AA: Hip Hop Ruined Me

A sports debate turns into a bigger question: when did we start treating money like it proves someone is right? We react to the Stephen A. Smith and Jaylen Brown moment, but we refuse to stay at the surface. We talk NBA officiating, flopping, and media outrage, then pull the thread that really matters: credibility is not a salary, and truth is not reserved for the richest voice in the room.

We also share why a weekly “black man wellness check” keeps us grounded. It is not a slogan. It is real friendship, honest accountability, and the kind of conversation that makes you less reactive to whatever is trending online. If you feel stretched thin, isolated, or stuck in your head, this part hits hard because it is simple, practical, and repeatable.

From there we step into politics and culture without letting celebrities drive the car. We challenge the idea that a sportscaster should shape how communities vote, and we explore a smarter strategy for anyone who feels taken for granted: organize, build networks, and create leverage, even through third-party momentum. We connect that back to class, institutions, and how division is often manufactured to keep regular people fighting each other.

We close with the stuff that sneaks into your life when you are not paying attention: hip hop values you never agreed to, celebrity worship through events like the Met Gala, and the attention economy that profits off your anger. The takeaway is clear: words are cheap, actions are real, and alignment is everything. If you got something from this, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs a reset, and leave a review. What’s one piece of “content” you’re ready to stop feeding?

Transcript

Loose Collar And Cinco Recap

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Man, look here. I was doing that thing I normally do when I do a solo show. And for anybody that's watching, excuse me, because I'm not looking at the camera and I'm gonna have the DeMonte collar. Shout out to Damante. Uh because I got the mic hooked on this collar and it's uh, you know, a little bacony, uh, because the mic pulling it down. I promise you, my collar good though. It might be a little loose, just a little bit, because I didn't had this shirt for a while. Shout out to uh uh uh uh Candace, you know, in Black and Call. That was a nice little thing they had going. And I'm sitting here listening to my music, getting ready to vibe out. Uh, I didn't do a show on Tuesday because what had happened was it was Cinco de Mayo, which I'm gonna recap in a minute. And so because I went out for Cinco de Mayo, I was like, yeah, no, we're not doing this show because yeah, we're gonna be outside. And then I was gonna just record it on Monday, and then I said, no, Cinco de Mayo might bring up some stuff that I want to talk about. And then I got so drunk at Cinco de Mayo because I had a time, I promise you, I'm gonna recap Cinco de Mayo in a minute. I uh said, ooh, I can't record yesterday. Whoosh, Wednesday? No, that wasn't happening. I I I didn't have the energy, I went and gonna be good, and because I didn't have to record, it's like, yeah, right. And then today I'm like, okay, we're gonna record on Thursday. And then I had my weekly uh black man wellness check with uh my man's Josh, aka H and Josh. I don't even know if he knows I call him that, but yeah. And I was like, man, I should start doing afterthoughts on Thursdays. I'm off on Thursdays. I have my my weekly check-in with my man's, and we talk about so many different things, and that honestly puts me in a better place to do the show because I've unpacked so many different ideas in my head, and it's not, you know, you don't have an itinerary for the conversation. And then I have these thoughts still floating around in my brain. So it's like, you know what? Since we're writing out the show now, old school C, pad and pencil C, I ain't like Gucci Man, I ain't like Jigger, you know. I mean, when I go in the booth, when I when you know I mean, when I lock in, now I have notes because I don't want to miss anything. But shout out to those who can freestyle. And I said, man, I have all these thoughts in my brain and I want to unpack them anyways, and I'm gonna unpack them. Shit, I might as well do some of it on the show. Or even just the ideas that I have in my head and the conversations that we have that are relevant to the show. I should approach the show after I've had that conversation while it's still fresh. Because uh it's fresh, you know what I mean? But give me one second for the black man wellness check. Um so yeah, I talked about a black man wellness check on here, and I'm actually talking about it in a conversation. So I'll talk it out loud as I tack uh as I uh as I type out this message. But a black man wellness check is it's just friends checking in on each other. Checking in on each other, yeah. Oh man, this is bad audio. Checking on each other to talk about life and keep each other encouraged and balanced and accountable. Recording. So yeah, I I do a weekly black man wellness check-in with my man's Josh, and uh we just talk about life, things we're going through, and you know, we do it respectfully, we talk about things we've gone through, we talk about old memories, we talk about people, we talk about topics, we talk