March 19, 2025 • 60 mins
Dom L'Amour speaks with Larry Rodriguez aka @larryrodgram about Expectations around the holidays, GNX, The State of Cinema and so much more!
"Why are these girls twerking? Why do I see movies everywhere? Why is it constantly showing me stuff I show no interest in?" These aren't just random questions—they're part of a deeper reflection on how we consume digital content versus how carefully we once selected what went into our bodies.
In this thought-provoking episode, Dom L’Amour and filmmaker Larry Rodriguez dive into the parallels between mindful eating and mindful scrolling, revealing how our digital diet might need the same scrutiny we once gave food labels. "I have to find a way to eliminate that helplessness that social media creates," Dom shares, sparking a conversation that will make you reconsider your own consumption habits.
The conversation flows naturally through holiday expectations, exploring how traditions evolve as we age and form our own families. From the stress of meaningful gift-giving to the corporate-driven pressure of Christmas and New Year's, they dissect why these celebrations often leave us feeling drained rather than fulfilled. Larry offers a refreshing perspective: "Thanksgiving, I've found out the older I've gotten, is the better holiday, just because there's no pressure with it."
When the discussion turns to Kendrick Lamar's GNX album, both men light up with appreciation for authentic artistry. Their analysis of the Kendrick vs. Drake beef transcends simple rap rivalry, becoming a meditation on cultural authenticity versus commercial success. "When you listen to Kendrick, you learn about the lifestyle of a person living in LA," Dom notes, highlighting how true art connects to lived experience.
The episode concludes with a candid assessment of cinema's current state, where studio politics and financial motivations often override creative integrity. Yet despite these challenges, both remain hopeful about storytelling's power when creators focus on substance over spectacle.
Ready to reevaluate your digital diet? Subscribe now and join this essential conversation about mindful consumption in all areas of life.
Opening quote: Terrell Owens
Opening and Closing Theme song: Produced by Dom L'Amour
Transition Music from Mad Chops Vol. 1 and Mad Chops Vol. 2 by Mad Keys
and
from Piano Soul Vol.1(Loop Pack) by The Modern Producers Team
Featured song: "Sweet Dreams" Lyrics by Dom L'Amour, Music by Mike Harvey
Cover art by Studio Mania: Custom Art @studiomania99
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I was a vegan back in LA and I always bring this up
in the sense of I was verycareful about what I put in my
body when I was a vegan, and Imiss that lifestyle choice
because when I would go to thegrocery store, I'm looking at
every package what's in this?
What are the ingredients?
Do I need this?
Is this something I should beputting in my body?
And when it comes to socialmedia, I feel like I have to
(00:23):
find ways to create that sameevaluation, that same type of
approach.
Why am I doing this?
Does this need to go inside ofme?
Do I need to consume this?
Why are these girls twerking?
Why do I see movies everywhere?
Why is it constantly showing methis stuff that I show no
interest in?
Do I show interest in it and Idon't even realize it?
(00:44):
How it?
I have to find a way toeliminate that helplessness that
social media creates.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Perfectly put.
Oh my gosh, yeah, it's justempty calories, basically.
Right, it's the same you knowjust like like a Twinkie of like
man.
This tastes awesome, but andmaybe I'm full for like five
minutes or so, but now I feelreally bad and now I don't want
to do things.
Mind me I might have a headacheor whatever.
It's just like, yeah, totally.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Ladies and gentlemen, and anyone else who is here, my
name is Tom Lamour and you arelistening to the Black man
Talking Emotions podcast.
On today's episode, I speakwith my guy, larry Rodriguez,
about expectations around theholidays, gnx, the state of
cinema and so much more.
If you align expectations withreality, you will never be
(01:59):
disappointed.
Now, where are you based out ofnow?
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Currently in Portland , Oregon.
Yes, Currently raining outside,which is why I moved here.
Really, I needed to switch upwith weather and that was it.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Well, it's snowing here in Georgia, believe it or
not?
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Hey, that's crazy.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
I just was outside shoveling snow off of the porch
and off of the walkways and itcame to my mind while I was
doing it walkways and it came tomy mind while I was doing it.
I haven't shoveled snow inalmost a decade, dude, almost a
decade.
I lived in Chicago in 2013 andmoved back home to St Louis, and
(02:38):
then I lived in LA from 2015 to2020 and moved to Georgia, and
it doesn't snow here either, soI haven't had to go out with a
shovel.
I don't have a shovel.
I used an.
I don't have a snow shovel.
I have, like a small diggingshovel that I just went out with
.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
that's all I got did you like have flashbacks, like
were you reverted back to thesame age you were when you last
shoveled?
You know, like you're back toit and you're just going like,
oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
I wish it was that cool, but no, no.
I'm not a good, happy worker,if that makes sense.
As a bartender.
It always worked for me becauseI was able to kind of just say
whatever I wanted to people Ifsomeone came into my bar and
(03:29):
they were talking crazy as abartender, I can look at them
and be like you can fuckingleave if you want.
You know like it was easier todo that as a server.
I couldn't do that, so when Iwas a server it was very hard
for me, because as a server youwant them to feel like it's
pleasant and you want to be verynice and excited and I'm very
uptempo.
But as a bartender I'm morelike listen, dude, I'm here
rocking and if you ain't aboutit, you can make moves.
(03:50):
And so now that I don't docustomer service which God bless
our hearts doing the weddings,that isn't difficult, because
I'm singing, I'm having a goodtime.
Of course, I'm smiling andexcited when I go outside.
And I got a shovel, I got to cutgrass, if I have to clean up
the house, if I have to washdishes like when I'm working,
(04:13):
working, doing something that'slabor I have a stone face, I
have my music going and I'mknocking it out as quick as
possible.
So no flashbacks, no snowangels.
I mean the one thing I didbefore I went out I made a
snowball and threw it at ourazalea bush and I was like, wow,
(04:35):
it's snow, it's real snow.
I couldn't believe it was realsnow.
And then it got back to.
Okay, I'm an adult, no one elseis going to do this for you.
Dom, my uncle, my uncle John,on Adrian's side, he always say
welcome to home ownership.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
He always says that whenever something happens in
the house.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Man, yeah, our lights went out and I don't know how
to fix it because the fuse is ona different fuse and he's like
welcome to home ownership.
No answer, Just that.
And I'm like, well, thank you.
So it's like who's going toshovel my snow?
I, you know, I can get a littlekid off the street to maybe do
it, but my mom ain't going to doit, my pops ain't going to do
it, my uncles ain't going to doit, my cousin it's me.
(05:14):
I got to do this shit, so let'sget to it.
And I feel you.
That's something that I fullyembrace, I really love.
I have my own space.
We have about an acre of land,so everything is up for the
taking.
Like, what do you want to do?
This is your space, and thenalso, no one else is going to do
it, so fucking do it.
That's right, that's right, andI enjoy that very much.
(05:37):
I really enjoy that Like a reallife.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Sims, you know.
I'm responsible for what I putin here.
You know Exactly.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
And then when people come over, damn.
That's a nice fire pit.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
I built that.
That's real shit.
But I wanted to, for sure, justjump into the stuff with you
because you had some reallygreat ideas for the pie,
starting with expectations,because I have a friend, my boy
Chris, that we did the firstepisode with.
He had the same kind of thoughtof wanting to start traditions
on your own, branching out fromyour family traditions to
(06:11):
creating your own familytraditions, and how.
We're at that age now.
He just had a baby and so he'smaking his own traditions now,
but his father passed away sohe's like I'm missing that and
so he comes with my family andmy family is very tight.
We have certain traditions thatwe always do, but those
traditions are changing.
Now I'm married, my wife, mysister is married, so we have
(06:36):
people in the family who aren'tfrom the old family and we
aren't doing the same things weused to do.
So now it's kind of like okay,it's a time to move on to my own
traditions and create my ownexpectations and do the things
that I want to do, and have noregrets for how I'm handling it
because, hey, I'm an adult now.
I got to do this my way.
So for you, when it comes tothe holidays and the
(06:58):
expectations, I feel like I getoverwhelmed.
I don't like grocery shopping.
Well, all right, I take thatback.
I love grocery shopping.
I'm an old woman who goes inwith my coupons now and have my
used bags.
I love that, but I don't likeshopping.
Shopping like meaningfulshopping for gifts.
I've always taken it tooseriously something that they
(07:27):
will love and use.
That's purposeful, that's notgoing to be just something that
they're like oh my God, Dominicgot me this.
I'll put it up on the wall sothat when he comes over he'll
see it, and that's that.
No, I want to be able to sayhere's something that I know
that you need and that stressesme the fuck out, and I think I
take that as an expectation.
On top of you know like peopleare going to expect me to buy
them stuff.
People don't expect me to bethere, be present, and it's just
(07:50):
overwhelming how much isexpected for in my opinion.
How about you?
What do you feel?
Expectations over the holidays,starting from Thanksgiving all
the way through to Valentine'sDay.
Really, how does that happen?
Speaker 3 (08:05):
Yeah, well, you know, thanksgiving, I've found out
the older I've gotten, is thebetter holiday, just because
there's no pressure with it,there's no presence involved,
yeah, just eating, which isfantastic, and if you screw up a
meal or whatever, hey, there'sother options there, so there's
kind of no sweat with that.
I mean, you know, some peopledepend on family, you know,
would rather maybe not do that.
Yeahgiving, I think, is abreeze.
I think that's just like alovely time everyone's getting
excited, falls in the air,everything's beautiful by that
(08:28):
time.
Though, still, you're startingto christmas.
Present ideas are creeping up,and I'm the same way, like I
need it to be the perfectpresent.
This, it just has to hit theright spot.
You know, I've also found I waskind of worth it if you get the
right gift and they open it and, like you just put yourself
under this incredible stress forlike a couple weeks only for
this.
You know, a couple seconds whenthey unwrap that net shock and
(08:49):
like, all right, I guess it wasworth it, yeah, yeah, then also
too, just, christmas is just itsown thing of.
Everybody has their owntradition, but that's the thing
too, is it clashes then becauseyou have some people who go.
Well, you don't open presentson christmas eve, no, we do it
on christmas.
You know it can be as small oras big as that of well, we don't
eat this on Christmas day, weeat that on Thanksgiving.
Everybody has kind of their ownthing, so it's like, yeah, kind
(09:09):
of set up for more pressure,including, you know, damn travel
.
You know I don't have to tellanybody that, but it's just like
the idea that we as a societyagree that on this day this is
going to be the day where yougot to be happy, you got to have
that Christmas spirit, you know, you got to have that childlike
twinkle in your eye.
Sometimes it doesn't happen.
Sometimes Christmas takes placeon a Tuesday and you have the
(09:29):
cold and you know it's just aday.
Yeah, my tradition now has kindof changed for the better, I
think of, like I I'm from Vegasoriginally, so I go home to
visit in early December and I'mthere for like two weeks and we
just Christmas size it up.
You know we do all these eventsand all the things like it's
that day.
Yeah, then when that day comes,kind of lay low, kind of just
(09:49):
chill.
The streets are empty.
You know, it's a beautifulthing as you get older.
Just it means somethingdifferent to you, you know as a
kid.
Obviously you know it's allabout the presents and stuff
like that and all the the youknow eating good times.
But then, as you get older,then it's like you get more joy
giving kids presents and seeingtheir reaction being like maybe
there's more for them.
And then, yeah, new year's, twokind of leaks in that, like
(10:11):
what are you going to do on thatday?
Because that's a you know, whatparty are you going to go to
and who are you going to be inthis new year, you know, and you
start thinking of that.
So, like, sum it all up, fromthanksgiving to new year's,
that's just like this crazy,weird pressure we all have, I
think.
And then you know valentine's istruly.
You know everybody's got theirown thing going on with that, be
it relationships or not, or ifyou believe in it, or, but you
(10:32):
know that's why that one's greattoo.
Valentine's is just like itsown island of like, if you want
to celebrate it, celebrate it.
And those who do that's awesome, go to the max, buy flowers, do
the thing.
Those who want to just stay inthe shadows and just chill, you
can do that too, because it'sjust February 14th, it's just a
day.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Yeah, I agree, I agree with all of that.
Me personally, like I said, I'mvery fortunate to find the
person that I'm with with mywife, because we met on February
6th.
So Valentine's Day isn't reallylike that big a deal because
our anniversary really is theweek before.
So we got married in Novemberand that's our wedding
(11:07):
anniversary, of course.
But the day that I met Adriennelike I knew we were in a
relationship, like the day I mether that day is so special that
Valentine's Day I mean, we dostuff, of course, sometimes, but
sometimes I'm usually doing agig on Valentine's Day and
that's totally fine because gomake the money, that's what you
do.
You perform, you sing lovesongs.
(11:29):
So, I don't have to worry aboutthat Christmas.
Technically, I don't have toworry about it.
I always hear that I'm a reallygood gift giver and this and
that, but also I've stressedmyself out about it With
Adrienne.
She's just like my family mymother and my grandmother and my
aunts and people like thatwhere my godmother too where
they'll tell me we're not doinganything this year, we're not
(11:50):
going to do too much, and then Igo in and they do way too much.
And I'm like, dude, you told meyou weren't going to do anything
.
I did not do as much as you didbecause you told me we weren't
doing anything.
And with Adrian it's the samething.
We said we weren't going to domuch and she was like, yeah,
we're not going to do much, butI got you three gifts and I was
like, dude, you said we weren'tgoing to do much.
It always kind of frustrates me,but even then, the expectation
(12:14):
isn't too high.
The only expectation really ismy family's and specifically my
mother.
My mother is very particularabout events.
She's been constantly warningus about the idea that we're
getting older and she's going tolose these moments.
So she wants to have them asmuch as she possibly can,
because when it stops it's goingto be really, really
devastating to her, and Iunderstand that.
(12:35):
But that adds that extra weightof energy that I'm like well, I
got to do this for my mom, or Igot to do this for my pops, I
got to do this for my grandma, Igot to do this, I got to do it.
It's like I don't.
It's not that I doubt I don'twant to, but it's not a choice.
If I want to, I got to do it.
