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Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to another episode of the Logic
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and Larry podcast.
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I am your host, Larry Kay.
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As you know, everything I say on this podcast is
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strictly my opinion as a private citizen speaking to you
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in a private capacity. Nothing I say in any way
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reflects the opinion of any other person or any other entity.
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I am not speaking to you in an official capacity,
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but only as a personal, private citizen expressing personal, private
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opinions on matters of public interests. Now, there's a lot
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of news going on in the world today, as you know,
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there's a lot of strife, a lot of things that
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we can touch on, and I'll get to another news
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update soon on Logic and Larry. But today I have
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a very special guest for you. It's an individual who's
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a very dear friend of mine and who has just
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released a really profound piece of art and creativity and
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I want him to be able to discuss that. And
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I think in times like this, when there's so much
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uncertainty in the world politically, overseas, domestically, all the problems
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we're facing, which I am constantly telling you guys, is
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just really we're not fixing anything, and we're constantly, you know,
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in this endless cycle. I think an individual, an artist
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like this who's expressing and speaking from a place of
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not only reason, but deep emotion and also with an
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eye and that's key toward the state of the world
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and society. I think it's a great time to touch
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base with somebody like this, and it's a great time
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for this art. So I wanted to bring you an
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interview exclusively here on the Logic and Larry Podcast with
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my dear friend Elliott Fant to discuss his latest work.
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And that's what I've got for you today, So I
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hope everybody enjoys it.
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And Elliott, welcome back to the show, my brother.
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You know what's going on?
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Man?
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How you doing.
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I'm doing great, and it's great to have you back
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on the show.
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Last time we were live and the people got to
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hear a little bit about you and what was what
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you had Percolaton. But now it's out man, the world
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as I see it, man, So that's time.
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We were talking about getting ready for the release and
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then I hit a hiccup with the print distribution company
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that was printing the book.
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I got.
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You know, there's a lot of stuff going on and
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a lot of things in regards.
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To COVID.
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You know, once COVID happened, people who were trying to
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put books out, if they were trying to do their
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book in a particular kind of way, it really affected
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affected the ability or it drove up the price point
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number one, and made those kind of books, like hardcover books,
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color bound books, way more expensive than what they happened
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prior to COVID.
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I lost a little bit of time because.
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Of that, makes sense.
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But it's out now, man, And you know, I know
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most people who are regular listeners to my show already
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heard you, you know, come on before, and they just
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know you in general on who you are. But for
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those who don't know, bro, why don't you just give
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us a quick you know, little snois of your biography,
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where you're coming from, and what might have shaped your
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perspective before we get into the art.
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Ah Man, Well, you know, born in nort New Jersey,
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that's there'sual hospital, grew up all over EXAs County, lived
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pretty much every northern city in the state.
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You know, from the time I was good to.
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Now bounce around a lot, got a chance to meet
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a whole lot of you know, different kind of people.
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Through elementary school, high school, college, went to the military,
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US Navy.
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Two thousand and four, I came.
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Back from the Navy and then.
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That's when I attended school at teen University in Union.
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Graduated there here twenty eleven, and that next year is
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when I published my first book, The Execution of Revolution,
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which was a small paperback, just me getting my feet
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wet and writing and then also proving that I could,
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you know, finish something that I had an ambition to start.
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The following year after that, twenty thirteen, I released my
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second book, The Long Way Home. So those books early
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on got me testing the waters and trying to grow
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as a write and grow as a poet, and they
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actually did pretty well.
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My life was ship at that time. I started, you know,
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cussing on the.
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It's all good, it's all good times.
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You don't got no other words for what is actually
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going on other than to say what it is, And
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that's what my life was.
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Yeah.
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Right, So now, look, we we met and I'm not
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going to delve into the details of but we met
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because we were at a social event and we had
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a good conversation going with multiple people and I think
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one of the things you know, a that this show
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oh is about and be that we connected on very
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early was you know, the idea of just rational reason
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and you know, abstract objective thought.
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I think we kind of shared that ability.
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To not go with the crowd and to look at
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things critically and logically. And before we delve into the
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book itself, you know, I kind of want to set
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the stage because it relates to this show and what
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people listen for. I mean, in a world right now,
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and we'll get into some recent events and things that
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happen locally, but in a world right now where so
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many people are engaged in group think and there's so
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much anger and emotion and everything. You know, how important
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do you think thinking reasonably and rationally in ways that
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might transcend race, might transcend, gender, might transcend things like that?
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How important is that? And how much are we lacking
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that in society in your opinion?
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I mean, we're lacking it at a level that we
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haven't seen ever. I think it's unprecedented to the level
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that we lack.
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Context.
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I always say that in a SoundBite, you know, video
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clip type world, which is what we existed. You need
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to you need to have context in details and within context.
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In details, that's where most truth reveals itself.
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Good point.
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Easy to look at things from a black and white lens,
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but life is gray, yes, and I don't you know
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unless and then another thing is don't speak, you know,
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with so much passion about things that you aren't directly
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in the middle of that.
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You know.
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So much of what we do is we take things
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we see on television, things becall radio, and we just
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delve into it emotionally. There's no context. M is biased,
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you know, bias to the maximum level because we see
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ourselves or things that happened remind us of something that
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we went through. It's like when you know, a woman
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will talk about all men and what it really is.
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She hasn't met every man and right right to be
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able to, you know, but she had a couple of
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bad relationships and she has been reconciled with the hurt
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of those relationships. So now everybody's paying for it. Yes,
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And the emotional bit of that is while we all
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suffer on both sides, Yeah, about anything we talk about.
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You're right, and I would say, you know, because we're
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constantly you know, and some of your poetry reflects this
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and also, you know, you're just general commentary, you know,
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and you and I both obviously utilize this tool, which
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is the Internet and social media, you know, to get
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the right words out and to market ourselves. We are
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not immune from that. That is the world we live in.
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But what role do you think kind of the internet
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culture that we have now? And this is because you
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came out with a hardcover book. Now I volunteer with
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the library. You have a hardcover book, it's selling. You know,
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what role does this internet headline culture play?
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You know?
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And as opposed to a hardcover book that gives more depth.
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I mean, how much of our problems in society with
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this black and white sound bite culture is related to
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this social media internet culture.
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Well, it's always easier to speak whatever you speak when
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you don't have to look who you're talking about in
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the eye. So if you're asking me for most a
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lot of cowardly narrative, howardly rhetoric.
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People are a lot more rude. It's easy to be rude.
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When there's no consequence, you know, other than somebody I'm
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friending you. So that's what you get is you get
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a lot of people who are cowardly, who hide behind
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the keyboard, you know, when it comes to issues of
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the visiveness, you know, yes, yes, I I've always looked
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at uh, somebody not seeing something the way I see
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it as an opportunity to learn, but to acquire that,
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you know, that kind of perspective about it. Man, you know,
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you really have to be mature and you have to
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be grounded. But I think now, I think a lot
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of people just want to feel like a lot of
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conversations aren't even about what we're actually talking about. It's
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about food. Is a kind of intellectual point like barmark.
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You know, my viewpoint is smarter than your viewpoint. I
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made a point that I'm smarter, Like it's not about
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learning from each other, it's about trying to I guess
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put put the other person in check.
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Yes, yeah, no I do, yeah yeah.
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And when you're and when you're coming from that kind
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of you know, with that kind of energy and a
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conversation and conversation is like three quarters of the way
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dead before it even starts.
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Good point.
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And I mean I think people in general, and I
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think you would agree, they kind of come at conversations,
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like you just said, not with an eye towards learning
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and educating each other, but just trying to win an
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argument or trying to basically just use it as a
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as a soundboard to vent rather than have a conversation.
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You know, I think it's a problem.
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If you already made your decision internally about whatever it
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is you're talking about, then why even have the conversation
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other than to assert your point.
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If you already got okay, I'm.
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Inflect you're gonna be inflexible, then to me, it's it's
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it's a baseless, bottomless pit of a thing. But people
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in bark on that every day with conversations that you know,
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we know the outcomes, but we still have them, you know.
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So yeah, why do you think.
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We have them like I do it? You do? Why
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do you think we've done it less recently? I think?
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But you and I have both done it now. You
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and I engage in the conversations when they mean something. Well,
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we'll talk deep about sports, we'll talk deep about race,
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we'll talk.
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We'll do it in person too.
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I mean, will we have called each other when we're
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on the internet head and we have made a phone
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call and had the conversation on the phone. But why
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do you think you and I are people in general?
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Why do we still engage in those internet conversations?
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What?
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Sometimes with me, it just pushes me over the edge.
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I got to respond, even though I know it's not productive.
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Why do we do it? Why do we do it?
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That?
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What you just said?
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Sometimes you see you see something.
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What is a horrible feeling to feel like.
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Somebody who's making some uh irrespond simple comment gets to
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have that comment and that perspective flourish when you are
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seeing it and you know better.
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That's it's very hard. That's like somebody make some kind
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of irresponsible comment.
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Yes that is swaying yes, or.
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Arousing the passions or the thoughts of other people, or
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it's misinforming people, and people actually kind of believe in
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it a little bit, and you know, and like you
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know when something like as far as the pinions are perspective,
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some things okay, I can have an opinion. You have
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your opinion, either one of us are correct or incorrect.
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And some things people are way off base, yes, and
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you and you know it as somebody observing it, And
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it becomes very hard to let that stand because you
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feel like, nah, you're misinforming people and you're you're pushing.
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Things to a level that dangerous, you know for everybody.
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That's a lot of people do that, and that that
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I mean, that would be.
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One reason you know why I think you're right. I mean,
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you know what, no I got to step in. I
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think you're one hundred percent right.
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I think it's and that's the social media thing that
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does it right because you see other people liking it,
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you see other people co signing it.
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You know it's misinformation.
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And I always say, you know, you're entitled to your
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own opinions one hundred percent, you're not entitled to your
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own facts. And people don't understand that. Where it's like
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we can disagree on the taste, whether you know steak
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tastes good or doesn't taste good. That's an opinion, right,
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But it comes from a cow. That's a fact. Like
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you can't tell me it came from a goat, you know,
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like people like you know, we could disagree about whether
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the night sky or the blue sky is more pleasant,
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but the daytime sky is blue and the night time
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sky is dark, and that's how it is.
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But I think you're one hundred percent right.
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That is definitely what makes me have to respond, even
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though I know better.
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So I went through that last week.
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I went through it last week exactly. It was just
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this thing's been kind of filtering around, and it's really
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talking about fifty to fifty on bills and if a
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man is a man, if he if he if a
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woman that he's with helps him pay bills, is he?
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And there's the women who I've seen it this eating
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this up. I've seen it bro you know, and trying
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to create some like.
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But then my thing is, if if you're a man
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and you do pay all the bills, is the woman
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then supposed to just shut the hell up and not
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have an opinion because that's typically what's gonna happen if you're.
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Looking with me for free and I'm doing everything right.
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But then would a woman be okay with that?
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And a lot of women would sit there and try
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to front and lie and say, oh, he pays all
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the bills.
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I'll just shut up and not yeah right, you're not.
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You know that's that's a good because sometimes I say
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too like not every and I'm not and I'm not
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trying in any and I know you're not. We're not
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trying to in any way say that. You know, we're trying
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to go backwards or we're anti feminist or anything. But
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what I'm saying is with not just gender issues, but
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a lot of issues. It seems like, you know, people
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want to consistently use this word progress and forward, moving
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and enlightened, but sometimes moving forward has other consequences that
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people don't love.
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And it's kind of interesting.
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You know that, Like we always feel like we had
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to we have to adhere to this all encompassing intersectional
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progress quote unquote, but there's a lot more complexity to it.
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Like you said, the world is greyt and that's part
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of the grayness.
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You know. People don't want to grapple with the other shoe,
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you know what I'm saying.
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And that's exactly how it was killing in that conversation.
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I'm like, listen, like what Sparky, who was a number
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one you know, is one of my friends on she
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came into my inbox with.
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All of this garbage.
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I'm like, I'm like, all right, now.
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I got to address it.
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Yes, you got it, yes, you know, yeah, because you're
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not gonna sit here like just everything, every situation is insane.
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There there are women who work hard and make their
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own money, and a man will see that and be
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more insensivized and inclined to then take care of her
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because she he knows he witnessed her being responsible enough
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to do it for herself.
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That's different than uh.
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I see you, you got two kids, proud of us
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meeting each other.
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We meet each other. You're living in your mom's house.
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Yes, then you see me and my life is together.
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I don't have any kids, I have a car, I
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have a nice place.
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And then you just want to come and just bring
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your kid and just you know, and think you're going
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to throw sex at me. And then all of a sudden,
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now I gotta Now I'm the kids step dad, and
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I gotta say no, no, no, it's different.
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Well it's different.
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Let's drill done on that really quick, just really quick,
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so people can establish kind of you know, who you
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are and who we are. You know, in this model
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in society, you are around the same age as me.
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You know, you have a solid job, you have done
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well for yourself, You don't have any kids.
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I don't have any kids. You know how difficult was that?
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And like, what does it say about people like us
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that we were able to maintain that level of responsibility
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and try to do the right thing in the right way,
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even though maybe we didn't come from the most together stable,
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you know, family environments. We are hell bent on not
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you know, getting into that chaotic thing ourselves.
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What is it?
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Why does certain people not get drawn into that? I
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know people with multiple kids, this and that, and we
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don't have any. We never got in there. I never
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been married, you know, none of that, and I'm not
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because I'm anti marriage. I just never found the right
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one and I want to make sure I do before
351
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I do, you know, take a plunge.
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What is that?
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I was having a conversation with a person who were
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inside my room space in my loft last night about
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this very thing. Teaching kids I'm on a daily basis.
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I see kids who I'm responsible for teaching. Yes, they're undisciplined,
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m And you could tell that. You can call it fear,
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you can call it respect. But when I was a kid,
359
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I know, you know, when I got to fourteen fifteen
360
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years old, my grandmother who raised me.
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Couldn't whoop my ass, right yep.
362
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But I still had a healthy fear of a principal
363
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calling home, Yes, me too.
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I had a healthy fear.
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Of a progress report, a bad progress report coming showing
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up in the mailbox. Even though I know this woman
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wasn't going to beat the all out of me. She
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couldn't but to disappointment, right, you know, and was what
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I feared. I feared disappointing someone who sacrifice a time
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in her life that.
371
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Was really meant for leisure.
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Right, I feared disappointing someone who sacrificed for me. That way,
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that makes sense to bring it back to why I
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haven't had kids who have gotten married.
375
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Really it was a dice role.
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00:19:21.119 --> 00:19:25.839
Because I mean I haven't always been responsible every sexual
377
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encounter I had.
378
00:19:27.079 --> 00:19:28.079
So it's not like I went.
379
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Into a badroom situation and always more condom and always
380
00:19:32.920 --> 00:19:34.920
make sure they went to the to the clinic to
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make sure they didn't have disease. I ain't have people
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bring me, you know, okay, before we do this, we
383
00:19:40.599 --> 00:19:41.920
got to bring you so I can see that you
384
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don't have gonna ree.
385
00:19:43.160 --> 00:19:46.640
So it wasn't always like it was a lot of love, right.
386
00:19:47.039 --> 00:19:50.519
Because in moments of you know, and that happens to
387
00:19:50.559 --> 00:19:55.039
all of us, the responsible thing to do but destroy
388
00:19:55.119 --> 00:19:56.599
our It would destroy the moment.
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Most songs, Yes.
390
00:19:57.799 --> 00:20:03.839
We're always exercising in those situations responsibility, which is saying, damn,
391
00:20:03.880 --> 00:20:06.000
you know, you really look good, but I can't.
392
00:20:06.160 --> 00:20:07.359
I can't secret you tonight.
393
00:20:07.440 --> 00:20:11.039
Actually I need you to go to the clinic testas
394
00:20:11.160 --> 00:20:12.920
then and then when you show me that, then we
395
00:20:12.920 --> 00:20:14.480
can have some more on look at you.
396
00:20:14.440 --> 00:20:14.880
Like you're crazy.
397
00:20:14.920 --> 00:20:17.720
You're gonna put her clothes on, you gonna leave, and
398
00:20:17.759 --> 00:20:21.799
you probably never see her again. It's hard for us
399
00:20:21.799 --> 00:20:26.559
to exercise responsibility in that way. But in my mind,
400
00:20:26.680 --> 00:20:30.599
I always I saw nothing but fell relationships growing up.
401
00:20:31.039 --> 00:20:32.079
All throughout my family.
402
00:20:32.720 --> 00:20:38.680
The only relationship that was there in my childhood that's
403
00:20:38.720 --> 00:20:43.119
did that's still persistent now was my uncle, my father's brother,
404
00:20:44.519 --> 00:20:48.039
and my aunt Jill. They've been married since nineteen ninety wow,
405
00:20:48.039 --> 00:20:52.839
seventy three years. But within that we're human beings. Yeah,
406
00:20:52.880 --> 00:20:55.559
I probably screwed up a bunch of times, probably got
407
00:20:55.559 --> 00:21:00.559
put out, but they kept their problems in the house.
408
00:21:01.759 --> 00:21:04.640
They didn't go, you know, gossiping about what each other
409
00:21:04.680 --> 00:21:05.480
didn't do to each other.
410
00:21:05.480 --> 00:21:05.880
That's a lot.
411
00:21:05.920 --> 00:21:08.759
That's something Some things have to be sacred, and we
412
00:21:08.960 --> 00:21:10.279
I mean we're talking about social media.
413
00:21:10.440 --> 00:21:11.200
A couple of minutes ago.
414
00:21:11.759 --> 00:21:19.119
Social media, it strips foundationally that away from mostly everyone,
415
00:21:20.240 --> 00:21:24.160
but I did that some things should be sacred. You've
416
00:21:24.200 --> 00:21:26.119
gotten to the point now where if I don't if
417
00:21:26.160 --> 00:21:29.359
I have a girlfriend, I don't post my girlfriend on
418
00:21:29.359 --> 00:21:32.079
my social media pages, nobody will look at that and
419
00:21:32.119 --> 00:21:35.319
say I'm trying to protect my girlfriend or protect my wife.
420
00:21:35.799 --> 00:21:37.799
They'll say I'm ashamed of my wife.
421
00:21:37.960 --> 00:21:40.599
Yep, they trying to hide it. Even she might try to.
422
00:21:40.680 --> 00:21:42.880
Hide her and she might and she will buy into
423
00:21:42.920 --> 00:21:46.680
that if she didn't already start off believing that. It
424
00:21:46.759 --> 00:21:50.799
does not look at like I'm protecting you, because not
425
00:21:50.880 --> 00:21:55.880
everybody who who puts a handclap of emoji or congratulations
426
00:21:56.000 --> 00:21:58.759
or her little heart, you know, thing on their comments,
427
00:21:59.400 --> 00:22:01.720
they still may be jealous of you and want your
428
00:22:01.759 --> 00:22:03.079
life right.
429
00:22:03.559 --> 00:22:05.599
And these are people that said that you may call
430
00:22:05.720 --> 00:22:07.119
friend or family.
431
00:22:08.119 --> 00:22:12.119
So I don't want people knowing everything in my personal
432
00:22:12.160 --> 00:22:14.519
life to be able to comment, and particularly when it
433
00:22:14.559 --> 00:22:17.359
comes to who I'm laying in my bed with. You're right,
434
00:22:17.400 --> 00:22:21.039
because everybody has your best interest, you know. But going
435
00:22:21.079 --> 00:22:25.680
back to the kids, when you decide to have kids,
436
00:22:26.799 --> 00:22:30.480
you're also deciding before you even send them to a school,
437
00:22:31.039 --> 00:22:35.920
you're deciding to be their foremost educated. Yes, your first
438
00:22:36.039 --> 00:22:39.200
and best educator, and if you don't want to do
439
00:22:39.240 --> 00:22:46.759
the work associated with being a foremost educator, your best
440
00:22:46.799 --> 00:22:51.160
and most important educator, Because if I don't have respect
441
00:22:51.160 --> 00:22:56.079
for my parents as a kid, or if they haven't
442
00:22:56.519 --> 00:22:59.880
you know, nurtured that within me, how can I have it.
443
00:22:59.839 --> 00:23:02.200
For a stranger who's trying to teach me? Good point,
444
00:23:02.240 --> 00:23:03.519
which is what mostly.
445
00:23:03.200 --> 00:23:05.880
The problem is with a lot of these kids, and
446
00:23:06.000 --> 00:23:10.200
they come in here rambunctos, can't sit, still can't and
447
00:23:10.240 --> 00:23:12.920
I always and the vinute I see it. I already
448
00:23:12.960 --> 00:23:15.920
know what the home life is like. But the problem,
449
00:23:16.319 --> 00:23:19.519
and we're starting to you know, get along racial lines,
450
00:23:20.680 --> 00:23:25.119
is that in black families, if a parent is working
451
00:23:25.440 --> 00:23:26.599
two jobs.
452
00:23:28.119 --> 00:23:30.519
Because they didn't get.
453
00:23:30.359 --> 00:23:34.480
A college education because their parents let them down. Now
454
00:23:34.519 --> 00:23:35.960
you have a generational thing.
455
00:23:36.920 --> 00:23:39.640
Yeah, and I want to yeah, I want to hammer
456
00:23:39.680 --> 00:23:41.920
into that because I kind of want to get into
457
00:23:42.039 --> 00:23:45.799
exactly what you said about, you know, youth and consequence
458
00:23:46.000 --> 00:23:49.559
and your you know teaching. And I think in our
459
00:23:49.720 --> 00:23:53.359
urban spaces, in our black spaces, and I actually think
460
00:23:53.400 --> 00:23:57.960
the issue societally and generationally does transcend race. But I
461
00:23:58.000 --> 00:24:01.000
think the difference is and so of these you know,
462
00:24:01.680 --> 00:24:06.759
urban neighborhoods, you know, you have and it's sad to say,
463
00:24:06.759 --> 00:24:10.039
and it's a country problem, but you have guns and
464
00:24:10.400 --> 00:24:13.319
weapons and things floating around the same way drugs and
465
00:24:13.319 --> 00:24:16.880
cigarettes float around, and white suburban neighborhoods.
466
00:24:17.400 --> 00:24:19.759
And I mean, just yesterday, there was a.
467
00:24:19.680 --> 00:24:22.799
Fire drill at a I don't remember if it was
468
00:24:22.839 --> 00:24:23.960
a high school or middle.
469
00:24:23.720 --> 00:24:27.839
School and Central High School.
470
00:24:27.880 --> 00:24:31.279
I taught there, Central High School, and some a young
471
00:24:31.440 --> 00:24:33.359
teenager gets hit by a bullet. I think it was
472
00:24:33.400 --> 00:24:35.519
probably a straight bullet, I don't know, at twelve o'clock
473
00:24:35.960 --> 00:24:36.839
in the afternoon.
474
00:24:36.880 --> 00:24:38.759
And I mean, this is you know, Elliott.
475
00:24:38.759 --> 00:24:41.039
They might talk about the mass shootings and we have
476
00:24:41.079 --> 00:24:43.039
a problem with that. They might talk about all that,
477
00:24:43.079 --> 00:24:46.680
but we have these young people and this isn't new.
478
00:24:46.880 --> 00:24:49.799
They made movies about this when we were babies, of
479
00:24:50.359 --> 00:24:53.319
just young people killing each other, dying.
480
00:24:53.400 --> 00:24:55.240
And then also another young.
481
00:24:55.079 --> 00:24:57.079
Person died in a car accident when they was a
482
00:24:57.119 --> 00:24:59.119
stolen car and the police are chasing them.
483
00:24:59.480 --> 00:25:01.680
And I'm I mean, your role you.
484
00:25:01.559 --> 00:25:04.720
Know, as a as a as a mentor, and I've
485
00:25:04.759 --> 00:25:06.839
seen you be a mentor to many young people, and
486
00:25:06.839 --> 00:25:08.799
I'm a mentor, but it's a little I don't want
487
00:25:08.839 --> 00:25:11.000
to say it's different, but there's a different aspect to it.
488
00:25:11.079 --> 00:25:11.799
You know, you are a.
489
00:25:13.400 --> 00:25:16.359
A young but growing almost middle aged, you know, black
490
00:25:16.400 --> 00:25:19.920
man who's a mentor to kids. You come from certain
491
00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:23.839
struggles and also certain advantages, you know, and you come
492
00:25:23.920 --> 00:25:26.480
from an urban environment that we all know is the
493
00:25:26.519 --> 00:25:29.039
greater Newark area. I mean, what is to be said
494
00:25:29.039 --> 00:25:32.799
and what is going on with the youth today and
495
00:25:32.920 --> 00:25:36.759
the you know, especially in our urban spaces. What role
496
00:25:36.799 --> 00:25:40.119
does consequences in parenting you know, come into it, what
497
00:25:40.240 --> 00:25:43.240
is generationally coming into it, and what can we do?
498
00:25:43.319 --> 00:25:45.480
And what are you seeing out there with the youth,
499
00:25:45.599 --> 00:25:49.039
especially the black youth and what they're going through these days?
500
00:25:49.359 --> 00:25:53.519
Well, and I never ever want to make it seem
501
00:25:53.599 --> 00:25:57.759
like everybody white had some kind of roses and rainbow
502
00:25:57.960 --> 00:26:01.680
existence either that you know, every just because.
503
00:26:01.400 --> 00:26:03.960
Somebody's white at their childhood, that they could.
504
00:26:03.759 --> 00:26:08.119
Have been getting abused yep, bumping down mentally by the
505
00:26:08.640 --> 00:26:10.839
I've had friends who told those stories and they were white.
506
00:26:11.160 --> 00:26:12.240
So it's really just.
507
00:26:14.400 --> 00:26:18.400
What I see is this kind of going back into
508
00:26:18.440 --> 00:26:23.880
what I just said. When you have kids going to
509
00:26:23.920 --> 00:26:26.519
work and coming home nine to five is different when
510
00:26:26.559 --> 00:26:28.960
you're single versus having kids.
511
00:26:29.200 --> 00:26:32.599
But some parents don't treat it like it's different.
512
00:26:33.400 --> 00:26:38.160
Some parents they get home, don't do homework with their kids,
513
00:26:39.359 --> 00:26:40.839
plopping in front of a television.
514
00:26:42.079 --> 00:26:43.279
So now.
515
00:26:45.519 --> 00:26:46.880
I always used to stay.
516
00:26:48.799 --> 00:26:51.519
Going back to the Charles Barkley, you know role model thing,
517
00:26:52.240 --> 00:26:56.039
which I agree with this segment of what he said parents.
518
00:26:55.680 --> 00:26:56.960
Should be role models.
519
00:26:57.480 --> 00:27:02.279
Yes, when parents avoid of being a role model to
520
00:27:02.319 --> 00:27:03.319
their kids.
521
00:27:03.759 --> 00:27:06.640
Kids look for other heroes, right.
522
00:27:06.480 --> 00:27:11.960
And those heroes that they look for appreciate irresponsible messages.
523
00:27:14.200 --> 00:27:17.200
You know, for little girls, it could be a Cardi b.
524
00:27:17.440 --> 00:27:20.440
It could be a Megan, a Satiny. Now when we
525
00:27:20.440 --> 00:27:23.680
were kids, a little little black girl, the hero might
526
00:27:23.680 --> 00:27:27.359
have been little Ken yep, and whatever they do. And
527
00:27:28.079 --> 00:27:29.720
a lot of artists I can say, oh that my
528
00:27:29.839 --> 00:27:33.160
our music isn't for children, But your music also isn't
529
00:27:33.200 --> 00:27:36.400
for forty year olds and thirty year olds either.
530
00:27:37.680 --> 00:27:39.359
Your music is for young people.
531
00:27:40.279 --> 00:27:43.720
However you want to section that off, and it's gonna
532
00:27:43.839 --> 00:27:48.559
end up in the CD players of young kids in
533
00:27:48.599 --> 00:27:51.559
the nineties or on their I Positive the two thousands.
534
00:27:52.160 --> 00:27:55.599
So this whole thing that artists try to do by
535
00:27:56.119 --> 00:28:00.839
you know, disassociating themselves with the responsibility when you take
536
00:28:00.960 --> 00:28:06.039
millions of dollars from kids and adults, line your pockets
537
00:28:06.039 --> 00:28:08.279
with it, with your art form. But then you don't,
538
00:28:08.400 --> 00:28:12.160
you don't say, you don't go out of your way
539
00:28:12.200 --> 00:28:16.240
to stay listen to all the young people who listen
540
00:28:16.240 --> 00:28:20.799
to my music, it really is not for you to
541
00:28:20.880 --> 00:28:21.519
be listening to.
542
00:28:22.480 --> 00:28:23.480
You need to understand it.
543
00:28:23.559 --> 00:28:26.599
Just because you see me doing this or you hear
544
00:28:26.640 --> 00:28:30.880
me talking this way on this song, you can be
545
00:28:31.039 --> 00:28:35.480
much better than me, and you should, you know, preach
546
00:28:35.599 --> 00:28:40.480
better messages, you know, or figure out how to make
547
00:28:40.599 --> 00:28:45.440
better and long lasting impacts beyond what I've done as
548
00:28:45.440 --> 00:28:49.440
a as a musician, you know, entertainer or whatever. You
549
00:28:49.480 --> 00:28:52.319
don't hear a lot of artists, and I don't remember,
550
00:28:52.319 --> 00:28:56.000
like when I was a kid, artists, you know, they
551
00:28:56.039 --> 00:28:58.440
soaked up all the limelight, but there's only few that
552
00:28:58.519 --> 00:29:03.279
really wanted the responsibility of preaching a difficult Tupac.
553
00:29:02.920 --> 00:29:03.200
Was like that.
554
00:29:03.240 --> 00:29:08.440
Early on, early on, early on, he would talk about
555
00:29:09.680 --> 00:29:13.200
things and he would do it on you know, afternoon
556
00:29:13.279 --> 00:29:17.319
talk shows Ricky Lake and Done Done or what you know.
557
00:29:17.319 --> 00:29:17.759
He would go.
558
00:29:17.880 --> 00:29:22.519
You know, that started to dwindle where artists would.
559
00:29:22.279 --> 00:29:25.440
Really really because a lot of them are young and
560
00:29:25.480 --> 00:29:29.000
confuse themselves, but have all of this power and influence.
561
00:29:30.119 --> 00:29:36.799
So that's why it's important for parents to intercede these
562
00:29:36.839 --> 00:29:40.920
things and search yourself and be there every single day
563
00:29:41.599 --> 00:29:44.880
in your kid's face. Listen, you're going to bet at
564
00:29:44.880 --> 00:29:48.000
this time you're not listening to this. You're not and
565
00:29:48.359 --> 00:29:50.960
you may be an asshole, and you will be. He'll
566
00:29:50.960 --> 00:29:53.640
probably hate you for it, but when they're in adel
567
00:29:54.359 --> 00:29:56.960
they'll look back on that and says, you know what, well,
568
00:29:56.960 --> 00:29:58.960
a lot of my friends ain't have nobody there, and
569
00:29:59.000 --> 00:30:01.160
they'll respect you a lot more.
570
00:30:02.000 --> 00:30:02.880
That's a good point.
571
00:30:03.240 --> 00:30:04.160
And you're trying to get out.
572
00:30:04.079 --> 00:30:08.559
Of being a parent to the maximum level. Other things
573
00:30:08.559 --> 00:30:09.720
and other and other.
574
00:30:09.559 --> 00:30:12.839
Influence is going to keep in because you're not there.
575
00:30:13.759 --> 00:30:15.599
And that brings me to something else too.
576
00:30:15.599 --> 00:30:17.519
And I think, you know, this vexes me a lot
577
00:30:17.599 --> 00:30:20.880
because I think it's maybe because of me who I
578
00:30:20.920 --> 00:30:23.279
am in the community, what I do, how I look.
579
00:30:23.359 --> 00:30:26.519
I think sometimes the nuance of this gets lost. I
580
00:30:26.559 --> 00:30:28.920
know it's not lost on you and a lot of
581
00:30:28.920 --> 00:30:30.559
other people that are near and dear to me. But
582
00:30:31.000 --> 00:30:35.400
you know, you speak about parents and being stricter and
583
00:30:35.440 --> 00:30:38.480
being there for their kids, and taking an active generational
584
00:30:38.559 --> 00:30:41.039
role in parenting. And I look at you know, we
585
00:30:41.119 --> 00:30:43.240
talked the other, you know, a few minutes ago about
586
00:30:43.279 --> 00:30:46.480
progress and how not all progress quote unquote is always
587
00:30:47.000 --> 00:30:51.319
fully you know, advantageous for people, and you talk about
588
00:30:51.400 --> 00:30:53.960
discipline and and I want to you know, it's kind
589
00:30:53.960 --> 00:30:56.039
of a complicated question, but I want to bring this up.
590
00:30:56.079 --> 00:31:00.799
And you know, this this idea of black power and
591
00:31:00.880 --> 00:31:03.640
what we think of that word and phrase and what
592
00:31:03.680 --> 00:31:04.400
that means.
593
00:31:04.440 --> 00:31:05.759
And you know, you look.
594
00:31:05.599 --> 00:31:07.440
Back at somebody like a Joe Clark, and I know
595
00:31:07.480 --> 00:31:09.759
you have some connections to Patterson. I have some connections
596
00:31:09.759 --> 00:31:13.640
to Patterson, and you see, you know, what does black
597
00:31:13.680 --> 00:31:16.559
power mean? Do you feel in this current day and
598
00:31:16.599 --> 00:31:18.599
age in any way that that term has been co
599
00:31:18.640 --> 00:31:23.519
opted almost by like a white patronization or or a
600
00:31:23.599 --> 00:31:26.519
leftist patronization. I don't want to put political category on it,
601
00:31:26.559 --> 00:31:28.839
but you know, Joe Clark has sometimes looked at now
602
00:31:28.920 --> 00:31:30.839
as and I'm not saying the man didn't have flaws,
603
00:31:30.880 --> 00:31:35.000
but looked at as like heavy handed, you know, buying
604
00:31:35.039 --> 00:31:37.759
into the culture, the dominant culture, this and that. And
605
00:31:38.039 --> 00:31:41.880
you know, you can't give too many consequences to kids
606
00:31:41.920 --> 00:31:44.400
because it's setting too many expectations that are from the
607
00:31:44.440 --> 00:31:47.480
dominant culture. This and that, I mean as opposed to, Hey,
608
00:31:48.000 --> 00:31:51.720
there's something to be said for consequences stability, you know,
609
00:31:52.039 --> 00:31:56.000
principles that care, teachers that care, authority figures that care,
610
00:31:56.079 --> 00:31:59.599
parents that care. You know, is is there some nuance there?
611
00:31:59.640 --> 00:32:03.799
And has that meaning of empowerment of black people been
612
00:32:03.880 --> 00:32:08.640
co opted into a almost a patronizing, you know, handicapping
613
00:32:08.680 --> 00:32:12.000
thing or what's your perspective on all of those things.
614
00:32:13.759 --> 00:32:21.000
It's funny because most people will call entertainment and what
615
00:32:21.039 --> 00:32:23.400
these artists are doing. There's some people who will say,
616
00:32:23.400 --> 00:32:26.079
you know what, the freedom that they have to do.
617
00:32:25.960 --> 00:32:31.079
That that's black power, right, And if that's the case,
618
00:32:31.279 --> 00:32:36.559
then I'm like, then the term is become really really convoluted, right,
619
00:32:37.559 --> 00:32:44.640
black power, as I see, when you can.
