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KBLA Talk fifteen eighty. We our next guest shows that
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song and he took us way, way way back, but
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it's I do too. Actually. He's an American author, he's
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an historian. He's a radio host from the Bay. He
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reps it hard. He's best known as the author of Funk,
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the Music, The People, The Rhythm of the One. He's
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got his PhD from UC Berkeley, teaches there and many
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other places. When he's not busy on his own mic,
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he graces ours doctor Ricky Vincent.
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Good morning, Good morning, how you doing.
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I'm good. I actually was already outside in the rain,
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but I'm good. How are you?
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Yeah, Well, on the West Coast, we can't get away
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from it, and you know, so you deal with it.
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But the way to deal with these things is some
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perfect soul music. There's good soul music and then there's
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perfect soul songs. And to me, that was one of them.
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Okay, So when you say there's good and there's perfect,
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tell us the difference. What's the difference between a good
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soul song and a perfect soul song.
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Well, there is no note that is out of place,
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there is no lapse in in you know, in the
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emotional authority delivered by the by the performer and usually
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the singer, but there's also a lot of other things
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going on. I think about ROBERTA. Flack and Donnie Hathaways
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where is the Love? And you can sit there and
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and listen to both vocalists at at their peak. But
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then you can unpack it and listen to the rhythms
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in there. And I studied the song one time and
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it was written by Ralph McDonald, the percussionist. And when
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you when you dig in, the further you dig in, Yeah,
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the further you dig into these great soul songs, you
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find masters uh at on every level, and you can
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you can you can trust them. And there's plenty of
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talented people around. But you know when you when you
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get masters together in the room that understand and jazz
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musicians say the same thing. You know, if you understand
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the group and you understand the individual aspiration all together, uh,
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then magic can happen.
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I said the stylistics results. I should have said the dramatics.
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I said the stylistics, the dramatics. Since you chose the song,
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talk a little bit about the dramatics. I think maybe
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we don't, you know, it's one of the groups you
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don't hear about as much.
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Well, I remember wondering what happened to the Dramatics, and
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I am trying to think if it was Iced Tea
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or or Snoop Dogg. And somebody uh replayed one of
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their uh kind of smooth player songs and and I'm like, yeah,
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the Dramatics, they they were you know this this group.
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They're actually from the northeast, from the Detroit area, I believe,
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but they were sort of grabbed by the next generation
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of hip hop in the eighties when they were first
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sampling and treating like legends, people like Curtis Mayfield and
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you know, the folks that could sort of draw a
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landscape of the street through their music and uh and
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the Dramatics did a lot of that, which was fascinating
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to me because they were on Stats Records, which is
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out of Memphis, but they weren't from Memphis. Yeah that's crazy, right,
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So they were They were sort of a bit of
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a not really a misnomer, but they just had their
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own their own path. And but when it when it
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came time to uh, uh, let me let me drop
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something with authority, and what's this what's the song where
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do uh, what you see is what you get then then,
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I mean those notes, those riffs are embedded in our
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in our souls, in our identities. You can't get you
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can't get away from them. And when they say, well
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we don't have a any medically medical way of treating
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somebody that's kind of fading and they don't have their
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way to playing an old soul song, and everything comes
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back because that stuff is it's baked in right
Load full transcript
now.
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And so the Dramatics had a run of those, and
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I think Ron Banks was one of their leaders. And
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if you're in Detroit, you're gonna wind up recording with
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George Clinton sooner or later.
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So uh.
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Uh. Crate diggers love to look on the back of
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records and and see, you know, who wound up over that,
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who wound up in the in the in the sessions,
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you know, doing things with George and stuff like that.
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So the Dramatics have they check all the boxes and
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you just can't you can't get away from that. Well
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maybe people do, you know, we move on, But at
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the same time, it's always a special thing to recognize
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our roots, recognize where it came from. And when you
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want to snuggle up and warm up on a cold
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day and wet day. Great soul music the way to
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do that.
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It's funny too, because you know, I said, you don't
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hear about them as much in the mainstream discourse, but apparently,
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according to Wikipedia, they've been sampled one hundred and twenty
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eight times, which is a lot of samples. And so
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and so, and I remember one time when I had
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my show Home Turf back in the Bay, I interviewed
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George and then one of the things he said was that,
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you know, he doesn't really he didn't really care for
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rap that much, but he loved the fact that they
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were sampling his songs because he was getting paid. But
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that's not always the case.
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Is it. It's not always the case, And and and
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we kind of mistake recognition for you know, actual of
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financial stability and financial accumulation, and that that sort of
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goes into our own sense of our pop culture. In
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this it reminds me, it goes back. There was a
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there was a movie about Chess Records called Cadillac Records,
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and Most Deaf was playing Chuck Berry and they're having
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fun with his new hit and he gets to sit
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down in the room with the rock and roll DJ,
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the famous rock and roll d I think Alan Freed,
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the guy playing Alan Free. And he sits down with
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with Chuck Berry and and the Chess Records guy, and
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he says, and he points at Chuck and he says,
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I'm gonna make you famous, and he points at the
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Chess Records guy is I'm gonna make you rich. And
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well wait, wait, let's switch sides here, let me get
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on this side of the now. Say that again, because
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but that was always a plan. That was like, you know,
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give these guys a cadillact and and keep them, you know,
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keep them happy on a short term, and we will
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cash in long term, you know, and be set for life,
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set for generations off of what these black artists did. Uh.