about politics, talk about life. It's just connecting with somebody who you have deep connection to, a real friend, somebody who knows you without all the other stuff, all the other layers, all the flex and the flodge and the money, the shoes, none of that stuff. Somebody who knows you for who you are and can hold you to the standard that you need to be held to. So we do that, and it happened randomly, probably when I was not probably, it happened when I was going through it, and we just had a conversation and he heard something that he didn't like. So then he started calling, and then I started calling, and then now with my work schedule, we arranged that uh on Thursdays. That's what we're gonna do. We're gonna talk like two, three, four hours. We're gonna talk about life, and we're gonna make sure we're good. Because more black men need to do that. Not just more black men, more people need to do that. You know, be social with people who know you, people who love you, people who care about you. Just don't be on the internet and and and dealing with your internet people. Your internet people should be an extension of your real people just because they're too far away from you. So that's how y'all stay locked in and aligned. But you need to have people in your life who can help you. You can't do this by yourself, you're not supposed to do this by yourself. You know, we've been told here in America, independence, do it by yourself, leave your parents' house, leave your hometown, go get it yourself. The people who are telling you to do that don't do that, they only move when it makes sense for them to move. And they actually build with the people who they're connected to in their family uh to ensure that they can maintain what they have and grab more. You shouldn't listen to what people say, you should watch what they do. We're gonna circle back to that. Also, random thing that like that, that song is fire. It can't, it just popped up while I was playing music before the show, and I was like, I don't know if the future is gonna get the credit that he deserves for having the song that really popped off the biggest hip-hop beast in recent history. Even though all it was was a cash grab for UMG because they had two artists under different labels competing against each other, and they were just boosting the numbers and boosting the intrigue and all of that to get more money for themselves. Yes, the artists got paid more because their streaming numbers went up, but the exponential amount of money made by the owners of UMG and the executives at UMG are pennies compared to the talent who uh actually created the the art that we enjoyed, and then the the fans and the consumers who who made the art that profitable. Conversation for another day, maybe later today, but not right now. But I'm gonna open this show uh a little bit differently than I normally do, uh because you know, I I may have talked about this here, maybe not, but I remember being inspired by Jason Whitlock. And when he was on Cam Newton's podcast, he talked about how people need to be less reactionary and create the topics. You know, the burden of having a platform and and having an audience and and being one of the people who is who speaks to people and is allowed to speak to people and want to be heard by people, is that you create the topics, you don't allow them to tell you what it is that you should say. And so coming onto this show, it's like I try to create topics. I I don't I don't want to just respond to things, but sometimes you have to. And I hate response videos, I absolutely hate them. I think they're some of the worst things on the internet. I think it's over-monetization of things that don't actually matter, but because people think that matters and money can be made off of it, it exists. You know, drain the swamp, cut the fat. But I'm gonna respond to some things. Why? Because I'm a hypocrite, so are you, who cares, right? I'm gonna respond to some Stephen A. Smith because uh he talks a lot, he's getting paid a lot, he gets paid a lot to talk, he talks in a lot of different places, which means his voice is heard by a lot of people, and I imagine there is some audience crossover between us. So I want to address the things that he says that I don't think are cool things to say, you know. I'm sliding over on the couch just a tad because I didn't like the symmetry as I'm looking at it out of the corner of my eye over here where I see the screen, even though the camera's right up front of me and the game's right below it, neither here nor there. But uh, so yeah, Steve and Jalen Brown have been kind of going back and forth, and Conspiracy Me thinks it's a fake conversation, and they're just doing it because it makes money, and you know, that's cool and they love it, yada yada yada. But let's actually look at the conversation and then extract bigger picture things from it. So Jalen Brown goes on his Twitch and he talks about the poor officiating and flopping and how it's ruining the game, and and people can take shots at it. That's cool. Even if what he was saying was valid, which I agree with a lot of what he was saying, it's like, hey, bro, you flop too, and people are gonna hold that against you. But I also get why you flop because you're trying to win games and get points, and that's that