620
00:32:45.960 --> 00:32:57.519
Step away from earthly possessions money in order to drive
621
00:32:57.640 --> 00:33:03.960
home a greater point about the respect that you that
622
00:33:04.039 --> 00:33:07.400
you personally want to have and that you want other
623
00:33:07.400 --> 00:33:13.799
people to have for your culture, that's power, right. What
624
00:33:14.000 --> 00:33:20.279
makes it hard now? Number one, when you had the
625
00:33:20.359 --> 00:33:25.160
Muhammad Ali step away on principal right and say and
626
00:33:25.200 --> 00:33:27.319
the problem of his boxing career is the everuey champion
627
00:33:27.359 --> 00:33:27.799
of the world.
628
00:33:31.079 --> 00:33:31.440
Mm hmm.
629
00:33:31.960 --> 00:33:34.839
I know I'm not gonna have the championship anymore. I'm
630
00:33:34.839 --> 00:33:37.039
gonna lose millions of dollars.
631
00:33:39.400 --> 00:33:41.160
And then I'm gonna have to fight to get back
632
00:33:41.200 --> 00:33:44.039
something that really wasn't taken from me.
633
00:33:44.720 --> 00:33:46.599
Right, But you know what, I don't care.
634
00:33:47.279 --> 00:33:52.880
Right then you fast forward to last season, the last
635
00:33:52.880 --> 00:33:56.720
two seasons with somebody like a Kyrie Organ who I respect.
636
00:33:57.160 --> 00:33:57.559
Mm hmm.
637
00:33:57.880 --> 00:34:05.559
But he stood on principle all the way up until
638
00:34:06.079 --> 00:34:07.519
game checks started getting taken.
639
00:34:08.760 --> 00:34:08.960
Right.
640
00:34:09.920 --> 00:34:12.119
He didn't feel like he did anything wrong with what
641
00:34:12.199 --> 00:34:17.079
he said, right, but he still end up apologizing. Right,
642
00:34:18.719 --> 00:34:25.239
some stances in life that you take, you shouldn't want
643
00:34:25.239 --> 00:34:29.239
to untake, and I don't care what gets taken from
644
00:34:29.320 --> 00:34:32.800
you as a result. Do you think the power in
645
00:34:32.920 --> 00:34:36.400
general removing the black part from it? That's power?
646
00:34:36.920 --> 00:34:37.119
Right?
647
00:34:38.400 --> 00:34:41.480
But money coo, wats that for a lot of people.
648
00:34:41.559 --> 00:34:48.719
If somebody, if somebody money or fear of whatever, you know,
649
00:34:48.840 --> 00:34:53.800
but mostly money possessions. If you are somebody who has
650
00:34:53.840 --> 00:34:57.719
something to lose or better yet, I'll give you this.
651
00:34:57.880 --> 00:34:59.360
I'll give you this, and think about.
652
00:35:00.960 --> 00:35:06.440
If you stood with your beaten your chest saying I'm
653
00:35:06.480 --> 00:35:11.280
a black man and I want respect, and then a
654
00:35:11.320 --> 00:35:14.239
white man walks up to you, puts a gun in.
655
00:35:14.280 --> 00:35:17.119
Your head and say say that again. Mm hm, say
656
00:35:17.159 --> 00:35:20.840
that shit one more time and I'm gonna blow your
657
00:35:20.840 --> 00:35:26.360
head off. Would you say it again? M The people
658
00:35:26.400 --> 00:35:33.800
that we've been taught historically to respect and revere, they
659
00:35:33.840 --> 00:35:37.800
made that choice, and that's why they're legendary. Malcolm X
660
00:35:38.000 --> 00:35:41.599
is legendary. These people got up and put their hants on,
661
00:35:42.719 --> 00:35:44.760
put this size and shoes on, one at a time,
662
00:35:45.440 --> 00:35:48.119
and went out into a world where death.
663
00:35:49.880 --> 00:35:51.760
And the expectation that it can come.
664
00:35:52.440 --> 00:35:55.599
Was very Really we all say, oh yeah, we might
665
00:35:55.599 --> 00:35:57.159
be do to date, but I don't think a lot of.
666
00:35:57.199 --> 00:35:59.920
Us believe that, right.
667
00:36:00.119 --> 00:36:03.239
I don't think I believe like today, I'm gonna die
668
00:36:03.400 --> 00:36:05.440
like you know, like, yes, they got up in a
669
00:36:05.519 --> 00:36:11.920
world where him bred Hampton, you yield on the list man, right,
670
00:36:12.480 --> 00:36:12.679
you know?
671
00:36:13.559 --> 00:36:15.000
MegaR Evers in.
672
00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:20.079
A world where I know I can die today for
673
00:36:20.239 --> 00:36:25.079
my beliefs. And I think the separation between that eerror
674
00:36:26.000 --> 00:36:31.039
and that brand of human is way way different than
675
00:36:31.079 --> 00:36:34.199
this brand. I think this brand of human talks about
676
00:36:34.280 --> 00:36:36.840
talks a good game about how angry they are, and
677
00:36:36.880 --> 00:36:39.960
then when the anger subsides, you go right back to
678
00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:43.119
doing what you were doing until the next tragedy happens,
679
00:36:43.599 --> 00:36:46.039
and then you get mad all over again and repeat
680
00:36:46.079 --> 00:36:47.199
the same process.
681
00:36:47.760 --> 00:36:50.079
Yeah, and you think that's that's a societal thing, now right.
682
00:36:50.119 --> 00:36:54.079
I mean selective outrage, selective outrage and not even knowing
683
00:36:54.079 --> 00:36:55.960
the facts of it all either, you.
684
00:36:55.920 --> 00:36:59.719
Know, not me, you know, observing it from a distance.
685
00:37:00.239 --> 00:37:02.199
And let me get into that a little bit too,
686
00:37:02.280 --> 00:37:04.400
with the you know, so Kyrie irving. You know, I'm
687
00:37:04.400 --> 00:37:06.360
not going to go deep into a whole separate conversation.
688
00:37:06.400 --> 00:37:08.440
I mean, I don't agree with the content of the
689
00:37:08.440 --> 00:37:11.880
film he was quoting, you know, factually, but you know,
690
00:37:12.000 --> 00:37:15.480
do you think that you know, he said something, and
691
00:37:15.559 --> 00:37:17.280
he just said something, and all of a sudden they
692
00:37:17.280 --> 00:37:19.679
were going to withhold game checks because he said something,
693
00:37:19.679 --> 00:37:21.960
and like on principle, he's like, you know, I didn't
694
00:37:22.000 --> 00:37:26.519
say anything in particular that's anti semitic or this and that.
695
00:37:26.679 --> 00:37:28.960
I simply said to look at a film if you
696
00:37:29.000 --> 00:37:31.639
want to educate me on the facts or dispute it,
697
00:37:31.679 --> 00:37:34.599
that's one thing. But I didn't say anything. You know,
698
00:37:34.639 --> 00:37:38.280
do you think there's a limit as humans in today's
699
00:37:38.320 --> 00:37:42.400
society where you know, there's all this intersectionalism, right, like
700
00:37:42.840 --> 00:37:45.079
you know, I want to hold my arm around my
701
00:37:45.119 --> 00:37:47.480
brother here and this person's my brother and that person's
702
00:37:47.480 --> 00:37:51.599
my brother. But is it real when you can't respect
703
00:37:51.639 --> 00:37:55.800
somebody else's opinion even if you think it's misguided, where
704
00:37:55.840 --> 00:37:58.119
you don't provide that, you know, everything's all good with
705
00:37:58.199 --> 00:38:01.400
expressing yourself until it steps on my lawn and I
706
00:38:01.440 --> 00:38:02.920
don't like what you said anymore?
707
00:38:03.480 --> 00:38:05.039
And isn't that a problem? Right?
708
00:38:05.119 --> 00:38:08.320
Like isn't shouldn't you be able to say And we've
709
00:38:08.360 --> 00:38:10.719
said things to each other before, like, shouldn't we be
710
00:38:10.760 --> 00:38:14.199
able to say something and you don't feel threatened or
711
00:38:14.239 --> 00:38:17.599
intimidated or vice versa. Buy it and you can live
712
00:38:17.639 --> 00:38:19.960
in your space with your opinion. I can live in mind.
713
00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:23.039
Isn't that true respect for each other? And do we
714
00:38:23.079 --> 00:38:25.440
really have that now? I mean, it seems like everybody
715
00:38:25.480 --> 00:38:28.320
wants to play patty cake like, but do they truly
716
00:38:28.400 --> 00:38:31.079
have respect? Because respect is what if I say something
717
00:38:31.159 --> 00:38:34.199
that from a white perspective or a Jewish perspective, or
718
00:38:34.199 --> 00:38:37.239
a black perspective, or a Muslim perspective or an immigrant
719
00:38:37.280 --> 00:38:40.519
perspective or you know, whatever perspective you just don't like,
720
00:38:40.599 --> 00:38:42.199
but we are never going to agree because we have
721
00:38:42.239 --> 00:38:45.119
different perspectives. But I still respect you and I'm not
722
00:38:45.159 --> 00:38:48.119
gonna bully you into silence. I mean, do we really
723
00:38:48.159 --> 00:38:50.239
even have that, because I feel like we don't.
724
00:38:51.000 --> 00:38:54.559
No, absolutely don't, absolutely don't know.
725
00:38:54.679 --> 00:38:58.719
I'm Chomsky is one of my favorite, uh, one of
726
00:38:58.719 --> 00:39:04.280
my favorite quotes and one of the brightest thinkers who
727
00:39:04.280 --> 00:39:05.599
I've read and studied.
728
00:39:05.760 --> 00:39:08.519
And he says something, if.
729
00:39:08.400 --> 00:39:15.960
You don't one equality, freedom of opinion for those who despise,
730
00:39:16.800 --> 00:39:18.440
then you don't believe in it at all.
731
00:39:19.440 --> 00:39:21.000
So true, and.
732
00:39:22.719 --> 00:39:25.280
It was like a lightning stripe.
733
00:39:26.199 --> 00:39:27.639
Not that I didn't think it all righty, but the
734
00:39:27.679 --> 00:39:31.199
way he articulated it was just it's so simple but
735
00:39:31.320 --> 00:39:32.440
so profound that.
736
00:39:34.760 --> 00:39:35.840
This whole notion that.
737
00:39:35.760 --> 00:39:38.880
Oh, I'm not prejudiced, or I'm not this or that,
738
00:39:40.039 --> 00:39:43.920
or I'm better than the kulplus plan as a black person,
739
00:39:44.519 --> 00:39:49.679
or I'm better than the Nazi skinhead, I'm better than Hitler.
740
00:39:50.360 --> 00:39:54.360
Well are you? If somebody can say something.
741
00:39:55.679 --> 00:40:01.400
And it's not homophobic and tone racist in tone, but
742
00:40:01.639 --> 00:40:06.159
just you know, difference of opinion, I'm a glut them
743
00:40:06.159 --> 00:40:07.079
my way, I'm gonna block you.
744
00:40:07.159 --> 00:40:08.400
I'm gonna treat you differently.
745
00:40:08.800 --> 00:40:12.400
Okay, you didn't burn down somebody's house or put a
746
00:40:12.440 --> 00:40:16.079
cross on their lawn, but it's the same attitude.
747
00:40:16.239 --> 00:40:18.559
Right, So what makes you better?
748
00:40:20.119 --> 00:40:24.679
And I have to adjust myself, you know in times
749
00:40:24.719 --> 00:40:28.559
where in my in my youth, you know where.
750
00:40:30.719 --> 00:40:32.719
If you if you weren't with me, you were against
751
00:40:32.800 --> 00:40:34.480
me attitude.
752
00:40:33.920 --> 00:40:36.719
That I had, right, you know what I'm saying.
753
00:40:36.639 --> 00:40:37.039
And.
754
00:40:38.639 --> 00:40:40.800
You gotta really we got to ask ourselves.
755
00:40:40.920 --> 00:40:46.760
And I'm speaking, you know to my people. When you talk,
756
00:40:46.920 --> 00:40:50.519
you know, you talk all that, right, just talk what
757
00:40:50.679 --> 00:40:51.800
makes you better.
758
00:40:53.320 --> 00:40:57.159
Or different than these people that you've been taught to
759
00:40:57.239 --> 00:41:01.280
despise if you're doing these things. But that was a
760
00:41:01.320 --> 00:41:05.360
profound quote for me, you know, like if you got
761
00:41:05.400 --> 00:41:07.599
to have you, I mean, hey, I disagree with you,
762
00:41:07.639 --> 00:41:08.719
but you have the right to sing.
763
00:41:09.840 --> 00:41:13.679
And I've never, I've never, you know, ran.
764
00:41:13.559 --> 00:41:16.920
To an unfriend button, a block button because somebody said
765
00:41:16.920 --> 00:41:20.840
something that I disagree with. If I'm if I'm looking
766
00:41:20.880 --> 00:41:24.320
at something somebody's saying, I don't see it that way
767
00:41:24.880 --> 00:41:27.039
when I scrolled right past it, and then when I
768
00:41:27.119 --> 00:41:29.400
see him later on that how you doing it's never No.
769
00:41:29.960 --> 00:41:31.719
What was that comment you made a couple of months ago.
770
00:41:31.880 --> 00:41:35.800
Man, I can't like to waste the energy man, because
771
00:41:37.280 --> 00:41:41.599
I have to align myself with the under Like we're
772
00:41:41.599 --> 00:41:42.679
talking about man and woman.
773
00:41:42.920 --> 00:41:45.840
You know, in the beginning, a woman may say she
774
00:41:45.960 --> 00:41:50.239
hates men, and then because I'm a man, I get
775
00:41:50.239 --> 00:41:50.800
mad at that.
776
00:41:51.400 --> 00:41:53.760
But again it goes back to that very word that
777
00:41:53.840 --> 00:41:55.920
I mentioned in the context.
778
00:41:56.480 --> 00:41:57.719
Yes, if she was.
779
00:41:57.719 --> 00:42:02.320
Raping abuse as a little girl, right Bob Men and
780
00:42:02.360 --> 00:42:05.920
her family, Yeah, then that's the context. You need to
781
00:42:05.960 --> 00:42:09.000
get to the the origin story.
782
00:42:08.679 --> 00:42:12.360
Of why she is the way she is. And do
783
00:42:12.440 --> 00:42:14.480
you sing any thing with us as men?
784
00:42:15.360 --> 00:42:15.840
You're right?
785
00:42:16.000 --> 00:42:18.079
And do you think I mean, you know, we talked
786
00:42:18.079 --> 00:42:20.400
about you know, blocking and things like that, like this
787
00:42:20.440 --> 00:42:22.639
show is obviously a huge advocate of it, and I
788
00:42:22.679 --> 00:42:24.599
am as a free speech you know, the First Amendments,
789
00:42:24.760 --> 00:42:27.000
free exchange of ideas. No matter how much I may
790
00:42:27.000 --> 00:42:29.840
hate an idea, you have the right to say. Yeah,
791
00:42:29.880 --> 00:42:31.760
you have the right to say, I mean, does social
792
00:42:31.800 --> 00:42:34.559
media now that look like you and I say, we
793
00:42:34.599 --> 00:42:37.159
are very critical of social media, yet we need to
794
00:42:37.360 --> 00:42:40.760
use it because that is now the public sidewalk is
795
00:42:40.800 --> 00:42:41.880
now the Facebook wall.
796
00:42:42.039 --> 00:42:44.440
The public sidewalk is now the Instagram.
797
00:42:44.679 --> 00:42:48.719
They have taken that space and made it the social megaphone.
798
00:42:48.800 --> 00:42:51.480
If you don't go on there, you're really talking to
799
00:42:51.559 --> 00:42:55.440
thin air. Do they have a responsibility in your abstract opinion.
800
00:42:55.440 --> 00:42:57.679
I'm not talking legally because that's a whole nother ballgame,
801
00:42:57.719 --> 00:43:00.360
but you know, do they have a responsibility to protect
802
00:43:00.400 --> 00:43:03.960
free speech and not allow canceling because I mean, now
803
00:43:04.119 --> 00:43:07.840
false facts, Elliott, We've talked about you're spreading like straight
804
00:43:07.920 --> 00:43:10.320
up lie on a factual news issue.
805
00:43:10.320 --> 00:43:11.880
That's one thing. I think it's different.
806
00:43:12.320 --> 00:43:15.320
But as far as opinions, I mean, should people be
807
00:43:15.440 --> 00:43:18.119
canceled from social media? So social media take an active
808
00:43:18.159 --> 00:43:21.360
role in that. Should we be canceling people for opinions?
809
00:43:22.079 --> 00:43:34.960
Whether is the opinion, hate speech is the opinion, homophobic
810
00:43:36.039 --> 00:43:43.599
is the opinion, you know, fans phobic. I have a
811
00:43:43.639 --> 00:43:50.079
friend of mine. She put a post up and the
812
00:43:50.159 --> 00:43:53.119
post was saying, like, why are these rainbows all over North?
813
00:43:53.239 --> 00:43:53.400
Now?
814
00:43:54.280 --> 00:43:55.400
What's with this agenda?
815
00:43:57.119 --> 00:43:59.679
Opinion?
816
00:44:00.679 --> 00:44:03.000
But when I talk to her, like, I just chuckled
817
00:44:03.000 --> 00:44:07.079
where I said, you just wanted to type fifty million
818
00:44:07.079 --> 00:44:07.840
comments today?
819
00:44:08.079 --> 00:44:10.880
Because you know what was coming with that?
820
00:44:10.960 --> 00:44:16.320
Some things you just know, right, and the energy, you know,
821
00:44:16.440 --> 00:44:20.480
expenditure of having to defend something which is an opinion,
822
00:44:20.559 --> 00:44:23.119
but you know how you know how that is gonna
823
00:44:23.239 --> 00:44:27.079
look say, why rainbowed all over the city?
824
00:44:27.960 --> 00:44:29.440
Right then do you have a game?
825
00:44:29.440 --> 00:44:31.679
You have a bunch of people coming saying, well, because
826
00:44:31.880 --> 00:44:33.679
this city is about inclusion and d.
827
00:44:36.280 --> 00:44:37.039
Right. You know.
828
00:44:37.239 --> 00:44:39.239
So for me, I think.
829
00:44:40.920 --> 00:44:42.800
I used to go really really hard with some of
830
00:44:42.880 --> 00:44:45.920
the things I say. Now I picked my spots a
831
00:44:45.920 --> 00:44:49.519
little bit more, right. I used to say things that
832
00:44:49.559 --> 00:44:54.000
were hard. It's around yeah, yeah, yeah, in my life,
833
00:44:54.199 --> 00:44:56.719
you know. And I'm be honest with you, and honestly,
834
00:44:57.360 --> 00:45:00.719
if you're really being honest, it's hard. There's gonna up
835
00:45:00.800 --> 00:45:03.800
some people the long wait and see themselves and what
836
00:45:03.840 --> 00:45:07.199
you're saying. They see themselves and something that you said
837
00:45:07.639 --> 00:45:09.480
to the point where now they think that you're talking
838
00:45:09.519 --> 00:45:13.840
directly to them. Yes, you know, and tell and I'll
839
00:45:13.840 --> 00:45:16.280
tell you ask me this is about I'll tell you
840
00:45:17.039 --> 00:45:18.559
if I had you in mind when.
841
00:45:18.440 --> 00:45:18.840
I said it.
842
00:45:19.239 --> 00:45:19.639
Mm hmm.
843
00:45:20.360 --> 00:45:23.039
Most times probably not right, you know what I'm saying.
844
00:45:23.039 --> 00:45:27.639
But is it one of those three things?
845
00:45:28.800 --> 00:45:29.000
You know?
846
00:45:29.199 --> 00:45:34.039
And when you get into those three things, you.
847
00:45:34.000 --> 00:45:35.320
Know, laced within your opinion.
848
00:45:35.800 --> 00:45:37.760
Now your opinion is something else, and now they're gonna
849
00:45:37.760 --> 00:45:40.920
flag you, they're gonna delete your account for a month
850
00:45:41.000 --> 00:45:41.679
or whatever they do.
851
00:45:42.360 --> 00:45:45.039
Yeah, and that's no, And that's that's scary too. Like
852
00:45:45.440 --> 00:45:47.559
you know, I've told you before my opinion on you
853
00:45:47.599 --> 00:45:49.800
know that there's a Ken Gibson statue outside City Hall
854
00:45:49.840 --> 00:45:52.719
and there's a George Floyd statue, And I always am
855
00:45:53.159 --> 00:45:56.519
frustrated that when I see people going to George Floyd
856
00:45:56.599 --> 00:46:01.159
but not Ken Gibson, And I'm like, put in, yeah, yeah, no,
857
00:46:01.239 --> 00:46:03.599
put Ken Gibson on a monument.
858
00:46:03.719 --> 00:46:05.239
I'm all about it, like it ain't.
859
00:46:05.280 --> 00:46:07.599
But if I were to say that to your point
860
00:46:07.920 --> 00:46:11.519
on Facebook, people would misconstrue what I'm talking about so
861
00:46:11.760 --> 00:46:14.559
much that I think I would just get flack when
862
00:46:14.559 --> 00:46:16.320
it ain't. It's got nothing to do with race. It's
863
00:46:16.320 --> 00:46:18.320
got nothing to do with But that goes back to
864
00:46:18.360 --> 00:46:21.519
my power empowerment point. I'm like, one of those figures
865
00:46:21.559 --> 00:46:24.320
is an empowering figure, another one is a tragic figure.
866
00:46:24.320 --> 00:46:26.960
But you know, I know better than to post it
867
00:46:27.000 --> 00:46:28.840
because I don't want to catch all the flak, is
868
00:46:28.840 --> 00:46:29.199
my point.
869
00:46:29.280 --> 00:46:33.159
Yeah, you know, what's but speaking of that I will
870
00:46:33.199 --> 00:46:39.320
say this my disappointment with that m it is right now.
871
00:46:39.239 --> 00:46:42.280
As we speak. And you know this because we spoke
872
00:46:42.320 --> 00:46:42.679
about this.
873
00:46:43.440 --> 00:46:46.599
In our city, we have a lot of corrupt policing
874
00:46:46.639 --> 00:46:51.280
going on. So it's a real wall over.
875
00:46:51.199 --> 00:46:52.719
Everybody's adds gesture.
876
00:46:53.719 --> 00:46:57.079
Right, put this tragic figure up when police in the
877
00:46:57.159 --> 00:47:03.159
city are pretty much being corrupt with how they might tickets.
878
00:47:03.719 --> 00:47:05.880
And this isn't just at least a pain, this is document.
879
00:47:06.079 --> 00:47:09.119
This is what Elliott lives and goes for. To me,
880
00:47:09.199 --> 00:47:12.679
it's it's the biggest crop and shit ever to.
881
00:47:14.840 --> 00:47:17.599
Almost thinks seem like, oh, we're for social justice, but
882
00:47:17.679 --> 00:47:21.800
meanwhile people in your city can't get it from its
883
00:47:21.880 --> 00:47:22.599
law officials.
884
00:47:23.039 --> 00:47:24.800
Then if you go through the history.
885
00:47:26.079 --> 00:47:31.800
Of police and the citizens in the city, tons of
886
00:47:31.800 --> 00:47:35.960
people killed in the North riots in the sixties. Yes,
887
00:47:36.119 --> 00:47:38.400
not one statue of anybody that died.
888
00:47:38.719 --> 00:47:39.320
Yeah, not one.
889
00:47:39.360 --> 00:47:42.840
I'm talking about a statue now, you know, little stuff
890
00:47:42.840 --> 00:47:44.960
that people don't know where it's at and people can't see.
891
00:47:45.480 --> 00:47:46.159
I'm about the.
892
00:47:46.159 --> 00:47:51.880
Real yeah, yeah, yeah, ay, and mostly ye seventies, eighties,
893
00:47:51.960 --> 00:47:52.840
ninety two thousands.
894
00:47:52.880 --> 00:47:58.239
So you're telling me, in five decades, nobody's been killed
895
00:47:58.239 --> 00:48:02.199
by the police unjustly and city. Nobody has been treated
896
00:48:02.280 --> 00:48:05.599
unjustly in the city, and if so, where the statue
897
00:48:05.679 --> 00:48:06.159
is reporting?
898
00:48:06.639 --> 00:48:06.960
Mm hm.
899
00:48:07.920 --> 00:48:10.199
Instead you want to put a statue up for somebody
900
00:48:10.719 --> 00:48:15.480
from Minnesota to make some kind of grand statement about
901
00:48:15.480 --> 00:48:21.960
something you're not actually doing and the mentality that you
902
00:48:22.039 --> 00:48:26.880
don't actually have right, you know, because and if you say, well,
903
00:48:26.880 --> 00:48:31.880
that's not true, okay, I challenge you on the corruption
904
00:48:32.280 --> 00:48:34.920
that's been going on just in the three to four
905
00:48:34.960 --> 00:48:39.760
years I've lived downtown as a citizen downtown. The fact
906
00:48:39.760 --> 00:48:44.119
that you write tickets on certain people and then other
907
00:48:44.119 --> 00:48:45.159
people who have mayor ol.
908
00:48:45.079 --> 00:48:47.119
Plaette and the dashboard get to just park and do
909
00:48:47.159 --> 00:48:48.039
whatever the hell they want to do.
910
00:48:49.199 --> 00:48:50.079
And that's wrong.
911
00:48:50.760 --> 00:48:53.480
Do you think, you know, dealing with young people and whatnot?
912
00:48:53.480 --> 00:48:54.920
And then we're going to dive into this book because
913
00:48:54.920 --> 00:48:56.239
I know I've been talking to your ear off. I
914
00:48:56.280 --> 00:48:57.880
want people to have the context and I just love
915
00:48:57.920 --> 00:49:00.159
this conversation with you for this, for this show. But
916
00:49:00.760 --> 00:49:03.719
you know, from a from again, this empowerment theme, this
917
00:49:03.880 --> 00:49:06.719
educational theme. You know, is it an issue that a
918
00:49:06.800 --> 00:49:11.039
kid might recognize George Floyd much quicker than Ken Gibson.
919
00:49:11.079 --> 00:49:14.360
I mean, and it's not that's not unique to a
920
00:49:14.400 --> 00:49:15.320
youth of color.
921
00:49:15.320 --> 00:49:16.480
That's not I mean, that's everybody.
922
00:49:16.480 --> 00:49:19.840
They're going to recognize, you know, a famous person over
923
00:49:19.880 --> 00:49:21.760
a historical figure every day of the week.
924
00:49:21.840 --> 00:49:22.079
I mean.
925
00:49:22.119 --> 00:49:25.280
So I'm not saying it's you know, unique to Newark
926
00:49:25.400 --> 00:49:26.320
or unique.
927
00:49:25.960 --> 00:49:28.119
To you know, the youth here or anything.
928
00:49:28.199 --> 00:49:30.920
But is it a societal problem that you know, we
929
00:49:30.920 --> 00:49:34.760
we pushed the media and visuals and soundbites so much
930
00:49:34.800 --> 00:49:36.559
that a kid's not going to know this was the
931
00:49:36.599 --> 00:49:39.760
first African American mayor of a major city in the Northeast.
932
00:49:39.920 --> 00:49:41.320
And you might not know who he is, but you
933
00:49:41.360 --> 00:49:43.159
know who that is. I mean, and that that's not
934
00:49:43.239 --> 00:49:46.639
just George Floyd Ken Gibson, that's everything. That's your congressman.
935
00:49:47.000 --> 00:49:50.280
You know, your congressman versus Cardi b You're you're you
936
00:49:50.280 --> 00:49:54.719
know whoever versus Jake Paul, I mean, Logan Paul. I mean,
937
00:49:55.159 --> 00:49:57.920
is that's a societal problem, isn't it? Can we ever
938
00:49:58.039 --> 00:49:58.679
get past that?
939
00:50:01.280 --> 00:50:06.480
I'll say this, first of all, it's a huge problem.
940
00:50:06.599 --> 00:50:07.480
But here's why.
941
00:50:10.280 --> 00:50:14.360
To know where you standing, to know on what ground
942
00:50:14.760 --> 00:50:21.639
you're standing, you have to understood understand all those who
943
00:50:21.679 --> 00:50:25.280
came before you who stood in that spot right to
944
00:50:25.480 --> 00:50:29.960
understand where you're at in your present life, you have
945
00:50:30.039 --> 00:50:30.400
to know.
946
00:50:30.320 --> 00:50:31.280
The history.
947
00:50:33.000 --> 00:50:37.360
Of other people's lives who stood in those same spots,
948
00:50:37.480 --> 00:50:41.199
in those same positions, and to have some kind of
949
00:50:41.719 --> 00:50:45.480
aspiration about what you want your future to be, you
950
00:50:45.599 --> 00:50:49.679
have to know your history. And when kids don't know
951
00:50:50.800 --> 00:50:56.360
the depths of where we come from, who we come from,
952
00:50:56.719 --> 00:51:01.360
what's happened to us in the places that we live, yes,
953
00:51:02.920 --> 00:51:11.119
it's a huge, huge disservice to them, and it stagnates
954
00:51:11.159 --> 00:51:13.920
their life. And I'm talking about myself. There are things
955
00:51:13.920 --> 00:51:16.039
that I learned till I was thirty something years old,
956
00:51:16.599 --> 00:51:19.079
while I was being taught that christmal Love has discovered
957
00:51:19.119 --> 00:51:22.639
this country, and when I was looking at history books
958
00:51:22.639 --> 00:51:26.480
and seeing a picture of a white man with you know,
959
00:51:26.639 --> 00:51:28.639
as a sphinx, when.
960
00:51:28.440 --> 00:51:34.639
We got to the chapters on Egypt in our text books. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
961
00:51:34.079 --> 00:51:38.159
It takes years from it's almost like a jaa, since
962
00:51:39.559 --> 00:51:42.480
when you are enlightened to something, when you thought about
963
00:51:42.519 --> 00:51:45.000
it in one way your whole life, you were taught
964
00:51:45.039 --> 00:51:46.800
one way your whole life, and then all of a
965
00:51:46.800 --> 00:51:50.199
sudden you found out that everything you were taught was bullshit.
966
00:51:51.199 --> 00:51:53.840
It's almost like sitting in the dark room for twenty
967
00:51:53.920 --> 00:51:58.480
years where there was no shade, no windows, and somebody
968
00:51:58.480 --> 00:52:02.559
take you outside us. That's what That's what it's like.
969
00:52:03.480 --> 00:52:08.159
And these children, I can't help us say it again,
970
00:52:10.559 --> 00:52:14.639
if they're charged to lead a country forward when we're
971
00:52:14.639 --> 00:52:17.840
old m hm, how can they do it?
972
00:52:18.559 --> 00:52:18.960
Mm hmm.
973
00:52:21.239 --> 00:52:23.480
And so this this book now, and I want to
974
00:52:23.480 --> 00:52:24.280
get into it now.
975
00:52:24.360 --> 00:52:24.559
Now.
976
00:52:24.599 --> 00:52:25.960
First of all, I just want to touch on the
977
00:52:26.000 --> 00:52:28.760
fact that you know, you talk a lot about locality,
978
00:52:28.800 --> 00:52:31.480
and I think you and I are of the Obviously
979
00:52:31.519 --> 00:52:34.480
we have aspirations, and obviously you have aspirations as an artist,
980
00:52:34.519 --> 00:52:36.639
and obviously this book has been reaching far and wide,
981
00:52:36.760 --> 00:52:39.159
well outside the confines of this city, in this state.
982
00:52:39.920 --> 00:52:43.320
At the same time, you know, a big wealth and
983
00:52:43.400 --> 00:52:47.159
reservoir of support and distribution is obviously pretty local.
984
00:52:47.719 --> 00:52:48.440
I mean, what.
985
00:52:49.880 --> 00:52:52.599
From this book standpoint from your reach? I know you
986
00:52:52.679 --> 00:52:56.079
lectured recently at your college. You know, how important is
987
00:52:56.119 --> 00:52:59.760
it for us to have local mentors, local leaders, local
988
00:52:59.880 --> 00:53:03.159
art artistic figures. You know, even before they get bigger
989
00:53:03.199 --> 00:53:06.320
on a national scale. How important is it everywhere for
990
00:53:06.400 --> 00:53:09.000
people to revere their local figures. I mean, you've been
991
00:53:09.039 --> 00:53:12.559
making the rounds at local poetry shows. You know, you're
992
00:53:12.599 --> 00:53:15.519
in local bookstores, and that's that's not local in the
993
00:53:15.559 --> 00:53:18.280
sense of like a block. That's like multiple cities in
994
00:53:18.320 --> 00:53:21.119
New Jersey and beyond. But how important is it to
995
00:53:21.480 --> 00:53:24.719
get art like this and and literature like this out
996
00:53:24.760 --> 00:53:27.920
even on a local level, you know, how important is that.
997
00:53:29.480 --> 00:53:34.280
To let people know that number one, I'm not special
998
00:53:34.760 --> 00:53:38.119
and the things that I do are attainable for all
999
00:53:38.159 --> 00:53:41.159
of us. It's different when you have to look to
1000
00:53:41.199 --> 00:53:45.159
a TV and see somebody doing something, it's like, wow,
1001
00:53:45.199 --> 00:53:46.119
it's so far away.
1002
00:53:47.119 --> 00:53:49.039
Wow, I wish I could.
1003
00:53:48.840 --> 00:53:51.360
Be I wish I could do what they do. Mh.
1004
00:53:52.000 --> 00:53:56.840
Then you can go outside and see somebody well, like
1005
00:53:56.920 --> 00:53:59.239
even we can talk about hip hop, you know, like wow,
1006
00:53:59.599 --> 00:54:00.599
we want people.
1007
00:54:00.400 --> 00:54:02.159
Was Mrvington? Wow? Yes?
1008
00:54:02.599 --> 00:54:07.559
But wow you know right man, Wow, they're from here.
1009
00:54:08.400 --> 00:54:12.000
So when you see somebody from coming from where you
1010
00:54:12.039 --> 00:54:17.119
come from, speaking your language and they're doing it, then
1011
00:54:17.159 --> 00:54:20.880
it's just it's not this thing that's so far away
1012
00:54:21.159 --> 00:54:25.119
and unattainable in our mind and spirit, you know.
1013
00:54:25.360 --> 00:54:27.239
So for me.
1014
00:54:29.119 --> 00:54:31.679
Going up in schools, I didn't see no black teacher.
1015
00:54:32.679 --> 00:54:37.719
The only black teacher I had from first grade to
1016
00:54:37.880 --> 00:54:41.320
senior year, happened to be my gym teacher who happened
1017
00:54:41.320 --> 00:54:43.679
to be my track and field and basketball coach.
1018
00:54:44.039 --> 00:54:47.639
It's morell, I didn't have a black male English teacher.
1019
00:54:47.760 --> 00:54:52.639
I didn't have a black male science teacher. So all
1020
00:54:52.679 --> 00:54:54.920
of a sudden in my mind, because I'm not seeing
1021
00:54:55.599 --> 00:54:58.039
these people in front of me teaching me these these
1022
00:54:58.360 --> 00:55:02.239
serious subjects. Now, I'm thinking, well, we must not be
1023
00:55:02.280 --> 00:55:05.719
good at signs. Well, we must not be, you know,
1024
00:55:05.960 --> 00:55:10.000
capable of teaching that. So then as a black male,
1025
00:55:10.159 --> 00:55:14.840
you kind of get away from that as a as
1026
00:55:14.880 --> 00:55:19.760
an occupational uh desire. Right when you're looking for work
1027
00:55:19.840 --> 00:55:21.320
or things that you can do or ways that you
1028
00:55:21.360 --> 00:55:24.039
can impact the world, those things are already dismissed from
1029
00:55:24.039 --> 00:55:26.239
your from your mindset because you've never seen it.