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And that's been the formula for so long, and it
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really hasn't been exposed. So even when you hear about
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a song or an artist getting recognized or even appearing
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on a on a sort of a remake of a song,
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and and you're like, hey, they're they're getting their flowers
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and their propers, but that doesn't mean they're getting their
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debts paid, that doesn't mean they have health care, that
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doesn't mean you know that their children are doing well
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based on what you know the parents accomplished for fifty
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years and that somehow we have a blind spot there
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and we were not recognizing those people that put in
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that kind of work. We lost Jesse Jackson, and you know,
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all of recognition for him is well well deserved, but
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you know, he's on Curtis Mayfield documentary. You know, given
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it up for Curtis Mayfield. Curtis Mayfield put in as
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much as work really for the people as Jesse Jackson did.
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And I don't mean any disrespect at all to either
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one of them. They both did, but we know how
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to sort of recognize one to the type of soul
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and spirit because that's just the way that to set
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up for us. And we so we just sort of wish,
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you wish the best for
these artists when they should
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be an institution on the level of the Rock and
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Roll Hall of Fame.
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Well, I think that there's a couple of things that
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contribute to that. First of all, for people like me,
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regular media people that aren't super famous. You know, we're
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not on the Today Show or whatever. We don't have
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access to big name artists. Most of the time. Most
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of the time there's publicists and layers and layers and
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lanes that. Then there's this narrative in a lot of
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these movies, like that one you just talked about, but
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not that one as much as some others where it's
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you know, Chuck Berry and certain artists were ripped off.
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But that's in the past. That's we don't do that
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anymore now. You know. Now artists have lawyers and they
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have and they have sophisticated contracts, and they know what
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they're doing, so they're getting paid. And you see one
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or two artists that are billionaires, so we assume they're
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all rich. And three, you know, the streaming, the advent
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of streaming, I mean, has really made it harder also
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for artists to make a living, not not even touching
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on AI. So I think that while in some senses
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things have gotten harder for artists as far as making
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a living, the narrative is that they're doing better.
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Well. I'd like to hear from some musicians that can
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agree to that, because it when it when it trickles
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all the way down. Many of the artists that I've
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know that I appreciate the most are still on the
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road and that's that's how they can do it. And
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oh they're dedicated. They're dedicated, but they're also desperate in
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a way that's not glamorous.
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It's not fair either. It's terrible. It's not fair. We're
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talking with doctor Ricky Vincent, music historian and author. Will
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continue the conversation when we come forward on KBLA Talk
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fifteen eighty. Doctor Ricky Vincent is a renowned music historian.
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He is an author and a professor, Doctor Vincent. You know,
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we were talking about how just because an artist is
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often sampled, or because you danced to their song at
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your wedding or grew up you know listening to their music,
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doesn't mean they're paid just because they're famous. I always
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say that about my parents, you know, Amri Baraka and
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Diana Prima. Think people think I have a silver spoon
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because they know my parents' names. No, I always call
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it lifestyles of the poor and famous. You know, you
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can you can be known by a lot of folks
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and doesn't mean you have any money. But why is that?
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Why?
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I mean, I was looking at this list of billionaires
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black billionaires. Apparently there's like twenty two in the whole
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world and one one is Rihanna, one is jay Z,
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and one is Beyonce. There are no other musicians on
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that list. Why is why is? Why is Rihanna? And
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I love Rihanna? Why is Rihanna billionaire? But you know,
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Smokie Robinson.
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Isn't That's a great question. And why aren't we aware
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of this? And and those three that you mentioned, why
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aren't they sort of making more more visible announcements. A
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part of it is the culture surrounding whatever it is
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super wealth. And I remember Michael Jordan's the basketball player.
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Always got he because he was like one of the
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most successful players, of course, but then he was kind
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of famously kind of joked by Jonas Barklay and others
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that the Michael Jordan's the chief skate that he wasn't
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really into doing you know, social uh uh give back
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type of stuff. He you know, he was busy accumulating
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his money. And we we are trained to revere that
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as opposed to uh recognizing, you know, there's a way
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in our community that your value is based on how
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you support your community things of that nature. And you know,
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Michael has done what he what he what he's done
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that's fine, but we don't we don't recognize the distinction.