Yeah, and, and that's justfrustrating I feel like
(12:59):
Thanksgiving is the only holidayI don't give any fucks about in
the sense of expectations.
Thanksgiving, we cooking Great,I'm a cook, and that's that.
That's it, that's it.
I'm a cook, that's it.
I don't even like football, soI don't care if the football
game is on.
You know what I'm saying.
So I'm like I'm good onsleeping and waking up in the
new year.
That is totally fine.
(13:30):
If I'm gigging, that changeseverything.
Okay, I'm getting money and I'mgetting paid double because
it's a holiday.
I'm gay, we're going to have agood time tonight, but it's not
a holiday.
That especially now.
The older I've gotten, the moreI've avoided making goals,
avoided making resolutions.
I avoid that kind of stuffbecause the ultimate goal for me
, I feel like, is to carry theperson that you are the year
(13:54):
before into the new year andcontinue to grow as a person.
So looking at that one day aslike a restart just doesn't make
sense in my brain.
And even with my calendars,like I got my planner, my
planner doesn't just start atthe top of the year and end at
the year, it goes through theyear.
You know what I'm saying Untilanother day, like that's the
goal, like we're just it'sanother day, it's not a new,
(14:15):
it's not a special day, it'sanother day, keep on pushing, so
those expectations really comefrom others.
But even then, I've been verygood about talking myself down,
I guess, and creating my ownexpectations around the
expectations other people arecreating for me.
That helps me accept or say noto certain things.
(14:38):
Do you think there's anythingthat you are doing mentally or
working on within yourself tohelp you with anything that you
feel is pressuring youthroughout the holiday, or do
you just kind of take it on thechin and keep it pushing?
Speaker 3 (14:51):
I usually just push through.
But to ease it up, like I said,is just I remind myself it's
just a day you know that wecreated like a new year.
You know January 1st.
We all just agreed.
This is like this weird resetor whatever.
So I just try not to get toolost in it, and being off
socials has helped a lot too.
I've kind of given that up, notseeing all the stuff you know,
with all the pressure, becauseagain, to me sometimes holidays
(15:12):
are like I call it, like theDisneyland effect, where it's
like when you go to Disneylandyou have to be happy, you've got
to be like well, you know, it'slike that weird pressure of
you're in the happiest place onearth.
What's wrong with you?
It's like nothing's wrong withyou.
Sometimes things happen.
It is what you make it.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
That is one of the things that anyone in this
country, all, can relate when itcomes to the holiday
expectations, because it isn'tjust family, it isn't just
friends, it's corporations, it'snow we're talking.
Yeah, yeah, it's like everyoneis truly trying to get their
piece of the pie.
Yeah, oh, yeah, yeah, includinglike nonprofits, places asking
(15:48):
for donations and stuff.
It's the holiday season, it'sthe season of giving kind of
thing, churches, anything thatyou're connected to.
In America, since it's awealthy country, a lot of the
pressure to spend grows duringthat period and it's really
difficult to navigate, andtaking social media out of it
helps so much.
(16:09):
I've been trying my best towork with it and keep it
somewhat there, because you needit in a sense of marketing when
you're a performer and tryingto get your stuff out there.
But the headspace that I'm inwith me keeping it at a minimum
of 30 minutes a day.
You know, if I go on socialmedia it's 30 minutes a day.
(16:30):
I never go over that timeperiod.
I have links on my phone thatmakes it so I can't go on and do
this.
That is very helpful for myday-to-day activities, my
productive attitude.
When I'm trying to create, Idon't have to think about
anything but the creation andthat is everything With social
(16:50):
media.
Do you feel like it createstension in your life?
That isn't there, becausethat's how I feel.
I feel like I go on socialmedia and I'm like what's my
opinion about this subject?
And it's like why?
Speaker 3 (17:05):
does that even?
Speaker 1 (17:05):
fucking matter.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
It doesn't yeah, let me just do.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
I'm good, I'm just all right.
Keep it pushing, I don't.
I don't need to care aboutwhat's going on, Right, or I
don't need to add my information.
Everyone literally someone hassaid exactly what I'm thinking
already in this thread.
Why do I have to say it tooExactly?
Speaker 3 (17:23):
And anybody can write on it too.
You know you do have people youfollow and friends and stuff,
but also it's pretty open, or atleast like Twitter or something
I think it was at.
Chappelle said that thatTwitter isn't a real place, it's
a like a bathroom wall thatanybody can write on Exactly,
which is even more curious thatyou know we are so enticed by.
Well, what does everybody say?
What is this random wall of?
You know people think that'sgood that you have a little
(17:45):
timer, like a 30 minute orwhatever, because like it's fine
to be on it to dip a toe orwhatever.
But yeah, I do get distractedpretty easy, in the sense of
like I might not be eventhinking of a thing, you know,
yeah, and to just see oneheadline or one thing to make me
either worry or, you know,panic or whatever the thing you
know, I don't know.
It's just best to limit it, Iguess.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Well, the thing that that makes it very scary to me
and the reason why I feel theneed to make an effort to
eliminate it.
I'll be sitting down on myphone and open up Instagram,
just to open it up, to see why Igot a notification, and then
I'll close Instagram.
Forget that I was just onInstagram.
Click back on Instagram, Likewhy am I back here?
(18:24):
I just.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
I just received it, yeah, or I need to check it and
you're like you already did, ohyeah.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
I just checked this, so it's has this power over me
that I don't have any control of.
That's where it's scary, that'swhere I'm like wait a minute, I
need to be way more purposefulwith this I.
I was a vegan back in LA and Ialways bring this up, in the
sense of I was very carefulabout what I put in my body when
(18:52):
I was a vegan and I miss thatlifestyle choice because when I
would go to the grocery store,I'm looking at every package
what's in this?
What are the ingredients?
Do I need this?
Is this something I should beputting in my body?
And when it comes to socialmedia, I feel like I have to
find ways to create that sameevaluation, that same type of
approach.
Why am I doing this?
Does this need to go inside ofme?
(19:14):
Do I need to consume this?
Why are these girls twerking?
Why do I see movies everywhere?
Why is it constantly showing methis stuff that I show no
interest in?
Do I show interest in it and Idon't even realize it?
How it?
I have to find a way toeliminate that helplessness that
social media creates.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
Perfectly put.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah, it's just empty calories,basically, right.
It's the same, you know justlike like a Twinkie of like man.
This tastes awesome, but maybeI'm full for like five minutes
or so, but now I feel really badand now I don't want to do
things.
Mind me I might have a headacheor whatever.
It's just like, yeah, totally.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Larry and I met back in Los Angeles and made a music
video together for my tune SweetDreams.
I've kept in touch with Larrybecause he and I have always
bonded.
It was easy conversation todayideas.
We always were on the samewavelength, and that's what I'm
hoping to do more in my life nowSurround myself with
(20:20):
like-minded people.
It's a struggle for me becauseI have so many people in my life
that I love, but I feel thedistance between us more and
more.
We're growing apart, and it'snot a bad thing.
It's just something that I haveto understand.
Not overwhelming myself is key,and having people like Larry
(20:43):
around just makes things easiersomething that I've already
spoken about on the pod, but I'mwilling to talk about this
every day for the rest of mylife.
This Kendrick Lamar GNX albumyes, and then GNX specifically
(21:08):
is something that I feel like.
You have to have lived inCalifornia that truly get why
it's significant.
You know like I understand.
The beef is a different thingI'm talking about that specific
album.
the album that it reminds me ofand I'm wondering if this is
true with you is Nipsey Hussle'sVictory Lap.
(21:30):
Oh for sure?
Speaker 3 (21:31):
Well, ironically, this album is a victory lap you
know, is it not?
Exactly, that's why?
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Yeah, yeah for sure.
It reminds me of that albumbecause it's so LA, it's so
California and the stuff thathe's referencing throughout the
whole project.
If you don't live on the WestCoast or know people from out
there, you don't get it, youdon't understand it.
So I see a lot of people whoare saying this is one of his
(21:58):
weaker projects and I'm likethis is one of the stronger
projects for me, I like everyelement that he did.
I love the Luther tune when hebrings a love part to it.
My favorite, I think I'm justgoing to say it's my favorite
now, because there's so many.
Hey, now Say Now is amazing.
Dodger Blue is amazing, allthese great songs, but my
(22:20):
favorite is the hard part.
Six, ooh, yeah.
I just feel like he has foundthe way to advance himself at
every level when it comes to hiscraft and to get to a place
where he's on this album that Ibet you.
This album wasn't planned untilthe beef started.
Then he was like you know what?
I'm going to make an album nowjust because, but to put
(22:42):
something together like this andthen to put that track on it
where he's revealing his mentallike.
I was working so hard becauseeventually I felt like the goal
was to be independent, to be abusinessman, and I didn't
realize how many people andobstacles I was knocking down
and not communicating withproperly to achieve that goal.
(23:05):
And now I'm at this place nowwhere I have clarity and I
understand everything around me.
It isn't just me.
Yes, I deserve all of theseaccolades because I worked hard
for them, but also I'm a human,they're humans and I need to
create those relationships andcommunication.
I need to continue that becausethese people are all I have.
(23:28):
Yeah, yeah, these are thepeople who inspired me.
They're everything to me.
And to put that on that project, it makes it seem like that
project was.
It was planned from the start.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
Start, it was too well orchestrated to just be
thrown together, you know yeah,especially when, like, he wasn't
even the guy at the time, youknow, back with td, but it was a
what j-rock was supposed to bethe one.
So it's like for him to just betaking notes, kind of in the
shadows and just like I and evenlike schoolboy and stuff.
He's like I don't even know ifI was supposed to be the guy,
but it's's like then thathappened obviously to the pop
(23:59):
out.
That's what made it sobeautiful too, you know, when
all of them are there.
Hard Part Six.
And also, too, I'm happy hetook that title back because
Drake's Hard Part Six wasgarbage.
But it was just nice.
He was like, hey, this is alsocalled that, but the real
version.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
So you know, when you listen to the album, what?
What does it give you?
Does it give you memories, doesit give you inspiration, like I
, and I say that in the sensethat hip-hop is still here, it's
not dead.
Uh, what, what do you get whenyou, when you listen to gnx?
Speaker 3 (24:27):
well, you know what kendrick just has always been
embodiment of rap, is stillaround like true hip-hop exists.
Because, as a person who grewup with that that game and
studied the game and loved it somuch, so what it gives me is a
lot of confidence because it'sjust like, like I said, it's his
victory lap, you know.
I don't know where this album'sstart was, you know of, hey,
let's do a full album.
(24:48):
I'd like to think it was maybebefore Not Like Us, or when he
was kind of getting that goingsaying if we can put all this
stuff together quickly, what canwe do with a little planning?
Put all this stuff togetherquickly, what could we do with a
little planning?
You know so, between not likeus's release, obviously the pop
out being the massive thing inbetween that space, it was just
like him figuring out.
That's why I like the album somuch.
It was just all the albums.
(25:10):
Everything has led to this, Ithink, because even mr morale
was the first time after likehis therapy, I assume right, I
think he said that, but it'slike I did right.
I think he said that, but it'slike I did therapy.
This is how I feel and that'swhy it's a double album too.
There's just so much to expressand now, with this album, he
doesn't have to do that.
He's done that.
That's out of the system.
Now this is more like this iswhat I do, this is who I am.
(25:32):
I believe this, I eat this,this.
You know I won't bring up thebeef or whatever, but even
without him saying to to drake.
You know like, only you likebeing famous.
Like I don't even care aboutfame, I care about the message I
care about.
I'm such a a bigger, importantpiece that even when I'm gone I
might even resonate more youknow money, power, respect.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
And the last one's better.
There's a lot of goofies with acheck like him saying that you
understand what he's saying yeah, you got money, you got power,
but I got respect.
People respect me, people hearme.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
Yes, no, yes, oh, he's for real yes, there are
murals of me being painted andyeah, it's just like well, even
that too.
It's like drake couldn't do incanada what kendrick did in la,
because drake didn't have enoughpeople to come out.
He doesn't have supporters.
That, to me, is very tellingtoo, of like, how many people
show up to your birthday partyor something?
Not that that's a big deal, butI mean, like you know, it's
(26:22):
like everybody could show up.
It's basically that drake makes, you know, fast food music.
It's very digestible, anybodycan have it he doesn't represent
canada.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
No, yeah, he doesn't rap like he's from canada.
Sure, he will claim memphis tomake him sound more hood.
Before he know he'll say thesix and then he'll be like, well
you know, my daddy from Memphis.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
He'll claim a lot of places.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
His label is based out of new Orleans, like he
doesn't have a home.
Yes, and Toronto is the six heis at the Raptors games.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
He's doing that, but I mean what do you learn about
Toronto when?
Speaker 1 (27:01):
you hear his music.
When you listen to Kendrick,you learn about the lifestyle of
a person living in LA For sure.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
In that lifestyle.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
you understand that he isn't joking when he says
this stuff.
There's moments on one songwhere he was like if I told you
that I killed somebody, wouldyou believe me?
Right, and you have to sit downand think, wait a minute.
Wait a minute.
He could be literally doingthis to troll us because maybe
he Damn I can't believe it IfDrake said that same line.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
you'd be like dude you used to be a little bit
grassy.
Come on, yeah, you'd laugh, you.
Come on we don't believe you.
I like Drake with the melodies.
I don't like Drake when he actsup.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
No, yeah, exactly On top of the fact the quotables
are ridiculous.
That's why I continue to goback to thinking that he did
everything purposefully.
He knew exactly what he wasdoing, from the beginning to the
end.
Like that, he knew this all wasgoing to happen.
All the way to gmx, I think itwas all planned, the thing that
(28:03):
hit the most, the thing thatshowed me that kendrick won on
meet the grams.
I don't care about him havinganother kid, I don't care about
any of that stuff whatever Idon't care about him not really
being black.
I don't care about that he's.
He's a black dude, all of us.
You know if you got black andyou're black.
But when he said you lied aboutyour religion, you lied about
this.
You never gave us anything tobelieve in like when he was
(28:27):
hitting those.
No, like those points.
Yeah, you lied about this, youlied about that.
What?
Why should we care about you?
A percent, that was when helost the battle.
