
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Yeah, sure.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
And what people want to focus on right.
So, like we say, our targetaudience is 18 to 45, right.
I can see a huge differencebetween 18 and 30, and then 30
to 45.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Yeah, sure.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
So even just some of the tactics that are by the
candidates right.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
Yeah right.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
And.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
I'm not here endorsing anybody.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
No, not yet We'll get them.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
I can speak to both sides of what they are doing
right.
One thing I noticed one wasKamala Harris was going to do a
gun seminar, a gun safetyseminar, with Quavo you know
right.
So I think, that's interesting,you know, because obviously
you're choosing Quavo because heresonates with a, you know
right.
So I think that's interesting,you know, because obviously
you're choosing Quavo because heresonates with a certain
(27:52):
audience, right, and a certaintarget, you know right.
So if you're not really hip toit, you're going to just buy
into that.
Oh, it's Quavo, he's endorsingKamala.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
Whereas I would much.
I mean not that.
I'm against that, but I thinkit would be so much better if
they had done it with KillerMike.
He's more of an advocate forthat, and because he
disseminates the argument in away that it like, in a way that
these groups would understand,but he's found a way to digest
(28:23):
the argument.
I don't know that Quavo hasthat same, and no disrespect to
Quavo.
I don't know that Quavo hasthat same, and no disrespect to
Quavo.
I don't know his politicalprowess or what he can digest
and disseminate to the masses.
You know Quavo could surpriseus all.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
But you got to think also, like you know, disrespect
anyone right, but you know, ifI'm listening to certain lyrics
and I'm listening to certainthings that you're putting out,
you know what makes me thinkthat what you're?
About to put onto.
This seminar is valid now,because I just feel like you'll
be like Cracking up, it's thingslike that, right.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
This entire demo.
I just want to be like Lamp up,stay.
I just want to be doing that.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
The entire time.
We just want to be doing that,we just want valid, we want
valid conversations and we wantreal things to come about this
election.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Gold sneakers $400 sneakers as a play, where he
says this makes me cool with theblack community.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
It's so.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
Disingenuous and at the same time, there's like
Because he's shameless, there'sa version where he sat, just
because he's shameless, right,there is a.
There's a version where he satthere the other day and they
were talking about section eighthousing.
He had two black people on thestage so that he could get the
shot.
That was close to him.
They panned around the room.
Wasn't black person in the room?
Okay, but he's talking aboutnobody's done more for section
eight housing than mia, you knowI built.
I built these places.
(29:42):
Yeah, you did stuff for sectioneight housing, motherfucker.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
Nobody's talking about the bigger argument is
that you're attaching Section 8housing to a black face when,
overwhelmingly, the people wholive in Section 8 housing are
white people.
Yeah, Overwhelmingly the peoplethat receive welfare are white
people, passing off thisnarrative of black and brown
(30:06):
people as the face of povertyand as the face of degenerative
poverty.
That will be of danger to youwhen the reality we're looking
at numbers see, like this justkind of goes back to numbers
again yeah you can say, and Idon't understand how you can
just allow this to come out ofyour mouth, but then the lay
(30:28):
person doesn't go okay, well,let me check out what he's
saying.
And that's the disconnect isthat the lay person is no longer
saying hey, yo, I call bullshitbecause it's a very easy
statistic to look up that thepeople who benefit the most from
welfare affirmative actionsection eight white people
people you know why?
(30:49):
because they still are themajority of this country so you
still can't keep selling me thislie that you know these
immigrants are taking your jobsand they're making it unsafe for
you, when the numbers don'treflect that and it's I.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
It's incredibly, just disingenuous to now be leading
with.
Well, I'm a convicted felon, soI can relate.
Black people will relate to mea lot better because I'm a
convicted felon and it's so onits face.
It's so bad, but we've baked into Trump a certain degree of
ridiculousness that we give hima pass.
This is the thing that I'mconcerned about.
(31:26):
Is you give that guy a passlong enough and put him back in
power, and now you've got aproblem because he's never
leaving.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
But we baked in a certain amount of ridiculousness
about Joe Biden, which is whywe don't give him a pass.
So it's one of these things ofwho controls the narrative, and
that's what I think it's reallycoming down to these days which
I think is all the more reasonwhy we're in media in the first
place, because 98% of theworld's communication is run by
(31:52):
four companies.
So how do we get any kind ofopposing view?
Is one even possible these days?
Speaker 2 (32:02):
We got to make it.
That's why we make it here.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
We cook it up in the kitchen.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
That's what we got to do, Well we could be talking.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
To add, we could talk a long, long time because
you're a very fascinating person, but I do want to make sure
that we've given you theopportunity to tell all of our
viewers where to find you allabout your upcoming projects and
what's next for you.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
Cool.
Well, you guys can follow mepersonally on OmarCook
underscore.
That's my Instagram and Twitter.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
My mom's already all over it too, man.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
She's smashing that.
Then you can follow our mainaccounts 24-7 Live Coach on
Instagram.
On Twitter, 24-7 LC.