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We don't we don't recognize the difference. Those three people
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made a lot of money, but and they might show
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up once in a while at a at a memorial
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for someone or dedication, but that to me, I'm like,
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there's a disconnect there. And as much as Beyonce uh
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puts little easter rays, little nuggets, little history lessons in
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her videos, often uh she kind of recognizes these little
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cultural elements that preceded her generation. Well, you know, the
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music artists were the ones that were laying that had
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been laying that out is through the history of recorded
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music and the history of videos, and I just, uh,
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I feel like we just sort of accept this and
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move on. And that's that's not I don't think that
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is actually telling the truth about our lived experience. When
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we get around, you know, family gatherings and we talk
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about the old days and this and that, We talk
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about the artists and old shows, great times we had
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and what was the soundtrack to that? It was all
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this great music And people today are studying the music,
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but not necessarily the people and giving them a recognition
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for what they've done and part of that is it's
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the sweet and sour of hip hop, because you know,
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when you tell people where hip hop came from, first
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of all, that's still foggy. You know, fifty years some.
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People say that, say that, Doctor Vincent, because I've been
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saying it. You you, I mean, no shade to cool herk.
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But they want to say it happened on this day
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at this time, man hip hop was to me, it's
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not that cut and dry. And so I'm glad to
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see you say that because you're a reputable scholar, and
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I just run my mouth.
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Okay, well that's fine, as you do a good job
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of that. It's a great job, by the way, thank you.
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But you know, I was. I was making my own
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little wacky mixtapes in the seventies because I wanted I
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liked those songs, I said, but I just want the beat.
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Don't give me the breakdown. I don't want the ballot,
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give me the beat. And so we were it was
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a generational thing if we were into right, but you know,
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on a on a sort of a deeper scale, when
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the even when the ogs, when LEL Cool Day talks
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about our you know, hip hop, we came up and
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we did this thing, and to a large degree they
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can say they created this, this music without elders. And
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every other form, you know, blues gospel jazz, you know,
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the artists in that form were taught by a mentor,
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by an elder that said, look, this is how you
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do these chords and that'll hold the crowd and boom
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boom bah and you know, Ray Charles, everybody will say that,
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you know, they learned from somebody else that talked to them. Well,
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a lot of the youngsters that put hip hop together,
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they didn't have an older family member. All they had
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was the records. The records were there, their name, James.
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Brown was their elder, because everybody was sampling James at first.
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Right, James Brown was their elder, and they sat down,
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but not necessarily with James with.
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His records right exactly, let me mess with.
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This, let me mess with that. And it's gotten to
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that point where folks recognized those hooks and those records,
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but they don't recognize Fred Leslie or Mayfield Parker or
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Jobo starts at Clyde Stubblefield on the drums. You know,
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Jimmy Nolan's guitar licks, the guy that did all that
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you know, all that Papa's got a brand new bag
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and licking stick, all those real clean and tight and
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crisp rifts that people around the world nothing to right now.
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So you know, it's like, wait a minute, let's just
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we don't. I'm not saying go back in a do
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loop and stay there. I'm saying, if you recognize you
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know where you came
from. First of all, it's empowering.
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It gives you a real good sense of who who
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you are and where you came from. And there's a
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business model in place. A lot of times if you travel,
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there's a little brochure in your in your in your
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airplane it says, you know, come to uh Nashville, there's
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an African American music Museum there. You know, come to
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uh Memphis, there's a there's a Stacks Music Museum there.
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You'll come to you know, Detroit, you know where the
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Motown Museum is. And there are places where you can
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uh sort of put structure to the recognition of your
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history and actually make it look And actually we will
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wind up in the Chamber of Commerce listing of places
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to go that really a whole community can identify with
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and and it like soul music itself, it can cross
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over and still appeal to its base, which is the
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Black American population.
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The thing about it, I look at nos and the
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I can't remember the name of the foundation right off
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the top of my head. They have a foundation that
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is giving money like half a million dollars in health
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care benefits to some pioneers of hip hop paid in
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full foundation, that's what it's called, paid in full foundation.
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He's working with a couple of wealthy, membered corporate leaders
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who are funding this, and NAS has spearheaded this, and
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you know, they've given money to rock him and some
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other folks who are deserving, who are exactly in the
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position you're talking talking about. With many of these soul
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music folks, they're still touring. Yes, everyone looks up to
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them and recognizes them as pioneers, but they're broke, right.
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And I think about this man Sonny Williams, who just
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made his transition a couple of weeks ago. I worked
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with him when I worked at Stevie Wonders Station. For
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all those years, Sonny was the janitor at the station.
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He would clean up by day, but at night he
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was touring with the Temptations, singing well, and he could
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sing his butt off and that to me, and he
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was such a kind and lovely man and really helped
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me out when I was first doing that show front
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Page and a lot of people were getting on my case.
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He was just so supportive and so kind and rest
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in peace, Sonny. But I think about him because he
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to me, he's like a symbol of exactly what you're
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talking about. And so what can we do, Like, is
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there an R and B, A funk a jazz version
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of a paid in full foundation that can come into
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being and and support these artists or or get them
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paid some kind of way.
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Well, there there are efforts being made, and it's it's
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but it's almost like trying to win the lottery. Uh.
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To turn that around. There's a brother named Robinson who
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I think he has Rhythm and Blues foundation, And there
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was an effort to put a bit of the Blues
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Museum out in the in between Mississippi and Alabama in
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a in a rural spot because finding a location wasn't easy,
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and and so they go, they're going through a lot
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of struggles. I know, the guys at the Dayton Funk
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Center that have all this materials like uniforms from Roger
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and Zapp and you know, going to work from the
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equipment of Ohio players and it's the material they have
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is dazzling, but keeping a location that they can kind
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of build on it, it's always been an uphill battle.