helps you do that, especially when you're not getting calls. But when you get eliminated from a series, uh to me, it's not the time for you to do that because it just looks nasty. But in me saying I don't think it's the time for you to do it, I'm not saying don't go do it because it's your life. You do what the hell you want and live with the consequences. And JB appears to be a person who does that. Great. So Steve responds to him and he gets to talking, and you make 50 million dollars and you don't whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What does my money have to do with my opinion? And I want to stop right here. What does money have to do with someone's opinion? Money is a means, but there are a lot of ways to get money, and there are a lot of immoral ways to get money, Steve. There are a lot of unprincipled ways to get money, Steve. Uh the you can get paid to do something for someone, you can get paid a lot of money, but you're not doing anything original. It is not you, it's them, or you can even start doing something that's original to you, but because you're sponsored by him, them, and her, you have to speak in a way that ensures that they continue to sponsor you. And if that's what you want to do, cool. But now I get to question your principles, I get to question your message, I get to question why you say the things you say, why the things you say are are amplified. Yes, I get to ask those questions. Just like I get to say the same thing to Jalen Brown when, hey bruh, you lost the series. Why we why you talking about officiating? Sound like you crying. Even if it's valid. But when Steve goes at him and says, hey, you make this amount of money, so you ex man, nigga, shut up. My income doesn't have anything to do with my intellect. If a finals MVP, Eastern Conference Finals MVP, an all-star, all-NBA basketball player, team USA member at one point in his career, can speak about discrepancies in the game and how it's officiated. And a guy who gets paid a lot of money, but less money than him to do his job, then say you make this amount of money, so you shouldn't do this or you shouldn't do that. Well, can't we say the same about you? When you talk about the media industry, when you talk about people taking shots at you, people not being loyal to you, athletes doing this and that, or your power, whatever the hell it is that you you get off to. No, because whatever you're experiencing, what you're going through is real. Life is real, and the money that you make doesn't determine anything. I know smart niggas with money, I know dumb niggas with money, I know smart broke people, I know dumb broke people. I money is a means to an end, but it's not the end. But when we take what money someone has or what money someone makes, and then we value their opinion based off of that, we value their words off of the money. Now we've said the money is the end. College costs money because it takes money to run a college. And don't get me wrong, I know there is a scam in college, but the actual university system is a place that that breeds knowledge, breeds intellect, breeds innovation. Yes, there's a dollar figure that's required to go there. There's a dollar figure that you hope to gain when you leave there, but there's not a dollar figure that you can put on the information that you get from there. There's not a dollar figure you can put on the breakthrough before the breakthrough that created the breakthrough. You can't put money on those things. So then when we start trying to put money on someone's ability to discuss something and whether or not they have credibility based on the money that they make, whether they make so much money they can't complain or they don't make enough money to have a valid point, that's bullshit. Because information is information, and if we remove the money aspect of it, what else do we have? Does money create truth? Like if it's not you understand what I'm saying? If it's true and my net worth is$12, excuse me, uh yeah, if it's true and my net worth is$12 and I discover that truth, whether or not I can monetize it, or if it's true my net worth is$12 million, why does one person's truth make it more valid? Because again, we try to use money as the the end all be all, but how did you get your money? Did you earn it or did you receive it? Did you, you know, was an inheritance? Or did you are you self-made, or did you go work for someone and take a salary to get your money? I'm not knocking you on how you get it, but the way that you get your money is important when we try to use money as a decider of someone's credibility. And for Steve to use that, it's it's nonsense, it's garbage. And then he tells the man to stop talking unless he wants to get traded. Who are you to tell a man what to do? What credibility that you do you have that puts you in a place to say, hey, this person who was doing something that I aspired to do at one point in my life but couldn't do, so now I cover it and talk about it, and I'm really good at that, and I'm highly paid for it. Let me tell him how to live his career. And unfortunately, I you know, I've consumed the information. You some of you all have listened to this, and I'm talking about it, but why are we even talking about this? What does this matter? How does Jalen Brown's thoughts on the