A hundred percent Not like uswas the beginning of the victory
lap.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, because hewas actually using words to
(28:49):
explain the things we all werefeeling about.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
Yes, exactly.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Clearly wrote it out like this is what we feel about
you.
That's why you aren't the bestrapper.
The idea you can have a ghostrapper and then come on be like,
oh, everybody has ghost rappers, no, they don't.
No, especially in hip-hop.
Yep, this isn't something thatyou could just write off and
still say you're the best,you're not.
No, no, no.
You know the album.
He continued to express Ideserve this because I put the
(29:17):
work in, because I'm a writer.
Pull it to winter.
Yeah, this ain't something,this ain't something that I just
kind of do.
I live this culture, yes, yes.
And rap culture is somethingthat is very difficult for me to
process.
People who aren't from America.
I get that it's everywhere.
(29:38):
I get that it's influenced.
I get that it's influenced.
But I just watched hisinterview that Vince Staples did
and he said it the best.
He was talking to some lady andshe was interviewing him and
she asked him so when did youfall in love with hip hop?
And he was like I don'tunderstand what your question is
.
And she was like what you don'tlove?
Hip hop?
He's like I'm black.
I wasn't introduced to hip hop.
(30:04):
Hip hop is a part of my culture.
I don't even remember I grew upand hip hop was already a part
of my life.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
Sure yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
And when I heard that , I'm like that is exactly how I
feel when it comes to hip hop,no-transcript, kind of do it
(30:47):
sometimes, but this is Black day, this is a part of your life.
I don't think that Drake couldever embody that, right, oh no.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
Yeah.
Well, that's why, even goingback to that lyric you just
brought up, I preface it with Iused to be a Drake fan.
You know the first two, threealbums, maybe four views, was
awesome.
I went to concerts and stuff.
But then, even with that line,then we never gave us anything
to believe and even it had mereflecting.
The whole beef had mereflecting.
Yeah, oh yeah.
Why do we look up to thisperson and obviously he's fallen
(31:16):
off the last couple albums, Ithink just because there's
nothing relatable.
No, it's more just money andweird random shouting out people
in his crew, we don't know,like and tell chubbs to get the
40 with the 40.
I'm like who and what and why.
You know it's like it's, it's.
It's either not personal or toopersonal, I don't know, but
it's just there's nothing therethere.
Um, so it's just amazing tohave a reminder of a person who
(31:38):
cause everybody.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
That's the whole hip hop thing, too, is I'm the best.
Speaker 3 (31:42):
No, I'm the best, no, I'm the greatest, I'm the great
.
We can't.
There's just no debatinganymore.
That's why again with thisalbum is so important of you
know, every track has that sameenergy that we all felt when he
was releasing.
You know the week by weeks whenthe beef was happening, which
is like the amount of content.
There's so much to chew on,even from the first damn track.
I knew that too when with uh,I'm like okay, I started that I
(32:05):
ended up I go.
well, I have to listen to thisagain, cause.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
I didn't get most.
You know I'm like there's toomuch.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
You know you go back and go back and go back and like
wait, there's more to listen toHolyle, you know.
So it's like it's an onslaughtof person who's been working
their whole life, really puttingin the work, and doesn't expect
any rewards back.
You know, he lost to DanMcElmore that Grammy.
That's disgusting.
Those little things I'm surebug him, but it's just like
(32:30):
enough time has passed and he'swaited in the shadows.
He's held onto this grudgeagainst Drake for so long that
he just said all right, enough'senough.
Like somebody just needs tocome out and say it, and not
just in a verse and not like acute diss track or two.
So I think you're right.
I think he has been buildingtowards this, because it's just
like now he has the biggestspotlight on him of his career
ever.
What do you do with that?
Oh, I, I don't know what I'mgonna do.
(32:51):
I'm gonna make it very la based.
I'm gonna have some unknownartists on it to give them a
shot, you know the moment thateverything that's happening now
started, the moment he heardfirst person shooter oh yeah oh,
yeah, yeah that big is thesuper bowl.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
He was like, okay, I'm gonna give you a super bowl.
This is so hard and be sorelevant that I'm gonna do the
next super bowl, like that'swhat I think really.
So he he was like no, I'm goingto do the Super Bowl Definitely
Because we all know Kendrick'sbig enough to do that.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Yes, he already did.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
He's already done it, it's like the idea that Drake
was acting like he was so belowhim and it's like Drake dude,
when was your last good album?
And you're opposite of mebecause I feel bad.
I used to be a huge Drake fan,but you know, when I was a Drake
fan was Heartbreak Drake and soFar Gone Drake.
(33:47):
Oh, yeah, yeah, of course,before his first album, yeah, so
Far Gone I thought he was goingto be the future of hip hop.
His first album came out and Iwas unimpressed.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
The first one was whatever came out, and I was
unimpressed.
The first one was whatever.
Take Care was my shit, though.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Everyone loves Take Care.
I did not enjoy Take Carewhatsoever.
I didn't care.
I didn't care about the stuffhe was talking about.
He wasn't rapping aboutanything that I related to.
I felt like I didn't enjoy anyof the stuff he was talking
about, the way he was carryinghimself, and then he just
continued to grow and I'm justlike I mean, there's tunes that
(34:20):
I mean, if passion fruit come on, I will, I will do this.
But I never clung to a fullproject of his being like damn,
this is it with kendrick,section 80, sure, oh yeah, right
off the bat.
Speaker 3 (34:34):
Yeah, good capacities the next album and to pimple
butterfly and then the pimplebutterfly was just everybody
going wait, you can't switchlike this, can you?
Like we were expecting to belike I'll, I'll do whatever I
want.
Here's some jazz for you.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
I'd say this to people all the time.
The first time I listened topimple butterfly, I remember
exactly what I said after thelast song, mortal man.
I remember turning it off andsitting back in my seat and
being like that might have beenthe best album I've ever heard
in my life.
Like I remember saying that soclearly, like that was unlike
anything anyone else is puttingout right now.
(35:09):
Sure, and I was a huge I'mstill a huge jay coals fan.
It broke my heart that he jumpedout of this.
And I think the reason why Ibroke my heart was more because
if he was just J Cole doing JCole things and rapping and not
mentioning that he'll battleanybody, cool.
But the fact that he comes outand he says things about you
(35:33):
know, I can smoke anybody onthis mic or I'm the best you
know, you know I'm on 10, notnine kind of thing Like he is on
this, another level of rappingand then an opportunity comes
out where, ok, test it.
And he's like, yeah, I'm notgoing to test it.
Yeah, I was heartbreaking tosee, because it's like you
didn't have to say all of thisstuff in the first place.
(35:55):
Yeah, you could have just beenthe rapper you are.
Kendrick could have come outand you could have put out a
statement saying hey, kendrick'smy brother.
I'm not going to say anythingabout Kendrick, but you let
these people gas you up and youcame out here and did something
that you shouldn't have done inthe first place.
Speaker 3 (36:10):
And you called it Mike Delete later.
So you didn't even haveconfidence in the existence of
that thing.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
It just broke my heart because I was like that's
something that people will useagainst him and he's such an
inspiring, incredible artist.
One of my favorite songs that JCole did is called Friends on
his KOD album, and he's talkingabout his people and like he's
having a conversation withsomeone that he loves so dearly
(36:36):
and he is trying to tell themlike you just need to meditate,
not medicate yourself with weedand drugs, like you don't need
that, like I'm here for you.
Like it was so incredible andhe did a lot of performances of
it when he did All Star, he wasso good, so all of these people
inspired me and drake never gotto that level.
(36:57):
That's the whole, this wholething, gotcha.
Gotcha broke my heart, but hestill puts out music and stuff
that I can hear and I'll be likethat is top tier mc work.
Drake has put out stuff whereI'm just like why, why?
And it sucks, because it's likeI don't want to be so negative
towards somebody.
(37:18):
But then you have people comeonline saying he's the best to
do it, he's greater than MichaelJackson, and it's like all
right.
I think this is why Kendrickcame out, because it's like no,
he isn't.
Speaker 3 (37:27):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (37:32):
Uh-huh, he sat on it for a very long time.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
And then the number one thing, and going back to the
GNX aspect of this, everythingKendrick said in any of his from
Euphoria, everything inEuphoria came true.
Yes, oh, exactly Everything,yep, yep.
The one thing that he broughtup is that you never give us
anything to believe in.
You know, I make music thatelectrify them, you make music
(37:56):
that pacify, and when you thinkabout that, one of my favorite
things that's come out since GNX, like with other artists,
seeing what Kendrick did andsaying I'm coming out to do my
best work, one of my favoritethings that came out was Tyler
(38:17):
the creators that guy freestylefreestyle yes.
Yes, yes, you can hear theenergy that that track inspired
him to have in his rap.
You can hear inspired him tohave right in his rap.
(38:38):
You can hear he was like thisis where I want to be too.
Yes, so I'm gonna get on thistrack and I'm gonna flex just
how talented I am.
Yes, instead of looking athip-hop as this, like let's make
it fun.
So he's like no, I'm here torap, to let you know I'm the one
of the best in the game toothat's right.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
Right, I'm also.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
LA and I love it.
You don't get that from any ofDrake.
No one's freestyling overfamily matters.
No one's freestyling overpushups.
No one's thinking of no one'squoting that shit anymore.
Exactly the only quotable onthose that I will always give to
Drake.
Kendrick just opened his mouth.
Someone go give him a great oneright now.
(39:14):
That is a quotable line, and youknow why.
It isn't just because he openedhis mouth is because he's one
of the best rappers, and yousaying that proves just how you
know you're so sick of him.
He's always getting rewards.
I'm so sick of him and it'slike you know why he's getting
him Because he's better than youPeriod getting him because he's
(39:37):
better than you, period.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
Um, it's so refreshing to hear that too,
because a lot of times I feltcrazy during all this, like the
fact that people are even youknow the fact.
Speaker 3 (39:41):
That's even a debate like we're not debating though
right, this is a joke like noone's ai.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
No one should have believed that he was going to
win that battle right, yeah,just just.
Speaker 3 (39:51):
And then it was just kind of great to see that
downfall happen in real time wasgoing from him using ai, you
know, to, which is the mostinsulting thing I think I've
ever heard.
Yeah, using even tupac was justno, just so not right.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
Still alive, stupid, still alive what's out here?
Speaker 3 (40:09):
but it is true like he's probably too stoned to even
realize that was.
He was like what?
When did I do that?
All right, I don't know.
So he's just too stoned to evenrealize that was.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
He was like what, when did I do that and how?
Everyone was talking aboutTyson, and not only that fight.
(40:36):
It might also be the RondaRousey fight, when she lost her
first battle in UFC.
You think about those twofights.
Deontay Wilder was America'schampion.
Everyone was saying he was justthis.
He was just that he hits sohard.
It doesn't matter who he goesagainst, he's going to win Ronda
.
She's the greatest of all time.
I, literally before that fight,had a debate with one of my
(40:59):
friends about Serena Williamsand her who's the greatest
female athlete of all time and Iliterally had to stop because I
was about to throw my computerbecause I was like how are we
having this discussion?
because I was like how are wehaving this discussion?
Serena has been dominant sinceI was in elementary school and
(41:23):
you're trying to say this girl,who's won eight fights in a row,
is a better athlete and she'sonly fought for maybe 10 minutes
all around because she wasbeating people in a minute.
Are you serious?
Is this real life?
It all felt like this Drake andKendrick thing and when Ronda
lost, I wasn't surprised whenDeontay lost.
I'm a boxing fan.
(41:45):
I watch boxing.
I know what these dudes do.
I'm not someone who just turnson the big fight.
When the big fight comes on, Iknew Tyson Fury was going to
come in there and be him and hebeat him the first time when
they draw.
There was a draw that time andI was like, okay, you know
what's going to happen.
Tyson Fury is going to go train, he's going to bulk up and he's
(42:06):
going to come back and give youno doubts that he's a better
boxer.
And he bulked up.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
You no doubts that he's a better boxer and he
bulked up.
Speaker 1 (42:17):
He came back and he beat the shit out of deontay
wilder and people were soconfused like I just thought he
was gonna come through.
And I'm like, if you watchboxing, if you know this, you
knew he wasn't gonna do it.
If you listen to hip-hop, ifyou know this, you knew drake
wasn't gonna be able to beatKendrick.
And I remember the night thatFamily Matters came out and
everyone was so crazy Like he's,he's winning.
(42:39):
Right now, he's winning thebattle.
Family Matters wasn't evenbetter than Euphoria Not at all.
Speaker 3 (42:45):
The only reason people, I think, were more
showing that love is justbecause he had a different flow.
He sounded more aggressive.
We haven't heard that in a verylong time.
And and for the average, Iguess, drake listener being like
, yeah, he's hard, now he's gotit, and like he hasn't rapped
like this in a very long time.
If anything, that's good,that's inspired him to do that.
But what is he saying to that?
Because anybody can spit fastbut what are you saying?
Speaker 1 (43:16):
And when you listen to what he said, that song is
like, oh, this isn't what Ithought it was right.
It was just dope in the momentbecause we were like, wow, he's
saying this.
Speaker 2 (43:20):
But we were brought back to reality immediately with
meet the grams, right, uh, yesand I agree too oh, oh, no, no,
that song wasn't that good,uh-huh yeah, that's right, right
, yeah, that wasn't that good,you just heard what that that
was a song.
Speaker 3 (43:33):
That's why forever that that that beef should be
studied and stuff.
Because he went after that man'scharacter, he went after him in
a way that, if it's almost likewho cares about the listener
drake if you're listening tothis and I want to talk directly
to you, I almost want to helpyou that he offers advice, and
you know it's like yeah, yeah,pretty, pretty special.
It is great that we got towitness it all.
(43:55):
I will teach my kids that likea history lesson being like it
started here.
This is where it went, he did,he did get the Super Bowl, he
did get that Grammy.
Speaker 1 (44:04):
You know it's just like I feel like the two things
you and I vibed on from the jumpwhen we first met was music and
movies.
We were able to talk veryfreely about those when we met
(44:26):
up and I'm curious to hear yourperspective on where you think
cinema is.