1030
00:55:26.639 --> 00:55:30.440
Good point, you know. Yeah, So so for me, that's
1031
00:55:30.440 --> 00:55:33.800
what I'm home important makes sense And now so so
1032
00:55:33.880 --> 00:55:36.559
tell me about this title. So it's you know, the
1033
00:55:36.599 --> 00:55:39.880
world is I? I see it? I? What's with the
1034
00:55:39.880 --> 00:55:40.400
the eye?
1035
00:55:40.480 --> 00:55:42.320
You know, you spell it like an eye like a
1036
00:55:42.360 --> 00:55:46.719
body part ie, but you constantly and consistently use it
1037
00:55:46.760 --> 00:55:47.199
as I.
1038
00:55:47.519 --> 00:55:50.639
You know me I. The letter I what's what's the
1039
00:55:52.440 --> 00:55:53.079
explain that?
1040
00:55:54.280 --> 00:55:57.760
Well, a couple of things.
1041
00:55:58.079 --> 00:56:04.119
I was reading up on the penial bland, which we
1042
00:56:04.239 --> 00:56:07.760
understood to be a third eye mm hmm. The two
1043
00:56:07.800 --> 00:56:11.639
eyes in your head and that third eye which is
1044
00:56:11.679 --> 00:56:19.639
your center. You know, that lends itself through innate perspective,
1045
00:56:20.440 --> 00:56:26.039
right and openness, you know, and reading it kind of
1046
00:56:26.079 --> 00:56:28.559
gave me the idea, like back in like twenty eighteen,
1047
00:56:28.639 --> 00:56:33.800
twenty nineteen penial, because I was writing something that involved it,
1048
00:56:34.639 --> 00:56:36.000
the third third eye.
1049
00:56:36.000 --> 00:56:39.039
Then I remember it was a song by Roy Is
1050
00:56:39.480 --> 00:56:40.360
called the Third Eye.
1051
00:56:40.639 --> 00:56:41.960
You love this song.
1052
00:56:42.519 --> 00:56:46.039
You don't know already, but I was just listening to
1053
00:56:46.039 --> 00:56:50.000
that song back and forth, just baby baby.
1054
00:56:50.440 --> 00:56:50.599
You know.
1055
00:56:55.559 --> 00:56:59.000
I started right and then I'm thinking about okay. The
1056
00:56:59.000 --> 00:57:02.159
initial title was just was the letter hide Yes? Then
1057
00:57:02.199 --> 00:57:07.079
I'm thinking about okay. The dynamics of this book is
1058
00:57:07.199 --> 00:57:12.519
more cientilar around vantage point yes, and how our vantage
1059
00:57:12.559 --> 00:57:17.400
points and perspectives based on where we come from, based
1060
00:57:17.440 --> 00:57:22.800
on our traumas, based on cultural traumas, this country traumas,
1061
00:57:23.880 --> 00:57:30.280
how it all you know, males and creates this nexus
1062
00:57:30.440 --> 00:57:33.719
through which we all exist, but that is also causing
1063
00:57:34.159 --> 00:57:37.000
the division between all of us, and that also causes
1064
00:57:37.119 --> 00:57:41.800
division from us and our spirit the way it's meant
1065
00:57:41.840 --> 00:57:46.079
to be. I think, innately, we talked about the book cover.
1066
00:57:46.880 --> 00:57:48.679
I've been explaining what that means a lot.
1067
00:57:48.719 --> 00:57:50.519
I was talking about that a lot at my luxury
1068
00:57:51.000 --> 00:57:53.760
a team.
1069
00:57:51.639 --> 00:57:55.400
Innately, when we're.
1070
00:57:55.199 --> 00:57:58.840
Born, we know nothing but to be good and to
1071
00:57:58.920 --> 00:58:03.719
be fun, and to be free and happy and smiling.
1072
00:58:06.360 --> 00:58:09.119
It's our interactions.
1073
00:58:09.360 --> 00:58:14.480
With each other that shape and mold and change us
1074
00:58:14.599 --> 00:58:20.960
in two more guarded, maybe more cynical people. And in
1075
00:58:21.039 --> 00:58:25.519
that cynicism is where you get all of the damage,
1076
00:58:26.599 --> 00:58:32.360
the confusion, the inner chaos and the outer chaos. Right
1077
00:58:32.639 --> 00:58:38.239
of us and our ability to coexist here men and women,
1078
00:58:39.079 --> 00:58:39.840
black and white.
1079
00:58:41.400 --> 00:58:46.480
You see this war now Palestine, and like all of
1080
00:58:46.519 --> 00:58:47.519
this stuff.
1081
00:58:49.960 --> 00:58:52.880
To the outer eye, you know, is like, okay, well
1082
00:58:52.920 --> 00:58:54.400
there was a reason that this happened.
1083
00:58:54.519 --> 00:58:57.119
But I'm sinking I'm getting back to or I'm at
1084
00:58:57.199 --> 00:59:02.440
least I'm attempting to get to the origins of why
1085
00:59:02.960 --> 00:59:06.440
and how we come to be right and how I
1086
00:59:06.599 --> 00:59:11.199
thought in perspective on our place here and on the
1087
00:59:11.239 --> 00:59:12.840
world around us.
1088
00:59:12.400 --> 00:59:16.880
Shaped that makes sense. That makes a lot of the.
1089
00:59:16.880 --> 00:59:19.400
Impetus for what I was trying to do with a
1090
00:59:19.400 --> 00:59:21.079
lot of the writing in the selection.
1091
00:59:21.320 --> 00:59:23.360
It makes sense. So it's like the world as I
1092
00:59:23.480 --> 00:59:26.039
see it. It's not just as you see it the individual,
1093
00:59:26.079 --> 00:59:28.920
but as that third eye, that instinctive eye, which can
1094
00:59:28.960 --> 00:59:31.880
be you or universal in a spiritual sense too. I
1095
00:59:31.920 --> 00:59:34.400
totally understand that, and it makes a hell of a
1096
00:59:34.400 --> 00:59:36.400
lot of sense. Now, you talked about how you were
1097
00:59:36.480 --> 00:59:38.280
vibing the roy a or is at one point when
1098
00:59:38.280 --> 00:59:40.440
you were being creative and came up with that title
1099
00:59:40.519 --> 00:59:42.719
or that rendition of the title. Tell me about your
1100
00:59:42.760 --> 00:59:45.960
creative process. You know, I'm an avid fan of your poetry.
1101
00:59:45.960 --> 00:59:50.000
Obviously every poem may be a different process, but in general,
1102
00:59:50.400 --> 00:59:53.840
I mean what inspires you? What your creative process like?
1103
00:59:53.840 --> 00:59:55.960
When do you usually find yourself coming up with things?
1104
00:59:56.039 --> 00:59:58.360
Is it listening to a song? Is it the weather?
1105
00:59:58.599 --> 01:00:01.239
Is it the change of the season, the lighting? You know,
1106
01:00:01.280 --> 01:00:03.199
what puts you in the zone? And how do you
1107
01:00:03.320 --> 01:00:05.239
like to be in the zone when you're writing.
1108
01:00:08.480 --> 01:00:14.199
Reflection? A lot of my writing is I'm delving back into.
1109
01:00:15.880 --> 01:00:18.719
My childhood, my teenage years, something that might have happened,
1110
01:00:19.719 --> 01:00:25.039
my relationships, and when I.
1111
01:00:24.960 --> 01:00:27.559
Can already start off mm hmm with.
1112
01:00:29.760 --> 01:00:34.960
You know, a story, then what happens then is I
1113
01:00:35.039 --> 01:00:39.079
just have to try to turn it, you know, into poetry.
1114
01:00:39.079 --> 01:00:41.000
But the story is already there. I'm not I'm not
1115
01:00:41.000 --> 01:00:44.360
even having to dig for anything. It's already there. When
1116
01:00:44.400 --> 01:00:46.840
I when I wrote my poem about you.
1117
01:00:46.880 --> 01:00:49.840
Know, my relationship my father and what.
1118
01:00:49.719 --> 01:00:54.039
That was like from childhood to you know, that was
1119
01:00:54.079 --> 01:00:56.639
already there. I just had to you know.
1120
01:00:56.760 --> 01:00:59.760
So what makes it easy for me is is I'm
1121
01:00:59.760 --> 01:01:02.000
not reaching for something that isn't there. I'm not reaching
1122
01:01:02.000 --> 01:01:07.239
for something that's inauthentic to met so in a way,
1123
01:01:07.880 --> 01:01:12.639
that's like I would say that foremost, and it's deconitely obviously,
1124
01:01:14.280 --> 01:01:19.239
huge fan of art, huge fan of music, huge fan
1125
01:01:19.559 --> 01:01:24.920
of environment, and I take you you know, it's a
1126
01:01:24.960 --> 01:01:28.280
big pot of gumbo that I throw all of these
1127
01:01:28.280 --> 01:01:32.480
things into when I'm writing, and that's what allows me
1128
01:01:32.519 --> 01:01:35.320
to you know, that gives me my starting point. And
1129
01:01:35.360 --> 01:01:39.320
then from a technical aspect, you know, I do.
1130
01:01:39.239 --> 01:01:40.440
A lot of ron poetry.
1131
01:01:41.000 --> 01:01:42.920
Yes, you know, with people.
1132
01:01:43.199 --> 01:01:47.960
Ron poetry doesn't have to be hat hat that sat
1133
01:01:48.519 --> 01:01:50.960
at rat you know.
1134
01:01:50.960 --> 01:01:51.519
What I'm saying.
1135
01:01:52.599 --> 01:01:56.320
You can use assonance, you can use you know a
1136
01:01:56.320 --> 01:02:01.400
lot of different tools within the English language. You know
1137
01:02:01.480 --> 01:02:07.599
that can give uh lines line cadences a sound as similar,
1138
01:02:07.639 --> 01:02:09.599
even though the words that are in the.
1139
01:02:09.599 --> 01:02:12.159
Lines aren't actually rhyming words.
1140
01:02:12.599 --> 01:02:15.239
Right, Yes, and that that just I pick up on
1141
01:02:15.360 --> 01:02:18.960
rhythm that way, which comes from music, you know. Like
1142
01:02:19.719 --> 01:02:24.159
so when I say something, I might say, uh, we
1143
01:02:24.159 --> 01:02:27.320
were like war veterans in Vietnam, band of brothers who
1144
01:02:27.280 --> 01:02:30.519
wrapped their arms like forbotomists and rubber the quiet the hunger,
1145
01:02:30.639 --> 01:02:37.840
happiness going to Sunday, So rubber hunger asunder un run right,
1146
01:02:38.079 --> 01:02:41.639
But the cadence that's created from words going back to
1147
01:02:41.760 --> 01:02:44.960
back sounds like ron words you know.
1148
01:02:45.199 --> 01:02:48.199
Uh, you know. So that's just a style. You know.
1149
01:02:49.079 --> 01:02:52.159
A beautiful mom pools fractual under the weight of solitude
1150
01:02:52.199 --> 01:02:55.320
to sell food with the hauntings of bad choices, voices
1151
01:02:55.360 --> 01:02:58.760
that expand like with scissor hands. Insanity is the test
1152
01:02:59.000 --> 01:03:01.679
and the testinal for the who like it. Sounds run
1153
01:03:01.840 --> 01:03:02.280
but it's not.
1154
01:03:03.119 --> 01:03:05.559
Yes. Now that brings me to another question.
1155
01:03:05.599 --> 01:03:07.559
I mean, now, you perform quite a bit in your
1156
01:03:07.599 --> 01:03:10.480
hell of a performer, and that's part of your whole art.
1157
01:03:11.000 --> 01:03:14.000
Do you write with an eye toward performing? Ie?
1158
01:03:14.119 --> 01:03:16.400
Are you reciting this stuff out loud? And thinking how
1159
01:03:16.400 --> 01:03:19.559
it would sound in performance or is this more for
1160
01:03:19.639 --> 01:03:22.440
the for the paper because you publish it in written word,
1161
01:03:22.480 --> 01:03:23.559
but you also perform.
1162
01:03:23.840 --> 01:03:25.960
Are you writing with an eye towards performance?
1163
01:03:26.800 --> 01:03:28.119
No, I'm writing.
1164
01:03:28.440 --> 01:03:31.480
I'm writing, and then once it's done, I could tell
1165
01:03:31.519 --> 01:03:31.880
what I.
1166
01:03:31.840 --> 01:03:34.119
Write to make it performable.
1167
01:03:35.880 --> 01:03:36.480
Yeah.
1168
01:03:36.519 --> 01:03:38.400
Like when I did Life in Cinema.
1169
01:03:38.599 --> 01:03:41.440
Mm hm, which is A two actually one of my favorites.
1170
01:03:41.559 --> 01:03:46.840
Yeah, I was like, though, it'll be dope to try
1171
01:03:46.880 --> 01:03:50.960
to do a poem to tell a story using all
1172
01:03:51.119 --> 01:03:56.639
movie titles or using mostly movie titles. So I started
1173
01:03:56.639 --> 01:03:59.199
and then like the first line, I was just I'm like, okay,
1174
01:03:59.199 --> 01:04:00.000
I'm gonna start for this.
1175
01:04:00.320 --> 01:04:01.400
I'm gonna go about it.
1176
01:04:02.000 --> 01:04:06.480
And then the first line was, uh, you know, chilling
1177
01:04:06.559 --> 01:04:11.960
on Broad and Market, remembering Hood Titans. So remember the
1178
01:04:12.000 --> 01:04:16.599
Titans When it said, I say hood Titans, like harkening
1179
01:04:16.719 --> 01:04:20.559
back to my neighborhood. You know, gangsters that was on
1180
01:04:20.599 --> 01:04:23.880
the corner, dudes that ran the block. You know what
1181
01:04:23.880 --> 01:04:27.239
I'm saying that the man with respect remembering hood Titans,
1182
01:04:27.960 --> 01:04:29.519
right right.
1183
01:04:29.480 --> 01:04:29.719
You know.
1184
01:04:30.840 --> 01:04:33.960
And then I'm like, okay, I'm a bill from there.
1185
01:04:34.719 --> 01:04:35.000
Gosh.
1186
01:04:35.079 --> 01:04:37.320
I was chilling on Broad and market, remember the Hood
1187
01:04:37.360 --> 01:04:40.280
Titans before I decided.
1188
01:04:39.840 --> 01:04:41.440
To Woo Pretty Women.
1189
01:04:42.000 --> 01:04:48.559
Woo is a movie with Jada Pinkett and then Pretty
1190
01:04:48.599 --> 01:04:54.480
Women obviously Richard Garde. So now I'm just so now
1191
01:04:54.480 --> 01:04:57.519
I'm now I'm tinkering, you know what I'm saying, Like,
1192
01:04:58.159 --> 01:04:58.440
you know.
1193
01:04:58.920 --> 01:05:01.440
Yes, how am I getting to go to four K? Yes?
1194
01:05:01.519 --> 01:05:02.559
Yeah, I'm like Okay.
1195
01:05:02.639 --> 01:05:04.960
So I always before I was, you know, have my
1196
01:05:05.039 --> 01:05:07.239
license and had to catch the bus, I would always
1197
01:05:07.239 --> 01:05:09.920
catch the twenty four bus, you know, because I would
1198
01:05:09.960 --> 01:05:12.239
be going from North to Elizabeth, and so I was
1199
01:05:12.280 --> 01:05:13.480
always on that bus.
1200
01:05:14.039 --> 01:05:17.800
So like the twenty four K, I got on the bus,
1201
01:05:18.000 --> 01:05:24.400
get on the bush. So it's just that's how it started.
1202
01:05:24.440 --> 01:05:27.159
And then they just kept it, kept building and building
1203
01:05:27.239 --> 01:05:28.840
and building, gotcha.
1204
01:05:28.599 --> 01:05:28.800
You know.
1205
01:05:28.840 --> 01:05:31.079
But that's how I write. But then I'm like, this
1206
01:05:31.119 --> 01:05:33.079
poem is long, but I knew how much how good
1207
01:05:33.079 --> 01:05:35.519
of a poem it was, and that I would eat with.
1208
01:05:35.519 --> 01:05:37.920
This like in poetry slam. So that's when I had
1209
01:05:37.960 --> 01:05:40.920
to start memorizing it. And now it's I got it
1210
01:05:40.920 --> 01:05:42.199
to where it's pretty much massive.
1211
01:05:42.280 --> 01:05:47.679
But I've always wrote first for myself, you know, and
1212
01:05:47.719 --> 01:05:49.599
then if I felt like it's something that you know
1213
01:05:49.760 --> 01:05:53.039
could resonate with people, or that people thought, you know,
1214
01:05:53.280 --> 01:05:55.679
damn it, it should be dope. Then I'd be like,
1215
01:05:55.679 --> 01:05:57.440
all right, I need to I need for the world
1216
01:05:57.440 --> 01:05:57.800
to hear.
1217
01:05:57.719 --> 01:06:01.360
This got you so now with respect to the world
1218
01:06:01.400 --> 01:06:03.559
hearing it when you when you put this book together,
1219
01:06:04.880 --> 01:06:07.920
how much of this was a collection of poems you
1220
01:06:08.000 --> 01:06:11.400
already had from miscellaneous times, And how many of these
1221
01:06:11.400 --> 01:06:14.719
poems were written with an eye toward this book no
1222
01:06:14.840 --> 01:06:17.559
pun intended. I mean, how many of these poems did
1223
01:06:17.599 --> 01:06:19.280
you know were going in this book? And how much
1224
01:06:19.280 --> 01:06:22.679
of this is just an anthology of you and a
1225
01:06:22.719 --> 01:06:25.920
collection that you had sporadically. I mean, at what point
1226
01:06:26.119 --> 01:06:27.960
you know, did you know this is this book's coming out?
1227
01:06:27.960 --> 01:06:29.920
In these poems are the ones for it? And how
1228
01:06:30.000 --> 01:06:32.199
much was written before that? And how much was written
1229
01:06:32.199 --> 01:06:32.559
after that?
1230
01:06:33.639 --> 01:06:44.679
I got about I got approxibly sixty plus poems.
1231
01:06:42.039 --> 01:06:42.639
In the book.
1232
01:06:43.320 --> 01:06:48.280
Of those, I would say about forty five of them,
1233
01:06:48.440 --> 01:06:53.119
probably fifty even was written directly for the book. Okay,
1234
01:06:53.239 --> 01:06:55.960
in front of them were just fillers of things I've written,
1235
01:06:56.880 --> 01:06:59.639
were that weren't any other manuscript.
1236
01:07:00.119 --> 01:07:02.440
So I figured I would expand.
1237
01:07:02.119 --> 01:07:04.559
The book out by adding them, and A lot of
1238
01:07:04.559 --> 01:07:07.199
those books are a lot of those poems poems that
1239
01:07:07.239 --> 01:07:09.199
I end up putting in the bony section of the book.
1240
01:07:09.599 --> 01:07:11.920
And I see that, right, that makes that makes sense too,
1241
01:07:12.079 --> 01:07:13.719
now that I only ask you about the structure of
1242
01:07:13.719 --> 01:07:15.920
the book. So you have, you know, book one with
1243
01:07:15.960 --> 01:07:19.079
the eye Open, and then you have the subsequent books.
1244
01:07:19.920 --> 01:07:22.639
What what goes into that? What what poems fit into
1245
01:07:22.719 --> 01:07:24.239
which section? And why.
1246
01:07:25.719 --> 01:07:31.039
Eye open was really when when I if you look
1247
01:07:31.079 --> 01:07:33.599
at the covers, you'll see that one. On one side
1248
01:07:33.639 --> 01:07:36.719
of the book you'll see my eye closed, and the
1249
01:07:36.760 --> 01:07:38.760
other side you'll see my eye open.
1250
01:07:39.199 --> 01:07:39.519
Mm hm.
1251
01:07:40.559 --> 01:07:43.119
The eye open, which I believe is the one that
1252
01:07:43.440 --> 01:07:46.079
has the horns on top of my head.
1253
01:07:46.280 --> 01:07:47.519
It is is.
1254
01:07:49.280 --> 01:07:51.039
Your eye open? Is what you're seeing.
1255
01:07:51.840 --> 01:07:57.400
Yes, what you're seeing is changing you from the person
1256
01:07:57.440 --> 01:08:01.159
that you want to be and to a person that
1257
01:08:02.519 --> 01:08:07.719
has to be someone else to survive. So my eye open,
1258
01:08:10.000 --> 01:08:14.079
I'm doing poems from the perspective of what I'm seeing, yes,
1259
01:08:15.280 --> 01:08:20.199
you know, and how it's changing and offering who I'm
1260
01:08:20.239 --> 01:08:20.880
trying to be.
1261
01:08:21.960 --> 01:08:27.119
Yes, the eye closed part is me looking inwardly.
1262
01:08:28.800 --> 01:08:33.199
And looking into my own spirit for resolution from what
1263
01:08:33.239 --> 01:08:35.560
I'm from what I'm seeing makes perfect.
1264
01:08:35.560 --> 01:08:39.359
So when you see the hello over the over my
1265
01:08:39.439 --> 01:08:43.880
head and my eyes closed, that's hearkening back into the
1266
01:08:43.920 --> 01:08:46.439
goodness and all of the positive things.
1267
01:08:46.640 --> 01:08:48.680
Aspiracially that that I'm.
1268
01:08:48.560 --> 01:08:53.159
Trying to be and do and I'm looking inside to
1269
01:08:53.880 --> 01:08:54.279
feel that.
1270
01:08:55.319 --> 01:08:55.520
You know.
1271
01:08:55.680 --> 01:08:59.279
The eye open is like I'm speaking directly on my
1272
01:08:59.399 --> 01:09:03.560
experience and how I'm being treated and what I'm feeling
1273
01:09:03.760 --> 01:09:07.840
from that treatment, and not every single poem like lends
1274
01:09:07.840 --> 01:09:11.079
itself to. But you know, I do a large job
1275
01:09:11.159 --> 01:09:15.239
like you know, the first open the open chapter, you know,
1276
01:09:15.279 --> 01:09:17.680
I talk about this apponement there called Devil's Advocate. There's
1277
01:09:17.720 --> 01:09:21.039
a ponement there, doggy dog, you know, which really was
1278
01:09:21.079 --> 01:09:24.279
a kind of an old minds of the micro Vick
1279
01:09:24.399 --> 01:09:28.479
situation and how critical I thought his treatment. Well, you know,
1280
01:09:28.520 --> 01:09:32.800
what he did was horrible. Obviously was horrible and foolish.
1281
01:09:32.960 --> 01:09:35.039
You know, you're a millionaire athlete and.
1282
01:09:35.039 --> 01:09:36.039
Do it all the way for that.
1283
01:09:36.760 --> 01:09:40.880
But I did find hypocrisy in the notion that you know,
1284
01:09:40.920 --> 01:09:44.279
you send a god away to federal prison for this.
1285
01:09:45.199 --> 01:09:49.239
But I'm seeing white men who go big game hunting
1286
01:09:49.279 --> 01:09:54.119
and killing you know, deer and Kate buffalo and then
1287
01:09:54.119 --> 01:09:57.800
putting antlers on top of their fireplace, or you know
1288
01:09:57.960 --> 01:10:01.640
down in Texas where they snakes and put them in
1289
01:10:01.680 --> 01:10:06.279
a vat and skin them alive to make belts and
1290
01:10:06.359 --> 01:10:11.000
shoes and coats, and we walk around wearing that stuff proudly,
1291
01:10:11.399 --> 01:10:14.279
meet coats and all this stuff. None of these people
1292
01:10:14.279 --> 01:10:18.000
in federal jail, but this black athlete. I mean, so
1293
01:10:18.079 --> 01:10:21.479
then we're gonna we're measuring what's worse, right, Well, it's
1294
01:10:21.479 --> 01:10:24.159
worse that you know he? You know, so is a
1295
01:10:24.239 --> 01:10:27.000
snake not as valuable as a dog? Is a buffalo?
1296
01:10:27.720 --> 01:10:30.439
And a pride not as valuable as a dog? Beat like,
1297
01:10:30.840 --> 01:10:34.800
how do you measure what's more important in who should
1298
01:10:34.840 --> 01:10:35.600
go to jail for what?
1299
01:10:36.600 --> 01:10:37.720
Right? You know?
1300
01:10:37.840 --> 01:10:40.800
And that's you know, so all of these things are
1301
01:10:40.840 --> 01:10:44.000
things that I think to when I'm writing.
1302
01:10:45.279 --> 01:10:48.680
And so yeah, yeah, so there's a there's a there's
1303
01:10:48.720 --> 01:10:52.039
a definite. You know. This isn't just I think, you know,
1304
01:10:52.560 --> 01:10:53.279
and that's true.
1305
01:10:53.319 --> 01:10:56.079
I think with any legitimate artists is you know, some
1306
01:10:56.119 --> 01:10:59.680
of it is completely sentimental or completely internal, and other
1307
01:10:59.720 --> 01:11:04.000
things are critical, societally critical. There's plenty of societal criticism,
1308
01:11:04.199 --> 01:11:07.039
you know, within laced in this poetry, which is I
1309
01:11:07.079 --> 01:11:10.199
think what makes you know such a complete work, This
1310
01:11:10.239 --> 01:11:12.479
book a complete work, and your your work in general
1311
01:11:12.560 --> 01:11:15.800
complete and you know, all encompassing and wide ranging.
1312
01:11:16.720 --> 01:11:19.079
I want to talk about it. It's a very visual book.
1313
01:11:19.119 --> 01:11:22.439
And I know that, you know, from a marketing, from
1314
01:11:22.479 --> 01:11:26.960
a consumption, from a you know, a tention standpoint, that visuals.
1315
01:11:27.039 --> 01:11:29.439
We've talked about that visuals are going to catch people's
1316
01:11:29.439 --> 01:11:31.600
eyes a little better because the written word is what
1317
01:11:31.640 --> 01:11:31.840
it is.
1318
01:11:31.880 --> 01:11:33.039
But we know that.
1319
01:11:33.079 --> 01:11:35.600
What I want to talk about is how you went about,
1320
01:11:35.880 --> 01:11:41.000
you know, with your visual design personnel, how you went
1321
01:11:41.039 --> 01:11:44.760
about curating you know, what images went with what poems,
1322
01:11:44.800 --> 01:11:48.359
what fit because it's I mean, it's not just beautiful
1323
01:11:48.520 --> 01:11:51.560
from a written perspective. It's a beautiful book as far
1324
01:11:51.600 --> 01:11:55.520
as these visuals, and it has a distinct cohesive mood
1325
01:11:55.560 --> 01:11:59.119
throughout the pages, and it certainly conveys, you know something,
1326
01:11:59.479 --> 01:12:03.119
What went into selecting the images and how you organize
1327
01:12:03.159 --> 01:12:04.119
them with the poems?
1328
01:12:04.279 --> 01:12:07.079
What was that process? I wanted.
1329
01:12:07.880 --> 01:12:09.119
I wanted my book to be.
1330
01:12:10.720 --> 01:12:15.760
A tapestry of light and dark, of hope and despair,
1331
01:12:18.680 --> 01:12:24.479
melding together of pain and enjoyed mm hmm. From my perspective,
1332
01:12:24.840 --> 01:12:28.000
mm hm. And so but then I also wanted to
1333
01:12:28.000 --> 01:12:33.119
be biblical. So the book is said, when you open
1334
01:12:33.159 --> 01:12:35.000
the book, it kind of looks like the way that
1335
01:12:35.039 --> 01:12:39.359
the paper looks the inside front cover, it looks it's
1336
01:12:39.439 --> 01:12:40.199
made to look.
1337
01:12:40.079 --> 01:12:43.199
Like kind of a Bible, like a tattered Bible.
1338
01:12:44.039 --> 01:12:47.880
Yes, I have the serenity prayer in the beginning, you know,
1339
01:12:48.680 --> 01:12:52.720
my graphic design of Jabez, who's a monster.
1340
01:12:52.800 --> 01:12:58.119
He's phenomenal, phenomenal.
1341
01:12:56.319 --> 01:12:59.800
But also as far as the human the human being,
1342
01:13:00.279 --> 01:13:01.680
you're just a good, a good brother.
1343
01:13:02.560 --> 01:13:06.760
And we sat down and I'm like, how can I.
1344
01:13:06.720 --> 01:13:10.640
Make this look different than most any other book that's
1345
01:13:10.640 --> 01:13:17.760
been written? Right, because so many people write books, and
1346
01:13:18.840 --> 01:13:23.760
some people write books, and when you get to actually
1347
01:13:23.760 --> 01:13:26.319
read the book, if you take time with this, like, okay,
1348
01:13:26.319 --> 01:13:28.960
it's a decent book, but you probably should have took
1349
01:13:28.960 --> 01:13:31.760
more time with it, you know, to make it like.
1350
01:13:31.760 --> 01:13:33.439
A lot of people feel. A lot of people are
1351
01:13:33.439 --> 01:13:34.319
afraid too.
1352
01:13:35.920 --> 01:13:36.880
In the sense that.
1353
01:13:39.079 --> 01:13:43.720
They don't want to invest a whole lot because and
1354
01:13:43.760 --> 01:13:46.079
then back of their mind they're like, that's a whole lot.
1355
01:13:46.159 --> 01:13:49.319
It doesn't sell well, it doesn't sell as fast as
1356
01:13:49.319 --> 01:13:53.880
I wanted to. Now I've just pretty much burned a
1357
01:13:53.920 --> 01:13:57.600
few thousand dollars where I might only have a couple
1358
01:13:57.600 --> 01:13:59.880
of thousand dollars in my bank account right to do
1359
01:13:59.880 --> 01:14:00.319
it book.
1360
01:14:01.319 --> 01:14:02.279
So a lot of people.
1361
01:14:02.079 --> 01:14:07.000
Start off and they have this acquiescing defeat, this attitude
1362
01:14:07.600 --> 01:14:10.079
towards their own vision for what they're trying to do,
1363
01:14:10.800 --> 01:14:13.359
so they take cheap routes.
1364
01:14:14.560 --> 01:14:18.640
To produce it. And I know because that's what I
1365
01:14:18.640 --> 01:14:23.279
did my first two my first two books, paperback, black
1366
01:14:23.439 --> 01:14:24.279
words on white.
1367
01:14:24.119 --> 01:14:28.079
Paper, your typical standard poetry book is in terms of design.
1368
01:14:28.600 --> 01:14:31.600
The book covers were awesome on those, but the inside
1369
01:14:31.760 --> 01:14:33.880
just looked like you're a regular plane Jamee.
1370
01:14:34.159 --> 01:14:35.640
Poetry, right.
1371
01:14:36.640 --> 01:14:40.600
I sold those I sold those books, but it was very,
1372
01:14:40.720 --> 01:14:41.279
very slow.
1373
01:14:41.920 --> 01:14:47.119
And when you're performing or you're at an author expo
1374
01:14:48.079 --> 01:14:52.119
and there's like a thousand authors or a few hundred
1375
01:14:52.199 --> 01:14:58.039
offers there and people are walking through for using every
1376
01:14:58.199 --> 01:14:59.520
what everybody has going on.
1377
01:15:00.560 --> 01:15:03.199
If you're booking everybody else's book, then you just got.
1378
01:15:03.000 --> 01:15:04.880
A bunch of books and yours is just one of
1379
01:15:04.880 --> 01:15:07.399
those books that's been right.
1380
01:15:07.239 --> 01:15:09.960
And somebody might buyer might not right.
1381
01:15:10.680 --> 01:15:16.319
And when you do that then it's like, if I
1382
01:15:16.359 --> 01:15:20.760
don't really take the time to really make this stand out.
1383
01:15:21.359 --> 01:15:22.880
Then I may have to wasted my.
1384
01:15:22.880 --> 01:15:26.199
Time, you know, and I might have a book that
1385
01:15:26.640 --> 01:15:29.840
just sits, you know, in my closet cases of books
1386
01:15:29.880 --> 01:15:32.399
I ordered that I can't really sell as fast as
1387
01:15:32.399 --> 01:15:34.680
I want to because there's no appial.
1388
01:15:35.760 --> 01:15:38.800
I had to create the appill for.
1389
01:15:38.880 --> 01:15:42.520
Pay and a time where in the fifties and sixties,
1390
01:15:42.640 --> 01:15:45.560
you know, the TV was, you know, you might.
1391
01:15:45.439 --> 01:15:46.880
Have had a couple of sports that you could listening
1392
01:15:46.880 --> 01:15:47.560
to on the radio.
1393
01:15:47.800 --> 01:15:48.239
With TV.
1394
01:15:48.319 --> 01:15:54.079
Well, people read today. You're competing against so much. When
1395
01:15:54.079 --> 01:15:58.680
you're trying to be an author, you're competing against so much.
1396
01:16:00.079 --> 01:16:02.039
And if you're going to try to be an awful
1397
01:16:02.840 --> 01:16:09.439
in this modern time, you have to really shape your
1398
01:16:09.520 --> 01:16:14.359
product into something that creates a pill for somebody to
1399
01:16:14.439 --> 01:16:18.079
sit with the book. If I'm working hard to write
1400
01:16:18.079 --> 01:16:23.439
a book and I'm just pouring my guts out over
1401
01:16:23.840 --> 01:16:27.439
the course of two hundred pages of a book, but
1402
01:16:27.479 --> 01:16:30.000
this somebody takes the book because of how it looks
1403
01:16:30.720 --> 01:16:33.119
right and they head five pages and put it down.
1404
01:16:34.119 --> 01:16:34.800
It's just boring.
1405
01:16:36.039 --> 01:16:38.159
You course your life out, but to the person reading
1406
01:16:38.159 --> 01:16:44.439
it is boring. It's not maintaining or keeping the person's
1407
01:16:44.439 --> 01:16:45.199
attention level.
1408
01:16:46.399 --> 01:16:46.960
Makes sense.
1409
01:16:47.359 --> 01:16:51.000
So this obviously switches up and it's it holds your
1410
01:16:51.000 --> 01:16:55.199
attention because the colors and the juxtaposition of the different
1411
01:16:55.199 --> 01:16:57.479
pages next to each other, and the way it pops
1412
01:16:57.880 --> 01:17:00.239
every time you turn the page. I'm I mean, it
1413
01:17:00.239 --> 01:17:03.119
obviously holds your attention much longer, I think. And this
1414
01:17:03.199 --> 01:17:05.239
is the kind of book you could skip around in too,
1415
01:17:05.319 --> 01:17:08.039
you know, and just whatever picture visual might catch your
1416
01:17:08.039 --> 01:17:11.079
eye entitle you may read that particular poem, you know,
1417
01:17:11.119 --> 01:17:13.399
and then go backward another day read something else. So
1418
01:17:13.760 --> 01:17:15.560
I understand what you did there. I think it works
1419
01:17:15.880 --> 01:17:16.439
quite a fact.
1420
01:17:16.479 --> 01:17:17.319
I'm an avid reader.
1421
01:17:17.359 --> 01:17:21.000
But you know, and there's some brilliant books that a
1422
01:17:21.039 --> 01:17:23.840
lot of people won't take the time with just because
1423
01:17:25.039 --> 01:17:28.960
how they look. It's hard to sit, especially young kids.
1424
01:17:28.600 --> 01:17:32.319
The audience demographic that you're shaping this for, which is
1425
01:17:32.359 --> 01:17:36.479
teenagers to young adults eighteen to maybe twenty five years old.
1426
01:17:37.119 --> 01:17:40.279
It's August or thirty years old. That's an audience. It's hardened.