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And that's where it gets kind of just sort of
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unreal when you think about how much of this great
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music is on TV soundtracks. I heard a bunch of
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classic solo funkt on the Super Bowl and then the
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All Star Game, and here are these people making dunks
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on on funk soundtracks and they're all multimillionaires, all of them,
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most of them making more money than they can spend.
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But and somebody they donated somewhere to dodge the taxes and.
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Hold that thought, Doctor Vinson, I got a heart out
353
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here for news, traffic and sports. But while fascinating conversation continues. Next, Yeah,
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this conversation is making my mind race all around the world.
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He's an author and historian and a radio host in
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the Bay Area. He is doctor Ricky Vincent. And I'm
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so glad you're on with us this morning celebrating black history,
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and we're looking at black music history and you were
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talking about how folks folks don't get paid right, paid
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in full right. Kim's out, well, folks don't get pay.
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Right, and hip hop is paying attention to some of
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the I mean, it's just so vast now as an institution.
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And and the thing is, folks are able to, uh
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talk about themselves, and that's a comfortable thing. A lot
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of the artists that you know from the soul funk,
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you know, blues and jazz generation don't necessarily toot their
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own horn, and they have a certain humility about themselves,
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so they're not necessarily making their case that right.
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I don't think it's just tooting horns though. I mean
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a lot of these folks are marketed as brands. Like
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Rihanna hasn't done an album in like ten years, but
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she's making her money on you know, she sold fenty
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I think to the people that don't fendy, surprise surprise.
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You know, jay Z has a deal with the NFL,
375
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and on and on it goes. I don't know why
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Neo has more money than you know, than sly Stone,
377
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but he does. But I think a lot it has.
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Someone has to be business, right, you have an umbrella?
379
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Are you going to go outside in the rain with it.
380
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Well yeah, I mean it's got old now, but it
381
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was fun. But you're right there, there's a whole dimension
382
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of it, and the music was just a part of
383
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the process, right, And but we could go back and
384
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understand that the craft is part of the process too,
385
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and they're not mutually exclusive of each other. And it's
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just that one part of
it. Because they're recognizing our
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00:23:57.759 --> 00:24:02.920
our founders, it gets lost in the sauce and we're
388
00:24:02.920 --> 00:24:05.400
not able to and Rihanna and all these other people
389
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and the and the athletes that are I don't want
390
00:24:09.720 --> 00:24:12.079
to just talk about people and say they're overpaid, but
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00:24:12.240 --> 00:24:17.359
they have discretionary you know, financial resources, and they they
392
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could be a part of a a soul funk version
393
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of paid in full incorporated or whatever that is. Uh.
394
00:24:26.480 --> 00:24:29.599
That that could and it should be it should be foundational.
395
00:24:29.799 --> 00:24:32.759
I mean, it's we're talking about. But the Kennedy Center
396
00:24:32.880 --> 00:24:36.279
is supposed to represent that this American company. Where's the
397
00:24:36.319 --> 00:24:40.000
Stevie Wonders Center, you know, where's the uh where where
398
00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:44.279
are the god forget something happens to Stevie? What institution
399
00:24:44.480 --> 00:24:48.160
do we have that is even worthy of recognizing the
400
00:24:48.200 --> 00:24:51.880
scope of that man's work, from top to bottom, his
401
00:24:52.079 --> 00:24:54.319
activist work. We have Martin at the King's Birthday is
402
00:24:54.319 --> 00:24:57.759
a national holiday because of the work Stevie Wonder did,
403
00:24:57.960 --> 00:25:01.839
who built on his craft, uh, and he embedded it
404
00:25:01.960 --> 00:25:06.119
in social change, in activism, in civil rights activism that
405
00:25:06.480 --> 00:25:11.000
he came up a part of in Detroit. So all
406
00:25:11.039 --> 00:25:15.720
these pieces are connected, but we accept that there when
407
00:25:15.720 --> 00:25:18.839
the history books are written, you know, it's about marches
408
00:25:18.960 --> 00:25:23.599
and and and and legal changes on one side of
409
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the fence, and then the entertainers on the other side,
410
00:25:26.440 --> 00:25:29.519
and they just sort of two different stories. And I'm like,
411
00:25:29.559 --> 00:25:33.079
wait a minute, it was all lived together. And that's
412
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that's how we lived, that's what we went through. And
413
00:25:36.200 --> 00:25:40.200
I remember, Dominique, what changed my career is reading the
414
00:25:40.240 --> 00:25:43.599
first few pages of this book by Leeboy Jones called
415
00:25:43.720 --> 00:25:49.920
Blues People and and it's yeah, and it explained just
416
00:25:50.039 --> 00:25:56.559
the embedded rage and indignation that so much had been
417
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created by these people of African descent in this lane.