Cinema is A great way to knowwhere I am right now is every
Christmas.
Since I was in middle school, Ithink every Christmas, we go
see a movie Every year.
It's not a debate.
We're going to see a movieevery single year this year well
(44:49):
, last year 2024, was the firstChristmas we did not go see a
movie.
That's how I feel it's the bestway to describe just where I
think cinema is right now.
I had no desires to go and seea movie this year, and I'm not
saying that that means the wholeyear sucks.
I'm not saying that.
I'm just saying that it's notproducing the quality that I
(45:09):
remember when it comes to thebig screen.
You can still go see like that.
I like Brad Pitt and GeorgeClooney's the Wolves movie that
came out on Apple TV.
I actually liked Fly Me to theMoon.
A lot of people said theydidn't enjoy that with Scarlett
Johansson and Shannon Tatum.
I'm a huge Marvel fan, soDeadpool and Wolverine was
(45:30):
phenomenal.
I'm never going to say anythingbad about it.
The only Marvel movie I willopenly say was bad was Thor,
love and Thunder, because I justfelt so upset with that movie.
Even with Star Wars I'm thesame way.
I understand people hate theprequels and they hate the
sequels.
But I'm re-watching the sequelsright now.
(45:51):
I went through the ForceAwakening and the idea in my
head I was like I'm rewatchingthe sequels right now.
I went through the ForceAwakening and the idea in my
head I was like I'm going towatch this without everyone's
take.
Is this a good movie?
Does this movie have this?
I'm not going to think aboutthe fact that it's somewhat the
same plot as episode four.
I'm not going to think aboutthat, I'm just going to watch it
.
Do I enjoy it?
And I did the Last Jedi.
(46:14):
I watched that again and I waslike do I enjoy this?
I don't like what they did withLuke, but it was beautiful what
they did with that film.
And then the last one I willsay was the weakest of the three
.
But when I rewatched it and Igot out of my head about the
Emperor coming back out ofnowhere and her having to be a
Palpatine.
It's like she didn't have to beone, but they had to make it
happen.
And her having to be aPalpatine is like she didn't
(46:35):
have to be one, but they had tomake it happen, and then she
becomes a Skywalker at the endand I'm just like that's
pointless storytelling.
None of that stuff had tohappen for this story, but it
happened.
So now, how do I take this?
Until the next part of StarWars lore, and I was able to
truly enjoy it and love that,and I feel like that is
(46:58):
something that I get from a lotof films still to this day.
But also it's been very, verydifferent this year.
So what do you feel, ifanything, about what I just said
about the state of the cinema?
Right, now?
Speaker 3 (47:13):
Well, I think so.
I want to talk about two thingsthe state of it and then the
Star Wars thing.
The state of the cinema I thinkthat it's visibly apparent that
the movie going experience isless, because we're all just
aware that something could beavailable the next day.
You know, I mean, even Wickedreally surprised me because it's
doing very well at the boxoffice day.
(47:33):
You know, streaming even wickedreally surprised me because
it's doing very well at the boxoffice, it's pretty beloved and
stuff.
And they threw that thing ondigital, uh, less than two
months after its release, which,like just so they can make
money.
Speaker 1 (47:42):
It was just so they can make more.
Yeah, I'm like, do y'all like?
Speaker 3 (47:45):
do y'all owe people something?
I'm like, why are you thatantsy for it?
Like, yeah, we all know the,the producers and whatnot.
They're a little greedy butlike to that, that level it's
pretty interesting.
But therefore, though, I think,cause what you said, going to
Christmas, you know there are alot of people who have movie
theater traditions that evenwhile COVID was going on and
people saying, is this the endof theaters and stuff, I was not
(48:05):
worried about that at all,cause independent theaters, yeah
, sadly, like that's hard, it'stheaters are expensive, it's
hard to run one, but the biggerchains I've never been afraid of
.
I'm still not, I still believein it, just because there are
movie experiences still, likeChristopher Nolan's working on
the Odyssey.
Speaker 1 (48:22):
Yeah, that's going to be crazy.
You're going to not see that onthe big screen he's creating
new technology with IMAX, likeyou will go.
Speaker 3 (48:28):
Even the Barbenheimer effect, like all these
different things that there are,events that us as a culture
kind of agree on.
You know, even marvel moviesare still that dc is just
getting ramped up.
You know one superman whensuperman comes out, I'm on there
.
Speaker 1 (48:41):
Open the floodgates, because now you'll have me too.
Speaker 3 (48:44):
Now you'll have dc actually putting out good
material and that will makemarvel set up their game.
Marvel has been coasting justbecause they have no competition
exactly.
So of course you're courseyou're going to get some, you
know, lame ones every now andthen, but the fact that they
could actually compete, that'sjust superhero movies alone
keeping it afloat.
But then you also, I alwayshave a lot of faith in horror,
(49:04):
because that's why, with moviestudios now, it's either like a
200 million dollar action thingor a two million dollar thing,
be it comedy, horror and horror,audiences are more drawn to
because they like originality,yeah, and even like Nosferatu.
All my theaters out here weresold out Christmas day, really,
yeah, and for like that week itwas hard to get a seat because
(49:25):
people just wanted to go see athing and that just happened to
be the thing, yeah, which istelling to, you know, just just
horror in.
In general, I think peopleappreciate being in a room with
everybody and seeing the storyunfurl, you know, and everybody
can.
You know there's, so there's,there's a lot of opportunity for
it to still exist and I thinkit will just, you know, not like
what we used to remember it.
(49:47):
As you know, there's a reasonthat there's not like 10 things
playing, because it's hard toget wide releases or even
limited releases.
It's much easier to just get adeal with Netflix or Amazon,
whatever you know.
But I think that people youknow, moviegoers are smart, and
they have been throughout alltime that we just want a good
story, we want something that'soriginal.
So, to wrap it to the Star Wars, that didn't work out because
(50:10):
of the writing.
Yeah, it was horrible.
They didn't go into it withlet's write a full story that
these three movies will tell.
It's I don't know this.
And now a new director, maybethis, and you know.
Speaker 1 (50:20):
I couldn't believe.
Why would you split updirectors for a trilogy it made
no?
Speaker 3 (50:24):
sense it's.
It's, yeah, interesting, that'san interesting.
Anyway, though, like if youever see a bad movie or
something that you're confusedby, or why didn't that hit like
99.9 percent of the time?
It's the script.
Always you can have a baddirector come in and it would
still be fine.
Maybe the words can carry it,but it's so hard for actors,
(50:45):
directors, lighting anything tobreathe life into a bad script.
So even with star wars, yeah,those are not the Rian Johnson
is he the strongest writer?
I don't know.
Maybe for some things, but yeah, that's for debate.
Speaker 1 (50:57):
Yeah like Knives Out worked in Glass Onion worked,
with those kind of likeexpectations being crushed
because that that's really whathe was doing.
He was finding ways to.
How can I make this so that youcannot predict what's going to
happen?
And it just didn't work withStar Wars, because we don't
really go to a Star Wars movieto be confused.
(51:18):
We feel like we know the world,we know how people are, we feel
like we grew up with LukeSkywalker, so we know the kind
of person Luke Skywalker is.
And when you tell us thatpeople change and it's like, yes
, but this dude was in front ofdarth vader and the emperor and
they were telling him to come tothe dark side, and he was like
(51:39):
I believe you still have lightin you.
How does he do that?
But then one day has a, a panicand almost kill his nephew.
Yeah, what are you serious?
Yeah, he's literally a Zenmaster.
That's what they do.
They're Zen people.
And you're telling me he wasn'table to keep his composure for
two seconds.
Speaker 3 (52:00):
Well, that's right With his own nephew, that was
mind-blowing.
Yeah, that was silly.
They were in panic mode becauseEpisode 7 was compared to 4 a
lot, so they just said, allright, let's just go off the
rails.
Then, you know, have it be alittle wild and like you know
gosh Leia doing the thing inspace.
Speaker 1 (52:19):
Absolutely ridiculous .
Speaker 3 (52:24):
I feel like they found ways to just piss me off
throughout that.
Going back to the movie theater, I remember so vividly when
that moment happened, seeing it,and when Leia does her magic
trick or whatever and the wholeaudience gasps but not in a good
way, you could tell it waseveryone kind of just like are
you seeing this too?
You know, like that's almostlike yeah, that was a moment,
that was a, but yeah again, italways just comes down to the
(52:44):
script, wrapping it from starwars to movie theaters.
Just as long as it's a goodstory, people will float towards
it.
You know, even like the netflixshows that are so bingeable is
for a reason.
There's something peopleconnect with.
Squid Game is on accident withhow well that's doing, just
based on the material it's.
What can people relate to?
Speaker 1 (53:02):
My last take and I'll say this real quick.
I think what you're saying isso true, but I think it's more
of a deeper meaning to whatyou're saying.
The writing is bad, but thereare millions of people out there
who can write incredible things, that should be able to do this
.
But the connections to thepeople who run this, the money
(53:23):
breadwinners, the top of the topwhen you think of these studios
, the person who says yes or no,they live in this world where
they'll never have to actuallymeet any other writers you know.
So you could have somebodyonline who pitched an incredible
fan fiction and they could givethat to that person and that
(53:47):
can be like who is this?
It's a nobody.
I want somebody like RianJohnson, someone that I know.
I trust him, I work with him andthey pass on incredible stuff
simply because of relationshipsand politics behind the scenes,
and I think that's truly what'sruining cinema right now.
(54:09):
You have people who havenothing to do with movies
telling you hey, we need to makethis much money, period.
Oh for sure, I don't know, Idon't care.
Let's get Timothy Charlemagne,because he's the person that
everyone knows right now.
Can we get Zendaya?
Great, let's get Zendaya, too.
Those are going to bringmillions of eyes that we don't
even have the work to get.
Speaker 3 (54:31):
Yeah, 100%.
Speaker 1 (54:32):
How can we continue to add to this?
Oh, josh Brolin great.
Okay, let's grab him.
Who else can we grab?
Oh, let's go.
But Baptista wants to do thisGreat, let's grab him.
All right, how much marketingdo we really have to do?
How much work do we really haveto do?
These stars will lead thisenough.
We can spend a couple thousanddollars on a writer.
We don't need to get a greatwriter, because the stars are
(54:54):
going to carry the movie.
Oh, yeah, for sure.
And it's like that is not theway that you work.
Speaker 3 (54:58):
But sadly that's kind of been how cinema has always
been too.
You know, I my my main, one ofmy main dudes I look up to
directing wise is Buster Keatonsilent film star, and I've been
reading a book on him is, andit's like in the 1920s they
still had the same problem and30s and 40s.
That's why we have movie starsto just guide a thing.
You know, be like that face onthis poster.
(55:19):
You know, john Wayne made a lotof shitty movies.
You know kind of, yeah, butit's just because slap them on,
you know, and it makes it so,yeah, we are still in that.
It's just always been that,though you know, that's just
sadly how it's run.
But then that's why it's nicewhen things hit, you know, or
you have like an everythingeverywhere, all at once where
it's a movie made by underdogs,you know, just because they
wanted to tell this story.
(55:40):
That's it there's.
Who cares about awards, whocares about who's in it or any
of that shit?
Let's just make it the best itcan be and look at that one best
picture because people couldfeel that.
So I don't think that modelwill ever change, even with
streaming and all that stuff,cause clearly now we have, you
know, there's so many moviesthat stars are in that you put
on and go.
Is that even real?
(56:01):
You know, like I haven't evenseen promotion for this or
whatever, but it's still justhow it works.
I guess you know.
Speaker 2 (56:19):
Every time I see your pretty face, my thoughts they
drift right into space.
I kneel down and ask for thissimple wish that you could be
standing right here.
Pretty miss.
I flip coins in the pot outside.
I drive around just to thinkand ride.
I'm pretty missed.
I flip coins in the pot outside, I drive around just to think
(56:40):
and ride when this girl and boywould love to be.
I guess we have to wait and seethese sweet dreams of you and I
.
Your smile is the reason whyDon't pass me by.
Oh my, this love, my, oh my, itwill never die.
Speaker 1 (57:07):
It will never die.
This is the first tune off ofmy first album, sweet Dreams,
titled Sweet Dreams.
Of course, like I said earlier,I actually made the music video
for this song with Larry in LosAngeles at a bar in Highland
Park I believe and it was just adamn good time working with him
and we always were inspired towork with each other, so it was
(57:29):
really cool that we got thatopportunity.
You can listen to my music onall streaming platforms so you
can check me out for moreinformation at DonLamorecom,
where you can get anything andeverything Don Lamore.
(57:56):
Know what I love?
I'm really, really enjoying thebear right now.
I've been watching the bear.
I stopped after season onebecause, like I said, I used to
work in restaurants and it wasvery traumatic watching that
first season because there wasmoments where I was like I've
been through this and this wasexactly how it was and it was
(58:17):
horrifying to see how realisticit actually was in the things
that it sparked in me and I hadto take a break and that's
incredible to be able to do thatwith the story, to make me feel
and really reflect andunderstand just how incredible
the work was.
So the Bear I took that breakand I'm back on season two now
(58:38):
and I just got through half ofthe season loving it Best thing
that I could have done while mywife is out of town.
What are you loving?
Speaker 3 (58:47):
right now I'm loving Spielberg movies.
I'm a filmmaker, I love to makefilms and stuff.
That man is the North Compassto creativity.
Creativity to why one shouldjust keep working, you know,
stepping up their game.
When I say him, I've been goingthrough his filmography, so
from the early stuff, to justkind of see how he's grown.
So I'm loving that right now.
I'm loving all the behind thescenes stuff, because it's nice
(59:09):
to see somebody work onsomething that they truly love.
He's not any in it for anyother reason than the love of
the game, and if you arefortunate enough to find
yourself in occupation like that, you got to remind yourself not
everybody can do this, you know, not everybody has had this
chance.
It's just it's beautiful to seeskill and love wrapped together
.
Speaker 1 (59:27):
That's what that dude does well, we made it to the
end of the show.
I appreciate your time.
I appreciate seeing your faceLikewise.
Likewise, we got througheverything we want to talk about
.