1427
01:17:41.239 --> 01:17:42.880
It's so much you're competing against.
1428
01:17:44.079 --> 01:17:47.079
And kids are not just sitting there at home in
1429
01:17:47.079 --> 01:17:49.279
the living room cracking.
1430
01:17:48.920 --> 01:17:54.119
A book old yes, and reading the whole thing, yes.
1431
01:17:54.000 --> 01:17:56.239
You know, and they may not even read twenty pages
1432
01:17:56.239 --> 01:17:59.279
of it, you know, so you're going to write your
1433
01:17:59.319 --> 01:18:01.479
ass off. You want people to read what you wrote,
1434
01:18:01.800 --> 01:18:05.439
you gotta make everything else about the book something that's
1435
01:18:05.439 --> 01:18:07.840
desirable to read sense.
1436
01:18:07.640 --> 01:18:09.439
You know, for for the reader. You know.
1437
01:18:09.520 --> 01:18:12.039
So I knew that when I said. And then as
1438
01:18:12.039 --> 01:18:15.319
far as making it a hard cover book, doing the pages,
1439
01:18:15.359 --> 01:18:18.159
all these little things that costs some money to do.
1440
01:18:18.640 --> 01:18:22.920
You know, I don't mind paying it because there's no
1441
01:18:23.119 --> 01:18:27.920
cheap road to success. So you're gonna have to pay it.
1442
01:18:27.960 --> 01:18:30.159
You're gonna have to pay the price, you know, literally
1443
01:18:30.479 --> 01:18:34.840
figurively for the quality that you want to have associated
1444
01:18:34.840 --> 01:18:35.079
with you.
1445
01:18:36.319 --> 01:18:38.560
Right, it's quality what you're paying for.
1446
01:18:39.600 --> 01:18:39.800
You know.
1447
01:18:39.840 --> 01:18:41.199
It's not like a thing where you buy like a
1448
01:18:41.199 --> 01:18:44.279
three hundred dollars pair of sunglasses, and if you sit
1449
01:18:44.319 --> 01:18:46.319
on those sunglasses, they're gonna break, like a five dollar
1450
01:18:46.319 --> 01:18:49.079
pair of sunglasses the way it's gonna break if you
1451
01:18:49.079 --> 01:18:50.800
sit on them wrong or you step on the right
1452
01:18:51.439 --> 01:18:51.680
you know.
1453
01:18:51.840 --> 01:18:52.880
No, it's like if you.
1454
01:18:52.880 --> 01:18:57.399
Go and buy a five hundred dollars car, You're like,
1455
01:18:57.439 --> 01:18:59.319
I just I just need a car. I'm gonna pay this,
1456
01:19:00.680 --> 01:19:02.439
you know. Then you're probably gonna have to put.
1457
01:19:02.319 --> 01:19:06.840
Five thousand dollars into that car to keep it running, yes,
1458
01:19:07.119 --> 01:19:09.960
versus just buying a just buying a six thousand dollars car.
1459
01:19:10.319 --> 01:19:14.680
Mm hmm makes it makes it makes perfect sense.
1460
01:19:15.319 --> 01:19:17.399
And to that look to that end with with creating
1461
01:19:17.479 --> 01:19:19.760
art that matters, and with getting people to have attention
1462
01:19:19.840 --> 01:19:21.520
to the art and want you know, I want to
1463
01:19:21.600 --> 01:19:24.760
draw everybody's attention to your attention to specific poem, which
1464
01:19:24.800 --> 01:19:28.279
is we the Gladiators and it it caught my attention
1465
01:19:28.560 --> 01:19:32.760
specifically because obviously I create things, and and what is
1466
01:19:32.800 --> 01:19:33.640
it about us?
1467
01:19:33.800 --> 01:19:35.840
What is it about creative people? You know?
1468
01:19:35.880 --> 01:19:38.520
We like I put a status the other day and
1469
01:19:38.560 --> 01:19:41.680
it said all art is altruistic and all art is narcissistic?
1470
01:19:41.720 --> 01:19:45.319
I mean, what is it about the artist the gladiator?
1471
01:19:45.319 --> 01:19:47.720
Because I love the ending line where we are the
1472
01:19:47.760 --> 01:19:52.279
gladiators dying to amuse lanes like like we why do
1473
01:19:52.399 --> 01:19:57.640
we create for ourselves? Like this book is? Is part
1474
01:19:57.680 --> 01:20:00.800
of the beauty of this hardcover book is it's yours too, right,
1475
01:20:00.840 --> 01:20:02.800
It's on your mantel, it's your creation.
1476
01:20:03.159 --> 01:20:04.159
It means something to you.
1477
01:20:04.239 --> 01:20:08.239
But yet we also want it to mean something to
1478
01:20:08.319 --> 01:20:12.199
other people. We want it to grab their attention. We're
1479
01:20:12.239 --> 01:20:14.560
not happy if somebody picks it up and reads the
1480
01:20:14.600 --> 01:20:16.600
first page and puts it down. We want them to
1481
01:20:16.640 --> 01:20:19.800
read the whole thing. What is it about the artist?
1482
01:20:20.439 --> 01:20:23.840
What is it about the creative mind that that we
1483
01:20:23.840 --> 01:20:27.439
we seek some sort of validation even though we don't,
1484
01:20:27.760 --> 01:20:30.159
even though we remind ourselves we don't need it, we
1485
01:20:30.359 --> 01:20:34.159
still so desperately need it. What is it about us? I?
1486
01:20:35.600 --> 01:20:41.279
Well, with this poem particular, I found myself. It was
1487
01:20:41.319 --> 01:20:45.239
a couple of years ago, having a cloud of conversation
1488
01:20:45.359 --> 01:20:50.399
with somebody at a show, and and we were talking
1489
01:20:50.439 --> 01:20:53.359
about writing for ourselves, which is writing for the audience.
1490
01:20:54.319 --> 01:20:57.600
And it was a slam like like it was at
1491
01:20:57.600 --> 01:21:01.479
the Slam competition. And obviously with slam, you know you're
1492
01:21:01.560 --> 01:21:08.239
being you know, you're being judged. You're you're performing a
1493
01:21:08.279 --> 01:21:12.079
poem and posides somebody's gonna put you know, or this
1494
01:21:12.159 --> 01:21:14.399
poem was you know, it was twenty seven point two,
1495
01:21:14.520 --> 01:21:17.680
or this poem was twenty five point three, or you know,
1496
01:21:17.960 --> 01:21:22.880
And the poem itself was really about getting away from
1497
01:21:23.880 --> 01:21:30.399
numbers and judgment as a you know, I guess a
1498
01:21:30.479 --> 01:21:34.039
foundation for how good your poetry, your work actually is.
1499
01:21:34.840 --> 01:21:36.720
You know, So when the poem starts. You know, do
1500
01:21:36.800 --> 01:21:38.279
I amuse you?
1501
01:21:38.319 --> 01:21:40.119
Do I arouse you? Do I make it happy?
1502
01:21:40.159 --> 01:21:42.960
Do I make you plat? It's insanely when.
1503
01:21:42.800 --> 01:21:45.479
I when I'm writing a poem about the death of
1504
01:21:45.479 --> 01:21:47.920
a loved one and then I go and perform it,
1505
01:21:47.960 --> 01:21:51.279
and I might say, oh, twenty six, you know that
1506
01:21:51.479 --> 01:21:54.920
something like that, if you're not mentally tough enough or
1507
01:21:54.960 --> 01:21:57.960
spiritually tough enough, that could break your spirit and never
1508
01:21:58.000 --> 01:21:59.479
make you want to create anything again.
1509
01:22:00.039 --> 01:22:01.199
War It's the same thing.
1510
01:22:01.359 --> 01:22:05.119
Like I remember, I was looking at this documentary on
1511
01:22:05.119 --> 01:22:08.640
on John Michelle Boskia, which was one of my you know,
1512
01:22:08.800 --> 01:22:11.399
just him and Keith Harond and like.
1513
01:22:11.439 --> 01:22:14.760
Those are my muse like those are my muses.
1514
01:22:15.680 --> 01:22:20.319
But John was talking to this interview about how when
1515
01:22:20.359 --> 01:22:24.399
he was trying to get his art into MoMA and
1516
01:22:24.560 --> 01:22:27.600
they're they're in MoMA and like what they defined as
1517
01:22:27.800 --> 01:22:32.079
art was like a white the all white box on
1518
01:22:32.159 --> 01:22:36.479
top of another white box with like one little dots
1519
01:22:36.800 --> 01:22:40.239
on it. And they called this piece such and such
1520
01:22:40.279 --> 01:22:43.920
and it was worth one hundred thousand thousand gallery.
1521
01:22:44.560 --> 01:22:45.239
And then they were.
1522
01:22:45.119 --> 01:22:48.359
Telling John that his art wasn't what.
1523
01:22:48.359 --> 01:22:52.640
You know, the art the art community was needing at
1524
01:22:52.640 --> 01:22:53.199
that time.
1525
01:22:53.279 --> 01:22:56.039
Right, yes, yes, and lo and behold.
1526
01:22:56.119 --> 01:23:00.960
Now they're begging to have his heart everywhere every gallery
1527
01:23:01.199 --> 01:23:03.680
exhibit that they can put it in. And then he's
1528
01:23:03.720 --> 01:23:07.199
been dead since what nineteen eighty eight? And now his
1529
01:23:07.319 --> 01:23:11.760
work is like selling one point three billion dollars? And
1530
01:23:12.520 --> 01:23:14.600
you know what I mean to go to show you
1531
01:23:14.640 --> 01:23:19.800
that people, it's always disheardening when people who don't have
1532
01:23:19.920 --> 01:23:22.680
vision are the ones that are holding the keys to
1533
01:23:22.720 --> 01:23:23.119
the gate.
1534
01:23:23.800 --> 01:23:25.920
Yes, decide whether or not to let you win.
1535
01:23:27.760 --> 01:23:30.520
And if you're not strong enough to see through that
1536
01:23:31.720 --> 01:23:33.800
or to say no, I don't care what you say.
1537
01:23:34.479 --> 01:23:38.760
I know what I'm doing is dope. Yes, then you're gonna.
1538
01:23:38.880 --> 01:23:40.279
Then you're gonna your fire.
1539
01:23:40.159 --> 01:23:44.079
Is gonna be extinguished for whatever lane of art that
1540
01:23:44.119 --> 01:23:48.319
you're in, whether it's poetry, whether it's painting, whatever, or
1541
01:23:48.399 --> 01:23:49.920
even in athletics.
1542
01:23:50.199 --> 01:23:51.920
And in the way that's an art form, you know.
1543
01:23:52.600 --> 01:23:56.119
But that's what I was saying here. You know, who
1544
01:23:56.119 --> 01:23:56.479
are you?
1545
01:23:56.840 --> 01:23:58.640
Who am I? Right?
1546
01:23:58.920 --> 01:24:00.600
You know, if you can't put the first place riven
1547
01:24:00.680 --> 01:24:02.960
by my pain or clap your hands to convince me
1548
01:24:03.000 --> 01:24:03.359
I have a.
1549
01:24:03.399 --> 01:24:07.960
Name, right, you know, likes andeers don't.
1550
01:24:07.800 --> 01:24:08.600
Make me ashamed.
1551
01:24:09.399 --> 01:24:12.319
It takes balls to come on this stage no matter
1552
01:24:12.319 --> 01:24:15.800
who you are, you know. So that's really what they
1553
01:24:15.920 --> 01:24:17.520
you know. So it's saying that the people that have
1554
01:24:17.600 --> 01:24:24.960
the heart to pursue what they want to pursue, they're
1555
01:24:24.960 --> 01:24:28.039
the gladiators. The people who stand.
1556
01:24:27.840 --> 01:24:30.199
In the audience throwing tomatoes.
1557
01:24:31.079 --> 01:24:33.920
Or with an insulting thing to say about what you're
1558
01:24:33.960 --> 01:24:36.279
doing up there, they're they're.
1559
01:24:35.920 --> 01:24:38.479
The lanes, they're the bumps. They don't have the heart
1560
01:24:38.520 --> 01:24:39.680
to chase their dreams.
1561
01:24:40.319 --> 01:24:41.239
Makes a lot of sense.
1562
01:24:41.399 --> 01:24:44.680
They rather just shit talk about what somebody else is
1563
01:24:44.680 --> 01:24:48.680
actually doing while they don't do nothing. You're right, and
1564
01:24:48.760 --> 01:24:51.239
it's a separation between I say all the time. You know,
1565
01:24:53.199 --> 01:24:57.920
your life and work ethic will change when you see
1566
01:24:59.319 --> 01:25:03.880
your life as being greater than sitting on the couch
1567
01:25:04.760 --> 01:25:09.840
watching TV and seeing other people's dreams come true. I
1568
01:25:09.960 --> 01:25:12.960
put that up as a post and it's one hundred
1569
01:25:12.960 --> 01:25:17.039
willist things that I stick I stick by that we
1570
01:25:17.159 --> 01:25:17.760
come home and.
1571
01:25:17.760 --> 01:25:21.239
Watch people, you know, they we watch people a lot
1572
01:25:21.279 --> 01:25:23.359
of people who we clown and some of them are clowns.
1573
01:25:23.359 --> 01:25:27.880
I'm not saying that everybody who's on TV is whatever, right,
1574
01:25:27.920 --> 01:25:29.800
there are a lot of people who have millionaires in
1575
01:25:29.800 --> 01:25:32.520
their clowns. We don't even know who they are. But
1576
01:25:32.840 --> 01:25:39.079
in this respect, they had the heart to go and
1577
01:25:39.159 --> 01:25:43.960
put themselves in a place where now they have a foundation.
1578
01:25:45.520 --> 01:25:48.079
And we may think it's silly, but they had the
1579
01:25:48.159 --> 01:25:48.520
heart to.
1580
01:25:48.479 --> 01:25:50.119
Do It makes sense.
1581
01:25:50.479 --> 01:25:53.840
So if you're smarter than these people, then why don't
1582
01:25:53.840 --> 01:25:58.359
you do it? Because between I'm better than this guy,
1583
01:25:58.399 --> 01:26:01.199
I'm smarter than this guy. Or you'll watch a football game,
1584
01:26:01.439 --> 01:26:03.600
what what.
1585
01:26:02.880 --> 01:26:05.479
The hell is he doing? He should have win? Right,
1586
01:26:05.600 --> 01:26:09.079
you know? Oh he break that tackle? All you fucking bomb.
1587
01:26:09.199 --> 01:26:13.359
You dropped the ball. But you're talking as you know
1588
01:26:13.359 --> 01:26:16.199
what I'm saying. You're out there doing it right sitting
1589
01:26:16.199 --> 01:26:18.800
on the couch. It's true, we all grow. You don't
1590
01:26:18.800 --> 01:26:19.079
know what.
1591
01:26:19.039 --> 01:26:21.760
It's like to watch the fucking sixth eighth defensive limb
1592
01:26:21.840 --> 01:26:22.800
and running four.
1593
01:26:22.680 --> 01:26:28.560
Three trying to tappen you. You would drop the ball too, Yes, true, so, yes,
1594
01:26:28.840 --> 01:26:29.079
you know.
1595
01:26:29.239 --> 01:26:32.039
So it's just having a heart to be that guy
1596
01:26:32.079 --> 01:26:35.680
on the field and not that guy on the couch.
1597
01:26:35.720 --> 01:26:38.000
It's almost like the man in the arena, you know.
1598
01:26:39.920 --> 01:26:43.600
Yes, I love that my favorite, Yeah, one of my favorites.
1599
01:26:43.600 --> 01:26:45.359
But it's pretty much in the same thing.
1600
01:26:46.079 --> 01:26:48.840
Got you absolutely now and one the one more and
1601
01:26:48.960 --> 01:26:50.600
people are gonna we're going to talk about like how
1602
01:26:50.600 --> 01:26:52.000
people can get the books so they can take a
1603
01:26:52.039 --> 01:26:54.359
look at all the other poems too. But another poem
1604
01:26:54.359 --> 01:26:57.359
that caught my eye just in general, because I tend
1605
01:26:57.399 --> 01:27:01.000
to be very especially as I reach middle age, very
1606
01:27:01.039 --> 01:27:03.800
aware of my mortality. And you know, what's my purpose here?
1607
01:27:03.840 --> 01:27:05.840
And what can I do? Tell us about this poem?
1608
01:27:05.920 --> 01:27:09.640
Inspire expire? You know, inspire until we expire. I know
1609
01:27:09.680 --> 01:27:11.399
what it means to me, but what does it mean
1610
01:27:11.439 --> 01:27:13.560
to you? And and and what does it say about
1611
01:27:13.560 --> 01:27:16.840
your overall philosophy? You know, on what you set out
1612
01:27:16.840 --> 01:27:19.119
to do every day when you create this art, when
1613
01:27:19.119 --> 01:27:20.800
you go to work, when you you.
1614
01:27:20.760 --> 01:27:23.399
Know, how does that tie into your life in general?
1615
01:27:23.399 --> 01:27:24.520
And what does that mean to you?
1616
01:27:26.479 --> 01:27:28.600
Oh man, Inspire expire.
1617
01:27:29.479 --> 01:27:32.840
It's just saying, go hard every day because you don't
1618
01:27:32.880 --> 01:27:34.960
know how many days you have mm hm.
1619
01:27:35.119 --> 01:27:38.600
And it's me saying to myself.
1620
01:27:38.760 --> 01:27:40.840
A lot a lot of poems you think I'm talking
1621
01:27:40.880 --> 01:27:44.880
to someone or some of them I'm talking to myself, right,
1622
01:27:45.520 --> 01:27:46.239
Some of them are.
1623
01:27:46.159 --> 01:27:47.640
Affirmations to myself.
1624
01:27:48.119 --> 01:27:51.119
And what the poem you just picked is one of
1625
01:27:51.159 --> 01:27:54.680
those actiation poems that u's like something that you whisper
1626
01:27:55.199 --> 01:27:59.119
to yourself when you're training. You whisper to yourself when
1627
01:27:59.800 --> 01:28:02.039
you know you're lifting weights. You know, you know, just
1628
01:28:02.119 --> 01:28:04.079
things to get you fired up and get you pumped
1629
01:28:04.159 --> 01:28:06.880
up about what you have to go.
1630
01:28:06.800 --> 01:28:08.520
And attack in that moment.
1631
01:28:09.359 --> 01:28:11.000
For me, it's like, you know, I want to be
1632
01:28:11.079 --> 01:28:16.920
somebody who reaches out the kids and who keeps them, you.
1633
01:28:16.880 --> 01:28:20.479
Know, motivated to be better.
1634
01:28:22.159 --> 01:28:26.600
Than their successors, you know, And it was the task
1635
01:28:28.079 --> 01:28:33.359
that I set forth for myself. You know, retired tired
1636
01:28:33.359 --> 01:28:39.000
excuses that keep progression tired and wide. You know that line,
1637
01:28:39.520 --> 01:28:44.039
retired tired excuses that keep progression tied and wide.
1638
01:28:44.720 --> 01:28:48.760
Yes, it's saying you know, like as long.
1639
01:28:48.640 --> 01:28:50.880
As you're holding onto the negative or trying to find
1640
01:28:50.960 --> 01:28:59.439
any way possible to you know, to keep yourself distracted
1641
01:28:59.800 --> 01:29:02.840
and stagnated, and a lot of the stuff that the
1642
01:29:02.880 --> 01:29:05.079
social media stuff we talked about, all of this stuff,
1643
01:29:06.720 --> 01:29:16.720
it's mindless baffle that weakens and scripture energy for anything else, right, right,
1644
01:29:17.079 --> 01:29:19.399
And that's why I mean we I mean for many
1645
01:29:19.439 --> 01:29:22.000
reasons and stuff has to be eliminated, but for the
1646
01:29:22.039 --> 01:29:25.760
main reason of while you're sitting here talking about somebody
1647
01:29:25.760 --> 01:29:29.680
else's life, what Kanye is doing, what Palestine and Israel.
1648
01:29:29.960 --> 01:29:31.199
We live in northw Jersey.
1649
01:29:31.800 --> 01:29:33.319
It's not to say they don't have that interest in
1650
01:29:33.359 --> 01:29:36.920
this stuff, but we're in another country and we talk every.
1651
01:29:36.880 --> 01:29:38.800
Day about the same things.
1652
01:29:39.159 --> 01:29:42.079
But then you look at your own life and it's like,
1653
01:29:42.079 --> 01:29:44.439
what am I doing here? Right?
1654
01:29:45.279 --> 01:29:46.359
You know? And it's like.
1655
01:29:46.359 --> 01:29:49.079
No, So you're talking about other things and other people,
1656
01:29:49.199 --> 01:29:53.279
and it's all an excuse for you to not move
1657
01:29:53.319 --> 01:30:00.039
in your own life, right, seriously, move, Like when I
1658
01:30:00.079 --> 01:30:08.800
always said, I don't know, you know that if somebody's
1659
01:30:08.880 --> 01:30:12.920
angry or not based on how much they talk, makes sense.
1660
01:30:13.600 --> 01:30:15.760
If you're telling me you're angry or you want to
1661
01:30:15.840 --> 01:30:19.359
change something, then I should be looking at you and
1662
01:30:19.399 --> 01:30:21.279
you shall have a stone face of a killer.
1663
01:30:22.359 --> 01:30:23.560
When you have a stone face.
1664
01:30:23.399 --> 01:30:25.720
With a killer, then and then I can start to believe,
1665
01:30:26.479 --> 01:30:30.520
like because at some point you run out of words
1666
01:30:30.680 --> 01:30:33.960
when you're trying to get things accomplished, you know, uh.
1667
01:30:36.359 --> 01:30:36.560
Right?
1668
01:30:37.920 --> 01:30:41.840
Set fire the lies distributed in King Solomon size to children,
1669
01:30:41.960 --> 01:30:44.760
husbands and wives. That's what we talked about tonight. Set
1670
01:30:44.840 --> 01:30:50.000
fire to lies distributed in King Solomon size to children,
1671
01:30:50.119 --> 01:30:51.079
husbands and wives.
1672
01:30:52.319 --> 01:30:56.000
Uh, get rid of the false rhetoric.
1673
01:30:56.279 --> 01:31:02.199
And a false narrative, you know. Yeah, yeah, that's another way.
1674
01:31:03.119 --> 01:31:06.840
That's another responsibility you have, and we're trying to inspire. M.
1675
01:31:06.880 --> 01:31:11.079
That's what the show does, right, walk fear out back doors,
1676
01:31:11.800 --> 01:31:16.880
sweat past out black pors Now this line right here, M.
1677
01:31:16.960 --> 01:31:23.840
It may be something that people don't understand. But what
1678
01:31:23.880 --> 01:31:29.680
I mean by sweat past out black Porsche, it's not
1679
01:31:29.760 --> 01:31:32.279
to say because, like I said, when we're talking about
1680
01:31:32.279 --> 01:31:36.520
the George Floyd thing, you need to know your history, yes,
1681
01:31:37.119 --> 01:31:40.279
you know, to understand where you are presently and where
1682
01:31:40.319 --> 01:31:43.640
you're trying to go futuristically. So you need your history,
1683
01:31:44.319 --> 01:31:49.560
but don't let your history become a crutch, right right,
1684
01:31:49.880 --> 01:31:53.159
And so many people do that, very true, you know,
1685
01:31:53.800 --> 01:31:59.640
like a crutch to the point where everything you're living
1686
01:32:00.079 --> 01:32:04.880
as if nothing is progressed. You're living as if everything
1687
01:32:04.920 --> 01:32:05.520
is the same.
1688
01:32:05.359 --> 01:32:09.520
As it was fifty years and it's not right. You're right,
1689
01:32:09.640 --> 01:32:12.159
take those lessons from that time and remember what it
1690
01:32:12.239 --> 01:32:12.520
was like.
1691
01:32:12.760 --> 01:32:15.680
Because TV does that, you know, every time they put
1692
01:32:15.720 --> 01:32:18.560
on the rate, you know, a slave movie or they
1693
01:32:18.560 --> 01:32:19.039
come out with it.
1694
01:32:19.239 --> 01:32:22.199
Just things that remind you and it's constant, like all
1695
01:32:22.239 --> 01:32:25.680
they do. It's like it's like it's the singular things because.
1696
01:32:25.520 --> 01:32:29.680
Black people hated from trees and you know, like we
1697
01:32:29.840 --> 01:32:31.439
know the history. All we need to do is see
1698
01:32:31.479 --> 01:32:33.840
it wants to know that we don't need to beating
1699
01:32:33.920 --> 01:32:35.560
ourselves over the head because all's going to do is
1700
01:32:35.600 --> 01:32:41.439
make you hate people, you know, based on what you
1701
01:32:41.560 --> 01:32:44.319
think their lineage is, or what their ancestry is, or
1702
01:32:44.359 --> 01:32:47.119
what their grand great grandparents.
1703
01:32:46.520 --> 01:32:49.640
And you don't know, right right, you don't know.
1704
01:32:49.680 --> 01:32:52.520
And then the thing about it to go further is
1705
01:32:52.560 --> 01:32:57.439
that you'll be amazed if you go historically, some of
1706
01:32:57.479 --> 01:33:00.119
our people, black people catch slaves.
1707
01:33:00.039 --> 01:33:02.640
Which I didn't know until recently, and then met somebody
1708
01:33:02.640 --> 01:33:08.520
who knew knew that her ancestors had slaves and still
1709
01:33:08.560 --> 01:33:10.720
was trying to say, how do you know yours didn't.
1710
01:33:10.760 --> 01:33:12.960
I was like, mine weren't even in this country. They were,
1711
01:33:13.000 --> 01:33:17.520
they were paupers overseas. I don't know for a fact,
1712
01:33:17.560 --> 01:33:19.560
but I'm pretty sure, but damn you. You're a black
1713
01:33:20.239 --> 01:33:23.520
woman and you're telling me you know that your ancestors
1714
01:33:23.520 --> 01:33:26.039
had slaves. Yet you're one of the most vocal people
1715
01:33:26.039 --> 01:33:28.079
out here, And it's like I'm not saying you can't.
1716
01:33:27.880 --> 01:33:31.239
Be, but damn like like we don't. We don't know
1717
01:33:31.680 --> 01:33:34.279
everything you know historically you don't.
1718
01:33:34.399 --> 01:33:41.680
And that's that's what always amuses me about religion, is that.
1719
01:33:43.720 --> 01:33:46.479
You got five thousand religions.
1720
01:33:45.960 --> 01:33:50.359
In this and on this planet yeap being practiced in
1721
01:33:50.479 --> 01:33:52.600
practice at least m hm.
1722
01:33:53.359 --> 01:33:55.079
So how arrogant is.
1723
01:33:55.039 --> 01:33:58.159
It of you to believe that only yours is correct?
1724
01:33:58.760 --> 01:34:01.600
And I want to touch that what people live in
1725
01:34:02.119 --> 01:34:05.439
Speaking of that, you know, Devil's Advocate, which you did
1726
01:34:05.439 --> 01:34:07.840
a video for, which you know is obviously one of
1727
01:34:07.840 --> 01:34:14.399
the best things. I mean, look, thought provoking, controversial, insightful, satirical,
1728
01:34:15.840 --> 01:34:17.840
satirical to a sharpened edge.
1729
01:34:17.840 --> 01:34:19.520
And what I mean is, I mean.
1730
01:34:20.960 --> 01:34:25.920
It's so legitimately true that it's it's undeniable. Yet it's
1731
01:34:26.079 --> 01:34:30.239
very pointed in stabbing, you know, and you don't hold
1732
01:34:30.279 --> 01:34:34.800
anything back. I mean, you know, and before you talked
1733
01:34:34.840 --> 01:34:40.600
about you know, coming up in a world where you
1734
01:34:40.640 --> 01:34:42.880
know that that can be whitewashed in many ways. And
1735
01:34:43.640 --> 01:34:47.159
and I think this poem's well beyond this obviously racial things.
1736
01:34:47.199 --> 01:34:49.319
But you know, even when you said that, I thought
1737
01:34:49.359 --> 01:34:51.640
about the images of the white Jesus.
1738
01:34:51.279 --> 01:34:53.359
And all that nonsense. You know that that.
1739
01:34:53.399 --> 01:34:56.039
Permeates how we think. And I mean, you know the
1740
01:34:56.159 --> 01:35:00.439
Jesus that we see in every candlestick, in every picture,
1741
01:35:00.479 --> 01:35:04.359
and is this like fair white, you know, light brown
1742
01:35:04.479 --> 01:35:07.680
haired guy who we now know from history is like
1743
01:35:07.760 --> 01:35:11.640
Michelangelo's uncle or something. You know, it's not anything like
1744
01:35:11.680 --> 01:35:13.880
the real Jesus would have looked like. But I mean,
1745
01:35:14.159 --> 01:35:16.279
you know this goes beyond that. Tell me talk to
1746
01:35:16.279 --> 01:35:18.600
me a little bit about and that'll be the last
1747
01:35:18.640 --> 01:35:20.159
poem we touched them before we tell people how they
1748
01:35:20.159 --> 01:35:23.560
can get this book. But Devil's Advocate man speaking of religion,
1749
01:35:23.640 --> 01:35:27.119
speaking of people having emotional attachments to their beliefs.
1750
01:35:27.119 --> 01:35:28.720
I mean, you really.
1751
01:35:28.439 --> 01:35:33.399
Took it out logically and in depth and artfully and
1752
01:35:33.520 --> 01:35:36.359
kind of really said, you know, you just called people
1753
01:35:36.399 --> 01:35:40.640
out and called society out. I mean, what's behind that poem?
1754
01:35:41.239 --> 01:35:41.479
You know?
1755
01:35:43.359 --> 01:35:46.039
And you spoke you said, you know Jesus as a
1756
01:35:47.239 --> 01:35:51.079
as another poem in the book called black san Yes,
1757
01:35:51.439 --> 01:35:57.520
And you know, I'm like, you know, we're taught, you
1758
01:35:57.560 --> 01:36:02.560
know that our savior is you know some you know,
1759
01:36:03.199 --> 01:36:06.840
bearded white guy Jesus or saytah, because it's the same
1760
01:36:07.359 --> 01:36:12.520
when Jesus or saying because ironically they both have beards,
1761
01:36:12.600 --> 01:36:15.199
they're both you know, coming to give us gifts, and
1762
01:36:15.680 --> 01:36:17.439
you know, we're taught to sit on their lap, and
1763
01:36:17.520 --> 01:36:17.800
you know.
1764
01:36:19.000 --> 01:36:20.479
You know, and as black.
1765
01:36:20.520 --> 01:36:23.520
And again, I ain't had no chimney when you play,
1766
01:36:23.800 --> 01:36:26.640
you know, like I get in the house and then
1767
01:36:26.680 --> 01:36:29.079
he coming there getting shot, you know, like you know,
1768
01:36:30.079 --> 01:36:34.920
so I just poked fun by saying that. But I
1769
01:36:35.000 --> 01:36:40.960
used to get into my family really religious. My grandmother
1770
01:36:41.479 --> 01:36:45.119
God rest her soul when my mother got murdered.
1771
01:36:46.199 --> 01:36:50.079
Mm hmm. She needed faith, yep.
1772
01:36:52.800 --> 01:36:55.800
And in a way, as I got older and learned
1773
01:36:55.840 --> 01:36:58.520
about my mother's murder, I did the opposite.
1774
01:36:58.520 --> 01:37:00.399
I started shunning faith, right.
1775
01:37:01.840 --> 01:37:07.720
I had no faith in humanity when that happened, right, because.
1776
01:37:09.079 --> 01:37:14.079
You know, it's like, so somebody.
1777
01:37:13.920 --> 01:37:21.319
Who's almighty, all powerful, they overlooked my mother being stabbed
1778
01:37:21.399 --> 01:37:24.439
up seventy sometimes and didn't come from the sky, didn't
1779
01:37:24.479 --> 01:37:25.960
throw a lightning bolt, didn't do shit.
1780
01:37:27.239 --> 01:37:29.880
And I'm supposed to believe in this person.
1781
01:37:30.000 --> 01:37:34.039
Why And I've.
1782
01:37:33.880 --> 01:37:36.960
Gotten to really heat it interactions.
1783
01:37:38.079 --> 01:37:38.680
But then.
1784
01:37:40.479 --> 01:37:45.319
A lot of my family began to understand. They begin
1785
01:37:45.399 --> 01:37:52.079
to understand why I carried the resentance right, which they
1786
01:37:52.079 --> 01:37:56.720
should have knew anyway. Of course, you know, it wasn't
1787
01:37:56.760 --> 01:38:02.520
just about my mother. It was about I have I
1788
01:38:02.720 --> 01:38:06.239
had friends who got killed. I'm seeing all of this
1789
01:38:06.359 --> 01:38:10.079
crap around me, and then I'm reading the command What really.
1790
01:38:10.079 --> 01:38:12.640
Did it for me? I started thinking critically. I started looking.
1791
01:38:12.439 --> 01:38:16.800
At the commandments, and I started seeing racism in them.
1792
01:38:17.119 --> 01:38:20.079
Yeah, you say, daw should not steal.
1793
01:38:21.319 --> 01:38:23.920
And I sat not just racism but classicism. M h.
1794
01:38:25.439 --> 01:38:29.760
If I'm born in a place mother broke, father broke,
1795
01:38:29.880 --> 01:38:34.199
mother dead, father not there on drugs, there's nothing in
1796
01:38:34.239 --> 01:38:37.840
my cupboard to eat, mm hmm. I go and I
1797
01:38:37.920 --> 01:38:39.920
steal a damned honey butt out of the corner store.
1798
01:38:40.399 --> 01:38:45.960
M So technically I'm stealing mm hm. And I'm conscious
1799
01:38:46.039 --> 01:38:47.960
because I've been in church, I'm conscious that, oh I
1800
01:38:47.960 --> 01:38:51.520
shouldn't steal. But this is what my life is. Am
1801
01:38:51.560 --> 01:38:52.159
I going to have?
1802
01:38:52.960 --> 01:38:55.399
Right? Right? You know?
1803
01:38:55.520 --> 01:38:57.279
And who wrote these commandments?
1804
01:38:57.520 --> 01:38:59.279
Because I'm like in my mom, I'm like, I have
1805
01:38:59.319 --> 01:39:02.840
a hard time, but leaving that and impoverished people wote
1806
01:39:02.840 --> 01:39:10.399
these commandments right, right, So it started messing with my
1807
01:39:12.000 --> 01:39:14.439
spirit in regards. And then I grew up in the church.
1808
01:39:14.520 --> 01:39:16.920
I went to church every Sunday. Didn't go for the
1809
01:39:17.000 --> 01:39:18.880
right reasons. I want to try to holler at girls
1810
01:39:18.880 --> 01:39:23.079
and shit, you know, you know, I thought I was
1811
01:39:23.199 --> 01:39:25.279
number there to listen to what the pastor was at
1812
01:39:25.359 --> 01:39:29.119
the same even though the pastor who's now the bishop,
1813
01:39:29.720 --> 01:39:31.560
I actually have a lot of respect for it because
1814
01:39:31.560 --> 01:39:34.600
he was a former drug addict, changed his knife around,
1815
01:39:34.920 --> 01:39:36.840
and when he he didn't preach bullshit.
1816
01:39:37.399 --> 01:39:38.800
M of it I agree with, but he ain't.
1817
01:39:39.119 --> 01:39:42.479
I can say he didn't preach bullshit right, and I
1818
01:39:42.560 --> 01:39:44.560
know that he was coming from a place of the
1819
01:39:44.560 --> 01:39:47.279
position that he actually was in what he was saying.