418
00:26:00.039 --> 00:26:05.400
And every song that is written, UH has a thread
419
00:26:05.480 --> 00:26:09.119
of that. And once you understand that, every blues song
420
00:26:09.440 --> 00:26:12.559
is
telling you a truth. It's an emotional truth. It's
421
00:26:12.599 --> 00:26:16.440
telling you a truth, Uh, regardless of the lyrics, and
422
00:26:16.880 --> 00:26:18.640
all of a sudden you can you can build on
423
00:26:18.720 --> 00:26:22.440
that and understand all your gospel and soul music. You
424
00:26:22.480 --> 00:26:27.119
can understand the rowdiness of the free form funk and
425
00:26:27.160 --> 00:26:30.160
the psychedelics and Jimmy Hender. It all starts to make
426
00:26:30.240 --> 00:26:33.480
sense because it's all a flow. It's all this sort
427
00:26:33.519 --> 00:26:39.279
of this creative energy that it's hard to use sort
428
00:26:39.279 --> 00:26:42.319
of it's hard to contain it with the with western
429
00:26:42.359 --> 00:26:48.519
constructs of of of of sort of mathematical measurement. You
430
00:26:48.559 --> 00:26:51.559
can't can't do that. But if you understand it all,
431
00:26:51.640 --> 00:26:54.799
then by all this stuff is connected. It doesn't belong
432
00:26:54.839 --> 00:26:58.559
a different ends of the record store or different It's
433
00:26:58.599 --> 00:27:02.559
all our music, but somebody has decided to compartmentalize it
434
00:27:02.640 --> 00:27:05.880
so they could contain it and commodify it and get
435
00:27:05.880 --> 00:27:10.720
paid while the creators don't. Uh, but what where where
436
00:27:10.839 --> 00:27:14.000
where do our young people get that information? So it's
437
00:27:14.079 --> 00:27:18.240
all connected. Sometimes you know, Grandpa were like telling folks
438
00:27:18.240 --> 00:27:22.240
about that. You know, sometimes you could learn from Grandma
439
00:27:22.319 --> 00:27:26.400
which we're cooking and and you know, explaining how things
440
00:27:26.440 --> 00:27:32.279
all fit together. But that that's that, that's on us,
441
00:27:32.319 --> 00:27:35.279
that's heavy lifting. It needs to be done because this
442
00:27:35.359 --> 00:27:39.119
is such a that's a wealth source. It's a wealth
443
00:27:39.160 --> 00:27:43.480
of knowledge which will help us fight every day, you know, struggles.
444
00:27:43.599 --> 00:27:49.279
But it's also really a foundational aspect of the community's wealth,
445
00:27:49.920 --> 00:27:52.559
and we we could be initiating that, and a few
446
00:27:52.559 --> 00:27:55.039
people are. It just needs to be needs to be
447
00:27:55.079 --> 00:28:01.240
done more. I'm waiting for an enlightened, superstar irving type
448
00:28:01.279 --> 00:28:04.920
to say, look, you know, let's create a foundation for
449
00:28:05.039 --> 00:28:10.240
these music artists that gave us hip hop, that gave
450
00:28:10.319 --> 00:28:14.079
us the beats that the world is dancing to today.
451
00:28:14.000 --> 00:28:16.720
Right, the Funky Forefathers. I mean, I don't know why.
452
00:28:17.200 --> 00:28:19.319
To me, you know, it makes sense for it to
453
00:28:19.319 --> 00:28:22.200
be Jay and Beyonce that because they are both billionaires.
454
00:28:22.200 --> 00:28:25.400
But whoever it is you have said, you said you
455
00:28:25.440 --> 00:28:27.960
don't think we have an institution, and you don't think
456
00:28:28.000 --> 00:28:32.960
the Grammys, the Soul Train Awards, the NAACP Awards, or
457
00:28:33.200 --> 00:28:36.599
you know, the Motown Museum are mighty enough or in
458
00:28:36.640 --> 00:28:40.519
the case of the Grammys, have the intentionality to get
459
00:28:40.559 --> 00:28:41.839
that done.
460
00:28:43.160 --> 00:28:49.880
Those are all sort of polite first steps. I'm not
461
00:28:49.920 --> 00:28:54.440
about to disrespect anybody that is doing some of that work, right,
462
00:28:54.519 --> 00:28:57.480
So that's work it's hard, hard work because you have
463
00:28:57.519 --> 00:29:01.200
to change the model, change the paradigm people are thinking about.