NBA and Stephen A. Smith's thoughts on the NBA change our lives? It doesn't. What value does it add to us? None. I'll tell you, I listen and I listen to this stuff and I talk about it because the people listen to it and talk about it. And I want to use this as a bridge to get a different message to the people. Hey, we don't have to care about this. We can let this go away. We can just watch the games and say, hey, you know what? I know what I watch. Or if we want to go get in-depth analysis, we can. But going back to my conversation with Josh today, bro, we don't have to listening to sports media day in and day out, what does it do for you? Like the Falcons fans who are listening to all the the post-draft information, the pre-training camp information, what does that do to make your life better? How does that make your fan experience better? I'm not saying it doesn't. I'm just saying you should ask the question. You should question everything. You should ask, why am I doing this? Why do I work this job? Why do I why am I living in this dynamic? Why do I live in this town? Why do I hang out with these people? Why do I love these people? Not because you're trying to change anything. It's just making sure that you're aligned and you're not doing things just for the sake of doing them. You're not listening to something because somebody has conditioned you to think that you need to know what the hell they have to say. And the only reason you have to know what the hell they have to say is because somebody else can sell you something while they're talking. Do you actually care about the sponsors? Do you care about the ads? Or do you care about the game? If you start caring more about the game and direct your money towards the game directly, I bet we'll get a better game. And we'll get less of this ancillary stuff on the outside. But back to Steve. Steve also came out and said earlier this week or last week, sometime between now and today and the last time I recorded on the microphone, that maybe black people should just vote Republican for one election. And he gets into how black people have uh regularly voted for Democrats throughout his throughout history post the uh Civil Rights Act of 1964, and our our votes are taken for granted. Valid point, Steve. But why the hell should I listen to a sportscaster who did not study political science, who does not have a career based in politics, but has a career placed a career in entertainment media to tell me what I should think? That's crazy. Not to say that he can't know anything about it, but what has he done? What has he shown you as a human being that his political opinion should be valued? And now let's get into the political pink opinion that may or may not be valued by some. Hey, black people, if you're gonna abstain your vote or if you're gonna vote in a different direction, here's what black people should do: don't pick one of the two parties, pick a third party, unite around a third party, run candidates through a third party, create networks, small networks that create larger networks to create this third party. And guess what happens? If you pull yourself out of that system, and then you create that third party, you vote for that third party, you get enough motion over there that somebody comes knocking. Why? Because somebody, your third party may not win, but your ability to galvanize a large group of people that can help someone else win, gets you the leverage you want. So then when it's when you're when it's time to discuss whether where you're going to cast your vote, where the people in your community who educate those who don't have the time to get the information directly or secondarily, right? You take that back to them. But I don't say this just for black people, I say this for anybody who feels disenfranchised by the system. Don't just go to the other side, create a new side. Now your new side. May not get legs. But if you get enough people like-minded to go to your new side, it will bring the old side back to you asking, What can I do to get your support? And you say, Hey, if you want my support, you get this. Far too many Americans are tied to political parties or tied to large institutions that don't directly serve them. But because your ideology is tied to this one group, this one group can do whatever the hell they want while speaking your ideology and just take advantage of. Make you grab your ankles, they grab no lube, and boom, they're in there. Like swimwear. Absolutely. That's what happens. And it's easy to talk about it from a black point of view because you can look at a black person and a white person or a Hispanic person or an Asian person and tell the difference, right? But oftentimes these issues aren't racial issues, they're class issues. And then we use race inside of class to create even more division so that the people who are being divided don't even realize what's going on. Because they have so many different problems that they're fighting. So many different issues. Oh, this person disagrees with me. This person votes differently for me. This person wants to live their life differently for me. They're the problem. Not really. Because that person doesn't even have enough control over their life. It's just like you don't have enough control over your life to dictate the terms