1820
01:39:47.319 --> 01:39:50.119
So I had a lot of respect from that aspect.
1821
01:39:51.000 --> 01:39:52.840
But I didn't like a lot of stuff I saw.
1822
01:39:53.359 --> 01:39:55.640
I didn't like when they would come around with a
1823
01:39:55.680 --> 01:39:58.960
collection plate trying to now you know now as the
1824
01:39:59.000 --> 01:40:02.359
man that they needed that they need whatever money.
1825
01:40:02.039 --> 01:40:03.439
Get to keep the place funny.
1826
01:40:04.000 --> 01:40:06.840
Yes, but it's just, you know, it's just it was
1827
01:40:06.840 --> 01:40:10.680
a sour It created a sour, sour taste in your mouth,
1828
01:40:11.760 --> 01:40:14.159
you know, to see little stuff that would go on
1829
01:40:14.199 --> 01:40:17.239
in the church and then you then you know, you
1830
01:40:17.279 --> 01:40:21.520
see people, you know, God fearing people, but they achieved
1831
01:40:21.520 --> 01:40:25.319
on their husband and wife, you know, or wife right,
1832
01:40:25.439 --> 01:40:27.199
you see some women who are married but they're trying
1833
01:40:27.199 --> 01:40:30.359
to get out the pastor you know, bahad closed door.
1834
01:40:30.479 --> 01:40:33.720
You see all of this stuff, and then you say
1835
01:40:33.760 --> 01:40:37.520
to yourself, is the real work of God? If God
1836
01:40:37.560 --> 01:40:40.479
doesn't exist, doesn't even does it actually even happen in
1837
01:40:40.520 --> 01:40:40.880
the church.
1838
01:40:41.840 --> 01:40:44.319
I'm sitting in the stage from a salvation, and the
1839
01:40:44.399 --> 01:40:47.600
salvation is outside the work that needs to be done,
1840
01:40:48.439 --> 01:40:51.199
you know, spiritual work needs to be done on the
1841
01:40:51.239 --> 01:40:52.159
speak corners.
1842
01:40:52.439 --> 01:40:52.760
M hm.
1843
01:40:52.920 --> 01:40:55.000
Those people that you need to you know, be trying
1844
01:40:55.039 --> 01:40:58.920
to convert, you know.
1845
01:40:59.319 --> 01:41:02.560
And then then I looked at it like, okay, is
1846
01:41:02.600 --> 01:41:03.239
this something.
1847
01:41:03.039 --> 01:41:04.399
You believe or do you do?
1848
01:41:04.439 --> 01:41:07.520
You just you know, it's an insurance policy because you
1849
01:41:07.560 --> 01:41:10.079
don't you feel like, as long as I believe in God,
1850
01:41:10.119 --> 01:41:12.680
I ain't gonna go to Hell, whatever that is. I
1851
01:41:13.159 --> 01:41:16.840
personally believe that there's a place with fire and you know,
1852
01:41:17.720 --> 01:41:19.520
bringstone and all your worst things.
1853
01:41:20.199 --> 01:41:22.279
I believe that hell is something that's inside of you.
1854
01:41:22.760 --> 01:41:25.239
Yeah, that can be inside.
1855
01:41:24.840 --> 01:41:29.960
Of you if you don't operate in your life from
1856
01:41:30.000 --> 01:41:35.880
a from a place of peace and and so on,
1857
01:41:36.199 --> 01:41:40.119
you know, like exstense. So when I started writing and
1858
01:41:40.159 --> 01:41:42.159
I'm starting that. I'm thinking about that. I'm thinking about
1859
01:41:42.159 --> 01:41:46.720
my own life, my father, m hm, my mother, my friends,
1860
01:41:47.680 --> 01:41:50.800
things I'm seeing, And that's where the poem came from.
1861
01:41:51.000 --> 01:41:52.359
And that's why I started architect.
1862
01:41:53.079 --> 01:41:57.279
When I did the video shouting to my man Donathan Cutlery,
1863
01:41:57.600 --> 01:41:59.199
I've spoken to him in a while, you.
1864
01:41:59.159 --> 01:41:59.520
Know, but.
1865
01:42:01.239 --> 01:42:04.199
You had to cot because he came to me while
1866
01:42:04.199 --> 01:42:07.640
the book was still all the all the poems were done,
1867
01:42:07.680 --> 01:42:09.560
but I didn't have anybody to grab his arm stuff
1868
01:42:09.600 --> 01:42:13.920
yet mhm. And we were starting to get the phoos together.
1869
01:42:14.920 --> 01:42:17.359
We actually ended up going to this like it was
1870
01:42:17.439 --> 01:42:25.439
like a abandoned church school, completely gunned out.
1871
01:42:24.840 --> 01:42:25.039
You know.
1872
01:42:25.119 --> 01:42:26.960
So but he was like it was a perfect esthetic
1873
01:42:27.680 --> 01:42:37.840
h for what we're doing because because it just it
1874
01:42:37.840 --> 01:42:41.239
gets gay us. This this aura a menaced and like
1875
01:42:41.279 --> 01:42:43.600
a haunted house church type of rob.
1876
01:42:43.479 --> 01:42:47.000
And where was it was a trend.
1877
01:42:47.159 --> 01:42:49.720
We we did a guerrilla style like nobody let us in.
1878
01:42:49.760 --> 01:42:52.560
We climbed through a window in the back of it.
1879
01:42:52.600 --> 01:42:53.920
I'm like, what the hell are we doing here, because
1880
01:42:53.920 --> 01:42:56.720
I'm in a suit in the video, I'm wearing a suit.
1881
01:42:57.520 --> 01:43:00.439
We climbing up ship, climbing on gates, something like full
1882
01:43:00.520 --> 01:43:00.920
shoot them.
1883
01:43:00.960 --> 01:43:06.399
I'm like, so, but we did an excellent shoot and
1884
01:43:06.399 --> 01:43:06.640
then the.
1885
01:43:08.199 --> 01:43:09.359
A couple of the pictures from there.
1886
01:43:09.359 --> 01:43:10.520
There's another picture.
1887
01:43:10.359 --> 01:43:14.239
From from a poem that's kind of the beginning where
1888
01:43:14.239 --> 01:43:17.000
I'm kind of like like kind of a shadowy figure
1889
01:43:17.000 --> 01:43:19.359
with a hat, you see all the garbage around me.
1890
01:43:19.399 --> 01:43:21.760
That's also in the same place. We did a lot
1891
01:43:21.760 --> 01:43:25.199
of shots in that, in that abandoned church school.
1892
01:43:25.520 --> 01:43:26.159
It makes sense.
1893
01:43:26.560 --> 01:43:28.520
That's a great and if people haven't checked that video,
1894
01:43:28.640 --> 01:43:30.720
they got to check that video out too, to give
1895
01:43:30.800 --> 01:43:31.800
him a taste of.
1896
01:43:33.640 --> 01:43:37.079
Yeah, I'm not gonna start getting into doing more doing more.
1897
01:43:38.399 --> 01:43:39.000
Videos.
1898
01:43:39.520 --> 01:43:43.239
I just need I just need solid videographers that you know,
1899
01:43:43.359 --> 01:43:45.640
that charge at a rate that makes sense.
1900
01:43:45.720 --> 01:43:47.399
But I want to do a poem.
1901
01:43:47.399 --> 01:43:48.640
I want to do the poem.
1902
01:43:48.399 --> 01:43:50.000
My father's You and Me poem.
1903
01:43:50.520 --> 01:43:52.159
Yes, I already talked to him about it, that he
1904
01:43:52.199 --> 01:43:54.239
would be in it, like we kind of be like,
1905
01:43:54.680 --> 01:43:57.199
I don't know if you ever saw the thirty for
1906
01:43:57.279 --> 01:43:59.720
thirty documentary Doctor Darryl.
1907
01:44:00.680 --> 01:44:03.880
I didn't. I didn't see that. Yeah, well if you
1908
01:44:03.920 --> 01:44:04.399
ever go.
1909
01:44:04.279 --> 01:44:06.640
Watch it, Like they're kind of like they meet each
1910
01:44:06.640 --> 01:44:09.760
other at this diner and they're talking about the past,
1911
01:44:09.800 --> 01:44:12.439
the eighties and you know the drug addition, and there
1912
01:44:12.439 --> 01:44:14.159
just sitting there at a diner. That's why I wanted
1913
01:44:14.159 --> 01:44:15.640
to be with me and my father is sitting at
1914
01:44:15.640 --> 01:44:19.600
a diner that's dope king your coffee. And then the
1915
01:44:19.720 --> 01:44:23.439
video would be part of our conversation. And then the
1916
01:44:23.479 --> 01:44:26.000
Paul myself parking it back through those times for the
1917
01:44:26.079 --> 01:44:27.640
nineties late eighties.
1918
01:44:28.279 --> 01:44:28.640
I love it.
1919
01:44:28.680 --> 01:44:30.880
I mean, I'm trying to trying to get my money
1920
01:44:30.880 --> 01:44:32.960
together so I could upgrade my computer system because I
1921
01:44:32.960 --> 01:44:34.720
got that camera, you know, I do the photography. I'm
1922
01:44:34.720 --> 01:44:37.960
trying to upgrade to video stuff. At some point I
1923
01:44:38.000 --> 01:44:40.039
need somebody to shoot some music videos. But this this
1924
01:44:40.119 --> 01:44:42.720
ain't my interview, but we'll talk about that another time.
1925
01:44:42.760 --> 01:44:45.680
But so Bro, I appreciate having you on.
1926
01:44:45.800 --> 01:44:45.880
Man.
1927
01:44:45.920 --> 01:44:47.399
I think you brought a lot to the show. I
1928
01:44:47.399 --> 01:44:51.000
think you know, in terms of general conversation and discussing
1929
01:44:51.039 --> 01:44:53.119
this this art, you know, work of art you did.
1930
01:44:53.359 --> 01:44:55.600
Where can people find out more about the book? Where
1931
01:44:55.600 --> 01:44:57.520
can they get the book? Give them all the details
1932
01:44:57.640 --> 01:45:00.000
and I'll also post it, you know, online and whatnot.
1933
01:45:00.920 --> 01:45:04.760
Oh yes, sir, yes, sir, Well you can find the
1934
01:45:04.800 --> 01:45:07.800
world as I see it, Right now it's on everlu
1935
01:45:07.880 --> 01:45:09.199
culture dot com.
1936
01:45:09.640 --> 01:45:14.840
That's e v O l U c U l t
1937
01:45:15.640 --> 01:45:17.680
U r E dot.
1938
01:45:17.479 --> 01:45:21.199
Com everlue culture dot com. Right now, I'm developing a
1939
01:45:21.239 --> 01:45:25.479
link tree uh to attach to my social media profiles,
1940
01:45:26.479 --> 01:45:28.920
and I'm also going to have the books on Amazon actually,
1941
01:45:29.560 --> 01:45:33.960
and then I'm I'm in talks with Barnes and Nobles about.
1942
01:45:33.680 --> 01:45:37.359
Getting into that distribution chain. But right now it's elue
1943
01:45:37.359 --> 01:45:38.560
culture dot com.
1944
01:45:38.760 --> 01:45:42.720
And then there'll be you know, several other outlets and
1945
01:45:42.760 --> 01:45:46.439
then you can just message me, you know, come to
1946
01:45:46.520 --> 01:45:49.640
my social media profiles. Hey, I want a book. I
1947
01:45:49.680 --> 01:45:53.199
shipped the books directly next day air. Go write to
1948
01:45:53.239 --> 01:45:57.319
the post office and you can sell me Apple pay
1949
01:45:57.840 --> 01:46:01.079
dash App and then next me at the post office
1950
01:46:01.119 --> 01:46:03.479
and to be you know, actually doing set.
1951
01:46:05.159 --> 01:46:05.359
Dope.
1952
01:46:05.439 --> 01:46:07.119
Yeah, and you guys can hit me up as well,
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and I'll get in contact with Elliott for you and
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01:46:09.680 --> 01:46:13.079
get him shipped out uh and you know, facilitate your
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01:46:13.119 --> 01:46:15.199
contact with him so you could buy directly from him.
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01:46:15.199 --> 01:46:17.399
So feel free to reach out to me too. It's
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an excellent book. I've been reading it. It's it's right
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01:46:21.079 --> 01:46:23.680
on my table and and it's it's really a work
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01:46:23.680 --> 01:46:25.279
of art and it's well worth reading if you're a
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01:46:25.279 --> 01:46:28.720
thinking person and you enjoy good artistry, you know, and
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and honestly something that is well put together with a
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01:46:31.000 --> 01:46:34.319
lot of effort, and you know, an eye upun intended
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01:46:34.359 --> 01:46:36.399
toward you know, a deeper meaning.
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So I encourage everybody to get up on it, man,
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and I'll.
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Be back with you guys soon to talk about you know,
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more news events and whatnot. But I hope you enjoyed
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01:46:44.600 --> 01:46:47.760
the interview and feel free to reach out to me
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01:46:47.920 --> 01:46:50.159
or Elliott with anything else. He'll be back on the show.
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01:46:50.920 --> 01:46:53.319
And I really appreciate it. Appreciate you coming on my brother.
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01:46:54.159 --> 01:46:57.079
Yes, sir man, you will just dudes, I know, man,
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01:46:57.279 --> 01:47:01.520
so and you got a platform that's like crazy.
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01:47:01.520 --> 01:47:03.279
You want more challenge, dudes, I know you got your
1974
01:47:03.279 --> 01:47:05.000
hand and everything. I appreciate it.
1975
01:47:06.680 --> 01:47:08.680
I try, I try, bro, but and we got some
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01:47:08.720 --> 01:47:12.079
stuff coming. So everybody stay tuned and we'll talk to
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01:47:12.159 --> 01:47:14.399
you soon. Brother, stay stay on the line. But I'm
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01:47:14.439 --> 01:47:16.960
a I'm gonna in the show now. Tune into the
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01:47:17.000 --> 01:47:19.479
other logic and Larry stuff share it and and uh,
1980
01:47:19.600 --> 01:47:22.159
you know, stay tuned, bro. We we are out here.
1981
01:47:22.479 --> 01:47:25.319
I'll talk to you guys all very soon. Logic and
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01:47:25.399 --> 01:47:26.039
larry out.
1983
01:47:27.119 --> 01:47:27.640
Love y'all,
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Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to another episode of the Logic
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and Larry podcast.
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I am your host, Larry Kay.
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As you know, everything I say on this podcast is
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strictly my opinion as a private citizen speaking to you
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in a private capacity. Nothing I say in any way
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reflects the opinion of any other person or any other entity.
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I am not speaking to you in an official capacity,
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but only as a personal, private citizen expressing personal, private
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opinions on matters of public interests. Now, there's a lot
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of news going on in the world today, as you know,
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there's a lot of strife, a lot of things that
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we can touch on, and I'll get to another news
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update soon on Logic and Larry. But today I have
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a very special guest for you. It's an individual who's
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a very dear friend of mine and who has just
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released a really profound piece of art and creativity and
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I want him to be able to discuss that. And
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I think in times like this, when there's so much
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uncertainty in the world politically, overseas, domestically, all the problems
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we're facing, which I am constantly telling you guys, is
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just really we're not fixing anything, and we're constantly, you know,
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in this endless cycle. I think an individual, an artist
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like this who's expressing and speaking from a place of
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not only reason, but deep emotion and also with an
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eye and that's key toward the state of the world
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and society. I think it's a great time to touch
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base with somebody like this, and it's a great time
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for this art. So I wanted to bring you an
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interview exclusively here on the Logic and Larry Podcast with
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my dear friend Elliott Fant to discuss his latest work.
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And that's what I've got for you today, So I
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hope everybody enjoys it.
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And Elliott, welcome back to the show, my brother.
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You know what's going on?
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Man?
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How you doing.
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I'm doing great, and it's great to have you back
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on the show.
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Last time we were live and the people got to
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hear a little bit about you and what was what
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you had Percolaton. But now it's out man, the world
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as I see it, man, So that's time.
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We were talking about getting ready for the release and
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then I hit a hiccup with the print distribution company
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that was printing the book.
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I got.
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You know, there's a lot of stuff going on and
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a lot of things in regards.
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To COVID.
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You know, once COVID happened, people who were trying to
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put books out, if they were trying to do their
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book in a particular kind of way, it really affected
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affected the ability or it drove up the price point
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number one, and made those kind of books, like hardcover books,
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color bound books, way more expensive than what they happened
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prior to COVID.
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I lost a little bit of time because.
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Of that, makes sense.
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But it's out now, man, And you know, I know
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most people who are regular listeners to my show already
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heard you, you know, come on before, and they just
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know you in general on who you are. But for
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those who don't know, bro, why don't you just give
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us a quick you know, little snois of your biography,
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where you're coming from, and what might have shaped your
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perspective before we get into the art.
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Ah Man, Well, you know, born in nort New Jersey,
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that's there'sual hospital, grew up all over EXAs County, lived
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pretty much every northern city in the state.
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You know, from the time I was good to.
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Now bounce around a lot, got a chance to meet
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a whole lot of you know, different kind of people.
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Through elementary school, high school, college, went to the military,
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US Navy.
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Two thousand and four, I came.
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Back from the Navy and then.
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That's when I attended school at teen University in Union.
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Graduated there here twenty eleven, and that next year is
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when I published my first book, The Execution of Revolution,
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which was a small paperback, just me getting my feet
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wet and writing and then also proving that I could,
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you know, finish something that I had an ambition to start.
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The following year after that, twenty thirteen, I released my
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second book, The Long Way Home. So those books early
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on got me testing the waters and trying to grow
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as a write and grow as a poet, and they
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actually did pretty well.
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My life was ship at that time. I started, you know,
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cussing on the.
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It's all good, it's all good times.
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You don't got no other words for what is actually
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going on other than to say what it is, And
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that's what my life was.
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Yeah.
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Right, So now, look, we we met and I'm not
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going to delve into the details of but we met
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because we were at a social event and we had
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a good conversation going with multiple people and I think
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one of the things you know, a that this show
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oh is about and be that we connected on very
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early was you know, the idea of just rational reason
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and you know, abstract objective thought.
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I think we kind of shared that ability.
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To not go with the crowd and to look at
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things critically and logically. And before we delve into the
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book itself, you know, I kind of want to set
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the stage because it relates to this show and what
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people listen for. I mean, in a world right now,
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and we'll get into some recent events and things that
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happen locally, but in a world right now where so
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many people are engaged in group think and there's so
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much anger and emotion and everything. You know, how important
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do you think thinking reasonably and rationally in ways that
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might transcend race, might transcend, gender, might transcend things like that?
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How important is that? And how much are we lacking
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that in society in your opinion?
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I mean, we're lacking it at a level that we
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haven't seen ever. I think it's unprecedented to the level
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that we lack.
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Context.
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I always say that in a SoundBite, you know, video
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clip type world, which is what we existed. You need
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to you need to have context in details and within context.
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In details, that's where most truth reveals itself.
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Good point.
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Easy to look at things from a black and white lens,
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but life is gray, yes, and I don't you know
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unless and then another thing is don't speak, you know,
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with so much passion about things that you aren't directly
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in the middle of that.
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You know.
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So much of what we do is we take things
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we see on television, things becall radio, and we just
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delve into it emotionally. There's no context. M is biased,
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you know, bias to the maximum level because we see
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ourselves or things that happened remind us of something that
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we went through. It's like when you know, a woman
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will talk about all men and what it really is.
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She hasn't met every man and right right to be
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able to, you know, but she had a couple of
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bad relationships and she has been reconciled with the hurt
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of those relationships. So now everybody's paying for it. Yes,
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And the emotional bit of that is while we all
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suffer on both sides, Yeah, about anything we talk about.
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You're right, and I would say, you know, because we're
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constantly you know, and some of your poetry reflects this
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and also, you know, you're just general commentary, you know,
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and you and I both obviously utilize this tool, which
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is the Internet and social media, you know, to get
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the right words out and to market ourselves. We are
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not immune from that. That is the world we live in.
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But what role do you think kind of the internet
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culture that we have now? And this is because you
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came out with a hardcover book. Now I volunteer with
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the library. You have a hardcover book, it's selling. You know,
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what role does this internet headline culture play?
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You know?
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And as opposed to a hardcover book that gives more depth.
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I mean, how much of our problems in society with
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this black and white sound bite culture is related to
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this social media internet culture.
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Well, it's always easier to speak whatever you speak when
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you don't have to look who you're talking about in
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the eye. So if you're asking me for most a
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lot of cowardly narrative, howardly rhetoric.
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People are a lot more rude. It's easy to be rude.
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When there's no consequence, you know, other than somebody I'm
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friending you. So that's what you get is you get
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a lot of people who are cowardly, who hide behind
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the keyboard, you know, when it comes to issues of
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the visiveness, you know, yes, yes, I I've always looked
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at uh, somebody not seeing something the way I see
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it as an opportunity to learn, but to acquire that,
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you know, that kind of perspective about it. Man, you know,
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you really have to be mature and you have to
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be grounded. But I think now, I think a lot
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of people just want to feel like a lot of
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conversations aren't even about what we're actually talking about. It's
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about food. Is a kind of intellectual point like barmark.
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You know, my viewpoint is smarter than your viewpoint. I
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made a point that I'm smarter, Like it's not about
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learning from each other, it's about trying to I guess
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put put the other person in check.
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Yes, yeah, no I do, yeah yeah.
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And when you're and when you're coming from that kind
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of you know, with that kind of energy and a
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conversation and conversation is like three quarters of the way
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dead before it even starts.
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Good point.
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And I mean I think people in general, and I
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think you would agree, they kind of come at conversations,
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like you just said, not with an eye towards learning
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and educating each other, but just trying to win an
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argument or trying to basically just use it as a
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as a soundboard to vent rather than have a conversation.
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You know, I think it's a problem.
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If you already made your decision internally about whatever it
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is you're talking about, then why even have the conversation
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other than to assert your point.
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If you already got okay, I'm.
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Inflect you're gonna be inflexible, then to me, it's it's
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it's a baseless, bottomless pit of a thing. But people
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in bark on that every day with conversations that you know,
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we know the outcomes, but we still have them, you know.
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So yeah, why do you think.
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We have them like I do it? You do? Why
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do you think we've done it less recently? I think?
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But you and I have both done it now. You
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and I engage in the conversations when they mean something. Well,
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we'll talk deep about sports, we'll talk deep about race,
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we'll talk.
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We'll do it in person too.
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I mean, will we have called each other when we're
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on the internet head and we have made a phone
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call and had the conversation on the phone. But why
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do you think you and I are people in general?
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Why do we still engage in those internet conversations?
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What?
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Sometimes with me, it just pushes me over the edge.
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I got to respond, even though I know it's not productive.
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Why do we do it? Why do we do it?
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That?
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What you just said?
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Sometimes you see you see something.
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What is a horrible feeling to feel like.
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Somebody who's making some uh irrespond simple comment gets to
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have that comment and that perspective flourish when you are
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seeing it and you know better.
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That's it's very hard. That's like somebody make some kind
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of irresponsible comment.
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Yes that is swaying yes, or.
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Arousing the passions or the thoughts of other people, or
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it's misinforming people, and people actually kind of believe in
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it a little bit, and you know, and like you
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know when something like as far as the pinions are perspective,
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some things okay, I can have an opinion. You have
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your opinion, either one of us are correct or incorrect.
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And some things people are way off base, yes, and
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you and you know it as somebody observing it, And
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it becomes very hard to let that stand because you
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feel like, nah, you're misinforming people and you're you're pushing.
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Things to a level that dangerous, you know for everybody.
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That's a lot of people do that, and that that
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I mean, that would be.
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One reason you know why I think you're right. I mean,
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you know what, no I got to step in. I
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think you're one hundred percent right.
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I think it's and that's the social media thing that
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does it right because you see other people liking it,
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you see other people co signing it.
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You know it's misinformation.
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And I always say, you know, you're entitled to your
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own opinions one hundred percent, you're not entitled to your
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own facts. And people don't understand that. Where it's like
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we can disagree on the taste, whether you know steak
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tastes good or doesn't taste good. That's an opinion, right,
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But it comes from a cow. That's a fact. Like
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you can't tell me it came from a goat, you know,
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like people like you know, we could disagree about whether
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the night sky or the blue sky is more pleasant,
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but the daytime sky is blue and the night time
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sky is dark, and that's how it is.
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But I think you're one hundred percent right.
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That is definitely what makes me have to respond, even
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though I know better.
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So I went through that last week.
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I went through it last week exactly. It was just
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this thing's been kind of filtering around, and it's really
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talking about fifty to fifty on bills and if a
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man is a man, if he if he if a
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woman that he's with helps him pay bills, is he?
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And there's the women who I've seen it this eating
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this up. I've seen it bro you know, and trying
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to create some like.
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But then my thing is, if if you're a man
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and you do pay all the bills, is the woman
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then supposed to just shut the hell up and not
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have an opinion because that's typically what's gonna happen if you're.
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Looking with me for free and I'm doing everything right.
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But then would a woman be okay with that?
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And a lot of women would sit there and try
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to front and lie and say, oh, he pays all
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the bills.
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I'll just shut up and not yeah right, you're not.
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You know that's that's a good because sometimes I say
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too like not every and I'm not and I'm not
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trying in any and I know you're not. We're not
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trying to in any way say that. You know, we're trying
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to go backwards or we're anti feminist or anything. But
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what I'm saying is with not just gender issues, but
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a lot of issues. It seems like, you know, people
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want to consistently use this word progress and forward, moving
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and enlightened, but sometimes moving forward has other consequences that
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people don't love.
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And it's kind of interesting.
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You know that, Like we always feel like we had
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to we have to adhere to this all encompassing intersectional
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progress quote unquote, but there's a lot more complexity to it.
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Like you said, the world is greyt and that's part
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of the grayness.
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You know. People don't want to grapple with the other shoe,
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you know what I'm saying.
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And that's exactly how it was killing in that conversation.
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I'm like, listen, like what Sparky, who was a number
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one you know, is one of my friends on she
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came into my inbox with.
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All of this garbage.
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I'm like, I'm like, all right, now.
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I got to address it.
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Yes, you got it, yes, you know, yeah, because you're
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not gonna sit here like just everything, every situation is insane.
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There there are women who work hard and make their
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own money, and a man will see that and be
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more insensivized and inclined to then take care of her
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because she he knows he witnessed her being responsible enough
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to do it for herself.
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That's different than uh.
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I see you, you got two kids, proud of us
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meeting each other.
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We meet each other. You're living in your mom's house.
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Yes, then you see me and my life is together.
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I don't have any kids, I have a car, I
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have a nice place.
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And then you just want to come and just bring
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your kid and just you know, and think you're going
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to throw sex at me. And then all of a sudden,
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now I gotta Now I'm the kids step dad, and
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I gotta say no, no, no, it's different.
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Well it's different.
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Let's drill done on that really quick, just really quick,
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so people can establish kind of you know, who you
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are and who we are. You know, in this model
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in society, you are around the same age as me.
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You know, you have a solid job, you have done
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well for yourself, You don't have any kids.
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I don't have any kids. You know how difficult was that?
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And like, what does it say about people like us
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that we were able to maintain that level of responsibility
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and try to do the right thing in the right way,
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even though maybe we didn't come from the most together stable,
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you know, family environments. We are hell bent on not
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you know, getting into that chaotic thing ourselves.
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What is it?
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Why does certain people not get drawn into that? I
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know people with multiple kids, this and that, and we
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don't have any. We never got in there. I never
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been married, you know, none of that, and I'm not
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because I'm anti marriage. I just never found the right
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one and I want to make sure I do before
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I do, you know, take a plunge.
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What is that?
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I was having a conversation with a person who were
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inside my room space in my loft last night about
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this very thing. Teaching kids I'm on a daily basis.
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I see kids who I'm responsible for teaching. Yes, they're undisciplined,
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m And you could tell that. You can call it fear,
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you can call it respect. But when I was a kid,
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I know, you know, when I got to fourteen fifteen
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years old, my grandmother who raised me.
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Couldn't whoop my ass, right yep.
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But I still had a healthy fear of a principal
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calling home, Yes, me too.
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I had a healthy fear.
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Of a progress report, a bad progress report coming showing
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up in the mailbox. Even though I know this woman
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wasn't going to beat the all out of me. She
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couldn't but to disappointment, right, you know, and was what
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I feared. I feared disappointing someone who sacrifice a time
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in her life that.
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Was really meant for leisure.
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Right, I feared disappointing someone who sacrificed for me. That way,
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that makes sense to bring it back to why I
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haven't had kids who have gotten married.
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Really it was a dice role.
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Because I mean I haven't always been responsible every sexual
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encounter I had.
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So it's not like I went.
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Into a badroom situation and always more condom and always
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make sure they went to the to the clinic to
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make sure they didn't have disease. I ain't have people
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bring me, you know, okay, before we do this, we
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got to bring you so I can see that you
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don't have gonna ree.
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So it wasn't always like it was a lot of love, right.
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Because in moments of you know, and that happens to
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all of us, the responsible thing to do but destroy
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our It would destroy the moment.
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Most songs, Yes.
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We're always exercising in those situations responsibility, which is saying, damn,
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you know, you really look good, but I can't.
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I can't secret you tonight.
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Actually I need you to go to the clinic testas
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then and then when you show me that, then we
395
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can have some more on look at you.
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Like you're crazy.
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You're gonna put her clothes on, you gonna leave, and
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you probably never see her again. It's hard for us
399
00:20:21.799 --> 00:20:26.559
to exercise responsibility in that way. But in my mind,
400
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I always I saw nothing but fell relationships growing up.
401
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All throughout my family.
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The only relationship that was there in my childhood that's
403
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did that's still persistent now was my uncle, my father's brother,
404
00:20:44.519 --> 00:20:48.039
and my aunt Jill. They've been married since nineteen ninety wow,
405
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seventy three years. But within that we're human beings. Yeah,
406
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I probably screwed up a bunch of times, probably got
407
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put out, but they kept their problems in the house.
408
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They didn't go, you know, gossiping about what each other
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didn't do to each other.
410
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That's a lot.
411
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That's something Some things have to be sacred, and we
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I mean we're talking about social media.
413
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A couple of minutes ago.
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Social media, it strips foundationally that away from mostly everyone,
415
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but I did that some things should be sacred. You've
416
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gotten to the point now where if I don't if
417
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I have a girlfriend, I don't post my girlfriend on
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my social media pages, nobody will look at that and
419
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say I'm trying to protect my girlfriend or protect my wife.
420
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They'll say I'm ashamed of my wife.
421
00:21:37.960 --> 00:21:40.599
Yep, they trying to hide it. Even she might try to.
422
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Hide her and she might and she will buy into
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that if she didn't already start off believing that. It
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does not look at like I'm protecting you, because not
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everybody who who puts a handclap of emoji or congratulations
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or her little heart, you know, thing on their comments,
427
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they still may be jealous of you and want your
428
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life right.
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And these are people that said that you may call
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friend or family.
431
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So I don't want people knowing everything in my personal
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life to be able to comment, and particularly when it
433
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comes to who I'm laying in my bed with. You're right,
434
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because everybody has your best interest, you know. But going
435
00:22:21.079 --> 00:22:25.680
back to the kids, when you decide to have kids,
436
00:22:26.799 --> 00:22:30.480
you're also deciding before you even send them to a school,
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you're deciding to be their foremost educated. Yes, your first
438
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and best educator, and if you don't want to do
439
00:22:39.240 --> 00:22:46.759
the work associated with being a foremost educator, your best
440
00:22:46.799 --> 00:22:51.160
and most important educator, Because if I don't have respect
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for my parents as a kid, or if they haven't
442
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you know, nurtured that within me, how can I have it.
443
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For a stranger who's trying to teach me? Good point,
444
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which is what mostly.
445
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The problem is with a lot of these kids, and
446
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they come in here rambunctos, can't sit, still can't and
447
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I always and the vinute I see it. I already
448
00:23:12.960 --> 00:23:15.920
know what the home life is like. But the problem,
449
00:23:16.319 --> 00:23:19.519
and we're starting to you know, get along racial lines,
450
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is that in black families, if a parent is working
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two jobs.
452
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Because they didn't get.
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A college education because their parents let them down. Now
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you have a generational thing.
455
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Yeah, and I want to yeah, I want to hammer
456
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into that because I kind of want to get into
457
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exactly what you said about, you know, youth and consequence
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and your you know teaching. And I think in our
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urban spaces, in our black spaces, and I actually think
460
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the issue societally and generationally does transcend race. But I
461
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think the difference is and so of these you know,
462
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urban neighborhoods, you know, you have and it's sad to say,
463
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and it's a country problem, but you have guns and
464
00:24:10.400 --> 00:24:13.319
weapons and things floating around the same way drugs and
465
00:24:13.319 --> 00:24:16.880
cigarettes float around, and white suburban neighborhoods.
466
00:24:17.400 --> 00:24:19.759
And I mean, just yesterday, there was a.
467
00:24:19.680 --> 00:24:22.799
Fire drill at a I don't remember if it was
468
00:24:22.839 --> 00:24:23.960
a high school or middle.
469
00:24:23.720 --> 00:24:27.839
School and Central High School.
470
00:24:27.880 --> 00:24:31.279
I taught there, Central High School, and some a young
471
00:24:31.440 --> 00:24:33.359
teenager gets hit by a bullet. I think it was
472
00:24:33.400 --> 00:24:35.519
probably a straight bullet, I don't know, at twelve o'clock
473
00:24:35.960 --> 00:24:36.839
in the afternoon.
474
00:24:36.880 --> 00:24:38.759
And I mean, this is you know, Elliott.
475
00:24:38.759 --> 00:24:41.039
They might talk about the mass shootings and we have
476
00:24:41.079 --> 00:24:43.039
a problem with that. They might talk about all that,
477
00:24:43.079 --> 00:24:46.680
but we have these young people and this isn't new.
478
00:24:46.880 --> 00:24:49.799
They made movies about this when we were babies, of
479
00:24:50.359 --> 00:24:53.319
just young people killing each other, dying.
480
00:24:53.400 --> 00:24:55.240
And then also another young.
481
00:24:55.079 --> 00:24:57.079
Person died in a car accident when they was a
482
00:24:57.119 --> 00:24:59.119
stolen car and the police are chasing them.
483
00:24:59.480 --> 00:25:01.680
And I'm I mean, your role you.
484
00:25:01.559 --> 00:25:04.720
Know, as a as a as a mentor, and I've
485
00:25:04.759 --> 00:25:06.839
seen you be a mentor to many young people, and
486
00:25:06.839 --> 00:25:08.799
I'm a mentor, but it's a little I don't want
487
00:25:08.839 --> 00:25:11.000
to say it's different, but there's a different aspect to it.
488
00:25:11.079 --> 00:25:11.799
You know, you are a.
489
00:25:13.400 --> 00:25:16.359
A young but growing almost middle aged, you know, black
490
00:25:16.400 --> 00:25:19.920
man who's a mentor to kids. You come from certain
491
00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:23.839
struggles and also certain advantages, you know, and you come
492
00:25:23.920 --> 00:25:26.480
from an urban environment that we all know is the
493
00:25:26.519 --> 00:25:29.039
greater Newark area. I mean, what is to be said
494
00:25:29.039 --> 00:25:32.799
and what is going on with the youth today and
495
00:25:32.920 --> 00:25:36.759
the you know, especially in our urban spaces. What role
496
00:25:36.799 --> 00:25:40.119
does consequences in parenting you know, come into it, what
497
00:25:40.240 --> 00:25:43.240
is generationally coming into it, and what can we do?