464
00:29:01.559 --> 00:29:04.200
You know, I just want to be entertained. Just give
465
00:29:04.240 --> 00:29:07.519
me some of that that big grin, you know, give
466
00:29:07.519 --> 00:29:10.759
me a smile. Benny King had a big teacher, you know,
467
00:29:10.759 --> 00:29:13.240
give me a grin like that, you know, let me
468
00:29:13.759 --> 00:29:17.920
enjoy that. But it's bigger, and these are human these
469
00:29:17.920 --> 00:29:20.240
are human beings. And what was the whole Civil rights
470
00:29:20.319 --> 00:29:23.640
moving about, you know, with the brothers with the placards
471
00:29:23.640 --> 00:29:29.119
I am a man in nineteen sixty eight in Memphis, right,
472
00:29:29.200 --> 00:29:32.279
they were saying, you know, look, recognize us as human beings,
473
00:29:32.440 --> 00:29:37.599
and so our musical mentors that are in many many
474
00:29:37.680 --> 00:29:43.160
ways were guiding us through some very very rough times,
475
00:29:43.839 --> 00:29:47.799
which we need to recognize that for ourselves. Not just
476
00:29:48.720 --> 00:29:53.440
to make sure that Frankie, Beverly and May's get paid
477
00:29:53.519 --> 00:29:56.599
and make sure the lakeside, you know, it's taken care of.
478
00:29:56.720 --> 00:30:00.519
In terms of giving us fifty years of joy. It's
479
00:30:00.720 --> 00:30:03.200
it's bigger than that. It's it's for us to know
480
00:30:03.519 --> 00:30:05.440
where it came from so we can move on.
481
00:30:06.599 --> 00:30:11.319
Yeah, for the culture, So I wanted to at least
482
00:30:11.720 --> 00:30:16.200
talk a little bit about sly Uh sly Stone. We
483
00:30:16.359 --> 00:30:19.839
started this conversation around the Grammy Awards because the mention
484
00:30:19.960 --> 00:30:24.200
of him, for for many fans of the music the
485
00:30:24.440 --> 00:30:28.640
d memorial mentioned and their tribute was lacking and that
486
00:30:29.720 --> 00:30:32.880
go ahead, it was lacking.
487
00:30:32.680 --> 00:30:39.119
In uh in substance and in uh in time. It
488
00:30:40.440 --> 00:30:44.480
didn't represent the overall scope. And what I mean overall
489
00:30:44.519
--> 00:30:47.880
scope is they could have had a lighting system that
490
00:30:48.200 --> 00:30:52.880
showed Slide Family Stone imagery album art throughout the night,
491
00:30:53.200 --> 00:30:56.519
because so much of pop music was based on the
492
00:30:56.559 --> 00:30:59.920
work of Slyestone. But the problem is, first of all,
493
00:31:00.200 --> 00:31:03.000
it's hard for folks to get that off off the
494
00:31:03.039 --> 00:31:06.839
top of their head unless they lived it. And secondly,
495
00:31:07.000 --> 00:31:10.359
Sly was so generous. He never turned around and said,
496
00:31:10.880 --> 00:31:15.079
that's my idea. You stole all those beats, you made everything.
497
00:31:15.519 --> 00:31:18.039
I used to listen to Casey in the Sunshine Band
498
00:31:18.039 --> 00:31:20.119
and I was like, well, this shure is exciting, but
499
00:31:20.240 --> 00:31:23.240
this sure is upbeat, Well, this sure is wow. This
500
00:31:23.359 --> 00:31:28.400
is everything fine the family Stone has done. Minus the
501
00:31:28.480 --> 00:31:32.559
compelling lyrics. I mean, I suppose it's compelling in shake, Shake,
502
00:31:32.640 --> 00:31:34.720
shake your booty. I suppose that's compelling at some.
503
00:31:34.759 --> 00:31:38.079
Level, compelling for your booty, compelling for your.
504
00:31:38.000 --> 00:31:40.359
Body, and the dance floor and all that is cool.
505
00:31:40.400 --> 00:31:43.119
But I was able to combine all of those things,
506
00:31:43.359 --> 00:31:46.880
which gave permission for Earth Wind and Fire and Stevie
507
00:31:46.880 --> 00:31:50.799
Wonder and these people to develop musically to the point
508
00:31:50.839 --> 00:31:55.720
where the bands could stand on their own, and you know,
509
00:31:55.759 --> 00:31:59.559
they competed with one another with friendly competition, and the
510
00:31:59.640 --> 00:32:02.559
vocal lists could compete on their own. Have you tried
511
00:32:02.599 --> 00:32:06.160
to listen to Taylor Swift's version of September by Earth
512
00:32:06.200 --> 00:32:13.119
Wind and Fire. It's but at some point she had
513
00:32:13.160 --> 00:32:17.359
to realize, wait a minute, not only is the band
514
00:32:18.079 --> 00:32:22.559
doing something musically that no band around today could even
515
00:32:22.839 --> 00:32:26.680
come close to reaching, even with all the harmonies, their
516
00:32:26.759 --> 00:32:31.480
vocals are just so advanced beyond you know, the structure,
517
00:32:31.599 --> 00:32:35.960
the way Maurice White arranged everything, all these pieces were
518
00:32:36.000 --> 00:32:41.680
in place, and it's really it's just something that we
519
00:32:41.759 --> 00:32:46.000
need to turn around and and give some acknowledgement of this.
520
00:32:46.440 --> 00:32:51.880
And really, Slyestone gave everybody the template for making what
521
00:32:51.960 --> 00:32:55.599
we celebrate as great modern music. And to not be
522
00:32:55.720 --> 00:32:59.599
able to not to just treat
treat them like an afterthought,
523
00:33:01.960 --> 00:33:04.839
that's that that was unpleasant. I'll just leave it there.