in which you operate in. Because, oh, he's racist. He predicted. Okay, and what does that do to you? He's not oppressing you. He can't. He's poor too. Oh, this black man, or this, or this, this, this illegal immigrant, or perceived illegal immigrant, don't take my job, don't take my place, my standing in life. Not really. It's the guy telling you that he's a problem that's actually oppressing you and shrinking what it is that you can grab. And by having you two fight for the one piece of cheese, instead of just saying, hey, let's just split this piece of cheese so both of us can eat, and then we can go out together and get some more cheese. I'm just saying. So for somebody like Steve to get up here and say, hey, we should just vote Republican to take our votes hostage, no. No, no, they pay you to say that because you're highly compensated to talk. And you haven't built anything yourself, so we know it's not organic. We know that your ability to speak inside of the four letters confines, uh, the the the the three letters confines, the Mickey Mouse's confines, and whoever else will pay you's confines. Yeah, they're gonna pay you to say the things that they want to be said. And not to say that they're telling you what to say. No. You just discovering what works is in alignment, what works for them, but may not be in the best interest of you and the people you say you stand for. I uh, you know, but people are elitists because the money matters. All right, but uh, anyways, let's get on to some more media response video stuff that I kind of want to talk about. The Draymond and Austin Rivers thing, I think that was the stupidest media outrage I've ever seen, and I feel stupid for talking about it, so I'm gonna keep it very quick, very brief. But yo, like people, don't give life, and I'm probably giving life to it by saying don't give life to it. And I promise you, I'm not trying to monetize it. I'm trying to get us to a better place. Bro, don't give life to fake outrage. Like, we know this monetization model exists. Little Duval talked about it. Uh he posted some stuff saying they should get rid of monetization from social media. They absolutely should. Social media, YouTube, all of that stuff should give you the platform to project what it is that you want to put out and then go make money off of that based on what it is that you can do. Like when you think about how these record labels move and how these streaming platforms move, these DSPs, bro, they are taking this entire category, they are taking this entire catalog, leveraging it to make to make a business, and then they're busting down the money, not based on what you what it is that you can do, but some bullshit equal share based on no, it's it's it's nonsense, you know. And I understand why Drake is suing UMG. I think it's nonsense because he benefited from some of those same tactics, but you know, they don't own their money. But yo, people just talk past each other for the sake of a conversation, just for the sake of content. People are are like willfully ignorant. It's just disgusting. I I I bro, if you listen to something and it doesn't make sense, and like you want to get in the comments or you want to like yell or fuss about it, just turn it off. Because it's not organic. They did it because they want you to do that. Which means they want to manipulate you. And if you know somebody wants to manipulate you, bro, run. Get away from the manipulation. Uh also I saw something with Dre and Chuck. He tried to make a joke about Chuck and in the in the playing for the Rockets, and it didn't go over well. And people were like, Yeah, you know, when you're actually mean, people don't really like your jokes because they think you're mean. And I thought about this, and there was another conversation I listened to, and I go, wow, this makes me think. I always wondered why I could get away with saying crazy stuff and and and and doing things that may not be socially acceptable and just getting away with it. But it's because I'm not mean spirited. Even if I say mean things, I don't mean to hurt people. It's like, oh, it was a bad joke. I misread the realm. I don't fight, I'm not violent, I don't really berate people. I mean, I have before because I'm a human, but and it just had me thinking, wow, it's amazing how little words matter when connections are real. When I think about some of my strained relationships, I go, well, what happened? Oh, words, words hurt feelings, but those feelings were hurt because there wasn't chemistry alignment, buy-in, respect at the foundation. The foundation was built on words, and when the words aren't good, you've got nothing. You know, and I think about relationships I've built with people, vibes I've caught, like, bro, when you catch a vibe with a lady who doesn't speak your language and y'all don't talk, but you can feel the mutual attraction and you can catch the vibes. You know what I mean? And it's you and her. It's like, oh yeah, no, it's energy. Because the words matter less when the connection's deeper. Now, do words matter? Absolutely, but they don't matter as much. Actions matter. People will tell you that they are doing something or fighting for justice or fighting for a cause, like Steve does, because they're just going out on a platform and talking. That doesn't do