498
00:25:43.319 --> 00:25:45.480
And what are you seeing out there with the youth,
499
00:25:45.599 --> 00:25:49.039
especially the black youth and what they're going through these days?
500
00:25:49.359 --> 00:25:53.519
Well, and I never ever want to make it seem
501
00:25:53.599 --> 00:25:57.759
like everybody white had some kind of roses and rainbow
502
00:25:57.960 --> 00:26:01.680
existence either that you know, every just because.
503
00:26:01.400 --> 00:26:03.960
Somebody's white at their childhood, that they could.
504
00:26:03.759 --> 00:26:08.119
Have been getting abused yep, bumping down mentally by the
505
00:26:08.640 --> 00:26:10.839
I've had friends who told those stories and they were white.
506
00:26:11.160 --> 00:26:12.240
So it's really just.
507
00:26:14.400 --> 00:26:18.400
What I see is this kind of going back into
508
00:26:18.440 --> 00:26:23.880
what I just said. When you have kids going to
509
00:26:23.920 --> 00:26:26.519
work and coming home nine to five is different when
510
00:26:26.559 --> 00:26:28.960
you're single versus having kids.
511
00:26:29.200 --> 00:26:32.599
But some parents don't treat it like it's different.
512
00:26:33.400 --> 00:26:38.160
Some parents they get home, don't do homework with their kids,
513
00:26:39.359 --> 00:26:40.839
plopping in front of a television.
514
00:26:42.079 --> 00:26:43.279
So now.
515
00:26:45.519 --> 00:26:46.880
I always used to stay.
516
00:26:48.799 --> 00:26:51.519
Going back to the Charles Barkley, you know role model thing,
517
00:26:52.240 --> 00:26:56.039
which I agree with this segment of what he said parents.
518
00:26:55.680 --> 00:26:56.960
Should be role models.
519
00:26:57.480 --> 00:27:02.279
Yes, when parents avoid of being a role model to
520
00:27:02.319 --> 00:27:03.319
their kids.
521
00:27:03.759 --> 00:27:06.640
Kids look for other heroes, right.
522
00:27:06.480 --> 00:27:11.960
And those heroes that they look for appreciate irresponsible messages.
523
00:27:14.200 --> 00:27:17.200
You know, for little girls, it could be a Cardi b.
524
00:27:17.440 --> 00:27:20.440
It could be a Megan, a Satiny. Now when we
525
00:27:20.440 --> 00:27:23.680
were kids, a little little black girl, the hero might
526
00:27:23.680 --> 00:27:27.359
have been little Ken yep, and whatever they do. And
527
00:27:28.079 --> 00:27:29.720
a lot of artists I can say, oh that my
528
00:27:29.839 --> 00:27:33.160
our music isn't for children, But your music also isn't
529
00:27:33.200 --> 00:27:36.400
for forty year olds and thirty year olds either.
530
00:27:37.680 --> 00:27:39.359
Your music is for young people.
531
00:27:40.279 --> 00:27:43.720
However you want to section that off, and it's gonna
532
00:27:43.839 --> 00:27:48.559
end up in the CD players of young kids in
533
00:27:48.599 --> 00:27:51.559
the nineties or on their I Positive the two thousands.
534
00:27:52.160 --> 00:27:55.599
So this whole thing that artists try to do by
535
00:27:56.119 --> 00:28:00.839
you know, disassociating themselves with the responsibility when you take
536
00:28:00.960 --> 00:28:06.039
millions of dollars from kids and adults, line your pockets
537
00:28:06.039 --> 00:28:08.279
with it, with your art form. But then you don't,
538
00:28:08.400 --> 00:28:12.160
you don't say, you don't go out of your way
539
00:28:12.200 --> 00:28:16.240
to stay listen to all the young people who listen
540
00:28:16.240 --> 00:28:20.799
to my music, it really is not for you to
541
00:28:20.880 --> 00:28:21.519
be listening to.
542
00:28:22.480 --> 00:28:23.480
You need to understand it.
543
00:28:23.559 --> 00:28:26.599
Just because you see me doing this or you hear
544
00:28:26.640 --> 00:28:30.880
me talking this way on this song, you can be
545
00:28:31.039 --> 00:28:35.480
much better than me, and you should, you know, preach
546
00:28:35.599 --> 00:28:40.480
better messages, you know, or figure out how to make
547
00:28:40.599 --> 00:28:45.440
better and long lasting impacts beyond what I've done as
548
00:28:45.440 --> 00:28:49.440
a as a musician, you know, entertainer or whatever. You
549
00:28:49.480 --> 00:28:52.319
don't hear a lot of artists, and I don't remember,
550
00:28:52.319 --> 00:28:56.000
like when I was a kid, artists, you know, they
551
00:28:56.039 --> 00:28:58.440
soaked up all the limelight, but there's only few that
552
00:28:58.519 --> 00:29:03.279
really wanted the responsibility of preaching a difficult Tupac.
553
00:29:02.920 --> 00:29:03.200
Was like that.
554
00:29:03.240 --> 00:29:08.440
Early on, early on, early on, he would talk about
555
00:29:09.680 --> 00:29:13.200
things and he would do it on you know, afternoon
556
00:29:13.279 --> 00:29:17.319
talk shows Ricky Lake and Done Done or what you know.
557
00:29:17.319 --> 00:29:17.759
He would go.
558
00:29:17.880 --> 00:29:22.519
You know, that started to dwindle where artists would.
559
00:29:22.279 --> 00:29:25.440
Really really because a lot of them are young and
560
00:29:25.480 --> 00:29:29.000
confuse themselves, but have all of this power and influence.
561
00:29:30.119 --> 00:29:36.799
So that's why it's important for parents to intercede these
562
00:29:36.839 --> 00:29:40.920
things and search yourself and be there every single day
563
00:29:41.599 --> 00:29:44.880
in your kid's face. Listen, you're going to bet at
564
00:29:44.880 --> 00:29:48.000
this time you're not listening to this. You're not and
565
00:29:48.359 --> 00:29:50.960
you may be an asshole, and you will be. He'll
566
00:29:50.960 --> 00:29:53.640
probably hate you for it, but when they're in adel
567
00:29:54.359 --> 00:29:56.960
they'll look back on that and says, you know what, well,
568
00:29:56.960 --> 00:29:58.960
a lot of my friends ain't have nobody there, and
569
00:29:59.000 --> 00:30:01.160
they'll respect you a lot more.
570
00:30:02.000 --> 00:30:02.880
That's a good point.
571
00:30:03.240 --> 00:30:04.160
And you're trying to get out.
572
00:30:04.079 --> 00:30:08.559
Of being a parent to the maximum level. Other things
573
00:30:08.559 --> 00:30:09.720
and other and other.
574
00:30:09.559 --> 00:30:12.839
Influence is going to keep in because you're not there.
575
00:30:13.759 --> 00:30:15.599
And that brings me to something else too.
576
00:30:15.599 --> 00:30:17.519
And I think, you know, this vexes me a lot
577
00:30:17.599 --> 00:30:20.880
because I think it's maybe because of me who I
578
00:30:20.920 --> 00:30:23.279
am in the community, what I do, how I look.
579
00:30:23.359 --> 00:30:26.519
I think sometimes the nuance of this gets lost. I
580
00:30:26.559 --> 00:30:28.920
know it's not lost on you and a lot of
581
00:30:28.920 --> 00:30:30.559
other people that are near and dear to me. But
582
00:30:31.000 --> 00:30:35.400
you know, you speak about parents and being stricter and
583
00:30:35.440 --> 00:30:38.480
being there for their kids, and taking an active generational
584
00:30:38.559 --> 00:30:41.039
role in parenting. And I look at you know, we
585
00:30:41.119 --> 00:30:43.240
talked the other, you know, a few minutes ago about
586
00:30:43.279 --> 00:30:46.480
progress and how not all progress quote unquote is always
587
00:30:47.000 --> 00:30:51.319
fully you know, advantageous for people, and you talk about
588
00:30:51.400 --> 00:30:53.960
discipline and and I want to you know, it's kind
589
00:30:53.960 --> 00:30:56.039
of a complicated question, but I want to bring this up.
590
00:30:56.079 --> 00:31:00.799
And you know, this this idea of black power and
591
00:31:00.880 --> 00:31:03.640
what we think of that word and phrase and what
592
00:31:03.680 --> 00:31:04.400
that means.
593
00:31:04.440 --> 00:31:05.759
And you know, you look.
594
00:31:05.599 --> 00:31:07.440
Back at somebody like a Joe Clark, and I know
595
00:31:07.480 --> 00:31:09.759
you have some connections to Patterson. I have some connections
596
00:31:09.759 --> 00:31:13.640
to Patterson, and you see, you know, what does black
597
00:31:13.680 --> 00:31:16.559
power mean? Do you feel in this current day and
598
00:31:16.599 --> 00:31:18.599
age in any way that that term has been co
599
00:31:18.640 --> 00:31:23.519
opted almost by like a white patronization or or a
600
00:31:23.599 --> 00:31:26.519
leftist patronization. I don't want to put political category on it,
601
00:31:26.559 --> 00:31:28.839
but you know, Joe Clark has sometimes looked at now
602
00:31:28.920 --> 00:31:30.839
as and I'm not saying the man didn't have flaws,
603
00:31:30.880 --> 00:31:35.000
but looked at as like heavy handed, you know, buying
604
00:31:35.039 --> 00:31:37.759
into the culture, the dominant culture, this and that. And
605
00:31:38.039 --> 00:31:41.880
you know, you can't give too many consequences to kids
606
00:31:41.920 --> 00:31:44.400
because it's setting too many expectations that are from the
607
00:31:44.440 --> 00:31:47.480
dominant culture. This and that, I mean as opposed to, Hey,
608
00:31:48.000 --> 00:31:51.720
there's something to be said for consequences stability, you know,
609
00:31:52.039 --> 00:31:56.000
principles that care, teachers that care, authority figures that care,
610
00:31:56.079 --> 00:31:59.599
parents that care. You know, is is there some nuance there?
611
00:31:59.640 --> 00:32:03.799
And has that meaning of empowerment of black people been
612
00:32:03.880 --> 00:32:08.640
co opted into a almost a patronizing, you know, handicapping
613
00:32:08.680 --> 00:32:12.000
thing or what's your perspective on all of those things.
614
00:32:13.759 --> 00:32:21.000
It's funny because most people will call entertainment and what
615
00:32:21.039 --> 00:32:23.400
these artists are doing. There's some people who will say,
616
00:32:23.400 --> 00:32:26.079
you know what, the freedom that they have to do.
617
00:32:25.960 --> 00:32:31.079
That that's black power, right, And if that's the case,
618
00:32:31.279 --> 00:32:36.559
then I'm like, then the term is become really really convoluted, right,
619
00:32:37.559 --> 00:32:44.640
black power, as I see, when you can.
620
00:32:45.960 --> 00:32:57.519
Step away from earthly possessions money in order to drive
621
00:32:57.640 --> 00:33:03.960
home a greater point about the respect that you that
622
00:33:04.039 --> 00:33:07.400
you personally want to have and that you want other
623
00:33:07.400 --> 00:33:13.799
people to have for your culture, that's power, right. What
624
00:33:14.000 --> 00:33:20.279
makes it hard now? Number one, when you had the
625
00:33:20.359 --> 00:33:25.160
Muhammad Ali step away on principal right and say and
626
00:33:25.200 --> 00:33:27.319
the problem of his boxing career is the everuey champion
627
00:33:27.359 --> 00:33:27.799
of the world.
628
00:33:31.079 --> 00:33:31.440
Mm hmm.
629
00:33:31.960 --> 00:33:34.839
I know I'm not gonna have the championship anymore. I'm
630
00:33:34.839 --> 00:33:37.039
gonna lose millions of dollars.
631
00:33:39.400 --> 00:33:41.160
And then I'm gonna have to fight to get back
632
00:33:41.200 --> 00:33:44.039
something that really wasn't taken from me.
633
00:33:44.720 --> 00:33:46.599
Right, But you know what, I don't care.
634
00:33:47.279 --> 00:33:52.880
Right then you fast forward to last season, the last
635
00:33:52.880 --> 00:33:56.720
two seasons with somebody like a Kyrie Organ who I respect.
636
00:33:57.160 --> 00:33:57.559
Mm hmm.
637
00:33:57.880 --> 00:34:05.559
But he stood on principle all the way up until
638
00:34:06.079 --> 00:34:07.519
game checks started getting taken.
639
00:34:08.760 --> 00:34:08.960
Right.
640
00:34:09.920 --> 00:34:12.119
He didn't feel like he did anything wrong with what
641
00:34:12.199 --> 00:34:17.079
he said, right, but he still end up apologizing. Right,
642
00:34:18.719 --> 00:34:25.239
some stances in life that you take, you shouldn't want
643
00:34:25.239 --> 00:34:29.239
to untake, and I don't care what gets taken from
644
00:34:29.320 --> 00:34:32.800
you as a result. Do you think the power in
645
00:34:32.920 --> 00:34:36.400
general removing the black part from it? That's power?
646
00:34:36.920 --> 00:34:37.119
Right?
647
00:34:38.400 --> 00:34:41.480
But money coo, wats that for a lot of people.
648
00:34:41.559 --> 00:34:48.719
If somebody, if somebody money or fear of whatever, you know,
649
00:34:48.840 --> 00:34:53.800
but mostly money possessions. If you are somebody who has
650
00:34:53.840 --> 00:34:57.719
something to lose or better yet, I'll give you this.
651
00:34:57.880 --> 00:34:59.360
I'll give you this, and think about.
652
00:35:00.960 --> 00:35:06.440
If you stood with your beaten your chest saying I'm
653
00:35:06.480 --> 00:35:11.280
a black man and I want respect, and then a
654
00:35:11.320 --> 00:35:14.239
white man walks up to you, puts a gun in.
655
00:35:14.280 --> 00:35:17.119
Your head and say say that again. Mm hm, say
656
00:35:17.159 --> 00:35:20.840
that shit one more time and I'm gonna blow your
657
00:35:20.840 --> 00:35:26.360
head off. Would you say it again? M The people
658
00:35:26.400 --> 00:35:33.800
that we've been taught historically to respect and revere, they
659
00:35:33.840 --> 00:35:37.800
made that choice, and that's why they're legendary. Malcolm X
660
00:35:38.000 --> 00:35:41.599
is legendary. These people got up and put their hants on,
661
00:35:42.719 --> 00:35:44.760
put this size and shoes on, one at a time,
662
00:35:45.440 --> 00:35:48.119
and went out into a world where death.
663
00:35:49.880 --> 00:35:51.760
And the expectation that it can come.
664
00:35:52.440 --> 00:35:55.599
Was very Really we all say, oh yeah, we might
665
00:35:55.599 --> 00:35:57.159
be do to date, but I don't think a lot of.
666
00:35:57.199 --> 00:35:59.920
Us believe that, right.
667
00:36:00.119 --> 00:36:03.239
I don't think I believe like today, I'm gonna die
668
00:36:03.400 --> 00:36:05.440
like you know, like, yes, they got up in a
669
00:36:05.519 --> 00:36:11.920
world where him bred Hampton, you yield on the list man, right,
670
00:36:12.480 --> 00:36:12.679
you know?
671
00:36:13.559 --> 00:36:15.000
MegaR Evers in.
672
00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:20.079
A world where I know I can die today for
673
00:36:20.239 --> 00:36:25.079
my beliefs. And I think the separation between that eerror
674
00:36:26.000 --> 00:36:31.039
and that brand of human is way way different than
675
00:36:31.079 --> 00:36:34.199
this brand. I think this brand of human talks about
676
00:36:34.280 --> 00:36:36.840
talks a good game about how angry they are, and
677
00:36:36.880 --> 00:36:39.960
then when the anger subsides, you go right back to
678
00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:43.119
doing what you were doing until the next tragedy happens,
679
00:36:43.599 --> 00:36:46.039
and then you get mad all over again and repeat
680
00:36:46.079 --> 00:36:47.199
the same process.
681
00:36:47.760 --> 00:36:50.079
Yeah, and you think that's that's a societal thing, now right.
682
00:36:50.119 --> 00:36:54.079
I mean selective outrage, selective outrage and not even knowing
683
00:36:54.079 --> 00:36:55.960
the facts of it all either, you.
684
00:36:55.920 --> 00:36:59.719
Know, not me, you know, observing it from a distance.
685
00:37:00.239 --> 00:37:02.199
And let me get into that a little bit too,
686
00:37:02.280 --> 00:37:04.400
with the you know, so Kyrie irving. You know, I'm
687
00:37:04.400 --> 00:37:06.360
not going to go deep into a whole separate conversation.
688
00:37:06.400 --> 00:37:08.440
I mean, I don't agree with the content of the
689
00:37:08.440 --> 00:37:11.880
film he was quoting, you know, factually, but you know,
690
00:37:12.000 --> 00:37:15.480
do you think that you know, he said something, and
691
00:37:15.559 --> 00:37:17.280
he just said something, and all of a sudden they
692
00:37:17.280 --> 00:37:19.679
were going to withhold game checks because he said something,
693
00:37:19.679 --> 00:37:21.960
and like on principle, he's like, you know, I didn't
694
00:37:22.000 --> 00:37:26.519
say anything in particular that's anti semitic or this and that.
695
00:37:26.679 --> 00:37:28.960
I simply said to look at a film if you
696
00:37:29.000 --> 00:37:31.639
want to educate me on the facts or dispute it,
697
00:37:31.679 --> 00:37:34.599
that's one thing. But I didn't say anything. You know,
698
00:37:34.639 --> 00:37:38.280
do you think there's a limit as humans in today's
699
00:37:38.320 --> 00:37:42.400
society where you know, there's all this intersectionalism, right, like
700
00:37:42.840 --> 00:37:45.079
you know, I want to hold my arm around my
701
00:37:45.119 --> 00:37:47.480
brother here and this person's my brother and that person's
702
00:37:47.480 --> 00:37:51.599
my brother. But is it real when you can't respect
703
00:37:51.639 --> 00:37:55.800
somebody else's opinion even if you think it's misguided, where
704
00:37:55.840 --> 00:37:58.119
you don't provide that, you know, everything's all good with
705
00:37:58.199 --> 00:38:01.400
expressing yourself until it steps on my lawn and I
706
00:38:01.440 --> 00:38:02.920
don't like what you said anymore?
707
00:38:03.480 --> 00:38:05.039
And isn't that a problem? Right?
708
00:38:05.119 --> 00:38:08.320
Like isn't shouldn't you be able to say And we've
709
00:38:08.360 --> 00:38:10.719
said things to each other before, like, shouldn't we be
710
00:38:10.760 --> 00:38:14.199
able to say something and you don't feel threatened or
711
00:38:14.239 --> 00:38:17.599
intimidated or vice versa. Buy it and you can live
712
00:38:17.639 --> 00:38:19.960
in your space with your opinion. I can live in mind.
713
00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:23.039
Isn't that true respect for each other? And do we
714
00:38:23.079 --> 00:38:25.440
really have that now? I mean, it seems like everybody
715
00:38:25.480 --> 00:38:28.320
wants to play patty cake like, but do they truly
716
00:38:28.400 --> 00:38:31.079
have respect? Because respect is what if I say something
717
00:38:31.159 --> 00:38:34.199
that from a white perspective or a Jewish perspective, or
718
00:38:34.199 --> 00:38:37.239
a black perspective, or a Muslim perspective or an immigrant
719
00:38:37.280 --> 00:38:40.519
perspective or you know, whatever perspective you just don't like,
720
00:38:40.599 --> 00:38:42.199
but we are never going to agree because we have
721
00:38:42.239 --> 00:38:45.119
different perspectives. But I still respect you and I'm not
722
00:38:45.159 --> 00:38:48.119
gonna bully you into silence. I mean, do we really
723
00:38:48.159 --> 00:38:50.239
even have that, because I feel like we don't.
724
00:38:51.000 --> 00:38:54.559
No, absolutely don't, absolutely don't know.
725
00:38:54.679 --> 00:38:58.719
I'm Chomsky is one of my favorite, uh, one of
726
00:38:58.719 --> 00:39:04.280
my favorite quotes and one of the brightest thinkers who
727
00:39:04.280 --> 00:39:05.599
I've read and studied.
728
00:39:05.760 --> 00:39:08.519
And he says something, if.
729
00:39:08.400 --> 00:39:15.960
You don't one equality, freedom of opinion for those who despise,
730
00:39:16.800 --> 00:39:18.440
then you don't believe in it at all.
731
00:39:19.440 --> 00:39:21.000
So true, and.
732
00:39:22.719 --> 00:39:25.280
It was like a lightning stripe.
733
00:39:26.199 --> 00:39:27.639
Not that I didn't think it all righty, but the
734
00:39:27.679 --> 00:39:31.199
way he articulated it was just it's so simple but
735
00:39:31.320 --> 00:39:32.440
so profound that.
736
00:39:34.760 --> 00:39:35.840
This whole notion that.
737
00:39:35.760 --> 00:39:38.880
Oh, I'm not prejudiced, or I'm not this or that,
738
00:39:40.039 --> 00:39:43.920
or I'm better than the kulplus plan as a black person,
739
00:39:44.519 --> 00:39:49.679
or I'm better than the Nazi skinhead, I'm better than Hitler.
740
00:39:50.360 --> 00:39:54.360
Well are you? If somebody can say something.
741
00:39:55.679 --> 00:40:01.400
And it's not homophobic and tone racist in tone, but
742
00:40:01.639 --> 00:40:06.159
just you know, difference of opinion, I'm a glut them
743
00:40:06.159 --> 00:40:07.079
my way, I'm gonna block you.
744
00:40:07.159 --> 00:40:08.400
I'm gonna treat you differently.
745
00:40:08.800 --> 00:40:12.400
Okay, you didn't burn down somebody's house or put a
746
00:40:12.440 --> 00:40:16.079
cross on their lawn, but it's the same attitude.
747
00:40:16.239 --> 00:40:18.559
Right, So what makes you better?
748
00:40:20.119 --> 00:40:24.679
And I have to adjust myself, you know in times
749
00:40:24.719 --> 00:40:28.559
where in my in my youth, you know where.
750
00:40:30.719 --> 00:40:32.719
If you if you weren't with me, you were against
751
00:40:32.800 --> 00:40:34.480
me attitude.
752
00:40:33.920 --> 00:40:36.719
That I had, right, you know what I'm saying.
753
00:40:36.639 --> 00:40:37.039
And.
754
00:40:38.639 --> 00:40:40.800
You gotta really we got to ask ourselves.
755
00:40:40.920 --> 00:40:46.760
And I'm speaking, you know to my people. When you talk,
756
00:40:46.920 --> 00:40:50.519
you know, you talk all that, right, just talk what
757
00:40:50.679 --> 00:40:51.800
makes you better.
758
00:40:53.320 --> 00:40:57.159
Or different than these people that you've been taught to
759
00:40:57.239 --> 00:41:01.280
despise if you're doing these things. But that was a
760
00:41:01.320 --> 00:41:05.360
profound quote for me, you know, like if you got
761
00:41:05.400 --> 00:41:07.599
to have you, I mean, hey, I disagree with you,
762
00:41:07.639 --> 00:41:08.719
but you have the right to sing.
763
00:41:09.840 --> 00:41:13.679
And I've never, I've never, you know, ran.
764
00:41:13.559 --> 00:41:16.920
To an unfriend button, a block button because somebody said
765
00:41:16.920 --> 00:41:20.840
something that I disagree with. If I'm if I'm looking
766
00:41:20.880 --> 00:41:24.320
at something somebody's saying, I don't see it that way
767
00:41:24.880 --> 00:41:27.039
when I scrolled right past it, and then when I
768
00:41:27.119 --> 00:41:29.400
see him later on that how you doing it's never No.
769
00:41:29.960 --> 00:41:31.719
What was that comment you made a couple of months ago.
770
00:41:31.880 --> 00:41:35.800
Man, I can't like to waste the energy man, because
771
00:41:37.280 --> 00:41:41.599
I have to align myself with the under Like we're
772
00:41:41.599 --> 00:41:42.679
talking about man and woman.
773
00:41:42.920 --> 00:41:45.840
You know, in the beginning, a woman may say she
774
00:41:45.960 --> 00:41:50.239
hates men, and then because I'm a man, I get
775
00:41:50.239 --> 00:41:50.800
mad at that.
776
00:41:51.400 --> 00:41:53.760
But again it goes back to that very word that
777
00:41:53.840 --> 00:41:55.920
I mentioned in the context.
778
00:41:56.480 --> 00:41:57.719
Yes, if she was.
779
00:41:57.719 --> 00:42:02.320
Raping abuse as a little girl, right Bob Men and
780
00:42:02.360 --> 00:42:05.920
her family, Yeah, then that's the context. You need to
781
00:42:05.960 --> 00:42:09.000
get to the the origin story.
782
00:42:08.679 --> 00:42:12.360
Of why she is the way she is. And do
783
00:42:12.440 --> 00:42:14.480
you sing any thing with us as men?
784
00:42:15.360 --> 00:42:15.840
You're right?
785
00:42:16.000 --> 00:42:18.079
And do you think I mean, you know, we talked
786
00:42:18.079 --> 00:42:20.400
about you know, blocking and things like that, like this
787
00:42:20.440 --> 00:42:22.639
show is obviously a huge advocate of it, and I
788
00:42:22.679 --> 00:42:24.599
am as a free speech you know, the First Amendments,
789
00:42:24.760 --> 00:42:27.000
free exchange of ideas. No matter how much I may
790
00:42:27.000 --> 00:42:29.840
hate an idea, you have the right to say. Yeah,
791
00:42:29.880 --> 00:42:31.760
you have the right to say, I mean, does social
792
00:42:31.800 --> 00:42:34.559
media now that look like you and I say, we
793
00:42:34.599 --> 00:42:37.159
are very critical of social media, yet we need to
794
00:42:37.360 --> 00:42:40.760
use it because that is now the public sidewalk is
795
00:42:40.800 --> 00:42:41.880
now the Facebook wall.
796
00:42:42.039 --> 00:42:44.440
The public sidewalk is now the Instagram.
797
00:42:44.679 --> 00:42:48.719
They have taken that space and made it the social megaphone.
798
00:42:48.800 --> 00:42:51.480
If you don't go on there, you're really talking to
799
00:42:51.559 --> 00:42:55.440
thin air. Do they have a responsibility in your abstract opinion.
800
00:42:55.440 --> 00:42:57.679
I'm not talking legally because that's a whole nother ballgame,
801
00:42:57.719 --> 00:43:00.360
but you know, do they have a responsibility to protect
802
00:43:00.400 --> 00:43:03.960
free speech and not allow canceling because I mean, now
803
00:43:04.119 --> 00:43:07.840
false facts, Elliott, We've talked about you're spreading like straight
804
00:43:07.920 --> 00:43:10.320
up lie on a factual news issue.
805
00:43:10.320 --> 00:43:11.880
That's one thing. I think it's different.
806
00:43:12.320 --> 00:43:15.320
But as far as opinions, I mean, should people be
807
00:43:15.440 --> 00:43:18.119
canceled from social media? So social media take an active
808
00:43:18.159 --> 00:43:21.360
role in that. Should we be canceling people for opinions?
809
00:43:22.079 --> 00:43:34.960
Whether is the opinion, hate speech is the opinion, homophobic
810
00:43:36.039 --> 00:43:43.599
is the opinion, you know, fans phobic. I have a
811
00:43:43.639 --> 00:43:50.079
friend of mine. She put a post up and the
812
00:43:50.159 --> 00:43:53.119
post was saying, like, why are these rainbows all over North?
813
00:43:53.239 --> 00:43:53.400
Now?
814
00:43:54.280 --> 00:43:55.400
What's with this agenda?
815
00:43:57.119 --> 00:43:59.679
Opinion?
816
00:44:00.679 --> 00:44:03.000
But when I talk to her, like, I just chuckled
817
00:44:03.000 --> 00:44:07.079
where I said, you just wanted to type fifty million
818
00:44:07.079 --> 00:44:07.840
comments today?
819
00:44:08.079 --> 00:44:10.880
Because you know what was coming with that?
820
00:44:10.960 --> 00:44:16.320
Some things you just know, right, and the energy, you know,
821
00:44:16.440 --> 00:44:20.480
expenditure of having to defend something which is an opinion,
822
00:44:20.559 --> 00:44:23.119
but you know how you know how that is gonna
823
00:44:23.239 --> 00:44:27.079
look say, why rainbowed all over the city?
824
00:44:27.960 --> 00:44:29.440
Right then do you have a game?
825
00:44:29.440 --> 00:44:31.679
You have a bunch of people coming saying, well, because
826
00:44:31.880 --> 00:44:33.679
this city is about inclusion and d.
827
00:44:36.280 --> 00:44:37.039
Right. You know.
828
00:44:37.239 --> 00:44:39.239
So for me, I think.
829
00:44:40.920 --> 00:44:42.800
I used to go really really hard with some of
830
00:44:42.880 --> 00:44:45.920
the things I say. Now I picked my spots a
831
00:44:45.920 --> 00:44:49.519
little bit more, right. I used to say things that
832
00:44:49.559 --> 00:44:54.000
were hard. It's around yeah, yeah, yeah, in my life,
833
00:44:54.199 --> 00:44:56.719
you know. And I'm be honest with you, and honestly,
834
00:44:57.360 --> 00:45:00.719
if you're really being honest, it's hard. There's gonna up
835
00:45:00.800 --> 00:45:03.800
some people the long wait and see themselves and what
836
00:45:03.840 --> 00:45:07.199
you're saying. They see themselves and something that you said
837
00:45:07.639 --> 00:45:09.480
to the point where now they think that you're talking
838
00:45:09.519 --> 00:45:13.840
directly to them. Yes, you know, and tell and I'll
839
00:45:13.840 --> 00:45:16.280
tell you ask me this is about I'll tell you
840
00:45:17.039 --> 00:45:18.559
if I had you in mind when.
841
00:45:18.440 --> 00:45:18.840
I said it.
842
00:45:19.239 --> 00:45:19.639
Mm hmm.
843
00:45:20.360 --> 00:45:23.039
Most times probably not right, you know what I'm saying.
844
00:45:23.039 --> 00:45:27.639
But is it one of those three things?
845
00:45:28.800 --> 00:45:29.000
You know?
846
00:45:29.199 --> 00:45:34.039
And when you get into those three things, you.
847
00:45:34.000 --> 00:45:35.320
Know, laced within your opinion.
848
00:45:35.800 --> 00:45:37.760
Now your opinion is something else, and now they're gonna
849
00:45:37.760 --> 00:45:40.920
flag you, they're gonna delete your account for a month
850
00:45:41.000 --> 00:45:41.679
or whatever they do.
851
00:45:42.360 --> 00:45:45.039
Yeah, and that's no, And that's that's scary too. Like
852
00:45:45.440 --> 00:45:47.559
you know, I've told you before my opinion on you
853
00:45:47.599 --> 00:45:49.800
know that there's a Ken Gibson statue outside City Hall
854
00:45:49.840 --> 00:45:52.719
and there's a George Floyd statue, And I always am
855
00:45:53.159 --> 00:45:56.519
frustrated that when I see people going to George Floyd
856
00:45:56.599 --> 00:46:01.159
but not Ken Gibson, And I'm like, put in, yeah, yeah, no,
857
00:46:01.239 --> 00:46:03.599
put Ken Gibson on a monument.
858
00:46:03.719 --> 00:46:05.239
I'm all about it, like it ain't.
859
00:46:05.280 --> 00:46:07.599
But if I were to say that to your point
860
00:46:07.920 --> 00:46:11.519
on Facebook, people would misconstrue what I'm talking about so
861
00:46:11.760 --> 00:46:14.559
much that I think I would just get flack when
862
00:46:14.559 --> 00:46:16.320
it ain't. It's got nothing to do with race. It's
863
00:46:16.320 --> 00:46:18.320
got nothing to do with But that goes back to
864
00:46:18.360 --> 00:46:21.519
my power empowerment point. I'm like, one of those figures
865
00:46:21.559 --> 00:46:24.320
is an empowering figure, another one is a tragic figure.
866
00:46:24.320 --> 00:46:26.960
But you know, I know better than to post it
867
00:46:27.000 --> 00:46:28.840
because I don't want to catch all the flak, is
868
00:46:28.840 --> 00:46:29.199
my point.
869
00:46:29.280 --> 00:46:33.159
Yeah, you know, what's but speaking of that I will
870
00:46:33.199 --> 00:46:39.320
say this my disappointment with that m it is right now.
871
00:46:39.239 --> 00:46:42.280
As we speak. And you know this because we spoke
872
00:46:42.320 --> 00:46:42.679
about this.
873
00:46:43.440 --> 00:46:46.599
In our city, we have a lot of corrupt policing
874
00:46:46.639 --> 00:46:51.280
going on. So it's a real wall over.
875
00:46:51.199 --> 00:46:52.719
Everybody's adds gesture.
876
00:46:53.719 --> 00:46:57.079
Right, put this tragic figure up when police in the
877
00:46:57.159 --> 00:47:03.159
city are pretty much being corrupt with how they might tickets.
878
00:47:03.719 --> 00:47:05.880
And this isn't just at least a pain, this is document.
879
00:47:06.079 --> 00:47:09.119
This is what Elliott lives and goes for. To me,
880
00:47:09.199 --> 00:47:12.679
it's it's the biggest crop and shit ever to.
881
00:47:14.840 --> 00:47:17.599
Almost thinks seem like, oh, we're for social justice, but
882
00:47:17.679 --> 00:47:21.800
meanwhile people in your city can't get it from its
883
00:47:21.880 --> 00:47:22.599
law officials.
884
00:47:23.039 --> 00:47:24.800
Then if you go through the history.
885
00:47:26.079 --> 00:47:31.800
Of police and the citizens in the city, tons of
886
00:47:31.800 --> 00:47:35.960
people killed in the North riots in the sixties. Yes,
887
00:47:36.119 --> 00:47:38.400
not one statue of anybody that died.
888
00:47:38.719 --> 00:47:39.320
Yeah, not one.
889
00:47:39.360 --> 00:47:42.840
I'm talking about a statue now, you know, little stuff
890
00:47:42.840 --> 00:47:44.960
that people don't know where it's at and people can't see.
891
00:47:45.480 --> 00:47:46.159
I'm about the.
892
00:47:46.159 --> 00:47:51.880
Real yeah, yeah, yeah, ay, and mostly ye seventies, eighties,
893
00:47:51.960 --> 00:47:52.840
ninety two thousands.
894
00:47:52.880 --> 00:47:58.239
So you're telling me, in five decades, nobody's been killed
895
00:47:58.239 --> 00:48:02.199
by the police unjustly and city. Nobody has been treated
896
00:48:02.280 --> 00:48:05.599
unjustly in the city, and if so, where the statue
897
00:48:05.679 --> 00:48:06.159
is reporting?
898
00:48:06.639 --> 00:48:06.960
Mm hm.
899
00:48:07.920 --> 00:48:10.199
Instead you want to put a statue up for somebody
900
00:48:10.719 --> 00:48:15.480
from Minnesota to make some kind of grand statement about
901
00:48:15.480 --> 00:48:21.960
something you're not actually doing and the mentality that you
902
00:48:22.039 --> 00:48:26.880
don't actually have right, you know, because and if you say, well,
903
00:48:26.880 --> 00:48:31.880
that's not true, okay, I challenge you on the corruption
904
00:48:32.280 --> 00:48:34.920
that's been going on just in the three to four
905
00:48:34.960 --> 00:48:39.760
years I've lived downtown as a citizen downtown. The fact
906
00:48:39.760 --> 00:48:44.119
that you write tickets on certain people and then other
907
00:48:44.119 --> 00:48:45.159
people who have mayor ol.