524
00:33:04.960 --> 00:33:07.920
I mean, I was glad to see that Grammy Awards
525
00:33:07.960 --> 00:33:11.759
a tribute to ROBERTA. Flack and some of the other
526
00:33:12.640 --> 00:33:16.400
greats that were there. I thought they really worked hard
527
00:33:17.200 --> 00:33:22.200
that And I'm not, you know, disrespecting, but yeah, but
528
00:33:22.240 --> 00:33:25.359
when it comes to Sly, he was on another level.
529
00:33:25.400 --> 00:33:30.319
The other artists of that era recognized that. But you know,
530
00:33:30.400 --> 00:33:36.039
aside from Questloves, you know, fantastic documentary on Sly it
531
00:33:36.240 --> 00:33:38.960
came out that's the very same year, right, So I
532
00:33:39.000 --> 00:33:41.440
passed away like three months after that thing came out,
533
00:33:42.799 --> 00:33:45.720
and that thing was thirty years late. It could have
534
00:33:45.759 --> 00:33:52.680
been done in nineteen seventy five, not twenty twenty five. Yeah,
535
00:33:52.720 --> 00:33:56.319
because what Sly had accomplished, So that that I mean,
536
00:33:56.359 --> 00:34:00.680
And yeah, well where's the sly Stone Museum. Hey, that
537
00:34:00.680 --> 00:34:03.200
will take a little bit. There's a project up here
538
00:34:03.200 --> 00:34:07.000
in the bay. You know, it'll take some recognition and yeah,
539
00:34:07.079 --> 00:34:10.639
well you know, hey, Steph Curry's out here. He could
540
00:34:10.679 --> 00:34:16.719
just cut a fingernails worth of of nonprofit you know,
541
00:34:18.119 --> 00:34:21.480
donation money to uh to a foundation of that. That
542
00:34:21.519 --> 00:34:24.079
would kind of wake people up and make people see
543
00:34:24.239 --> 00:34:27.960
how all these pieces are connected. But you know, you
544
00:34:28.039 --> 00:34:30.880
do you do what you can do. And meanwhile, we're
545
00:34:30.920 --> 00:34:33.000
gonna play that music and we're gonna wear it out.
546
00:34:33.599 --> 00:34:36.559
We're gonna keep wearing it out, Doctor Ricky Vincent. As
547
00:34:36.559 --> 00:34:39.760
you know, we have breaking news with the sad transition
548
00:34:39.920 --> 00:34:43.840
of the Reverend Jesse Jackson. And we have we have
549
00:34:44.400 --> 00:34:48.320
our congresswoman who was a long long time colleague of
550
00:34:48.880 --> 00:34:53.079
Reverend Jackson's joining us this morning to say a few
551
00:34:53.119 --> 00:34:56.280
words about the reverend. Thank you so much for joining
552
00:34:56.360 --> 00:34:58.599
us this morning. I always love talking with you. I
553
00:34:58.599 --> 00:34:59.880
feel smarter when i'm done.
554
00:35:01.519 --> 00:35:05.199
Well, thank you, Dominique. I love doing this. And Jesse's
555
00:35:05.239 --> 00:35:09.280
on a song by the Stetso Sonic about Africa. You
556
00:35:09.280 --> 00:35:11.920
want to talk about your trip back to Africa,
AFR
557
00:35:12.760 --> 00:35:17.280
A and GOA. So wait those Zimbabweves look that up
558
00:35:17.400 --> 00:35:21.360
because it opens with Jesse Jackson at the Democratic Convention
559
00:35:21.480 --> 00:35:25.599
talk about South Africa. It's a moral disgrace. It's a
560
00:35:25.719 --> 00:35:30.239
moral disgrace. So the music is there to give us
561
00:35:30.280 --> 00:35:32.320
what we need. All we got to do is open
562
00:35:32.360 --> 00:35:33.159
our eyes and ears.
563
00:35:33.320 --> 00:35:37.559
That's black history. You're listening to KVLA Talk fifteen eighty
564
00:35:37.920 --> 00:35:40.880
v LA Talk fifteen eighty. Not sure what happened here.