anything. If what you're doing on the internet is not a reflection of what you're doing in real life and just a way to amplify it and broadcast it to more people, then you're you're you're not living in alignment. You're not whack. That shit's whack. So it just had you know, it just had me thinking, like, wow, I've answered another question about myself that I ask. And in that, it it had me on to this next one where it's words. I'm telling you, words don't matter as much. I yeah, you don't want to be disrespected, but we can come back from it. It's just words. Like, who cares what they say about you? Now, what they believe about you, that's where things can change and feelings can get hurt in relationships or alter. Because I think about three different situations right now on the top of my head. Real life situations with people who were close to me, are close to me, connected to me, all of that stuff, like real life stuff, and the relationships are strained. But the relationships aren't strained because of what they've said about me. It's like that's what you believed about me. It's like, hold on, you believe a mistake was was willfully intentional bad action. Oh, you thought this rumor or this and this lie placed on me for whatever reason is real even though it doesn't align with what you know about me and who you know me to be. Oh, you can find the crossover, so it's like, oh, this happened, so I could see how or why. Oh, okay. But has that been our interaction? Is that how I've treated you? That what I've shown you. I may have told you some things that are similar to that, but also knowing that I told you that there are things that were left out for whatever reason, whether it is I didn't want to tell you or or I forgot about it, or I was trying to paint myself to look a certain way in the story, so I left it out. Whatever, whatever, we don't know. But dang, you believe that about me? And I promise you, I'm talking about three different things. But if the shoe fits, I want you to put your socks on and wear it every single day. So think about this. Think about what you think about people who are around you, people who are close to you. What are you willing to believe about them? And if you're willing to believe something about them that would alter the relationship, and you'd believe uh something from the outside versus the person directly. Oh, there's no trust, there's no love, there's no respect. And if you have that, it's like, what the fuck are we doing? What are we talking about? Why are you talking to me? What do you want from me? Tell me what you want from me. Because maybe instead of this being a personal interaction, a relationship built on love, this may need to be a transactional uh relationship built on business. And if that's what you want to do, what what what do you actually want? Put it on the table and let's negotiate. But when you believe the bullshit and you don't confront it, and you believe somebody to be someone that they haven't been, because the words of somebody else or the feelings of somebody else, without even diving into the reasons why that person could feel that way, why the person would express that and why the person would want to make you feel that way. If you're dealing with that, then like you just leave them where they are. What's the point of being around somebody who you don't trust or somebody who doesn't trust you? If your actions and words are in alignment and they don't believe your words, even though your words are a reflection of your actions. I want no, I didn't. But I did want jury. I I did consciously and subconsciously subscribe to values and ideas that went against who I was raised to be, who I was taught to be, who I am, and at my core. But you know, you think about an apple, right? Because if you think about a core, apple core is probably one of the first cores that people deal with because many people eat apples. You got your skin, you got your fruit, you got your stem, you know, you got that seed. Now, at the end of the day, all of that stuff is just a I mean, apple seed. Apple seed turns and you know, apple seed turns into an apple tree that turns into an apple. But it's still an apple seed. You can put this bark on it, you can put this fruit on it, you can add this nutritional value, but you can also get worms, you can get poison, right? All these different things, right? Because the seed's no longer in its original state. But the purpose of the apple seed is to create apples, create apple trees so we can have more apples, so apples can survive and thrive. Now think about life. At the end of the day, we're humans and we're raised to be who we are based on our experiences and our loved ones, just like that apple seed. But when you add all this extra stuff to life, like hip hop did. Oh, chasing women, being in the club, oh, if I make this amount of money, I can do this and this go. As a black man, you have to do this, act this way, no snitching, pulls, oh, come to make the club, hip fuck the police, but hip hop handle niggas come on the first class just to take a nap. Hip hop tell me to spend go to the club, buy the selection, spend five hundred dollars on a bottle that costs two hundred at the stove, spend seven hundred dollars on a bottle that costs fifty at the stove. Go somewhere and sit at a table