908
00:48:45.079 --> 00:48:47.119
Plaette and the dashboard get to just park and do
909
00:48:47.159 --> 00:48:48.039
whatever the hell they want to do.
910
00:48:49.199 --> 00:48:50.079
And that's wrong.
911
00:48:50.760 --> 00:48:53.480
Do you think, you know, dealing with young people and whatnot?
912
00:48:53.480 --> 00:48:54.920
And then we're going to dive into this book because
913
00:48:54.920 --> 00:48:56.239
I know I've been talking to your ear off. I
914
00:48:56.280 --> 00:48:57.880
want people to have the context and I just love
915
00:48:57.920 --> 00:49:00.159
this conversation with you for this, for this show. But
916
00:49:00.760 --> 00:49:03.719
you know, from a from again, this empowerment theme, this
917
00:49:03.880 --> 00:49:06.719
educational theme. You know, is it an issue that a
918
00:49:06.800 --> 00:49:11.039
kid might recognize George Floyd much quicker than Ken Gibson.
919
00:49:11.079 --> 00:49:14.360
I mean, and it's not that's not unique to a
920
00:49:14.400 --> 00:49:15.320
youth of color.
921
00:49:15.320 --> 00:49:16.480
That's not I mean, that's everybody.
922
00:49:16.480 --> 00:49:19.840
They're going to recognize, you know, a famous person over
923
00:49:19.880 --> 00:49:21.760
a historical figure every day of the week.
924
00:49:21.840 --> 00:49:22.079
I mean.
925
00:49:22.119 --> 00:49:25.280
So I'm not saying it's you know, unique to Newark
926
00:49:25.400 --> 00:49:26.320
or unique.
927
00:49:25.960 --> 00:49:28.119
To you know, the youth here or anything.
928
00:49:28.199 --> 00:49:30.920
But is it a societal problem that you know, we
929
00:49:30.920 --> 00:49:34.760
we pushed the media and visuals and soundbites so much
930
00:49:34.800 --> 00:49:36.559
that a kid's not going to know this was the
931
00:49:36.599 --> 00:49:39.760
first African American mayor of a major city in the Northeast.
932
00:49:39.920 --> 00:49:41.320
And you might not know who he is, but you
933
00:49:41.360 --> 00:49:43.159
know who that is. I mean, and that that's not
934
00:49:43.239 --> 00:49:46.639
just George Floyd Ken Gibson, that's everything. That's your congressman.
935
00:49:47.000 --> 00:49:50.280
You know, your congressman versus Cardi b You're you're you
936
00:49:50.280 --> 00:49:54.719
know whoever versus Jake Paul, I mean, Logan Paul. I mean,
937
00:49:55.159 --> 00:49:57.920
is that's a societal problem, isn't it? Can we ever
938
00:49:58.039 --> 00:49:58.679
get past that?
939
00:50:01.280 --> 00:50:06.480
I'll say this, first of all, it's a huge problem.
940
00:50:06.599 --> 00:50:07.480
But here's why.
941
00:50:10.280 --> 00:50:14.360
To know where you standing, to know on what ground
942
00:50:14.760 --> 00:50:21.639
you're standing, you have to understood understand all those who
943
00:50:21.679 --> 00:50:25.280
came before you who stood in that spot right to
944
00:50:25.480 --> 00:50:29.960
understand where you're at in your present life, you have
945
00:50:30.039 --> 00:50:30.400
to know.
946
00:50:30.320 --> 00:50:31.280
The history.
947
00:50:33.000 --> 00:50:37.360
Of other people's lives who stood in those same spots,
948
00:50:37.480 --> 00:50:41.199
in those same positions, and to have some kind of
949
00:50:41.719 --> 00:50:45.480
aspiration about what you want your future to be, you
950
00:50:45.599 --> 00:50:49.679
have to know your history. And when kids don't know
951
00:50:50.800 --> 00:50:56.360
the depths of where we come from, who we come from,
952
00:50:56.719 --> 00:51:01.360
what's happened to us in the places that we live, yes,
953
00:51:02.920 --> 00:51:11.119
it's a huge, huge disservice to them, and it stagnates
954
00:51:11.159 --> 00:51:13.920
their life. And I'm talking about myself. There are things
955
00:51:13.920 --> 00:51:16.039
that I learned till I was thirty something years old,
956
00:51:16.599 --> 00:51:19.079
while I was being taught that christmal Love has discovered
957
00:51:19.119 --> 00:51:22.639
this country, and when I was looking at history books
958
00:51:22.639 --> 00:51:26.480
and seeing a picture of a white man with you know,
959
00:51:26.639 --> 00:51:28.639
as a sphinx, when.
960
00:51:28.440 --> 00:51:34.639
We got to the chapters on Egypt in our text books. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
961
00:51:34.079 --> 00:51:38.159
It takes years from it's almost like a jaa, since
962
00:51:39.559 --> 00:51:42.480
when you are enlightened to something, when you thought about
963
00:51:42.519 --> 00:51:45.000
it in one way your whole life, you were taught
964
00:51:45.039 --> 00:51:46.800
one way your whole life, and then all of a
965
00:51:46.800 --> 00:51:50.199
sudden you found out that everything you were taught was bullshit.
966
00:51:51.199 --> 00:51:53.840
It's almost like sitting in the dark room for twenty
967
00:51:53.920 --> 00:51:58.480
years where there was no shade, no windows, and somebody
968
00:51:58.480 --> 00:52:02.559
take you outside us. That's what That's what it's like.
969
00:52:03.480 --> 00:52:08.159
And these children, I can't help us say it again,
970
00:52:10.559 --> 00:52:14.639
if they're charged to lead a country forward when we're
971
00:52:14.639 --> 00:52:17.840
old m hm, how can they do it?
972
00:52:18.559 --> 00:52:18.960
Mm hmm.
973
00:52:21.239 --> 00:52:23.480
And so this this book now, and I want to
974
00:52:23.480 --> 00:52:24.280
get into it now.
975
00:52:24.360 --> 00:52:24.559
Now.
976
00:52:24.599 --> 00:52:25.960
First of all, I just want to touch on the
977
00:52:26.000 --> 00:52:28.760
fact that you know, you talk a lot about locality,
978
00:52:28.800 --> 00:52:31.480
and I think you and I are of the Obviously
979
00:52:31.519 --> 00:52:34.480
we have aspirations, and obviously you have aspirations as an artist,
980
00:52:34.519 --> 00:52:36.639
and obviously this book has been reaching far and wide,
981
00:52:36.760 --> 00:52:39.159
well outside the confines of this city, in this state.
982
00:52:39.920 --> 00:52:43.320
At the same time, you know, a big wealth and
983
00:52:43.400 --> 00:52:47.159
reservoir of support and distribution is obviously pretty local.
984
00:52:47.719 --> 00:52:48.440
I mean, what.
985
00:52:49.880 --> 00:52:52.599
From this book standpoint from your reach? I know you
986
00:52:52.679 --> 00:52:56.079
lectured recently at your college. You know, how important is
987
00:52:56.119 --> 00:52:59.760
it for us to have local mentors, local leaders, local
988
00:52:59.880 --> 00:53:03.159
art artistic figures. You know, even before they get bigger
989
00:53:03.199 --> 00:53:06.320
on a national scale. How important is it everywhere for
990
00:53:06.400 --> 00:53:09.000
people to revere their local figures. I mean, you've been
991
00:53:09.039 --> 00:53:12.559
making the rounds at local poetry shows. You know, you're
992
00:53:12.599 --> 00:53:15.519
in local bookstores, and that's that's not local in the
993
00:53:15.559 --> 00:53:18.280
sense of like a block. That's like multiple cities in
994
00:53:18.320 --> 00:53:21.119
New Jersey and beyond. But how important is it to
995
00:53:21.480 --> 00:53:24.719
get art like this and and literature like this out
996
00:53:24.760 --> 00:53:27.920
even on a local level, you know, how important is that.
997
00:53:29.480 --> 00:53:34.280
To let people know that number one, I'm not special
998
00:53:34.760 --> 00:53:38.119
and the things that I do are attainable for all
999
00:53:38.159 --> 00:53:41.159
of us. It's different when you have to look to
1000
00:53:41.199 --> 00:53:45.159
a TV and see somebody doing something, it's like, wow,
1001
00:53:45.199 --> 00:53:46.119
it's so far away.
1002
00:53:47.119 --> 00:53:49.039
Wow, I wish I could.
1003
00:53:48.840 --> 00:53:51.360
Be I wish I could do what they do. Mh.
1004
00:53:52.000 --> 00:53:56.840
Then you can go outside and see somebody well, like
1005
00:53:56.920 --> 00:53:59.239
even we can talk about hip hop, you know, like wow,
1006
00:53:59.599 --> 00:54:00.599
we want people.
1007
00:54:00.400 --> 00:54:02.159
Was Mrvington? Wow? Yes?
1008
00:54:02.599 --> 00:54:07.559
But wow you know right man, Wow, they're from here.
1009
00:54:08.400 --> 00:54:12.000
So when you see somebody from coming from where you
1010
00:54:12.039 --> 00:54:17.119
come from, speaking your language and they're doing it, then
1011
00:54:17.159 --> 00:54:20.880
it's just it's not this thing that's so far away
1012
00:54:21.159 --> 00:54:25.119
and unattainable in our mind and spirit, you know.
1013
00:54:25.360 --> 00:54:27.239
So for me.
1014
00:54:29.119 --> 00:54:31.679
Going up in schools, I didn't see no black teacher.
1015
00:54:32.679 --> 00:54:37.719
The only black teacher I had from first grade to
1016
00:54:37.880 --> 00:54:41.320
senior year, happened to be my gym teacher who happened
1017
00:54:41.320 --> 00:54:43.679
to be my track and field and basketball coach.
1018
00:54:44.039 --> 00:54:47.639
It's morell, I didn't have a black male English teacher.
1019
00:54:47.760 --> 00:54:52.639
I didn't have a black male science teacher. So all
1020
00:54:52.679 --> 00:54:54.920
of a sudden in my mind, because I'm not seeing
1021
00:54:55.599 --> 00:54:58.039
these people in front of me teaching me these these
1022
00:54:58.360 --> 00:55:02.239
serious subjects. Now, I'm thinking, well, we must not be
1023
00:55:02.280 --> 00:55:05.719
good at signs. Well, we must not be, you know,
1024
00:55:05.960 --> 00:55:10.000
capable of teaching that. So then as a black male,
1025
00:55:10.159 --> 00:55:14.840
you kind of get away from that as a as
1026
00:55:14.880 --> 00:55:19.760
an occupational uh desire. Right when you're looking for work
1027
00:55:19.840 --> 00:55:21.320
or things that you can do or ways that you
1028
00:55:21.360 --> 00:55:24.039
can impact the world, those things are already dismissed from
1029
00:55:24.039 --> 00:55:26.239
your from your mindset because you've never seen it.
1030
00:55:26.639 --> 00:55:30.440
Good point, you know. Yeah, So so for me, that's
1031
00:55:30.440 --> 00:55:33.800
what I'm home important makes sense And now so so
1032
00:55:33.880 --> 00:55:36.559
tell me about this title. So it's you know, the
1033
00:55:36.599 --> 00:55:39.880
world is I? I see it? I? What's with the
1034
00:55:39.880 --> 00:55:40.400
the eye?
1035
00:55:40.480 --> 00:55:42.320
You know, you spell it like an eye like a
1036
00:55:42.360 --> 00:55:46.719
body part ie, but you constantly and consistently use it
1037
00:55:46.760 --> 00:55:47.199
as I.
1038
00:55:47.519 --> 00:55:50.639
You know me I. The letter I what's what's the
1039
00:55:52.440 --> 00:55:53.079
explain that?
1040
00:55:54.280 --> 00:55:57.760
Well, a couple of things.
1041
00:55:58.079 --> 00:56:04.119
I was reading up on the penial bland, which we
1042
00:56:04.239 --> 00:56:07.760
understood to be a third eye mm hmm. The two
1043
00:56:07.800 --> 00:56:11.639
eyes in your head and that third eye which is
1044
00:56:11.679 --> 00:56:19.639
your center. You know, that lends itself through innate perspective,
1045
00:56:20.440 --> 00:56:26.039
right and openness, you know, and reading it kind of
1046
00:56:26.079 --> 00:56:28.559
gave me the idea, like back in like twenty eighteen,
1047
00:56:28.639 --> 00:56:33.800
twenty nineteen penial, because I was writing something that involved it,
1048
00:56:34.639 --> 00:56:36.000
the third third eye.
1049
00:56:36.000 --> 00:56:39.039
Then I remember it was a song by Roy Is
1050
00:56:39.480 --> 00:56:40.360
called the Third Eye.
1051
00:56:40.639 --> 00:56:41.960
You love this song.
1052
00:56:42.519 --> 00:56:46.039
You don't know already, but I was just listening to
1053
00:56:46.039 --> 00:56:50.000
that song back and forth, just baby baby.
1054
00:56:50.440 --> 00:56:50.599
You know.
1055
00:56:55.559 --> 00:56:59.000
I started right and then I'm thinking about okay. The
1056
00:56:59.000 --> 00:57:02.159
initial title was just was the letter hide Yes? Then
1057
00:57:02.199 --> 00:57:07.079
I'm thinking about okay. The dynamics of this book is
1058
00:57:07.199 --> 00:57:12.519
more cientilar around vantage point yes, and how our vantage
1059
00:57:12.559 --> 00:57:17.400
points and perspectives based on where we come from, based
1060
00:57:17.440 --> 00:57:22.800
on our traumas, based on cultural traumas, this country traumas,
1061
00:57:23.880 --> 00:57:30.280
how it all you know, males and creates this nexus
1062
00:57:30.440 --> 00:57:33.719
through which we all exist, but that is also causing
1063
00:57:34.159 --> 00:57:37.000
the division between all of us, and that also causes
1064
00:57:37.119 --> 00:57:41.800
division from us and our spirit the way it's meant
1065
00:57:41.840 --> 00:57:46.079
to be. I think, innately, we talked about the book cover.
1066
00:57:46.880 --> 00:57:48.679
I've been explaining what that means a lot.
1067
00:57:48.719 --> 00:57:50.519
I was talking about that a lot at my luxury
1068
00:57:51.000 --> 00:57:53.760
a team.
1069
00:57:51.639 --> 00:57:55.400
Innately, when we're.
1070
00:57:55.199 --> 00:57:58.840
Born, we know nothing but to be good and to
1071
00:57:58.920 --> 00:58:03.719
be fun, and to be free and happy and smiling.
1072
00:58:06.360 --> 00:58:09.119
It's our interactions.
1073
00:58:09.360 --> 00:58:14.480
With each other that shape and mold and change us
1074
00:58:14.599 --> 00:58:20.960
in two more guarded, maybe more cynical people. And in
1075
00:58:21.039 --> 00:58:25.519
that cynicism is where you get all of the damage,
1076
00:58:26.599 --> 00:58:32.360
the confusion, the inner chaos and the outer chaos. Right
1077
00:58:32.639 --> 00:58:38.239
of us and our ability to coexist here men and women,
1078
00:58:39.079 --> 00:58:39.840
black and white.
1079
00:58:41.400 --> 00:58:46.480
You see this war now Palestine, and like all of
1080
00:58:46.519 --> 00:58:47.519
this stuff.
1081
00:58:49.960 --> 00:58:52.880
To the outer eye, you know, is like, okay, well
1082
00:58:52.920 --> 00:58:54.400
there was a reason that this happened.
1083
00:58:54.519 --> 00:58:57.119
But I'm sinking I'm getting back to or I'm at
1084
00:58:57.199 --> 00:59:02.440
least I'm attempting to get to the origins of why
1085
00:59:02.960 --> 00:59:06.440
and how we come to be right and how I
1086
00:59:06.599 --> 00:59:11.199
thought in perspective on our place here and on the
1087
00:59:11.239 --> 00:59:12.840
world around us.
1088
00:59:12.400 --> 00:59:16.880
Shaped that makes sense. That makes a lot of the.
1089
00:59:16.880 --> 00:59:19.400
Impetus for what I was trying to do with a
1090
00:59:19.400 --> 00:59:21.079
lot of the writing in the selection.
1091
00:59:21.320 --> 00:59:23.360
It makes sense. So it's like the world as I
1092
00:59:23.480 --> 00:59:26.039
see it. It's not just as you see it the individual,
1093
00:59:26.079 --> 00:59:28.920
but as that third eye, that instinctive eye, which can
1094
00:59:28.960 --> 00:59:31.880
be you or universal in a spiritual sense too. I
1095
00:59:31.920 --> 00:59:34.400
totally understand that, and it makes a hell of a
1096
00:59:34.400 --> 00:59:36.400
lot of sense. Now, you talked about how you were
1097
00:59:36.480 --> 00:59:38.280
vibing the roy a or is at one point when
1098
00:59:38.280 --> 00:59:40.440
you were being creative and came up with that title
1099
00:59:40.519 --> 00:59:42.719
or that rendition of the title. Tell me about your
1100
00:59:42.760 --> 00:59:45.960
creative process. You know, I'm an avid fan of your poetry.
1101
00:59:45.960 --> 00:59:50.000
Obviously every poem may be a different process, but in general,
1102
00:59:50.400 --> 00:59:53.840
I mean what inspires you? What your creative process like?
1103
00:59:53.840 --> 00:59:55.960
When do you usually find yourself coming up with things?
1104
00:59:56.039 --> 00:59:58.360
Is it listening to a song? Is it the weather?
1105
00:59:58.599 --> 01:00:01.239
Is it the change of the season, the lighting? You know,
1106
01:00:01.280 --> 01:00:03.199
what puts you in the zone? And how do you
1107
01:00:03.320 --> 01:00:05.239
like to be in the zone when you're writing.
1108
01:00:08.480 --> 01:00:14.199
Reflection? A lot of my writing is I'm delving back into.
1109
01:00:15.880 --> 01:00:18.719
My childhood, my teenage years, something that might have happened,
1110
01:00:19.719 --> 01:00:25.039
my relationships, and when I.
1111
01:00:24.960 --> 01:00:27.559
Can already start off mm hmm with.
1112
01:00:29.760 --> 01:00:34.960
You know, a story, then what happens then is I
1113
01:00:35.039 --> 01:00:39.079
just have to try to turn it, you know, into poetry.
1114
01:00:39.079 --> 01:00:41.000
But the story is already there. I'm not I'm not
1115
01:00:41.000 --> 01:00:44.360
even having to dig for anything. It's already there. When
1116
01:00:44.400 --> 01:00:46.840
I when I wrote my poem about you.
1117
01:00:46.880 --> 01:00:49.840
Know, my relationship my father and what.
1118
01:00:49.719 --> 01:00:54.039
That was like from childhood to you know, that was
1119
01:00:54.079 --> 01:00:56.639
already there. I just had to you know.
1120
01:00:56.760 --> 01:00:59.760
So what makes it easy for me is is I'm
1121
01:00:59.760 --> 01:01:02.000
not reaching for something that isn't there. I'm not reaching
1122
01:01:02.000 --> 01:01:07.239
for something that's inauthentic to met so in a way,
1123
01:01:07.880 --> 01:01:12.639
that's like I would say that foremost, and it's deconitely obviously,
1124
01:01:14.280 --> 01:01:19.239
huge fan of art, huge fan of music, huge fan
1125
01:01:19.559 --> 01:01:24.920
of environment, and I take you you know, it's a
1126
01:01:24.960 --> 01:01:28.280
big pot of gumbo that I throw all of these
1127
01:01:28.280 --> 01:01:32.480
things into when I'm writing, and that's what allows me
1128
01:01:32.519 --> 01:01:35.320
to you know, that gives me my starting point. And
1129
01:01:35.360 --> 01:01:39.320
then from a technical aspect, you know, I do.
1130
01:01:39.239 --> 01:01:40.440
A lot of ron poetry.
1131
01:01:41.000 --> 01:01:42.920
Yes, you know, with people.
1132
01:01:43.199 --> 01:01:47.960
Ron poetry doesn't have to be hat hat that sat
1133
01:01:48.519 --> 01:01:50.960
at rat you know.
1134
01:01:50.960 --> 01:01:51.519
What I'm saying.
1135
01:01:52.599 --> 01:01:56.320
You can use assonance, you can use you know a
1136
01:01:56.320 --> 01:02:01.400
lot of different tools within the English language. You know
1137
01:02:01.480 --> 01:02:07.599
that can give uh lines line cadences a sound as similar,
1138
01:02:07.639 --> 01:02:09.599
even though the words that are in the.
1139
01:02:09.599 --> 01:02:12.159
Lines aren't actually rhyming words.
1140
01:02:12.599 --> 01:02:15.239
Right, Yes, and that that just I pick up on
1141
01:02:15.360 --> 01:02:18.960
rhythm that way, which comes from music, you know. Like
1142
01:02:19.719 --> 01:02:24.159
so when I say something, I might say, uh, we
1143
01:02:24.159 --> 01:02:27.320
were like war veterans in Vietnam, band of brothers who
1144
01:02:27.280 --> 01:02:30.519
wrapped their arms like forbotomists and rubber the quiet the hunger,
1145
01:02:30.639 --> 01:02:37.840
happiness going to Sunday, So rubber hunger asunder un run right,
1146
01:02:38.079 --> 01:02:41.639
But the cadence that's created from words going back to
1147
01:02:41.760 --> 01:02:44.960
back sounds like ron words you know.
1148
01:02:45.199 --> 01:02:48.199
Uh, you know. So that's just a style. You know.
1149
01:02:49.079 --> 01:02:52.159
A beautiful mom pools fractual under the weight of solitude
1150
01:02:52.199 --> 01:02:55.320
to sell food with the hauntings of bad choices, voices
1151
01:02:55.360 --> 01:02:58.760
that expand like with scissor hands. Insanity is the test
1152
01:02:59.000 --> 01:03:01.679
and the testinal for the who like it. Sounds run
1153
01:03:01.840 --> 01:03:02.280
but it's not.
1154
01:03:03.119 --> 01:03:05.559
Yes. Now that brings me to another question.
1155
01:03:05.599 --> 01:03:07.559
I mean, now, you perform quite a bit in your
1156
01:03:07.599 --> 01:03:10.480
hell of a performer, and that's part of your whole art.
1157
01:03:11.000 --> 01:03:14.000
Do you write with an eye toward performing? Ie?
1158
01:03:14.119 --> 01:03:16.400
Are you reciting this stuff out loud? And thinking how
1159
01:03:16.400 --> 01:03:19.559
it would sound in performance or is this more for
1160
01:03:19.639 --> 01:03:22.440
the for the paper because you publish it in written word,
1161
01:03:22.480 --> 01:03:23.559
but you also perform.
1162
01:03:23.840 --> 01:03:25.960
Are you writing with an eye towards performance?
1163
01:03:26.800 --> 01:03:28.119
No, I'm writing.
1164
01:03:28.440 --> 01:03:31.480
I'm writing, and then once it's done, I could tell
1165
01:03:31.519 --> 01:03:31.880
what I.
1166
01:03:31.840 --> 01:03:34.119
Write to make it performable.
1167
01:03:35.880 --> 01:03:36.480
Yeah.
1168
01:03:36.519 --> 01:03:38.400
Like when I did Life in Cinema.
1169
01:03:38.599 --> 01:03:41.440
Mm hm, which is A two actually one of my favorites.
1170
01:03:41.559 --> 01:03:46.840
Yeah, I was like, though, it'll be dope to try
1171
01:03:46.880 --> 01:03:50.960
to do a poem to tell a story using all
1172
01:03:51.119 --> 01:03:56.639
movie titles or using mostly movie titles. So I started
1173
01:03:56.639 --> 01:03:59.199
and then like the first line, I was just I'm like, okay,
1174
01:03:59.199 --> 01:04:00.000
I'm gonna start for this.
1175
01:04:00.320 --> 01:04:01.400
I'm gonna go about it.
1176
01:04:02.000 --> 01:04:06.480
And then the first line was, uh, you know, chilling
1177
01:04:06.559 --> 01:04:11.960
on Broad and Market, remembering Hood Titans. So remember the
1178
01:04:12.000 --> 01:04:16.599
Titans When it said, I say hood Titans, like harkening
1179
01:04:16.719 --> 01:04:20.559
back to my neighborhood. You know, gangsters that was on
1180
01:04:20.599 --> 01:04:23.880
the corner, dudes that ran the block. You know what
1181
01:04:23.880 --> 01:04:27.239
I'm saying that the man with respect remembering hood Titans,
1182
01:04:27.960 --> 01:04:29.519
right right.
1183
01:04:29.480 --> 01:04:29.719
You know.
1184
01:04:30.840 --> 01:04:33.960
And then I'm like, okay, I'm a bill from there.
1185
01:04:34.719 --> 01:04:35.000
Gosh.
1186
01:04:35.079 --> 01:04:37.320
I was chilling on Broad and market, remember the Hood
1187
01:04:37.360 --> 01:04:40.280
Titans before I decided.
1188
01:04:39.840 --> 01:04:41.440
To Woo Pretty Women.
1189
01:04:42.000 --> 01:04:48.559
Woo is a movie with Jada Pinkett and then Pretty
1190
01:04:48.599 --> 01:04:54.480
Women obviously Richard Garde. So now I'm just so now
1191
01:04:54.480 --> 01:04:57.519
I'm now I'm tinkering, you know what I'm saying, Like,
1192
01:04:58.159 --> 01:04:58.440
you know.
1193
01:04:58.920 --> 01:05:01.440
Yes, how am I getting to go to four K? Yes?
1194
01:05:01.519 --> 01:05:02.559
Yeah, I'm like Okay.
1195
01:05:02.639 --> 01:05:04.960
So I always before I was, you know, have my
1196
01:05:05.039 --> 01:05:07.239
license and had to catch the bus, I would always
1197
01:05:07.239 --> 01:05:09.920
catch the twenty four bus, you know, because I would
1198
01:05:09.960 --> 01:05:12.239
be going from North to Elizabeth, and so I was
1199
01:05:12.280 --> 01:05:13.480
always on that bus.
1200
01:05:14.039 --> 01:05:17.800
So like the twenty four K, I got on the bus,
1201
01:05:18.000 --> 01:05:24.400
get on the bush. So it's just that's how it started.
1202
01:05:24.440 --> 01:05:27.159
And then they just kept it, kept building and building
1203
01:05:27.239 --> 01:05:28.840
and building, gotcha.
1204
01:05:28.599 --> 01:05:28.800
You know.
1205
01:05:28.840 --> 01:05:31.079
But that's how I write. But then I'm like, this
1206
01:05:31.119 --> 01:05:33.079
poem is long, but I knew how much how good
1207
01:05:33.079 --> 01:05:35.519
of a poem it was, and that I would eat with.
1208
01:05:35.519 --> 01:05:37.920
This like in poetry slam. So that's when I had
1209
01:05:37.960 --> 01:05:40.920
to start memorizing it. And now it's I got it
1210
01:05:40.920 --> 01:05:42.199
to where it's pretty much massive.
1211
01:05:42.280 --> 01:05:47.679
But I've always wrote first for myself, you know, and
1212
01:05:47.719 --> 01:05:49.599
then if I felt like it's something that you know
1213
01:05:49.760 --> 01:05:53.039
could resonate with people, or that people thought, you know,
1214
01:05:53.280 --> 01:05:55.679
damn it, it should be dope. Then I'd be like,
1215
01:05:55.679 --> 01:05:57.440
all right, I need to I need for the world
1216
01:05:57.440 --> 01:05:57.800
to hear.
1217
01:05:57.719 --> 01:06:01.360
This got you so now with respect to the world
1218
01:06:01.400 --> 01:06:03.559
hearing it when you when you put this book together,
1219
01:06:04.880 --> 01:06:07.920
how much of this was a collection of poems you
1220
01:06:08.000 --> 01:06:11.400
already had from miscellaneous times, And how many of these
1221
01:06:11.400 --> 01:06:14.719
poems were written with an eye toward this book no
1222
01:06:14.840 --> 01:06:17.559
pun intended. I mean, how many of these poems did
1223
01:06:17.599 --> 01:06:19.280
you know were going in this book? And how much
1224
01:06:19.280 --> 01:06:22.679
of this is just an anthology of you and a
1225
01:06:22.719 --> 01:06:25.920
collection that you had sporadically. I mean, at what point
1226
01:06:26.119 --> 01:06:27.960
you know, did you know this is this book's coming out?
1227
01:06:27.960 --> 01:06:29.920
In these poems are the ones for it? And how
1228
01:06:30.000 --> 01:06:32.199
much was written before that? And how much was written
1229
01:06:32.199 --> 01:06:32.559
after that?
1230
01:06:33.639 --> 01:06:44.679
I got about I got approxibly sixty plus poems.
1231
01:06:42.039 --> 01:06:42.639
In the book.
1232
01:06:43.320 --> 01:06:48.280
Of those, I would say about forty five of them,
1233
01:06:48.440 --> 01:06:53.119
probably fifty even was written directly for the book. Okay,
1234
01:06:53.239 --> 01:06:55.960
in front of them were just fillers of things I've written,
1235
01:06:56.880 --> 01:06:59.639
were that weren't any other manuscript.
1236
01:07:00.119 --> 01:07:02.440
So I figured I would expand.
1237
01:07:02.119 --> 01:07:04.559
The book out by adding them, and A lot of
1238
01:07:04.559 --> 01:07:07.199
those books are a lot of those poems poems that
1239
01:07:07.239 --> 01:07:09.199
I end up putting in the bony section of the book.
1240
01:07:09.599 --> 01:07:11.920
And I see that, right, that makes that makes sense too,
1241
01:07:12.079 --> 01:07:13.719
now that I only ask you about the structure of
1242
01:07:13.719 --> 01:07:15.920
the book. So you have, you know, book one with
1243
01:07:15.960 --> 01:07:19.079
the eye Open, and then you have the subsequent books.
1244
01:07:19.920 --> 01:07:22.639
What what goes into that? What what poems fit into
1245
01:07:22.719 --> 01:07:24.239
which section? And why.
1246
01:07:25.719 --> 01:07:31.039
Eye open was really when when I if you look
1247
01:07:31.079 --> 01:07:33.599
at the covers, you'll see that one. On one side
1248
01:07:33.639 --> 01:07:36.719
of the book you'll see my eye closed, and the
1249
01:07:36.760 --> 01:07:38.760
other side you'll see my eye open.
1250
01:07:39.199 --> 01:07:39.519
Mm hm.
1251
01:07:40.559 --> 01:07:43.119
The eye open, which I believe is the one that
1252
01:07:43.440 --> 01:07:46.079
has the horns on top of my head.
1253
01:07:46.280 --> 01:07:47.519
It is is.
1254
01:07:49.280 --> 01:07:51.039
Your eye open? Is what you're seeing.
1255
01:07:51.840 --> 01:07:57.400
Yes, what you're seeing is changing you from the person
1256
01:07:57.440 --> 01:08:01.159
that you want to be and to a person that
1257
01:08:02.519 --> 01:08:07.719
has to be someone else to survive. So my eye open,
1258
01:08:10.000 --> 01:08:14.079
I'm doing poems from the perspective of what I'm seeing, yes,
1259
01:08:15.280 --> 01:08:20.199
you know, and how it's changing and offering who I'm
1260
01:08:20.239 --> 01:08:20.880
trying to be.
1261
01:08:21.960 --> 01:08:27.119
Yes, the eye closed part is me looking inwardly.
1262
01:08:28.800 --> 01:08:33.199
And looking into my own spirit for resolution from what
1263
01:08:33.239 --> 01:08:35.560
I'm from what I'm seeing makes perfect.
1264
01:08:35.560 --> 01:08:39.359
So when you see the hello over the over my
1265
01:08:39.439 --> 01:08:43.880
head and my eyes closed, that's hearkening back into the
1266
01:08:43.920 --> 01:08:46.439
goodness and all of the positive things.
1267
01:08:46.640 --> 01:08:48.680
Aspiracially that that I'm.
1268
01:08:48.560 --> 01:08:53.159
Trying to be and do and I'm looking inside to
1269
01:08:53.880 --> 01:08:54.279
feel that.
1270
01:08:55.319 --> 01:08:55.520
You know.
1271
01:08:55.680 --> 01:08:59.279
The eye open is like I'm speaking directly on my
1272
01:08:59.399 --> 01:09:03.560
experience and how I'm being treated and what I'm feeling
1273
01:09:03.760 --> 01:09:07.840
from that treatment, and not every single poem like lends
1274
01:09:07.840 --> 01:09:11.079
itself to. But you know, I do a large job
1275
01:09:11.159 --> 01:09:15.239
like you know, the first open the open chapter, you know,
1276
01:09:15.279 --> 01:09:17.680
I talk about this apponement there called Devil's Advocate. There's
1277
01:09:17.720 --> 01:09:21.039
a ponement there, doggy dog, you know, which really was
1278
01:09:21.079 --> 01:09:24.279
a kind of an old minds of the micro Vick
1279
01:09:24.399 --> 01:09:28.479
situation and how critical I thought his treatment. Well, you know,
1280
01:09:28.520 --> 01:09:32.800
what he did was horrible. Obviously was horrible and foolish.
1281
01:09:32.960 --> 01:09:35.039
You know, you're a millionaire athlete and.
1282
01:09:35.039 --> 01:09:36.039
Do it all the way for that.
1283
01:09:36.760 --> 01:09:40.880
But I did find hypocrisy in the notion that you know,
1284
01:09:40.920 --> 01:09:44.279
you send a god away to federal prison for this.
1285
01:09:45.199 --> 01:09:49.239
But I'm seeing white men who go big game hunting
1286
01:09:49.279 --> 01:09:54.119
and killing you know, deer and Kate buffalo and then
1287
01:09:54.119 --> 01:09:57.800
putting antlers on top of their fireplace, or you know
1288
01:09:57.960 --> 01:10:01.640
down in Texas where they snakes and put them in
1289
01:10:01.680 --> 01:10:06.279
a vat and skin them alive to make belts and
1290
01:10:06.359 --> 01:10:11.000
shoes and coats, and we walk around wearing that stuff proudly,
1291
01:10:11.399 --> 01:10:14.279
meet coats and all this stuff. None of these people
1292
01:10:14.279 --> 01:10:18.000
in federal jail, but this black athlete. I mean, so
1293
01:10:18.079 --> 01:10:21.479
then we're gonna we're measuring what's worse, right, Well, it's
1294
01:10:21.479 --> 01:10:24.159
worse that you know he? You know, so is a
1295
01:10:24.239 --> 01:10:27.000
snake not as valuable as a dog? Is a buffalo?
1296
01:10:27.720 --> 01:10:30.439
And a pride not as valuable as a dog? Beat like,
1297
01:10:30.840 --> 01:10:34.800
how do you measure what's more important in who should
1298
01:10:34.840 --> 01:10:35.600
go to jail for what?
1299
01:10:36.600 --> 01:10:37.720
Right? You know?
1300
01:10:37.840 --> 01:10:40.800
And that's you know, so all of these things are
1301
01:10:40.840 --> 01:10:44.000
things that I think to when I'm writing.
1302
01:10:45.279 --> 01:10:48.680
And so yeah, yeah, so there's a there's a there's
1303
01:10:48.720 --> 01:10:52.039
a definite. You know. This isn't just I think, you know,
1304
01:10:52.560 --> 01:10:53.279
and that's true.