You can follow us on TikTokThreads, facebook any pretty
much major platform that youguys have.
We have several differentaccounts that are subdivisions
of that as well.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
Yeah, you get on 247liveculturecom and you can go
down the rabbit hole in thebest way.
You guys have so much goodstuff there.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
We've also got, obviously, LA Undercover 2,
which is going to be droppingtowards the end of sometime this
fall.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
Nice.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
And we've got another project, Sounds of the Streets,
that we're producing.
That's going to drop this fallas well.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
Excellent.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
That one's coming too .
That's going to be dope.
It deals with fentanyl, thefentanyl crisis.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Oh wow, so you've got to come back and talk to us on
that one, absolutely.
Speaker 4 (33:20):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
We've been trying to work up a what's the pens where
we do like a pen.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
Narcan.
Yeah, the Narcan pen kind ofthings where we make sure
everybody, any of our friendsthat are partying anywhere, it's
like, make sure you have one ofthese on hand.
My friend, a young lady that Iused to babysit, but now she's
grown and she goes by the DJname Hades and she's doing
really, really well in theelectronic music scene but she
was the first person that toldme about the Narcan thing and
(33:48):
she made me get pens.
And because of her just tellingeverybody that she knew about
this and I'm talking about likeseven years ago she started on
this campaign.
And just making sure you knowright before the pandemic okay,
I saved a kid wow, that'samazing.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
I mean that has to be a great feeling I was just.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
It was one of those things where you are grateful to
god for putting all the thingsthat you needed in because I
just saw kids yelling, beinglike somebody call an ambulance,
our friend, friend, our friendand I just happened to run over
because of the club I was comingout of working in and I saw the
kid and I was like this lookslike a fentanyl overdose and I
(34:32):
was like what'd he take?
And they were like we don't know, and I just I literally had the
pen in my bag and I was like Ithink he's having an overdose.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
You were the angel for the day, and I gave the pen
to the bouncer.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
The bouncer put the pen in and we revived the kid
and he lived.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Oh, wow.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
That's bigger than anything.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
I think that it's very, very important for these
voices to be happening in theblack and brown community
because it's very specific tosay Savannah is a white girl who
was noticing this amongst awhite community and trying to
tell white children, but she wasalso vehemently trying to get
to black and brown communitiesbut wasn't being heard because
it was still being seen as not ablack and brown problem.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Absolutely, and it's a problem that's affecting a lot
of communities.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
And that was her point and she was trying to make
that point seven freaking yearsago.
But it's interesting that whather point and she was trying to
make that point seven freakingyears ago.
But it's interesting what ittook.
You know what I mean, yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
Well you are so fascinating.
Yes, that's a lovely person.
Yes, and we're going to bedoing something.
We're going to be doing alittle slap and warn and Adonis
combo.
We're trying to work onsomething.
Yes, but that's another one ofthose teasers.
Te.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but thank you, omar.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
We're just dangling these little carrots for you
because we like you.
That's right, that's right.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
Stay tuned here at SlapThePowercom.
You'll make sure to.
We'll have all links,everything for Omar as well.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
Thank you, Omar Cook, for coming through.
Slapthepower man.
Speaker 3 (35:57):
Yes, omar Cook underscore I appreciate it being
here.
Yeah, hey, I had to do it likethat.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
We talk about underscore up in here.
Thanks brother, AbsolutelyThank you.
Speaker 4 (36:06):
Hi, I'm Anjali Bhimani and I'm Julia Bianco and
we are so excited to bebringing you our new creative
baby, the Character Selectpodcast.
I've wanted to save the worldsince I was four.
There has been no characterlike him up to that point, and
there really hasn't been acharacter since Every episode of
Character Select.
We we're gonna be takingfantastic video game
(36:26):
performances and talking aboutwhat makes them tick, what makes
them exciting as players, asperformers, as sound designers,
as casting directors.
That was, I feel like I've beenambushed.
I don't even have a podcast totalk about a video game.
So there's a big old love festhere.
That's how we start this andyou're just gonna have to deal
with it.
Recognized by the 2013 editionof the Guinness World Book of
(36:46):
Records, gamers Edition, as themost prolific female video game
voice actor in the world, youknow it's a special project when
you hold on to the people youcreated it with.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
Careers are born by being in the right place at the
right time where you can'tcontrol the right time, but you
can control the right place.
Okay, before we go, a littlehousekeeping, real quick.
Slap Studios LA is proud toannounce not only have we moved
(37:16):
to new studios in Beverly Hillscheck out the new photos at
slapstudioslacom but we alsohave our first co-production
with our new partners and we'reover the moon to announce
Gambling Mad with Norm Chad.
Norm and Chad he's kind of thereason I used to love listening
to poker.
He's hysterical.
He's a legend.
They're going to probably put astar on the Walk of Fame for
(37:38):
the man, so we're really proudto have him here.
So make sure to check outGambling Madwoman, norm Chad,
anywhere you get your podcastsand what else.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
Also check out.
That's it, that's All.