565
00:35:41.079 --> 00:35:46.360
We were contacted by Congresswoman Maxine Waters and we're expecting
566
00:35:46.400 --> 00:35:50.239
her to call in with her tribute. As you probably know,
567
00:35:50.360 --> 00:35:54.320
Congresswoman Waters and Jesse Jackson, we're good friends and work
568
00:35:54.400 --> 00:35:59.840
together for many years in this political space. But apparently
569
00:36:00.400 --> 00:36:03.639
we have not they have not been able to reach
570
00:36:03.679 --> 00:36:07.239
her back again. She called early this morning trying to
571
00:36:07.280 --> 00:36:11.599
get on with us to pay tribute to Reverend Jesse Jackson,
572
00:36:12.000 --> 00:36:17.000
and apparently that has not happened. But I will say this,
573
00:36:17.280 --> 00:36:20.519
I'm gonna end where we started, and I'm confident that
574
00:36:21.239 --> 00:36:23.440
Tavis Smiley, I know because he was just in here
575
00:36:23.880 --> 00:36:27.639
getting things together, that he is going to deliver some
576
00:36:27.679 --> 00:36:31.440
of the interviews that he had with Jesse Jackson over
577
00:36:31.440 --> 00:36:36.519
the years, and the very impactful nature of those interviews
578
00:36:36.519 --> 00:36:40.360
in the work that Reverend Jackson said did. I will
579
00:36:40.400 --> 00:36:43.400
say this where I started this morning is that Reverend
580
00:36:43.480 --> 00:36:45.880
Jesse Jackson was a good friend of my father, the
581
00:36:45.960 --> 00:36:49.480
late Amara Baraka aka Leroy Jones. One of the reasons
582
00:36:49.519 --> 00:36:53.320
for that is because they understood internationalism. They understood that
583
00:36:53.519 --> 00:36:56.079
everybody has to have a place, not just in America,
584
00:36:56.119 --> 00:36:59.400
but in this world. They understood that centering black leadership
585
00:36:59.440 --> 00:37:02.360
did not have to mean that we were not in
586
00:37:02.440 --> 00:37:08.679
coalition or insolidarity with others. And because of that, I
587
00:37:08.800 --> 00:37:13.719
think that Reverend Jesse Jackson was able to open this
588
00:37:13.880 --> 00:37:17.440
modern era of politics, open the space for this modern
589
00:37:17.440 --> 00:37:22.679
era of politicians and activists who move in that space,
590
00:37:22.920 --> 00:37:26.239
to make room for a Jesse Jackson, to inspire someone
591
00:37:26.800 --> 00:37:30.679
like myself to know that we have a place in
592
00:37:30.719 --> 00:37:35.960
this movement, and we are and we are we have
593
00:37:36.039 --> 00:37:38.960
agency to move. Do we have congress Woman Waters on
594
00:37:38.960 --> 00:37:40.719
the phone. Okay, let's get her on the air because
595
00:37:40.719 --> 00:37:43.079
we only have a couple minutes left here, just a
596
00:37:43.079 --> 00:37:46.440
couple minutes at the end of the show. Congresswoman Maxine Waters,
597
00:37:46.480 --> 00:37:53.760
America's congresswoman, beloved known as Anti Maxine Maxine. Congresswoman Maxine Waters, good.
598
00:37:53.599 --> 00:37:57.800
Morning, good morning, and thank you so much for colleague.
599
00:37:58.239 --> 00:38:02.519
I know it's about my dear closest friend, my brother,
600
00:38:02.800 --> 00:38:08.000
Jesse Jackson. And even though he's been sick for quite
601
00:38:08.000 --> 00:38:11.599
some time and I knew, we all knew this was coming,
602
00:38:12.000 --> 00:38:16.719
it still hits very hard. He was America's brightest leader.
603
00:38:17.239 --> 00:38:20.960
You have to change the Democratic Party, have to change America,
604
00:38:21.280 --> 00:38:26.000
and was our protector for civil rights and I'll never
605
00:38:26.039 --> 00:38:29.880
forget what he's done for this country. I traveled for
606
00:38:30.039 --> 00:38:33.119
six weeks strengths to nineteen eighty four across this country
607
00:38:33.159 --> 00:38:37.760
with him. He was truly not only a brilliant and
608
00:38:37.880 --> 00:38:42.559
talented leader, but when he created the rainbow and brought
609
00:38:42.599 --> 00:38:48.360
in everybody, women and foremers, blacks, whites, reds, everybody, he
610
00:38:48.599 --> 00:38:52.639
accomplished what we're still trying to do today. So I am,
611
00:38:52.880 --> 00:38:57.639
of course sattin, and you know my heart is pumping,
612
00:38:58.199 --> 00:39:01.760
but he'll always be with me for ever.
613
00:39:02.519 --> 00:39:06.000
Well, Congresswoman Waters, and we're about to pass the microphone
614
00:39:06.000 --> 00:39:09.000
to Tavis Smiley, who has got some beautiful interviews with
615
00:39:09.119 --> 00:39:11.760
Reverend Jackson to share with the world. I'm so sorry
616
00:39:11.840 --> 00:39:14.360
for your loss and the loss of your family and
617
00:39:14.400 --> 00:39:16.840
our loss as a nation. And thank you for paying
618
00:39:16.880 --> 00:39:18.599
tribute to the Reverend Jackson this morning.
619
00:39:19.920 --> 00:39:22.679
Thank you for mom with you right now. I appreciate
620
00:39:22.719 --> 00:39:23.639
you so much.
621
00:39:24.519 --> 00:39:28.280
One love, it is time for Tavis Smiley. Like my
622
00:39:28.400 --> 00:39:32.920
dad Mary Baraka Nuts, let's go with Jesse Jackson. Let's
623
00:39:33.000 --> 00:39:36.320
keep hope alive until next time. One Love,