Last thing I always ask beforewe get off the pod is how do you
feel?
Speaker 3 (59:45):
Oh, feeling good, Feeling inspired, feeling ready,
feeling like I got my war painton and let's just go.
You know, whatever that meansProjects, life, let's go.
Speaker 1 (59:55):
That's how I'm feeling, yeah man, Ah man Cheers
to you.
Appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (01:00:01):
Yeesh Right back at you.
Speaker 1 (01:00:11):
I want to thank you for listening to the Black man
Talking Emotions podcast.
The opening quote.
Credit goes to Terrell Owens.
And shout out to my guy, LarryFollow Larry at Larry Rod Graham
on Instagram.
Please subscribe to the podcast, share the podcast and give us
a good rating Five stars, please, and thank you.
You can support the show byclicking the link at the bottom
(01:00:33):
of the episode description.
If you liked this episode, youshould check out a previous
episode I did with a closefriend titled Shannon O'Keefe on
embracing change and findingjoy.
It's a great lesson.
Check it out.
Follow me at D-O-M underscoreL-A-M-O-U-R on Instagram or at
DomLamorecom.
I'm Dom Lamore.
Much love.
I was a vegan back in LA and I always bring this up
in the sense of I was verycareful about what I put in my
body when I was a vegan, and Imiss that lifestyle choice
because when I would go to thegrocery store, I'm looking at
every package what's in this?
What are the ingredients?
Do I need this?
Is this something I should beputting in my body?
And when it comes to socialmedia, I feel like I have to
(00:23):
find ways to create that sameevaluation, that same type of
approach.
Why am I doing this?
Does this need to go inside ofme?
Do I need to consume this?
Why are these girls twerking?
Why do I see movies everywhere?
Why is it constantly showing methis stuff that I show no
interest in?
Do I show interest in it and Idon't even realize it?
(00:44):
How it?
I have to find a way toeliminate that helplessness that
social media creates.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Perfectly put.
Oh my gosh, yeah, it's justempty calories, basically.
Right, it's the same you knowjust like like a Twinkie of like
man.
This tastes awesome, but andmaybe I'm full for like five
minutes or so, but now I feelreally bad and now I don't want
to do things.
Mind me I might have a headacheor whatever.
It's just like, yeah, totally.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Ladies and gentlemen, and anyone else who is here, my
name is Tom Lamour and you arelistening to the Black man
Talking Emotions podcast.
On today's episode, I speakwith my guy, larry Rodriguez,
about expectations around theholidays, gnx, the state of
cinema and so much more.
If you align expectations withreality, you will never be
(01:59):
disappointed.
Now, where are you based out ofnow?
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Currently in Portland , Oregon.
Yes, Currently raining outside,which is why I moved here.
Really, I needed to switch upwith weather and that was it.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Well, it's snowing here in Georgia, believe it or
not?
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Hey, that's crazy.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
I just was outside shoveling snow off of the porch
and off of the walkways and itcame to my mind while I was
doing it walkways and it came tomy mind while I was doing it.
I haven't shoveled snow inalmost a decade, dude, almost a
decade.
I lived in Chicago in 2013 andmoved back home to St Louis, and
(02:38):
then I lived in LA from 2015 to2020 and moved to Georgia, and
it doesn't snow here either, soI haven't had to go out with a
shovel.
I don't have a shovel.
I used an.
I don't have a snow shovel.
I have, like a small diggingshovel that I just went out with
.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
that's all I got did you like have flashbacks, like
were you reverted back to thesame age you were when you last
shoveled?
You know, like you're back toit and you're just going like,
oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
I wish it was that cool, but no, no.
I'm not a good, happy worker,if that makes sense.
As a bartender.
It always worked for me becauseI was able to kind of just say
whatever I wanted to people Ifsomeone came into my bar and
(03:29):
they were talking crazy as abartender, I can look at them
and be like you can fuckingleave if you want.
You know like it was easier todo that as a server.
I couldn't do that, so when Iwas a server it was very hard
for me, because as a server youwant them to feel like it's
pleasant and you want to be verynice and excited and I'm very
uptempo.
But as a bartender I'm morelike listen, dude, I'm here
rocking and if you ain't aboutit, you can make moves.
(03:50):
And so now that I don't docustomer service which God bless
our hearts doing the weddings,that isn't difficult, because
I'm singing, I'm having a goodtime.
Of course, I'm smiling andexcited when I go outside.
And I got a shovel, I got to cutgrass, if I have to clean up
the house, if I have to washdishes like when I'm working,
(04:13):
working, doing something that'slabor I have a stone face, I
have my music going and I'mknocking it out as quick as
possible.
So no flashbacks, no snowangels.
I mean the one thing I didbefore I went out I made a
snowball and threw it at ourazalea bush and I was like, wow,
(04:35):
it's snow, it's real snow.
I couldn't believe it was realsnow.
And then it got back to.
Okay, I'm an adult, no one elseis going to do this for you.
Dom, my uncle, my uncle John,on Adrian's side, he always say
welcome to home ownership.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
He always says that whenever something happens in
the house.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Man, yeah, our lights went out and I don't know how
to fix it because the fuse is ona different fuse and he's like
welcome to home ownership.
No answer, Just that.
And I'm like, well, thank you.
So it's like who's going toshovel my snow?
I, you know, I can get a littlekid off the street to maybe do
it, but my mom ain't going to doit, my pops ain't going to do
it, my uncles ain't going to doit, my cousin it's me.
(05:14):
I got to do this shit, so let'sget to it.
And I feel you.
That's something that I fullyembrace, I really love.
I have my own space.
We have about an acre of land,so everything is up for the
taking.
Like, what do you want to do?
This is your space, and thenalso, no one else is going to do
it, so fucking do it.
That's right, that's right, andI enjoy that very much.
(05:37):
I really enjoy that Like a reallife.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Sims, you know.
I'm responsible for what I putin here.
You know Exactly.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
And then when people come over, damn.
That's a nice fire pit.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
I built that.
That's real shit.
But I wanted to, for sure, justjump into the stuff with you
because you had some reallygreat ideas for the pie,
starting with expectations,because I have a friend, my boy
Chris, that we did the firstepisode with.
He had the same kind of thoughtof wanting to start traditions
on your own, branching out fromyour family traditions to
(06:11):
creating your own familytraditions, and how.
We're at that age now.
He just had a baby and so he'smaking his own traditions now,
but his father passed away sohe's like I'm missing that and
so he comes with my family andmy family is very tight.
We have certain traditions thatwe always do, but those
traditions are changing.
Now I'm married, my wife, mysister is married, so we have
(06:36):
people in the family who aren'tfrom the old family and we
aren't doing the same things weused to do.
So now it's kind of like okay,it's a time to move on to my own
traditions and create my ownexpectations and do the things
that I want to do, and have noregrets for how I'm handling it
because, hey, I'm an adult now.
I got to do this my way.
So for you, when it comes tothe holidays and the
(06:58):
expectations, I feel like I getoverwhelmed.
I don't like grocery shopping.
Well, all right, I take thatback.
I love grocery shopping.
I'm an old woman who goes inwith my coupons now and have my
used bags.
I love that, but I don't likeshopping.
Shopping like meaningfulshopping for gifts.
I've always taken it tooseriously something that they
(07:27):
will love and use.
That's purposeful, that's notgoing to be just something that
they're like oh my God, Dominicgot me this.
I'll put it up on the wall sothat when he comes over he'll
see it, and that's that.
No, I want to be able to sayhere's something that I know
that you need and that stressesme the fuck out, and I think I
take that as an expectation.
On top of you know like peopleare going to expect me to buy
them stuff.
People don't expect me to bethere, be present, and it's just
(07:50):
overwhelming how much isexpected for in my opinion.
How about you?
What do you feel?
Expectations over the holidays,starting from Thanksgiving all
the way through to Valentine'sDay.
Really, how does that happen?
Speaker 3 (08:05):
Yeah, well, you know, thanksgiving, I've found out
the older I've gotten, is thebetter holiday, just because
there's no pressure with it,there's no presence involved,
yeah, just eating, which isfantastic, and if you screw up a
meal or whatever, hey, there'sother options there, so there's
kind of no sweat with that.
I mean, you know, some peopledepend on family, you know,
would rather maybe not do that.
Yeahgiving, I think, is abreeze.
I think that's just like alovely time everyone's getting
excited, falls in the air,everything's beautiful by that
(08:28):
time.
Though, still, you're startingto christmas.
Present ideas are creeping up,and I'm the same way, like I
need it to be the perfectpresent.
This, it just has to hit theright spot.
You know, I've also found I waskind of worth it if you get the
right gift and they open it and, like you just put yourself
under this incredible stress forlike a couple weeks only for
this.
You know, a couple seconds whenthey unwrap that net shock and
(08:49):
like, all right, I guess it wasworth it, yeah, yeah, then also
too, just, christmas is just itsown thing of.
Everybody has their owntradition, but that's the thing
too, is it clashes then becauseyou have some people who go.
Well, you don't open presentson christmas eve, no, we do it
on christmas.
You know it can be as small oras big as that of well, we don't
eat this on Christmas day, weeat that on Thanksgiving.
Everybody has kind of their ownthing, so it's like, yeah, kind
(09:09):
of set up for more pressure,including, you know, damn travel
.
You know I don't have to tellanybody that, but it's just like
the idea that we as a societyagree that on this day this is
going to be the day where yougot to be happy, you got to have
that Christmas spirit, you know, you got to have that childlike
twinkle in your eye.
Sometimes it doesn't happen.
Sometimes Christmas takes placeon a Tuesday and you have the
(09:29):
cold and you know it's just aday.
Yeah, my tradition now has kindof changed for the better, I
think of, like I I'm from Vegasoriginally, so I go home to
visit in early December and I'mthere for like two weeks and we
just Christmas size it up.
You know we do all these eventsand all the things like it's
that day.
Yeah, then when that day comes,kind of lay low, kind of just
(09:49):
chill.
The streets are empty.
You know, it's a beautifulthing as you get older.
Just it means somethingdifferent to you, you know as a
kid.
Obviously you know it's allabout the presents and stuff
like that and all the the youknow eating good times.
But then, as you get older,then it's like you get more joy
giving kids presents and seeingtheir reaction being like maybe
there's more for them.
And then, yeah, new year's, twokind of leaks in that, like
(10:11):
what are you going to do on thatday?
Because that's a you know, whatparty are you going to go to
and who are you going to be inthis new year, you know, and you
start thinking of that.
So, like, sum it all up, fromthanksgiving to new year's,
that's just like this crazy,weird pressure we all have, I
think.
And then you know valentine's istruly.
You know everybody's got theirown thing going on with that, be
it relationships or not, or ifyou believe in it, or, but you
(10:32):
know that's why that one's greattoo.
Valentine's is just like itsown island of like, if you want
to celebrate it, celebrate it.
And those who do that's awesome, go to the max, buy flowers, do
the thing.
Those who want to just stay inthe shadows and just chill, you
can do that too, because it'sjust February 14th, it's just a
day.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Yeah, I agree, I agree with all of that.
Me personally, like I said, I'mvery fortunate to find the
person that I'm with with mywife, because we met on February
6th.
So Valentine's Day isn't reallylike that big a deal because
our anniversary really is theweek before.
So we got married in Novemberand that's our wedding
(11:07):
anniversary, of course.
But the day that I met Adriennelike I knew we were in a
relationship, like the day I mether that day is so special that
Valentine's Day I mean, we dostuff, of course, sometimes, but
sometimes I'm usually doing agig on Valentine's Day and
that's totally fine because gomake the money, that's what you
do.
You perform, you sing lovesongs.
(11:29):
So, I don't have to worry aboutthat Christmas.
Technically, I don't have toworry about it.
I always hear that I'm a reallygood gift giver and this and
that, but also I've stressedmyself out about it With
Adrienne.
She's just like my family mymother and my grandmother and my
aunts and people like thatwhere my godmother too where
they'll tell me we're not doinganything this year, we're not
(11:50):
going to do too much, and then Igo in and they do way too much.
And I'm like, dude, you told meyou weren't going to do anything
.
I did not do as much as you didbecause you told me we weren't
doing anything.
And with Adrian it's the samething.
We said we weren't going to domuch and she was like, yeah,
we're not going to do much, butI got you three gifts and I was
like, dude, you said we weren'tgoing to do much.
It always kind of frustrates me,but even then, the expectation
(12:14):
isn't too high.
The only expectation really ismy family's and specifically my
mother.
My mother is very particularabout events.
She's been constantly warningus about the idea that we're
getting older and she's going tolose these moments.
So she wants to have them asmuch as she possibly can,
because when it stops it's goingto be really, really
devastating to her, and Iunderstand that.
(12:35):
But that adds that extra weightof energy that I'm like well, I
got to do this for my mom, or Igot to do this for my pops, I
got to do this for my grandma, Igot to do this, I got to do it.
It's like I don't.
It's not that I doubt I don'twant to, but it's not a choice.
If I want to, I got to do it.
Yeah, and, and that's justfrustrating I feel like
(12:59):
Thanksgiving is the only holidayI don't give any fucks about in
the sense of expectations.
Thanksgiving, we cooking Great,I'm a cook, and that's that.
That's it, that's it.
I'm a cook, that's it.
I don't even like football, soI don't care if the football
game is on.
You know what I'm saying.
So I'm like I'm good onsleeping and waking up in the
new year.
That is totally fine.
(13:30):
If I'm gigging, that changeseverything.
Okay, I'm getting money and I'mgetting paid double because
it's a holiday.
I'm gay, we're going to have agood time tonight, but it's not
a holiday.
That especially now.
The older I've gotten, the moreI've avoided making goals,
avoided making resolutions.
I avoid that kind of stuffbecause the ultimate goal for me
, I feel like, is to carry theperson that you are the year
(13:54):
before into the new year andcontinue to grow as a person.
So looking at that one day aslike a restart just doesn't make
sense in my brain.
And even with my calendars,like I got my planner, my
planner doesn't just start atthe top of the year and end at
the year, it goes through theyear.
You know what I'm saying Untilanother day, like that's the
goal, like we're just it'sanother day, it's not a new,
(14:15):
it's not a special day, it'sanother day, keep on pushing, so
those expectations really comefrom others.