to try to impress people who don't want to hang out with you because they want to sit at their table. Hip hop and tell your bros over hoes. Since when? Since when does a man pick his friends over his family? Hip hop and have you believe in that toxic relationships or normal relationships, that a poverty survival mindset is the way that you're supposed to live. You take people out of out of terrible environments, they get paid a lot of money to spread a message, and then people who don't come from that environment say, oh, this is how I should live my life. Or, hey, these are values that I should I should I should embrace. Oh, because we look the same. We get treated the same by the others. You know, I've dealt with some terrible police officers, but I know some great ones. And I have my issues with the police and policing and all of that stuff. Don't don't get it twisted, but I don't have my my issues not with police officers. My issue is rarely with individuals. My in my issues are with institutions. You have to understand it's just deeper than the institution. It's the trust that that that the institution has, it's the culture that the institution has created, it's the things that we allow based upon these institutions and the benefits that they allow, and the safeties that they allow, and the comforts that they allow. That we're not always critical. Oh, he makes all this money, so we can't call him out. Why not? Oh, he's the president. You can't say about the pro he's the pastor, you can't say he's your daddy, he's your mama. Wrong is wrong and right is right. And guess what? I didn't come from poverty. I grew up on acres. I'm not saying to pop my shit. I'm just saying I'm a country boy who grew up on acres. Shout out to my my my lineage for for being in a position to have that. Why would I take hip hop and mainstream hip hop, gangster rap, poverty rap, trap rap. Lots of people who didn't come from stability, who didn't come from home, people who were who were destroyed by the crack era. It missed it missed the core of my family. I'm not saying the crack epidemic didn't hit my family, but it didn't wipe us out. Some of us moved to the cities, but some of us stayed in the country. And I'm from the family that stayed in the country where my mama left and then came back to the country and raised me here. So why would I think that people who have totally different life experiences than me, although they look like me, why would I adapt their way of living or part or a lot of key tenants in their compass when, bro, we on man, we on different maps. We're living in different worlds. Man, we got different suns. So your magnetic north and my magnetic north ain't the same thing. Your map and my map, buddy, two different states, two different countries, two different, you know what I mean, different worlds. I'm gonna use your map. I'm gonna use your cliff notes. I'm not even reading that book. And I think about that, and I think about the desire to have money and to do this and do that, and it's like, bro, Drake be touring who was touring all the time. I don't think that man wanted to tour like that. Oh, I've gotta make an album, I've gotta sell this much. It's like, dang, bro, you can't even make the music you want to make. Why would I listen to people who claim to be in control of their lives, but they're not. Claim to be in control of their money, but they're not. They're living paycheck to paycheck, floating debt just like the rest of us. They're just doing it at a more extreme level. And we know the the problem of excesses. More money, more problems. Diddy wasn't lying. Look at his life. Diddy has experienced things that I'll never experience in a good way and a bad way. He's experienced things I don't want to experience in a good way and a bad way. But when you make so much money, you you you you gotta keep it. And if you keep it, you know, when you get it, you gotta maintain it. And that means tying yourself to the people who pay you. And when you stop getting paid by the people and getting paid by a person, you be you picking up what I'm putting down, right? And on that, bro, I don't care, bro. Who gives? Why does the Met Gal exist? Golly, I promise you, this is the most unoriginal version of this show that I'll probably ever do. But these are my thoughts this week. Why do I care about celebrities dressing up and hanging out? And there's and the only pictures we see are the pictures that they let out. They don't allow phones. Uh, they I heard they like Sit, you don't sit with your partner. Hey, look here, dog. I'm not going to no party where I can't sit with my lady. My plus one, nah, we're sitting together all this speed dating. Yeah, we can move in pairs. But nah, you ain't just bouncing around the table. I'm not doing that. You have to be approved by this person before you go. Tickets over$100,000. Man, niggas can't eat. Man, I'm about some short ribs today. Usually a pound of short ribs running you$9,$12,$18. I'm just talking about Rick Kroger short ribs. I ain't talking about that super fancy fly shit. You know what I mean? I don't live like y'all. The price of gas. Four something in Georgia. But they're gonna spend all of this money and circulate it amongst each other. And really the parishioners there are just again, they spending somebody else's