Their new season is underwayand it's looking like it's going
to be really, really fun andreally in depth, so I've been
really loving the new episodesand the teasers that I've seen
thus far.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
Yes, and we were just talking to Casey the other day
about all the plans coming up,so make sure to check that out.
That's it, that's all.
And also we have a new showcalled Character Select.
It's about the video game space, where these amazing voiceover
actors recreate their sort oficonic roles and talk about the
sort of stresses anddifficulties in navigating a
(38:23):
comment-filled world whereeverybody can be as rude as
possible.
So make sure to check that outfor some therapy.
And Omar Cook I mean, how aboutthat guy?
Speaker 3 (38:33):
Oh, he's delightful.
He's just such a light.
It's such a privilege to beable to sit down with him.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
Yeah, I mean, just what a special talent.
Look forward to having him backagain.
And before we get out of here,maya, we're going to, by popular
demand, we're bringing back TwoTruths and a Slap.
I should say, bring it back.
It just started.
We're running again Two Truthsand a Slap, and this week it's
on me and there are threeheadlines.
(39:02):
Now I know you're pretty astute, you stay on top of the
headlines, okay, but I want youof the three.
It's my understanding you arenot aware of any of these.
So what I'm going to do is I'mgoing to tell you three
headlines lately and you tell mewhich one is there's.
Two of them are true and one ofthem is a slap.
So you tell me which one is allright, you ready.
Okay, all right, cool I'mterrible at this.
(39:23):
You're not terrible at it, allright.
So the first one is Chiquita.
The banana company was foundliable for financing a
paramilitary group.
So basically they are the, youknow the.
Speaker 3 (39:37):
But that's how they actually started.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
So that tracks.
Okay, that's interesting.
Okay, number two fox is pushinga debunk.
Claim that biden will sitduring the debate.
Okay, which is.
Which is which is great.
And number three justice alitoagrees in a secret recording
that the us should return to aquote place of godliness.
Of all three of those, what doyou think a, b or C would be a
(40:01):
slap in the face?
Speaker 3 (40:02):
I feel like C is definitely true.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (40:05):
Because that was the one where he agreed to godliness
.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
Now he's a Supreme Court justice and there's
separation of church and state.
Speaker 3 (40:12):
No but he's kind of giving me non-separation vibes
lately.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (40:18):
So I'm going to go with that, is true, uh-huh.
So I'm going to go with that istrue.
The other two, that's hardbecause, okay, the Chiquita
Banana Company basically startedas a banana revolution by this
one dude who became known as theBanana man.
I don't know that.
A lot of people know that, butbasically he started a puppet
government in Honduras to getbananas.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
The Banana man?
Uh-huh Yo, I learned that onDrunk History, so you should
definitely be watching DrunkHistory reruns if you're not and
then, okay, fox is making a.
Speaker 3 (40:47):
I feel like the Fox one would be true too, because
it just sounds Foxian yeah.
It sounds okay, so I'm going togo with.
Those are the two true ones,the Fox one and the Justice guy.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
It's a trick question .
They're all true, becausethey're all ridiculously slapped
from the faces.
Maya, it was a trick question,yeah when you need a
paramilitary group.
Speaker 3 (41:06):
I thought that the, but that again, if y'all this is
where history will help youokay, the man who started the
Chiquita Banana Factory did itby first making a banana right
Republic hence the name inHonduras.
So he basically co-opted theHonduran military to basically
(41:32):
co-opt them to give him control,and then he promised them
kickbacks, and that's how theChiquita Banana Company
initially started.
Speaker 2 (41:41):
I mean the Biden thing, too, about sitting during
debate.
First of all, I've heard whocares.
I mean the Biden thing, too,about sitting during debate.
First of all, I've heard whocares.
I mean exactly, I don't care ifhe's upside down, it's like,
just do it he could be on one ofthem, little scooter things to
get old people around.
Speaker 3 (41:54):
He could be on a kick and go.
I don't care.
Like, whatever Like.
Why is this?
And the fact that you weredistracting the country with
who's standing, who's gonna sitdown instead?
Speaker 2 (42:08):
It's not a good faith argument.
Speaker 3 (42:10):
It's just stupid.
It's not even a good faithargument.
Now we're in levels ofstupidity I'm telling you.
We're just like one year awayfrom watering the crops with
Gatorade and it's so frightening.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
Well, you heard it there, but reach out to us, let
us know what your mostconcerning slap is from this
past week, and you know.
Thanks again, maya.
It was a fun one.
Thank you for coming on down.
Thank you, guys for listening.
We appreciate it and we'll seeyou next time.
Bye.
Speaker 3 (42:39):
Slap the Power is written and produced by Rick
Bariodil and Maya Sykes.
Associate Producer, brie CoreyAudio and Visual Engineering and
Studio Facilities provided bySlap Studios LA, with
distribution through ourcollective home for social
progress in art, slap theNetwork.
If you have any ideas for ashow you want to hear or see, or
(43:01):
if you would like to be a guestartist on our show, please
email us at info atslapthepowercom.
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