But even then, I've been verygood about talking myself down,
I guess, and creating my ownexpectations around the
expectations other people arecreating for me.
That helps me accept or say noto certain things.
(14:38):
Do you think there's anythingthat you are doing mentally or
working on within yourself tohelp you with anything that you
feel is pressuring youthroughout the holiday, or do
you just kind of take it on thechin and keep it pushing?
Speaker 3 (14:51):
I usually just push through.
But to ease it up, like I said,is just I remind myself it's
just a day you know that wecreated like a new year.
You know January 1st.
We all just agreed.
This is like this weird resetor whatever.
So I just try not to get toolost in it, and being off
socials has helped a lot too.
I've kind of given that up, notseeing all the stuff you know,
with all the pressure, becauseagain, to me sometimes holidays
(15:12):
are like I call it, like theDisneyland effect, where it's
like when you go to Disneylandyou have to be happy, you've got
to be like well, you know, it'slike that weird pressure of
you're in the happiest place onearth.
What's wrong with you?
It's like nothing's wrong withyou.
Sometimes things happen.
It is what you make it.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
That is one of the things that anyone in this
country, all, can relate when itcomes to the holiday
expectations, because it isn'tjust family, it isn't just
friends, it's corporations, it'snow we're talking.
Yeah, yeah, it's like everyoneis truly trying to get their
piece of the pie.
Yeah, oh, yeah, yeah, includinglike nonprofits, places asking
(15:48):
for donations and stuff.
It's the holiday season, it'sthe season of giving kind of
thing, churches, anything thatyou're connected to.
In America, since it's awealthy country, a lot of the
pressure to spend grows duringthat period and it's really
difficult to navigate, andtaking social media out of it
helps so much.
(16:09):
I've been trying my best towork with it and keep it
somewhat there, because you needit in a sense of marketing when
you're a performer and tryingto get your stuff out there.
But the headspace that I'm inwith me keeping it at a minimum
of 30 minutes a day.
You know, if I go on socialmedia it's 30 minutes a day.
(16:30):
I never go over that timeperiod.
I have links on my phone thatmakes it so I can't go on and do
this.
That is very helpful for myday-to-day activities, my
productive attitude.
When I'm trying to create, Idon't have to think about
anything but the creation andthat is everything With social
(16:50):
media.
Do you feel like it createstension in your life?
That isn't there, becausethat's how I feel.
I feel like I go on socialmedia and I'm like what's my
opinion about this subject?
And it's like why?
Speaker 3 (17:05):
does that even?
Speaker 1 (17:05):
fucking matter.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
It doesn't yeah, let me just do.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
I'm good, I'm just all right.
Keep it pushing, I don't.
I don't need to care aboutwhat's going on, Right, or I
don't need to add my information.
Everyone literally someone hassaid exactly what I'm thinking
already in this thread.
Why do I have to say it tooExactly?
Speaker 3 (17:23):
And anybody can write on it too.
You know you do have people youfollow and friends and stuff,
but also it's pretty open, or atleast like Twitter or something
I think it was at.
Chappelle said that thatTwitter isn't a real place, it's
a like a bathroom wall thatanybody can write on Exactly,
which is even more curious thatyou know we are so enticed by.
Well, what does everybody say?
What is this random wall of?
You know people think that'sgood that you have a little
(17:45):
timer, like a 30 minute orwhatever, because like it's fine
to be on it to dip a toe orwhatever.
But yeah, I do get distractedpretty easy, in the sense of
like I might not be eventhinking of a thing, you know,
yeah, and to just see oneheadline or one thing to make me
either worry or, you know,panic or whatever the thing you
know, I don't know.
It's just best to limit it, Iguess.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Well, the thing that that makes it very scary to me
and the reason why I feel theneed to make an effort to
eliminate it.
I'll be sitting down on myphone and open up Instagram,
just to open it up, to see why Igot a notification, and then
I'll close Instagram.
Forget that I was just onInstagram.
Click back on Instagram, Likewhy am I back here?
(18:24):
I just.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
I just received it, yeah, or I need to check it and
you're like you already did, ohyeah.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
I just checked this, so it's has this power over me
that I don't have any control of.
That's where it's scary, that'swhere I'm like wait a minute, I
need to be way more purposefulwith this I.
I was a vegan back in LA and Ialways bring this up, in the
sense of I was very carefulabout what I put in my body when
(18:52):
I was a vegan and I miss thatlifestyle choice because when I
would go to the grocery store,I'm looking at every package
what's in this?
What are the ingredients?
Do I need this?
Is this something I should beputting in my body?
And when it comes to socialmedia, I feel like I have to
find ways to create that sameevaluation, that same type of
approach.
Why am I doing this?
Does this need to go inside ofme?
(19:14):
Do I need to consume this?
Why are these girls twerking?
Why do I see movies everywhere?
Why is it constantly showing methis stuff that I show no
interest in?
Do I show interest in it and Idon't even realize it?
How it?
I have to find a way toeliminate that helplessness that
social media creates.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
Perfectly put.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah, it's just empty calories,basically, right.
It's the same, you know justlike like a Twinkie of like man.
This tastes awesome, but maybeI'm full for like five minutes
or so, but now I feel really badand now I don't want to do
things.
Mind me I might have a headacheor whatever.
It's just like, yeah, totally.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Larry and I met back in Los Angeles and made a music
video together for my tune SweetDreams.
I've kept in touch with Larrybecause he and I have always
bonded.
It was easy conversation todayideas.
We always were on the samewavelength, and that's what I'm
hoping to do more in my life nowSurround myself with
(20:20):
like-minded people.
It's a struggle for me becauseI have so many people in my life
that I love, but I feel thedistance between us more and
more.
We're growing apart, and it'snot a bad thing.
It's just something that I haveto understand.
Not overwhelming myself is key,and having people like Larry
(20:43):
around just makes things easiersomething that I've already
spoken about on the pod, but I'mwilling to talk about this
every day for the rest of mylife.
This Kendrick Lamar GNX albumyes, and then GNX specifically
(21:08):
is something that I feel like.
You have to have lived inCalifornia that truly get why
it's significant.
You know like I understand.
The beef is a different thingI'm talking about that specific
album.
the album that it reminds me ofand I'm wondering if this is
true with you is Nipsey Hussle'sVictory Lap.
(21:30):
Oh for sure?
Speaker 3 (21:31):
Well, ironically, this album is a victory lap you
know, is it not?
Exactly, that's why?
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Yeah, yeah for sure.
It reminds me of that albumbecause it's so LA, it's so
California and the stuff thathe's referencing throughout the
whole project.
If you don't live on the WestCoast or know people from out
there, you don't get it, youdon't understand it.
So I see a lot of people whoare saying this is one of his
(21:58):
weaker projects and I'm likethis is one of the stronger
projects for me, I like everyelement that he did.
I love the Luther tune when hebrings a love part to it.
My favorite, I think I'm justgoing to say it's my favorite
now, because there's so many.
Hey, now Say Now is amazing.
Dodger Blue is amazing, allthese great songs, but my
(22:20):
favorite is the hard part.
Six, ooh, yeah.
I just feel like he has foundthe way to advance himself at
every level when it comes to hiscraft and to get to a place
where he's on this album that Ibet you.
This album wasn't planned untilthe beef started.
Then he was like you know what?
I'm going to make an album nowjust because, but to put
(22:42):
something together like this andthen to put that track on it
where he's revealing his mentallike.
I was working so hard becauseeventually I felt like the goal
was to be independent, to be abusinessman, and I didn't
realize how many people andobstacles I was knocking down
and not communicating withproperly to achieve that goal.
(23:05):
And now I'm at this place nowwhere I have clarity and I
understand everything around me.
It isn't just me.
Yes, I deserve all of theseaccolades because I worked hard
for them, but also I'm a human,they're humans and I need to
create those relationships andcommunication.
I need to continue that becausethese people are all I have.
(23:28):
Yeah, yeah, these are thepeople who inspired me.
They're everything to me.
And to put that on that project, it makes it seem like that
project was.
It was planned from the start.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
Start, it was too well orchestrated to just be
thrown together, you know yeah,especially when, like, he wasn't
even the guy at the time, youknow, back with td, but it was a
what j-rock was supposed to bethe one.
So it's like for him to just betaking notes, kind of in the
shadows and just like I and evenlike schoolboy and stuff.
He's like I don't even know ifI was supposed to be the guy,
but it's's like then thathappened obviously to the pop
(23:59):
out.
That's what made it sobeautiful too, you know, when
all of them are there.
Hard Part Six.
And also, too, I'm happy hetook that title back because
Drake's Hard Part Six wasgarbage.
But it was just nice.
He was like, hey, this is alsocalled that, but the real
version.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
So you know, when you listen to the album, what?
What does it give you?
Does it give you memories, doesit give you inspiration, like I
, and I say that in the sensethat hip-hop is still here, it's
not dead.
Uh, what, what do you get whenyou, when you listen to gnx?
Speaker 3 (24:27):
well, you know what kendrick just has always been
embodiment of rap, is stillaround like true hip-hop exists.
Because, as a person who grewup with that that game and
studied the game and loved it somuch, so what it gives me is a
lot of confidence because it'sjust like, like I said, it's his
victory lap, you know.
I don't know where this album'sstart was, you know of, hey,
let's do a full album.
(24:48):
I'd like to think it was maybebefore Not Like Us, or when he
was kind of getting that goingsaying if we can put all this
stuff together quickly, what canwe do with a little planning?
Put all this stuff togetherquickly, what could we do with a
little planning?
You know so, between not likeus's release, obviously the pop
out being the massive thing inbetween that space, it was just
like him figuring out.
That's why I like the album somuch.
It was just all the albums.
(25:10):
Everything has led to this, Ithink, because even mr morale
was the first time after likehis therapy, I assume right, I
think he said that, but it'slike I did right.
I think he said that, but it'slike I did therapy.
This is how I feel and that'swhy it's a double album too.
There's just so much to expressand now, with this album, he
doesn't have to do that.
He's done that.
That's out of the system.
Now this is more like this iswhat I do, this is who I am.
(25:32):
I believe this, I eat this,this.
You know I won't bring up thebeef or whatever, but even
without him saying to to drake.
You know like, only you likebeing famous.
Like I don't even care aboutfame, I care about the message I
care about.
I'm such a a bigger, importantpiece that even when I'm gone I
might even resonate more youknow money, power, respect.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
And the last one's better.
There's a lot of goofies with acheck like him saying that you
understand what he's saying yeah, you got money, you got power,
but I got respect.
People respect me, people hearme.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
Yes, no, yes, oh, he's for real yes, there are
murals of me being painted andyeah, it's just like well, even
that too.
It's like drake couldn't do incanada what kendrick did in la,
because drake didn't have enoughpeople to come out.
He doesn't have supporters.
That, to me, is very tellingtoo, of like, how many people
show up to your birthday partyor something?
Not that that's a big deal, butI mean, like you know, it's
(26:22):
like everybody could show up.
It's basically that drake makes, you know, fast food music.
It's very digestible, anybodycan have it he doesn't represent
canada.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
No, yeah, he doesn't rap like he's from canada.
Sure, he will claim memphis tomake him sound more hood.
Before he know he'll say thesix and then he'll be like, well
you know, my daddy from Memphis.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
He'll claim a lot of places.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
His label is based out of new Orleans, like he
doesn't have a home.
Yes, and Toronto is the six heis at the Raptors games.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
He's doing that, but I mean what do you learn about
Toronto when?
Speaker 1 (27:01):
you hear his music.
When you listen to Kendrick,you learn about the lifestyle of
a person living in LA For sure.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
In that lifestyle.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
you understand that he isn't joking when he says
this stuff.
There's moments on one songwhere he was like if I told you
that I killed somebody, wouldyou believe me?
Right, and you have to sit downand think, wait a minute.
Wait a minute.
He could be literally doingthis to troll us because maybe
he Damn I can't believe it IfDrake said that same line.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
you'd be like dude you used to be a little bit
grassy.
Come on, yeah, you'd laugh, you.
Come on we don't believe you.
I like Drake with the melodies.
I don't like Drake when he actsup.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
No, yeah, exactly On top of the fact the quotables
are ridiculous.
That's why I continue to goback to thinking that he did
everything purposefully.
He knew exactly what he wasdoing, from the beginning to the
end.
Like that, he knew this all wasgoing to happen.
All the way to gmx, I think itwas all planned, the thing that
(28:03):
hit the most, the thing thatshowed me that kendrick won on
meet the grams.
I don't care about him havinganother kid, I don't care about
any of that stuff whatever Idon't care about him not really
being black.
I don't care about that he's.
He's a black dude, all of us.
You know if you got black andyou're black.
But when he said you lied aboutyour religion, you lied about
this.
You never gave us anything tobelieve in like when he was
(28:27):
hitting those.
No, like those points.
Yeah, you lied about this, youlied about that.
What?
Why should we care about you?
A percent, that was when helost the battle.
A hundred percent Not like uswas the beginning of the victory
lap.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, because hewas actually using words to
(28:49):
explain the things we all werefeeling about.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
Yes, exactly.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Clearly wrote it out like this is what we feel about
you.
That's why you aren't the bestrapper.
The idea you can have a ghostrapper and then come on be like,
oh, everybody has ghost rappers, no, they don't.
No, especially in hip-hop.
Yep, this isn't something thatyou could just write off and
still say you're the best,you're not.
No, no, no.
You know the album.
He continued to express Ideserve this because I put the
(29:17):
work in, because I'm a writer.
Pull it to winter.
Yeah, this ain't something,this ain't something that I just
kind of do.
I live this culture, yes, yes.
And rap culture is somethingthat is very difficult for me to
process.
People who aren't from America.
I get that it's everywhere.
(29:38):
I get that it's influenced.
I get that it's influenced.
But I just watched hisinterview that Vince Staples did
and he said it the best.
He was talking to some lady andshe was interviewing him and
she asked him so when did youfall in love with hip hop?
And he was like I don'tunderstand what your question is
.
And she was like what you don'tlove?
Hip hop?