money. Just to be there to hopefully get a little bit of money of their own, a little bit of freedom of their own. Oh, I didn't know that to Jeff Bates, those things would be. Man, who cares? I bet if you I bet if you gave that money to the people, you created programs for the people, created opportunities for the people, came up off your privilege. Get out of these million dollar outfits and take that million dollars and give it to the people. Because what do you get? And I'm not saying give everything to the people. No, if you've done something to have more, cool. Live your life. Be up here. But just give a little bit down now. It's okay if they come up here too. Because you know, usually when you help people, they help you. If you snake people, they snake you. People who are more likely to kill over nothing are worried about being killed over nothing. There aren't many places that I walk where I feel like I need to be armed. There aren't places that I've many places where I walk where I feel scared. Why? Because if I feel I need those things, I don't go to those places. I go to places where I'm accepted and I'm loved. I try to be amongst the people. But the people care about the people at the Met Gala, and the people at the Met Gala don't give a fuck about the people who give them the money to become those people. I wonder how the Molly era is going to be remembered. Like that was such a wild era that just like abruptly ended. Like you just don't hear about people doing Molly anymore. And not to say that they should do Molly, I'm just saying the Molly era was a good time. And I just wonder how it's going to be remembered in like 10-15 years. Like, is it even going to be considered an era? Like the music that came out of that. Like, you know, the Molly era was the last good party era. Once y'all really started going to the opioids, the parties died, and y'all just became loners and anxious and depressed and and wanting to be by yourself or just with your girls or just with your guys. Oh, I'm just going out for my girl. Nigga, what? You're supposed to go out to meet people. If you want to kick it with your girls, stay at home with your girls. Yeah. Going in social settings, I get they take you should be protected. You protect your peace. You go out for you. You don't go for others. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. But the idea of leaving your home, leaving your place of comfort, leaving the people of comfort is to create new social interactions, create new connections. And it's okay to say, hey, I'm going out here looking for specific interactions. And if I don't find those interactions, I'm not going to interact with people. But to say, I don't go out for people, I go out for me, yes, you go out for you, but you go out to interact with people. If you're not going out to interact with people, you should question why you go out and start going out to interact with people. It's good to interact with people because when you interact with people, you find out who they are. Like when you interact with people, you actually find out the people who make the most jokes about the WNBA actually watch it and support it. Like I get a lot of jokes off on the WNBA, but I get my jokes off because I watch it, because I'm familiar with the product. I'm familiar with the players. I follow it on social media. It is a part of my life. But there are people who would tell me that my thoughts on the W and how I talk about it is disrespectful to them and disrespectful to the league and this and that. And they don't even watch it. They don't even care about it. They don't even understand that I am making jokes that are jokes based upon a player's play, not based on some BS narrative. And even when I lean into a stereotypical narrative, I'm gonna then come back and give you some real information on that because I support the game, I follow the game. But see, I make fun of my friends, I make fun of my daughter, I make fun of my mama, I make fun of my daddy, I make fun of niggas I don't know, I make fun of my dogs, I make fun of myself. So if I'm gonna make fun of everybody, why can't I make fun of you? Because it's making fun. Fun. We enjoy fun. It's making fun. But people want to tell you what your words mean and tell you what your thoughts mean. And don't let those people define you. You define yourself and understand that when you fit into the confines of a world, yes, you have to. If you want somebody's money, you have to do what they want you to do. You have to agree to terms. But don't let somebody tell you what your words mean, what your heart, what your heart feels. Because if you don't understand that even the people who love you, they want you to do things for some self-serving reason. And that's okay, because you want people to do something for a self-serving reason. Just isolate what those reasons are so you can have a conversation. Talk to people. Come and talk to me. Yeah, talk to people. Put your phone down, connect, learn. Don't be offended when somebody says something you don't like. They're just words. Words don't hurt you, actions do. Remember that words don't hurt you, actions do. Anyway, those are my afterthoughts. I'm gonna watch the playoffs of basketball calls of the night. Hope y'all enjoyed that. So much easier to do when you have classes.