He's like I'm black.
I wasn't introduced to hip hop.
(30:04):
Hip hop is a part of my culture.
I don't even remember I grew upand hip hop was already a part
of my life.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
Sure yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
And when I heard that , I'm like that is exactly how I
feel when it comes to hip hop,no-transcript, kind of do it
(30:47):
sometimes, but this is Black day, this is a part of your life.
I don't think that Drake couldever embody that, right, oh no.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
Yeah.
Well, that's why, even goingback to that lyric you just
brought up, I preface it with Iused to be a Drake fan.
You know the first two, threealbums, maybe four views, was
awesome.
I went to concerts and stuff.
But then, even with that line,then we never gave us anything
to believe and even it had mereflecting.
The whole beef had mereflecting.
Yeah, oh yeah.
Why do we look up to thisperson and obviously he's fallen
(31:16):
off the last couple albums, Ithink just because there's
nothing relatable.
No, it's more just money andweird random shouting out people
in his crew, we don't know,like and tell chubbs to get the
40 with the 40.
I'm like who and what and why.
You know it's like it's, it's.
It's either not personal or toopersonal, I don't know, but
it's just there's nothing therethere.
Um, so it's just amazing tohave a reminder of a person who
(31:38):
cause everybody.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
That's the whole hip hop thing, too, is I'm the best.
Speaker 3 (31:42):
No, I'm the best, no, I'm the greatest, I'm the great
.
We can't.
There's just no debatinganymore.
That's why again with thisalbum is so important of you
know, every track has that sameenergy that we all felt when he
was releasing.
You know the week by weeks whenthe beef was happening, which
is like the amount of content.
There's so much to chew on,even from the first damn track.
I knew that too when with uh,I'm like okay, I started that I
(32:05):
ended up I go.
well, I have to listen to thisagain, cause.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
I didn't get most.
You know I'm like there's toomuch.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
You know you go back and go back and go back and like
wait, there's more to listen toHolyle, you know.
So it's like it's an onslaughtof person who's been working
their whole life, really puttingin the work, and doesn't expect
any rewards back.
You know, he lost to DanMcElmore that Grammy.
That's disgusting.
Those little things I'm surebug him, but it's just like
(32:30):
enough time has passed and he'swaited in the shadows.
He's held onto this grudgeagainst Drake for so long that
he just said all right, enough'senough.
Like somebody just needs tocome out and say it, and not
just in a verse and not like acute diss track or two.
So I think you're right.
I think he has been buildingtowards this, because it's just
like now he has the biggestspotlight on him of his career
ever.
What do you do with that?
Oh, I, I don't know what I'mgonna do.
(32:51):
I'm gonna make it very la based.
I'm gonna have some unknownartists on it to give them a
shot, you know the moment thateverything that's happening now
started, the moment he heardfirst person shooter oh yeah oh,
yeah, yeah that big is thesuper bowl.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
He was like, okay, I'm gonna give you a super bowl.
This is so hard and be sorelevant that I'm gonna do the
next super bowl, like that'swhat I think really.
So he he was like no, I'm goingto do the Super Bowl Definitely
Because we all know Kendrick'sbig enough to do that.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Yes, he already did.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
He's already done it, it's like the idea that Drake
was acting like he was so belowhim and it's like Drake dude,
when was your last good album?
And you're opposite of mebecause I feel bad.
I used to be a huge Drake fan,but you know, when I was a Drake
fan was Heartbreak Drake and soFar Gone Drake.
(33:47):
Oh, yeah, yeah, of course,before his first album, yeah, so
Far Gone I thought he was goingto be the future of hip hop.
His first album came out and Iwas unimpressed.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
The first one was whatever came out, and I was
unimpressed.
The first one was whatever.
Take Care was my shit, though.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Everyone loves Take Care.
I did not enjoy Take Carewhatsoever.
I didn't care.
I didn't care about the stuffhe was talking about.
He wasn't rapping aboutanything that I related to.
I felt like I didn't enjoy anyof the stuff he was talking
about, the way he was carryinghimself, and then he just
continued to grow and I'm justlike I mean, there's tunes that
(34:20):
I mean, if passion fruit come on, I will, I will do this.
But I never clung to a fullproject of his being like damn,
this is it with kendrick,section 80, sure, oh yeah, right
off the bat.
Speaker 3 (34:34):
Yeah, good capacities the next album and to pimple
butterfly and then the pimplebutterfly was just everybody
going wait, you can't switchlike this, can you?
Like we were expecting to belike I'll, I'll do whatever I
want.
Here's some jazz for you.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
I'd say this to people all the time.
The first time I listened topimple butterfly, I remember
exactly what I said after thelast song, mortal man.
I remember turning it off andsitting back in my seat and
being like that might have beenthe best album I've ever heard
in my life.
Like I remember saying that soclearly, like that was unlike
anything anyone else is puttingout right now.
(35:09):
Sure, and I was a huge I'mstill a huge jay coals fan.
It broke my heart that he jumpedout of this.
And I think the reason why Ibroke my heart was more because
if he was just J Cole doing JCole things and rapping and not
mentioning that he'll battleanybody, cool.
But the fact that he comes outand he says things about you
(35:33):
know, I can smoke anybody onthis mic or I'm the best you
know, you know I'm on 10, notnine kind of thing Like he is on
this, another level of rappingand then an opportunity comes
out where, ok, test it.
And he's like, yeah, I'm notgoing to test it.
Yeah, I was heartbreaking tosee, because it's like you
didn't have to say all of thisstuff in the first place.
(35:55):
Yeah, you could have just beenthe rapper you are.
Kendrick could have come outand you could have put out a
statement saying hey, kendrick'smy brother.
I'm not going to say anythingabout Kendrick, but you let
these people gas you up and youcame out here and did something
that you shouldn't have done inthe first place.
Speaker 3 (36:10):
And you called it Mike Delete later.
So you didn't even haveconfidence in the existence of
that thing.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
It just broke my heart because I was like that's
something that people will useagainst him and he's such an
inspiring, incredible artist.
One of my favorite songs that JCole did is called Friends on
his KOD album, and he's talkingabout his people and like he's
having a conversation withsomeone that he loves so dearly
(36:36):
and he is trying to tell themlike you just need to meditate,
not medicate yourself with weedand drugs, like you don't need
that, like I'm here for you.
Like it was so incredible andhe did a lot of performances of
it when he did All Star, he wasso good, so all of these people
inspired me and drake never gotto that level.
(36:57):
That's the whole, this wholething, gotcha.
Gotcha broke my heart, but hestill puts out music and stuff
that I can hear and I'll be likethat is top tier mc work.
Drake has put out stuff whereI'm just like why, why?
And it sucks, because it's likeI don't want to be so negative
towards somebody.
(37:18):
But then you have people comeonline saying he's the best to
do it, he's greater than MichaelJackson, and it's like all
right.
I think this is why Kendrickcame out, because it's like no,
he isn't.
Speaker 3 (37:27):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (37:32):
Uh-huh, he sat on it for a very long time.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
And then the number one thing, and going back to the
GNX aspect of this, everythingKendrick said in any of his from
Euphoria, everything inEuphoria came true.
Yes, oh, exactly Everything,yep, yep.
The one thing that he broughtup is that you never give us
anything to believe in.
You know, I make music thatelectrify them, you make music
(37:56):
that pacify, and when you thinkabout that, one of my favorite
things that's come out since GNX, like with other artists,
seeing what Kendrick did andsaying I'm coming out to do my
best work, one of my favoritethings that came out was Tyler
(38:17):
the creators that guy freestylefreestyle yes.
Yes, yes, you can hear theenergy that that track inspired
him to have in his rap.
You can hear inspired him tohave right in his rap.
(38:38):
You can hear he was like thisis where I want to be too.
Yes, so I'm gonna get on thistrack and I'm gonna flex just
how talented I am.
Yes, instead of looking athip-hop as this, like let's make
it fun.
So he's like no, I'm here torap, to let you know I'm the one
of the best in the game toothat's right.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
Right, I'm also.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
LA and I love it.
You don't get that from any ofDrake.
No one's freestyling overfamily matters.
No one's freestyling overpushups.
No one's thinking of no one'squoting that shit anymore.
Exactly the only quotable onthose that I will always give to
Drake.
Kendrick just opened his mouth.
Someone go give him a great oneright now.
(39:14):
That is a quotable line, and youknow why.
It isn't just because he openedhis mouth is because he's one
of the best rappers, and yousaying that proves just how you
know you're so sick of him.
He's always getting rewards.
I'm so sick of him and it'slike you know why he's getting
him Because he's better than youPeriod getting him because he's
(39:37):
better than you, period.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
Um, it's so refreshing to hear that too,
because a lot of times I feltcrazy during all this, like the
fact that people are even youknow the fact.
Speaker 3 (39:41):
That's even a debate like we're not debating though
right, this is a joke like noone's ai.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
No one should have believed that he was going to
win that battle right, yeah,just just.
Speaker 3 (39:51):
And then it was just kind of great to see that
downfall happen in real time wasgoing from him using ai, you
know, to, which is the mostinsulting thing I think I've
ever heard.
Yeah, using even tupac was justno, just so not right.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
Still alive, stupid, still alive what's out here?
Speaker 3 (40:09):
but it is true like he's probably too stoned to even
realize that was.
He was like what?
When did I do that?
All right, I don't know.
So he's just too stoned to evenrealize that was.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
He was like what, when did I do that and how?
Everyone was talking aboutTyson, and not only that fight.
(40:36):
It might also be the RondaRousey fight, when she lost her
first battle in UFC.
You think about those twofights.
Deontay Wilder was America'schampion.
Everyone was saying he was justthis.
He was just that he hits sohard.
It doesn't matter who he goesagainst, he's going to win Ronda
.
She's the greatest of all time.
I, literally before that fight,had a debate with one of my
(40:59):
friends about Serena Williamsand her who's the greatest
female athlete of all time and Iliterally had to stop because I
was about to throw my computerbecause I was like how are we
having this discussion?
because I was like how are wehaving this discussion?
Serena has been dominant sinceI was in elementary school and
(41:23):
you're trying to say this girl,who's won eight fights in a row,
is a better athlete and she'sonly fought for maybe 10 minutes
all around because she wasbeating people in a minute.
Are you serious?
Is this real life?
It all felt like this Drake andKendrick thing and when Ronda
lost, I wasn't surprised whenDeontay lost.
I'm a boxing fan.
(41:45):
I watch boxing.
I know what these dudes do.
I'm not someone who just turnson the big fight.
When the big fight comes on, Iknew Tyson Fury was going to
come in there and be him and hebeat him the first time when
they draw.
There was a draw that time andI was like, okay, you know
what's going to happen.
Tyson Fury is going to go train, he's going to bulk up and he's
(42:06):
going to come back and give youno doubts that he's a better
boxer.
And he bulked up.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
You no doubts that he's a better boxer and he
bulked up.
Speaker 1 (42:17):
He came back and he beat the shit out of deontay
wilder and people were soconfused like I just thought he
was gonna come through.
And I'm like, if you watchboxing, if you know this, you
knew he wasn't gonna do it.
If you listen to hip-hop, ifyou know this, you knew drake
wasn't gonna be able to beatKendrick.
And I remember the night thatFamily Matters came out and
everyone was so crazy Like he's,he's winning.
(42:39):
Right now, he's winning thebattle.
Family Matters wasn't evenbetter than Euphoria Not at all.
Speaker 3 (42:45):
The only reason people, I think, were more
showing that love is justbecause he had a different flow.
He sounded more aggressive.
We haven't heard that in a verylong time.
And and for the average, Iguess, drake listener being like
, yeah, he's hard, now he's gotit, and like he hasn't rapped
like this in a very long time.
If anything, that's good,that's inspired him to do that.
But what is he saying to that?
Because anybody can spit fastbut what are you saying?
Speaker 1 (43:16):
And when you listen to what he said, that song is
like, oh, this isn't what Ithought it was right.
It was just dope in the momentbecause we were like, wow, he's
saying this.
Speaker 2 (43:20):
But we were brought back to reality immediately with
meet the grams, right, uh, yesand I agree too oh, oh, no, no,
that song wasn't that good,uh-huh yeah, that's right, right
, yeah, that wasn't that good,you just heard what that that
was a song.
Speaker 3 (43:33):
That's why forever that that that beef should be
studied and stuff.
Because he went after that man'scharacter, he went after him in
a way that, if it's almost likewho cares about the listener
drake if you're listening tothis and I want to talk directly
to you, I almost want to helpyou that he offers advice, and
you know it's like yeah, yeah,pretty, pretty special.
It is great that we got towitness it all.
(43:55):
I will teach my kids that likea history lesson being like it
started here.
This is where it went, he did,he did get the Super Bowl, he
did get that Grammy.
Speaker 1 (44:04):
You know it's just like I feel like the two things
you and I vibed on from the jumpwhen we first met was music and
movies.
We were able to talk veryfreely about those when we met
(44:26):
up and I'm curious to hear yourperspective on where you think
cinema is.
Cinema is A great way to knowwhere I am right now is every
Christmas.
Since I was in middle school, Ithink every Christmas, we go
see a movie Every year.
It's not a debate.
We're going to see a movieevery single year this year well
(44:49):
, last year 2024, was the firstChristmas we did not go see a
movie.
That's how I feel it's the bestway to describe just where I
think cinema is right now.
I had no desires to go and seea movie this year, and I'm not
saying that that means the wholeyear sucks.
I'm not saying that.
I'm just saying that it's notproducing the quality that I
(45:09):
remember when it comes to thebig screen.
You can still go see like that.
I like Brad Pitt and GeorgeClooney's the Wolves movie that
came out on Apple TV.
I actually liked Fly Me to theMoon.
A lot of people said theydidn't enjoy that with Scarlett
Johansson and Shannon Tatum.
I'm a huge Marvel fan, soDeadpool and Wolverine was
(45:30):
phenomenal.
I'm never going to say anythingbad about it.
The only Marvel movie I willopenly say was bad was Thor,
love and Thunder, because I justfelt so upset with that movie.
Even with Star Wars I'm thesame way.
I understand people hate theprequels and they hate the
sequels.
But I'm re-watching the sequelsright now.
(45:51):
I went through the ForceAwakening and the idea in my
head I was like I'm rewatchingthe sequels right now.
I went through the ForceAwakening and the idea in my
head I was like I'm going towatch this without everyone's
take.
Is this a good movie?
Does this movie have this?
I'm not going to think aboutthe fact that it's somewhat the
same plot as episode four.
I'm not going to think aboutthat, I'm just going to watch it
.
Do I enjoy it?
And I did the Last Jedi.
(46:14):
I watched that again and I waslike do I enjoy this?
I don't like what they did withLuke, but it was beautiful what
they did with that film.
And then the last one I willsay was the weakest of the three
.
But when I rewatched it and Igot out of my head about the
Emperor coming back out ofnowhere and her having to be a
Palpatine.
It's like she didn't have to beone, but they had to make it
happen.
And her having to be aPalpatine is like she didn't
(46:35):
have to be one, but they had tomake it happen, and then she
becomes a Skywalker at the endand I'm just like that's
pointless storytelling.
None of that stuff had tohappen for this story, but it
happened.
So now, how do I take this?
Until the next part of StarWars lore, and I was able to
truly enjoy it and love that,and I feel like that is
(46:58):
something that I get from a lotof films still to this day.
But also it's been very, verydifferent this year.
So what do you feel, ifanything, about what I just said
about the state of the cinema?
Right, now?
Speaker 3 (47:13):
Well, I think so.
I want to talk about two thingsthe state of it and then the
Star Wars thing.
The state of the cinema I thinkthat it's visibly apparent that
the movie going experience isless, because we're all just
aware that something could beavailable the next day.
You know, I mean, even Wickedreally surprised me because it's
doing very well at the boxoffice day.
(47:33):
You know, streaming even wickedreally surprised me because
it's doing very well at the boxoffice, it's pretty beloved and
stuff.
And they threw that thing ondigital, uh, less than two
months after its release, which,like just so they can make
money.
Speaker 1 (47:42):
It was just so they can make more.
Yeah, I'm like, do y'all like?
Speaker 3 (47:45):
do y'all owe people something?
I'm like, why are you thatantsy for it?
Like, yeah, we all know the,the producers and whatnot.
They're a little greedy butlike to that, that level it's
pretty interesting.
But therefore, though, I think,cause what you said, going to
Christmas, you know there are alot of people who have movie
theater traditions that evenwhile COVID was going on and
people saying, is this the endof theaters and stuff, I was not
(48:05):
worried about that at all,cause independent theaters, yeah
, sadly, like that's hard, it'stheaters are expensive, it's
hard to run one, but the biggerchains I've never been afraid of
.
I'm still not, I still believein it, just because there are
movie experiences still, likeChristopher Nolan's working on
the Odyssey.
Speaker 1 (48:22):
Yeah, that's going to be crazy.
You're going to not see that onthe big screen he's creating
new technology with IMAX, likeyou will go.
Speaker 3 (48:28):
Even the Barbenheimer effect, like all these
different things that there are,events that us as a culture
kind of agree on.
You know, even marvel moviesare still that dc is just
getting ramped up.
You know one superman whensuperman comes out, I'm on there
.
Speaker 1 (48:41):
Open the floodgates, because now you'll have me too.
Speaker 3 (48:44):
Now you'll have dc actually putting out good
material and that will makemarvel set up their game.
Marvel has been coasting justbecause they have no competition
exactly.
So of course you're courseyou're going to get some, you
know, lame ones every now andthen, but the fact that they
could actually compete, that'sjust superhero movies alone
keeping it afloat.
But then you also, I alwayshave a lot of faith in horror,
(49:04):
because that's why, with moviestudios now, it's either like a
200 million dollar action thingor a two million dollar thing,
be it comedy, horror and horror,audiences are more drawn to
because they like originality,yeah, and even like Nosferatu.
All my theaters out here weresold out Christmas day, really,
yeah, and for like that week itwas hard to get a seat because
(49:25):
people just wanted to go see athing and that just happened to
be the thing, yeah, which istelling to, you know, just just
horror in.
In general, I think peopleappreciate being in a room with
everybody and seeing the storyunfurl, you know, and everybody
can.
You know there's, so there's,there's a lot of opportunity for
it to still exist and I thinkit will just, you know, not like
what we used to remember it.
(49:47):
As you know, there's a reasonthat there's not like 10 things
playing, because it's hard toget wide releases or even
limited releases.
It's much easier to just get adeal with Netflix or Amazon,
whatever you know.
But I think that people youknow, moviegoers are smart, and
they have been throughout alltime that we just want a good
story, we want something that'soriginal.
So, to wrap it to the Star Wars, that didn't work out because
(50:10):
of the writing.
Yeah, it was horrible.
They didn't go into it withlet's write a full story that
these three movies will tell.
It's I don't know this.
And now a new director, maybethis, and you know.
Speaker 1 (50:20):
I couldn't believe.
Why would you split updirectors for a trilogy it made
no?
Speaker 3 (50:24):
sense it's.
It's, yeah, interesting, that'san interesting.
Anyway, though, like if youever see a bad movie or
something that you're confusedby, or why didn't that hit like
99.9 percent of the time?
It's the script.
Always you can have a baddirector come in and it would
still be fine.
Maybe the words can carry it,but it's so hard for actors,
(50:45):
directors, lighting anything tobreathe life into a bad script.
So even with star wars, yeah,those are not the Rian Johnson
is he the strongest writer?
I don't know.
Maybe for some things, but yeah, that's for debate.
Speaker 1 (50:57):
Yeah like Knives Out worked in Glass Onion worked,
with those kind of likeexpectations being crushed
because that that's really whathe was doing.
He was finding ways to.
How can I make this so that youcannot predict what's going to
happen?
And it just didn't work withStar Wars, because we don't
really go to a Star Wars movieto be confused.
(51:18):
We feel like we know the world,we know how people are, we feel
like we grew up with LukeSkywalker, so we know the kind
of person Luke Skywalker is.
And when you tell us thatpeople change and it's like, yes
, but this dude was in front ofdarth vader and the emperor and
they were telling him to come tothe dark side, and he was like
(51:39):
I believe you still have lightin you.
How does he do that?
But then one day has a, a panicand almost kill his nephew.
Yeah, what are you serious?
Yeah, he's literally a Zenmaster.
That's what they do.
They're Zen people.
And you're telling me he wasn'table to keep his composure for
two seconds.
Speaker 3 (52:00):
Well, that's right With his own nephew, that was
mind-blowing.
Yeah, that was silly.
They were in panic mode becauseEpisode 7 was compared to 4 a
lot, so they just said, allright, let's just go off the
rails.
Then, you know, have it be alittle wild and like you know
gosh Leia doing the thing inspace.
Speaker 1 (52:19):
Absolutely ridiculous .
Speaker 3 (52:24):
I feel like they found ways to just piss me off
throughout that.
Going back to the movie theater, I remember so vividly when
that moment happened, seeing it,and when Leia does her magic
trick or whatever and the wholeaudience gasps but not in a good
way, you could tell it waseveryone kind of just like are
you seeing this too?
You know, like that's almostlike yeah, that was a moment,
that was a, but yeah again, italways just comes down to the
(52:44):
script, wrapping it from starwars to movie theaters.
Just as long as it's a goodstory, people will float towards
it.
You know, even like the netflixshows that are so bingeable is
for a reason.
There's something peopleconnect with.
Squid Game is on accident withhow well that's doing, just
based on the material it's.
What can people relate to?
Speaker 1 (53:02):
My last take and I'll say this real quick.
I think what you're saying isso true, but I think it's more
of a deeper meaning to whatyou're saying.
The writing is bad, but thereare millions of people out there
who can write incredible things, that should be able to do this
.
But the connections to thepeople who run this, the money
(53:23):
breadwinners, the top of the topwhen you think of these studios
, the person who says yes or no,they live in this world where
they'll never have to actuallymeet any other writers you know.
So you could have somebodyonline who pitched an incredible
fan fiction and they could givethat to that person and that
(53:47):
can be like who is this?
It's a nobody.
I want somebody like RianJohnson, someone that I know.
I trust him, I work with him andthey pass on incredible stuff
simply because of relationshipsand politics behind the scenes,
and I think that's truly what'sruining cinema right now.
(54:09):
You have people who havenothing to do with movies
telling you hey, we need to makethis much money, period.
Oh for sure, I don't know, Idon't care.
Let's get Timothy Charlemagne,because he's the person that
everyone knows right now.
Can we get Zendaya?
Great, let's get Zendaya, too.
Those are going to bringmillions of eyes that we don't
even have the work to get.
Speaker 3 (54:31):
Yeah, 100%.
Speaker 1 (54:32):
How can we continue to add to this?
Oh, josh Brolin great.
Okay, let's grab him.
Who else can we grab?
Oh, let's go.
But Baptista wants to do thisGreat, let's grab him.
All right, how much marketingdo we really have to do?
How much work do we really haveto do?
These stars will lead thisenough.
We can spend a couple thousanddollars on a writer.
We don't need to get a greatwriter, because the stars are
(54:54):
going to carry the movie.
Oh, yeah, for sure.
And it's like that is not theway that you work.
Speaker 3 (54:58):
But sadly that's kind of been how cinema has always
been too.
You know, I my my main, one ofmy main dudes I look up to
directing wise is Buster Keatonsilent film star, and I've been
reading a book on him is, andit's like in the 1920s they
still had the same problem and30s and 40s.
That's why we have movie starsto just guide a thing.
You know, be like that face onthis poster.
(55:19):
You know, john Wayne made a lotof shitty movies.
You know kind of, yeah, butit's just because slap them on,
you know, and it makes it so,yeah, we are still in that.
It's just always been that,though you know, that's just
sadly how it's run.
But then that's why it's nicewhen things hit, you know, or
you have like an everythingeverywhere, all at once where
it's a movie made by underdogs,you know, just because they
wanted to tell this story.
(55:40):
That's it there's.
Who cares about awards, whocares about who's in it or any
of that shit?
Let's just make it the best itcan be and look at that one best
picture because people couldfeel that.
So I don't think that modelwill ever change, even with
streaming and all that stuff,cause clearly now we have, you
know, there's so many moviesthat stars are in that you put
on and go.
Is that even real?
(56:01):
You know, like I haven't evenseen promotion for this or
whatever, but it's still justhow it works.
I guess you know.
Speaker 2 (56:19):
Every time I see your pretty face, my thoughts they
drift right into space.
I kneel down and ask for thissimple wish that you could be
standing right here.
Pretty miss.
I flip coins in the pot outside.
I drive around just to thinkand ride.
I'm pretty missed.
I flip coins in the pot outside, I drive around just to think
(56:40):
and ride when this girl and boywould love to be.
I guess we have to wait and seethese sweet dreams of you and I
.
Your smile is the reason whyDon't pass me by.
Oh my, this love, my, oh my, itwill never die.
Speaker 1 (57:07):
It will never die.
This is the first tune off ofmy first album, sweet Dreams,
titled Sweet Dreams.
Of course, like I said earlier,I actually made the music video
for this song with Larry in LosAngeles at a bar in Highland
Park I believe and it was just adamn good time working with him
and we always were inspired towork with each other, so it was
(57:29):
really cool that we got thatopportunity.
You can listen to my music onall streaming platforms so you
can check me out for moreinformation at DonLamorecom,
where you can get anything andeverything Don Lamore.
(57:56):
Know what I love?
I'm really, really enjoying thebear right now.
I've been watching the bear.
I stopped after season onebecause, like I said, I used to
work in restaurants and it wasvery traumatic watching that
first season because there wasmoments where I was like I've
been through this and this wasexactly how it was and it was
(58:17):
horrifying to see how realisticit actually was in the things
that it sparked in me and I hadto take a break and that's
incredible to be able to do thatwith the story, to make me feel
and really reflect andunderstand just how incredible
the work was.
So the Bear I took that breakand I'm back on season two now
(58:38):
and I just got through half ofthe season loving it Best thing
that I could have done while mywife is out of town.
What are you loving?
Speaker 3 (58:47):
right now I'm loving Spielberg movies.
I'm a filmmaker, I love to makefilms and stuff.
That man is the North Compassto creativity.
Creativity to why one shouldjust keep working, you know,
stepping up their game.
When I say him, I've been goingthrough his filmography, so
from the early stuff, to justkind of see how he's grown.
So I'm loving that right now.
I'm loving all the behind thescenes stuff, because it's nice
(59:09):
to see somebody work onsomething that they truly love.
He's not any in it for anyother reason than the love of
the game, and if you arefortunate enough to find
yourself in occupation like that, you got to remind yourself not
everybody can do this, you know, not everybody has had this
chance.
It's just it's beautiful to seeskill and love wrapped together
.
Speaker 1 (59:27):
That's what that dude does well, we made it to the
end of the show.
I appreciate your time.
I appreciate seeing your faceLikewise.
Likewise, we got througheverything we want to talk about
.
Last thing I always ask beforewe get off the pod is how do you
feel?
Speaker 3 (59:45):
Oh, feeling good, Feeling inspired, feeling ready,
feeling like I got my war painton and let's just go.
You know, whatever that meansProjects, life, let's go.
Speaker 1 (59:55):
That's how I'm feeling, yeah man, Ah man Cheers
to you.
Appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (01:00:01):
Yeesh Right back at you.
Speaker 1 (01:00:11):
I want to thank you for listening to the Black man
Talking Emotions podcast.
The opening quote.
Credit goes to Terrell Owens.
And shout out to my guy, LarryFollow Larry at Larry Rod Graham
on Instagram.
Please subscribe to the podcast, share the podcast and give us
a good rating Five stars, please, and thank you.
You can support the show byclicking the link at the bottom
(01:00:33):
of the episode description.
If you liked this episode, youshould check out a previous
episode I did with a closefriend titled Shannon O'Keefe on
embracing change and findingjoy.
It's a great lesson.
Check it out.
Follow me at D-O-M underscoreL-A-M-O-U-R on Instagram or at
DomLamorecom.
I'm Dom Lamore.
Much love.
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