1305
01:10:53.319 --> 01:10:56.079
I think with any legitimate artists is you know, some
1306
01:10:56.119 --> 01:10:59.680
of it is completely sentimental or completely internal, and other
1307
01:10:59.720 --> 01:11:04.000
things are critical, societally critical. There's plenty of societal criticism,
1308
01:11:04.199 --> 01:11:07.039
you know, within laced in this poetry, which is I
1309
01:11:07.079 --> 01:11:10.199
think what makes you know such a complete work, This
1310
01:11:10.239 --> 01:11:12.479
book a complete work, and your your work in general
1311
01:11:12.560 --> 01:11:15.800
complete and you know, all encompassing and wide ranging.
1312
01:11:16.720 --> 01:11:19.079
I want to talk about it. It's a very visual book.
1313
01:11:19.119 --> 01:11:22.439
And I know that, you know, from a marketing, from
1314
01:11:22.479 --> 01:11:26.960
a consumption, from a you know, a tention standpoint, that visuals.
1315
01:11:27.039 --> 01:11:29.439
We've talked about that visuals are going to catch people's
1316
01:11:29.439 --> 01:11:31.600
eyes a little better because the written word is what
1317
01:11:31.640 --> 01:11:31.840
it is.
1318
01:11:31.880 --> 01:11:33.039
But we know that.
1319
01:11:33.079 --> 01:11:35.600
What I want to talk about is how you went about,
1320
01:11:35.880 --> 01:11:41.000
you know, with your visual design personnel, how you went
1321
01:11:41.039 --> 01:11:44.760
about curating you know, what images went with what poems,
1322
01:11:44.800 --> 01:11:48.359
what fit because it's I mean, it's not just beautiful
1323
01:11:48.520 --> 01:11:51.560
from a written perspective. It's a beautiful book as far
1324
01:11:51.600 --> 01:11:55.520
as these visuals, and it has a distinct cohesive mood
1325
01:11:55.560 --> 01:11:59.119
throughout the pages, and it certainly conveys, you know something,
1326
01:11:59.479 --> 01:12:03.119
What went into selecting the images and how you organize
1327
01:12:03.159 --> 01:12:04.119
them with the poems?
1328
01:12:04.279 --> 01:12:07.079
What was that process? I wanted.
1329
01:12:07.880 --> 01:12:09.119
I wanted my book to be.
1330
01:12:10.720 --> 01:12:15.760
A tapestry of light and dark, of hope and despair,
1331
01:12:18.680 --> 01:12:24.479
melding together of pain and enjoyed mm hmm. From my perspective,
1332
01:12:24.840 --> 01:12:28.000
mm hm. And so but then I also wanted to
1333
01:12:28.000 --> 01:12:33.119
be biblical. So the book is said, when you open
1334
01:12:33.159 --> 01:12:35.000
the book, it kind of looks like the way that
1335
01:12:35.039 --> 01:12:39.359
the paper looks the inside front cover, it looks it's
1336
01:12:39.439 --> 01:12:40.199
made to look.
1337
01:12:40.079 --> 01:12:43.199
Like kind of a Bible, like a tattered Bible.
1338
01:12:44.039 --> 01:12:47.880
Yes, I have the serenity prayer in the beginning, you know,
1339
01:12:48.680 --> 01:12:52.720
my graphic design of Jabez, who's a monster.
1340
01:12:52.800 --> 01:12:58.119
He's phenomenal, phenomenal.
1341
01:12:56.319 --> 01:12:59.800
But also as far as the human the human being,
1342
01:13:00.279 --> 01:13:01.680
you're just a good, a good brother.
1343
01:13:02.560 --> 01:13:06.760
And we sat down and I'm like, how can I.
1344
01:13:06.720 --> 01:13:10.640
Make this look different than most any other book that's
1345
01:13:10.640 --> 01:13:17.760
been written? Right, because so many people write books, and
1346
01:13:18.840 --> 01:13:23.760
some people write books, and when you get to actually
1347
01:13:23.760 --> 01:13:26.319
read the book, if you take time with this, like, okay,
1348
01:13:26.319 --> 01:13:28.960
it's a decent book, but you probably should have took
1349
01:13:28.960 --> 01:13:31.760
more time with it, you know, to make it like.
1350
01:13:31.760 --> 01:13:33.439
A lot of people feel. A lot of people are
1351
01:13:33.439 --> 01:13:34.319
afraid too.
1352
01:13:35.920 --> 01:13:36.880
In the sense that.
1353
01:13:39.079 --> 01:13:43.720
They don't want to invest a whole lot because and
1354
01:13:43.760 --> 01:13:46.079
then back of their mind they're like, that's a whole lot.
1355
01:13:46.159 --> 01:13:49.319
It doesn't sell well, it doesn't sell as fast as
1356
01:13:49.319 --> 01:13:53.880
I wanted to. Now I've just pretty much burned a
1357
01:13:53.920 --> 01:13:57.600
few thousand dollars where I might only have a couple
1358
01:13:57.600 --> 01:13:59.880
of thousand dollars in my bank account right to do
1359
01:13:59.880 --> 01:14:00.319
it book.
1360
01:14:01.319 --> 01:14:02.279
So a lot of people.
1361
01:14:02.079 --> 01:14:07.000
Start off and they have this acquiescing defeat, this attitude
1362
01:14:07.600 --> 01:14:10.079
towards their own vision for what they're trying to do,
1363
01:14:10.800 --> 01:14:13.359
so they take cheap routes.
1364
01:14:14.560 --> 01:14:18.640
To produce it. And I know because that's what I
1365
01:14:18.640 --> 01:14:23.279
did my first two my first two books, paperback, black
1366
01:14:23.439 --> 01:14:24.279
words on white.
1367
01:14:24.119 --> 01:14:28.079
Paper, your typical standard poetry book is in terms of design.
1368
01:14:28.600 --> 01:14:31.600
The book covers were awesome on those, but the inside
1369
01:14:31.760 --> 01:14:33.880
just looked like you're a regular plane Jamee.
1370
01:14:34.159 --> 01:14:35.640
Poetry, right.
1371
01:14:36.640 --> 01:14:40.600
I sold those I sold those books, but it was very,
1372
01:14:40.720 --> 01:14:41.279
very slow.
1373
01:14:41.920 --> 01:14:47.119
And when you're performing or you're at an author expo
1374
01:14:48.079 --> 01:14:52.119
and there's like a thousand authors or a few hundred
1375
01:14:52.199 --> 01:14:58.039
offers there and people are walking through for using every
1376
01:14:58.199 --> 01:14:59.520
what everybody has going on.
1377
01:15:00.560 --> 01:15:03.199
If you're booking everybody else's book, then you just got.
1378
01:15:03.000 --> 01:15:04.880
A bunch of books and yours is just one of
1379
01:15:04.880 --> 01:15:07.399
those books that's been right.
1380
01:15:07.239 --> 01:15:09.960
And somebody might buyer might not right.
1381
01:15:10.680 --> 01:15:16.319
And when you do that then it's like, if I
1382
01:15:16.359 --> 01:15:20.760
don't really take the time to really make this stand out.
1383
01:15:21.359 --> 01:15:22.880
Then I may have to wasted my.
1384
01:15:22.880 --> 01:15:26.199
Time, you know, and I might have a book that
1385
01:15:26.640 --> 01:15:29.840
just sits, you know, in my closet cases of books
1386
01:15:29.880 --> 01:15:32.399
I ordered that I can't really sell as fast as
1387
01:15:32.399 --> 01:15:34.680
I want to because there's no appial.
1388
01:15:35.760 --> 01:15:38.800
I had to create the appill for.
1389
01:15:38.880 --> 01:15:42.520
Pay and a time where in the fifties and sixties,
1390
01:15:42.640 --> 01:15:45.560
you know, the TV was, you know, you might.
1391
01:15:45.439 --> 01:15:46.880
Have had a couple of sports that you could listening
1392
01:15:46.880 --> 01:15:47.560
to on the radio.
1393
01:15:47.800 --> 01:15:48.239
With TV.
1394
01:15:48.319 --> 01:15:54.079
Well, people read today. You're competing against so much. When
1395
01:15:54.079 --> 01:15:58.680
you're trying to be an author, you're competing against so much.
1396
01:16:00.079 --> 01:16:02.039
And if you're going to try to be an awful
1397
01:16:02.840 --> 01:16:09.439
in this modern time, you have to really shape your
1398
01:16:09.520 --> 01:16:14.359
product into something that creates a pill for somebody to
1399
01:16:14.439 --> 01:16:18.079
sit with the book. If I'm working hard to write
1400
01:16:18.079 --> 01:16:23.439
a book and I'm just pouring my guts out over
1401
01:16:23.840 --> 01:16:27.439
the course of two hundred pages of a book, but
1402
01:16:27.479 --> 01:16:30.000
this somebody takes the book because of how it looks
1403
01:16:30.720 --> 01:16:33.119
right and they head five pages and put it down.
1404
01:16:34.119 --> 01:16:34.800
It's just boring.
1405
01:16:36.039 --> 01:16:38.159
You course your life out, but to the person reading
1406
01:16:38.159 --> 01:16:44.439
it is boring. It's not maintaining or keeping the person's
1407
01:16:44.439 --> 01:16:45.199
attention level.
1408
01:16:46.399 --> 01:16:46.960
Makes sense.
1409
01:16:47.359 --> 01:16:51.000
So this obviously switches up and it's it holds your
1410
01:16:51.000 --> 01:16:55.199
attention because the colors and the juxtaposition of the different
1411
01:16:55.199 --> 01:16:57.479
pages next to each other, and the way it pops
1412
01:16:57.880 --> 01:17:00.239
every time you turn the page. I'm I mean, it
1413
01:17:00.239 --> 01:17:03.119
obviously holds your attention much longer, I think. And this
1414
01:17:03.199 --> 01:17:05.239
is the kind of book you could skip around in too,
1415
01:17:05.319 --> 01:17:08.039
you know, and just whatever picture visual might catch your
1416
01:17:08.039 --> 01:17:11.079
eye entitle you may read that particular poem, you know,
1417
01:17:11.119 --> 01:17:13.399
and then go backward another day read something else. So
1418
01:17:13.760 --> 01:17:15.560
I understand what you did there. I think it works
1419
01:17:15.880 --> 01:17:16.439
quite a fact.
1420
01:17:16.479 --> 01:17:17.319
I'm an avid reader.
1421
01:17:17.359 --> 01:17:21.000
But you know, and there's some brilliant books that a
1422
01:17:21.039 --> 01:17:23.840
lot of people won't take the time with just because
1423
01:17:25.039 --> 01:17:28.960
how they look. It's hard to sit, especially young kids.
1424
01:17:28.600 --> 01:17:32.319
The audience demographic that you're shaping this for, which is
1425
01:17:32.359 --> 01:17:36.479
teenagers to young adults eighteen to maybe twenty five years old.
1426
01:17:37.119 --> 01:17:40.279
It's August or thirty years old. That's an audience. It's hardened.
1427
01:17:41.239 --> 01:17:42.880
It's so much you're competing against.
1428
01:17:44.079 --> 01:17:47.079
And kids are not just sitting there at home in
1429
01:17:47.079 --> 01:17:49.279
the living room cracking.
1430
01:17:48.920 --> 01:17:54.119
A book old yes, and reading the whole thing, yes.
1431
01:17:54.000 --> 01:17:56.239
You know, and they may not even read twenty pages
1432
01:17:56.239 --> 01:17:59.279
of it, you know, so you're going to write your
1433
01:17:59.319 --> 01:18:01.479
ass off. You want people to read what you wrote,
1434
01:18:01.800 --> 01:18:05.439
you gotta make everything else about the book something that's
1435
01:18:05.439 --> 01:18:07.840
desirable to read sense.
1436
01:18:07.640 --> 01:18:09.439
You know, for for the reader. You know.
1437
01:18:09.520 --> 01:18:12.039
So I knew that when I said. And then as
1438
01:18:12.039 --> 01:18:15.319
far as making it a hard cover book, doing the pages,
1439
01:18:15.359 --> 01:18:18.159
all these little things that costs some money to do.
1440
01:18:18.640 --> 01:18:22.920
You know, I don't mind paying it because there's no
1441
01:18:23.119 --> 01:18:27.920
cheap road to success. So you're gonna have to pay it.
1442
01:18:27.960 --> 01:18:30.159
You're gonna have to pay the price, you know, literally
1443
01:18:30.479 --> 01:18:34.840
figurively for the quality that you want to have associated
1444
01:18:34.840 --> 01:18:35.079
with you.
1445
01:18:36.319 --> 01:18:38.560
Right, it's quality what you're paying for.
1446
01:18:39.600 --> 01:18:39.800
You know.
1447
01:18:39.840 --> 01:18:41.199
It's not like a thing where you buy like a
1448
01:18:41.199 --> 01:18:44.279
three hundred dollars pair of sunglasses, and if you sit
1449
01:18:44.319 --> 01:18:46.319
on those sunglasses, they're gonna break, like a five dollar
1450
01:18:46.319 --> 01:18:49.079
pair of sunglasses the way it's gonna break if you
1451
01:18:49.079 --> 01:18:50.800
sit on them wrong or you step on the right
1452
01:18:51.439 --> 01:18:51.680
you know.
1453
01:18:51.840 --> 01:18:52.880
No, it's like if you.
1454
01:18:52.880 --> 01:18:57.399
Go and buy a five hundred dollars car, You're like,
1455
01:18:57.439 --> 01:18:59.319
I just I just need a car. I'm gonna pay this,
1456
01:19:00.680 --> 01:19:02.439
you know. Then you're probably gonna have to put.
1457
01:19:02.319 --> 01:19:06.840
Five thousand dollars into that car to keep it running, yes,
1458
01:19:07.119 --> 01:19:09.960
versus just buying a just buying a six thousand dollars car.
1459
01:19:10.319 --> 01:19:14.680
Mm hmm makes it makes it makes perfect sense.
1460
01:19:15.319 --> 01:19:17.399
And to that look to that end with with creating
1461
01:19:17.479 --> 01:19:19.760
art that matters, and with getting people to have attention
1462
01:19:19.840 --> 01:19:21.520
to the art and want you know, I want to
1463
01:19:21.600 --> 01:19:24.760
draw everybody's attention to your attention to specific poem, which
1464
01:19:24.800 --> 01:19:28.279
is we the Gladiators and it it caught my attention
1465
01:19:28.560 --> 01:19:32.760
specifically because obviously I create things, and and what is
1466
01:19:32.800 --> 01:19:33.640
it about us?
1467
01:19:33.800 --> 01:19:35.840
What is it about creative people? You know?
1468
01:19:35.880 --> 01:19:38.520
We like I put a status the other day and
1469
01:19:38.560 --> 01:19:41.680
it said all art is altruistic and all art is narcissistic?
1470
01:19:41.720 --> 01:19:45.319
I mean, what is it about the artist the gladiator?
1471
01:19:45.319 --> 01:19:47.720
Because I love the ending line where we are the
1472
01:19:47.760 --> 01:19:52.279
gladiators dying to amuse lanes like like we why do
1473
01:19:52.399 --> 01:19:57.640
we create for ourselves? Like this book is? Is part
1474
01:19:57.680 --> 01:20:00.800
of the beauty of this hardcover book is it's yours too, right,
1475
01:20:00.840 --> 01:20:02.800
It's on your mantel, it's your creation.
1476
01:20:03.159 --> 01:20:04.159
It means something to you.
1477
01:20:04.239 --> 01:20:08.239
But yet we also want it to mean something to
1478
01:20:08.319 --> 01:20:12.199
other people. We want it to grab their attention. We're
1479
01:20:12.239 --> 01:20:14.560
not happy if somebody picks it up and reads the
1480
01:20:14.600 --> 01:20:16.600
first page and puts it down. We want them to
1481
01:20:16.640 --> 01:20:19.800
read the whole thing. What is it about the artist?
1482
01:20:20.439 --> 01:20:23.840
What is it about the creative mind that that we
1483
01:20:23.840 --> 01:20:27.439
we seek some sort of validation even though we don't,
1484
01:20:27.760 --> 01:20:30.159
even though we remind ourselves we don't need it, we
1485
01:20:30.359 --> 01:20:34.159
still so desperately need it. What is it about us? I?
1486
01:20:35.600 --> 01:20:41.279
Well, with this poem particular, I found myself. It was
1487
01:20:41.319 --> 01:20:45.239
a couple of years ago, having a cloud of conversation
1488
01:20:45.359 --> 01:20:50.399
with somebody at a show, and and we were talking
1489
01:20:50.439 --> 01:20:53.359
about writing for ourselves, which is writing for the audience.
1490
01:20:54.319 --> 01:20:57.600
And it was a slam like like it was at
1491
01:20:57.600 --> 01:21:01.479
the Slam competition. And obviously with slam, you know you're
1492
01:21:01.560 --> 01:21:08.239
being you know, you're being judged. You're you're performing a
1493
01:21:08.279 --> 01:21:12.079
poem and posides somebody's gonna put you know, or this
1494
01:21:12.159 --> 01:21:14.399
poem was you know, it was twenty seven point two,
1495
01:21:14.520 --> 01:21:17.680
or this poem was twenty five point three, or you know,
1496
01:21:17.960 --> 01:21:22.880
And the poem itself was really about getting away from
1497
01:21:23.880 --> 01:21:30.399
numbers and judgment as a you know, I guess a
1498
01:21:30.479 --> 01:21:34.039
foundation for how good your poetry, your work actually is.
1499
01:21:34.840 --> 01:21:36.720
You know, So when the poem starts. You know, do
1500
01:21:36.800 --> 01:21:38.279
I amuse you?
1501
01:21:38.319 --> 01:21:40.119
Do I arouse you? Do I make it happy?
1502
01:21:40.159 --> 01:21:42.960
Do I make you plat? It's insanely when.
1503
01:21:42.800 --> 01:21:45.479
I when I'm writing a poem about the death of
1504
01:21:45.479 --> 01:21:47.920
a loved one and then I go and perform it,
1505
01:21:47.960 --> 01:21:51.279
and I might say, oh, twenty six, you know that
1506
01:21:51.479 --> 01:21:54.920
something like that, if you're not mentally tough enough or
1507
01:21:54.960 --> 01:21:57.960
spiritually tough enough, that could break your spirit and never
1508
01:21:58.000 --> 01:21:59.479
make you want to create anything again.
1509
01:22:00.039 --> 01:22:01.199
War It's the same thing.
1510
01:22:01.359 --> 01:22:05.119
Like I remember, I was looking at this documentary on
1511
01:22:05.119 --> 01:22:08.640
on John Michelle Boskia, which was one of my you know,
1512
01:22:08.800 --> 01:22:11.399
just him and Keith Harond and like.
1513
01:22:11.439 --> 01:22:14.760
Those are my muse like those are my muses.
1514
01:22:15.680 --> 01:22:20.319
But John was talking to this interview about how when
1515
01:22:20.359 --> 01:22:24.399
he was trying to get his art into MoMA and
1516
01:22:24.560 --> 01:22:27.600
they're they're in MoMA and like what they defined as
1517
01:22:27.800 --> 01:22:32.079
art was like a white the all white box on
1518
01:22:32.159 --> 01:22:36.479
top of another white box with like one little dots
1519
01:22:36.800 --> 01:22:40.239
on it. And they called this piece such and such
1520
01:22:40.279 --> 01:22:43.920
and it was worth one hundred thousand thousand gallery.
1521
01:22:44.560 --> 01:22:45.239
And then they were.
1522
01:22:45.119 --> 01:22:48.359
Telling John that his art wasn't what.
1523
01:22:48.359 --> 01:22:52.640
You know, the art the art community was needing at
1524
01:22:52.640 --> 01:22:53.199
that time.
1525
01:22:53.279 --> 01:22:56.039
Right, yes, yes, and lo and behold.
1526
01:22:56.119 --> 01:23:00.960
Now they're begging to have his heart everywhere every gallery
1527
01:23:01.199 --> 01:23:03.680
exhibit that they can put it in. And then he's
1528
01:23:03.720 --> 01:23:07.199
been dead since what nineteen eighty eight? And now his
1529
01:23:07.319 --> 01:23:11.760
work is like selling one point three billion dollars? And
1530
01:23:12.520 --> 01:23:14.600
you know what I mean to go to show you
1531
01:23:14.640 --> 01:23:19.800
that people, it's always disheardening when people who don't have
1532
01:23:19.920 --> 01:23:22.680
vision are the ones that are holding the keys to
1533
01:23:22.720 --> 01:23:23.119
the gate.
1534
01:23:23.800 --> 01:23:25.920
Yes, decide whether or not to let you win.
1535
01:23:27.760 --> 01:23:30.520
And if you're not strong enough to see through that
1536
01:23:31.720 --> 01:23:33.800
or to say no, I don't care what you say.
1537
01:23:34.479 --> 01:23:38.760
I know what I'm doing is dope. Yes, then you're gonna.
1538
01:23:38.880 --> 01:23:40.279
Then you're gonna your fire.
1539
01:23:40.159 --> 01:23:44.079
Is gonna be extinguished for whatever lane of art that
1540
01:23:44.119 --> 01:23:48.319
you're in, whether it's poetry, whether it's painting, whatever, or
1541
01:23:48.399 --> 01:23:49.920
even in athletics.
1542
01:23:50.199 --> 01:23:51.920
And in the way that's an art form, you know.
1543
01:23:52.600 --> 01:23:56.119
But that's what I was saying here. You know, who
1544
01:23:56.119 --> 01:23:56.479
are you?
1545
01:23:56.840 --> 01:23:58.640
Who am I? Right?
1546
01:23:58.920 --> 01:24:00.600
You know, if you can't put the first place riven
1547
01:24:00.680 --> 01:24:02.960
by my pain or clap your hands to convince me
1548
01:24:03.000 --> 01:24:03.359
I have a.
1549
01:24:03.399 --> 01:24:07.960
Name, right, you know, likes andeers don't.
1550
01:24:07.800 --> 01:24:08.600
Make me ashamed.
1551
01:24:09.399 --> 01:24:12.319
It takes balls to come on this stage no matter
1552
01:24:12.319 --> 01:24:15.800
who you are, you know. So that's really what they
1553
01:24:15.920 --> 01:24:17.520
you know. So it's saying that the people that have
1554
01:24:17.600 --> 01:24:24.960
the heart to pursue what they want to pursue, they're
1555
01:24:24.960 --> 01:24:28.039
the gladiators. The people who stand.
1556
01:24:27.840 --> 01:24:30.199
In the audience throwing tomatoes.
1557
01:24:31.079 --> 01:24:33.920
Or with an insulting thing to say about what you're
1558
01:24:33.960 --> 01:24:36.279
doing up there, they're they're.
1559
01:24:35.920 --> 01:24:38.479
The lanes, they're the bumps. They don't have the heart
1560
01:24:38.520 --> 01:24:39.680
to chase their dreams.
1561
01:24:40.319 --> 01:24:41.239
Makes a lot of sense.
1562
01:24:41.399 --> 01:24:44.680
They rather just shit talk about what somebody else is
1563
01:24:44.680 --> 01:24:48.680
actually doing while they don't do nothing. You're right, and
1564
01:24:48.760 --> 01:24:51.239
it's a separation between I say all the time. You know,
1565
01:24:53.199 --> 01:24:57.920
your life and work ethic will change when you see
1566
01:24:59.319 --> 01:25:03.880
your life as being greater than sitting on the couch
1567
01:25:04.760 --> 01:25:09.840
watching TV and seeing other people's dreams come true. I
1568
01:25:09.960 --> 01:25:12.960
put that up as a post and it's one hundred
1569
01:25:12.960 --> 01:25:17.039
willist things that I stick I stick by that we
1570
01:25:17.159 --> 01:25:17.760
come home and.
1571
01:25:17.760 --> 01:25:21.239
Watch people, you know, they we watch people a lot
1572
01:25:21.279 --> 01:25:23.359
of people who we clown and some of them are clowns.
1573
01:25:23.359 --> 01:25:27.880
I'm not saying that everybody who's on TV is whatever, right,
1574
01:25:27.920 --> 01:25:29.800
there are a lot of people who have millionaires in
1575
01:25:29.800 --> 01:25:32.520
their clowns. We don't even know who they are. But
1576
01:25:32.840 --> 01:25:39.079
in this respect, they had the heart to go and
1577
01:25:39.159 --> 01:25:43.960
put themselves in a place where now they have a foundation.
1578
01:25:45.520 --> 01:25:48.079
And we may think it's silly, but they had the
1579
01:25:48.159 --> 01:25:48.520
heart to.
1580
01:25:48.479 --> 01:25:50.119
Do It makes sense.
1581
01:25:50.479 --> 01:25:53.840
So if you're smarter than these people, then why don't
1582
01:25:53.840 --> 01:25:58.359
you do it? Because between I'm better than this guy,
1583
01:25:58.399 --> 01:26:01.199
I'm smarter than this guy. Or you'll watch a football game,
1584
01:26:01.439 --> 01:26:03.600
what what.
1585
01:26:02.880 --> 01:26:05.479
The hell is he doing? He should have win? Right,
1586
01:26:05.600 --> 01:26:09.079
you know? Oh he break that tackle? All you fucking bomb.
1587
01:26:09.199 --> 01:26:13.359
You dropped the ball. But you're talking as you know
1588
01:26:13.359 --> 01:26:16.199
what I'm saying. You're out there doing it right sitting
1589
01:26:16.199 --> 01:26:18.800
on the couch. It's true, we all grow. You don't
1590
01:26:18.800 --> 01:26:19.079
know what.
1591
01:26:19.039 --> 01:26:21.760
It's like to watch the fucking sixth eighth defensive limb
1592
01:26:21.840 --> 01:26:22.800
and running four.
1593
01:26:22.680 --> 01:26:28.560
Three trying to tappen you. You would drop the ball too, Yes, true, so, yes,
1594
01:26:28.840 --> 01:26:29.079
you know.
1595
01:26:29.239 --> 01:26:32.039
So it's just having a heart to be that guy
1596
01:26:32.079 --> 01:26:35.680
on the field and not that guy on the couch.
1597
01:26:35.720 --> 01:26:38.000
It's almost like the man in the arena, you know.
1598
01:26:39.920 --> 01:26:43.600
Yes, I love that my favorite, Yeah, one of my favorites.
1599
01:26:43.600 --> 01:26:45.359
But it's pretty much in the same thing.
1600
01:26:46.079 --> 01:26:48.840
Got you absolutely now and one the one more and
1601
01:26:48.960 --> 01:26:50.600
people are gonna we're going to talk about like how
1602
01:26:50.600 --> 01:26:52.000
people can get the books so they can take a
1603
01:26:52.039 --> 01:26:54.359
look at all the other poems too. But another poem
1604
01:26:54.359 --> 01:26:57.359
that caught my eye just in general, because I tend
1605
01:26:57.399 --> 01:27:01.000
to be very especially as I reach middle age, very
1606
01:27:01.039 --> 01:27:03.800
aware of my mortality. And you know, what's my purpose here?
1607
01:27:03.840 --> 01:27:05.840
And what can I do? Tell us about this poem?
1608
01:27:05.920 --> 01:27:09.640
Inspire expire? You know, inspire until we expire. I know
1609
01:27:09.680 --> 01:27:11.399
what it means to me, but what does it mean
1610
01:27:11.439 --> 01:27:13.560
to you? And and and what does it say about
1611
01:27:13.560 --> 01:27:16.840
your overall philosophy? You know, on what you set out
1612
01:27:16.840 --> 01:27:19.119
to do every day when you create this art, when
1613
01:27:19.119 --> 01:27:20.800
you go to work, when you you.
1614
01:27:20.760 --> 01:27:23.399
Know, how does that tie into your life in general?
1615
01:27:23.399 --> 01:27:24.520
And what does that mean to you?
1616
01:27:26.479 --> 01:27:28.600
Oh man, Inspire expire.
1617
01:27:29.479 --> 01:27:32.840
It's just saying, go hard every day because you don't
1618
01:27:32.880 --> 01:27:34.960
know how many days you have mm hm.
1619
01:27:35.119 --> 01:27:38.600
And it's me saying to myself.
1620
01:27:38.760 --> 01:27:40.840
A lot a lot of poems you think I'm talking
1621
01:27:40.880 --> 01:27:44.880
to someone or some of them I'm talking to myself, right,
1622
01:27:45.520 --> 01:27:46.239
Some of them are.
1623
01:27:46.159 --> 01:27:47.640
Affirmations to myself.
1624
01:27:48.119 --> 01:27:51.119
And what the poem you just picked is one of
1625
01:27:51.159 --> 01:27:54.680
those actiation poems that u's like something that you whisper
1626
01:27:55.199 --> 01:27:59.119
to yourself when you're training. You whisper to yourself when
1627
01:27:59.800 --> 01:28:02.039
you know you're lifting weights. You know, you know, just
1628
01:28:02.119 --> 01:28:04.079
things to get you fired up and get you pumped
1629
01:28:04.159 --> 01:28:06.880
up about what you have to go.
1630
01:28:06.800 --> 01:28:08.520
And attack in that moment.
1631
01:28:09.359 --> 01:28:11.000
For me, it's like, you know, I want to be
1632
01:28:11.079 --> 01:28:16.920
somebody who reaches out the kids and who keeps them, you.
1633
01:28:16.880 --> 01:28:20.479
Know, motivated to be better.
1634
01:28:22.159 --> 01:28:26.600
Than their successors, you know, And it was the task
1635
01:28:28.079 --> 01:28:33.359
that I set forth for myself. You know, retired tired
1636
01:28:33.359 --> 01:28:39.000
excuses that keep progression tired and wide. You know that line,
1637
01:28:39.520 --> 01:28:44.039
retired tired excuses that keep progression tied and wide.
1638
01:28:44.720 --> 01:28:48.760
Yes, it's saying you know, like as long.
1639
01:28:48.640 --> 01:28:50.880
As you're holding onto the negative or trying to find
1640
01:28:50.960 --> 01:28:59.439
any way possible to you know, to keep yourself distracted
1641
01:28:59.800 --> 01:29:02.840
and stagnated, and a lot of the stuff that the
1642
01:29:02.880 --> 01:29:05.079
social media stuff we talked about, all of this stuff,
1643
01:29:06.720 --> 01:29:16.720
it's mindless baffle that weakens and scripture energy for anything else, right, right,
1644
01:29:17.079 --> 01:29:19.399
And that's why I mean we I mean for many
1645
01:29:19.439 --> 01:29:22.000
reasons and stuff has to be eliminated, but for the
1646
01:29:22.039 --> 01:29:25.760
main reason of while you're sitting here talking about somebody
1647
01:29:25.760 --> 01:29:29.680
else's life, what Kanye is doing, what Palestine and Israel.
1648
01:29:29.960 --> 01:29:31.199
We live in northw Jersey.
1649
01:29:31.800 --> 01:29:33.319
It's not to say they don't have that interest in
1650
01:29:33.359 --> 01:29:36.920
this stuff, but we're in another country and we talk every.
1651
01:29:36.880 --> 01:29:38.800
Day about the same things.
1652
01:29:39.159 --> 01:29:42.079
But then you look at your own life and it's like,
1653
01:29:42.079 --> 01:29:44.439
what am I doing here? Right?
1654
01:29:45.279 --> 01:29:46.359
You know? And it's like.
1655
01:29:46.359 --> 01:29:49.079
No, So you're talking about other things and other people,
1656
01:29:49.199 --> 01:29:53.279
and it's all an excuse for you to not move
1657
01:29:53.319 --> 01:30:00.039
in your own life, right, seriously, move, Like when I
1658
01:30:00.079 --> 01:30:08.800
always said, I don't know, you know that if somebody's
1659
01:30:08.880 --> 01:30:12.920
angry or not based on how much they talk, makes sense.
1660
01:30:13.600 --> 01:30:15.760
If you're telling me you're angry or you want to
1661
01:30:15.840 --> 01:30:19.359
change something, then I should be looking at you and
1662
01:30:19.399 --> 01:30:21.279
you shall have a stone face of a killer.
1663
01:30:22.359 --> 01:30:23.560
When you have a stone face.
1664
01:30:23.399 --> 01:30:25.720
With a killer, then and then I can start to believe,
1665
01:30:26.479 --> 01:30:30.520
like because at some point you run out of words
1666
01:30:30.680 --> 01:30:33.960
when you're trying to get things accomplished, you know, uh.
1667
01:30:36.359 --> 01:30:36.560
Right?
1668
01:30:37.920 --> 01:30:41.840
Set fire the lies distributed in King Solomon size to children,
1669
01:30:41.960 --> 01:30:44.760
husbands and wives. That's what we talked about tonight. Set
1670
01:30:44.840 --> 01:30:50.000
fire to lies distributed in King Solomon size to children,
1671
01:30:50.119 --> 01:30:51.079
husbands and wives.
1672
01:30:52.319 --> 01:30:56.000
Uh, get rid of the false rhetoric.
1673
01:30:56.279 --> 01:31:02.199
And a false narrative, you know. Yeah, yeah, that's another way.
1674
01:31:03.119 --> 01:31:06.840
That's another responsibility you have, and we're trying to inspire. M.
1675
01:31:06.880 --> 01:31:11.079
That's what the show does, right, walk fear out back doors,
1676
01:31:11.800 --> 01:31:16.880
sweat past out black pors Now this line right here, M.
1677
01:31:16.960 --> 01:31:23.840
It may be something that people don't understand. But what
1678
01:31:23.880 --> 01:31:29.680
I mean by sweat past out black Porsche, it's not
1679
01:31:29.760 --> 01:31:32.279
to say because, like I said, when we're talking about
1680
01:31:32.279 --> 01:31:36.520
the George Floyd thing, you need to know your history, yes,
1681
01:31:37.119 --> 01:31:40.279
you know, to understand where you are presently and where
1682
01:31:40.319 --> 01:31:43.640
you're trying to go futuristically. So you need your history,
1683
01:31:44.319 --> 01:31:49.560
but don't let your history become a crutch, right right,
1684
01:31:49.880 --> 01:31:53.159
And so many people do that, very true, you know,
1685
01:31:53.800 --> 01:31:59.640
like a crutch to the point where everything you're living
1686
01:32:00.079 --> 01:32:04.880
as if nothing is progressed. You're living as if everything
1687
01:32:04.920 --> 01:32:05.520
is the same.
1688
01:32:05.359 --> 01:32:09.520
As it was fifty years and it's not right. You're right,
1689
01:32:09.640 --> 01:32:12.159
take those lessons from that time and remember what it
1690
01:32:12.239 --> 01:32:12.520
was like.
1691
01:32:12.760 --> 01:32:15.680
Because TV does that, you know, every time they put
1692
01:32:15.720 --> 01:32:18.560
on the rate, you know, a slave movie or they
1693
01:32:18.560 --> 01:32:19.039
come out with it.
1694
01:32:19.239 --> 01:32:22.199
Just things that remind you and it's constant, like all
1695
01:32:22.239 --> 01:32:25.680
they do. It's like it's like it's the singular things because.
1696
01:32:25.520 --> 01:32:29.680
Black people hated from trees and you know, like we
1697
01:32:29.840 --> 01:32:31.439
know the history. All we need to do is see
1698
01:32:31.479 --> 01:32:33.840
it wants to know that we don't need to beating
1699
01:32:33.920 --> 01:32:35.560
ourselves over the head because all's going to do is
1700
01:32:35.600 --> 01:32:41.439
make you hate people, you know, based on what you
1701
01:32:41.560 --> 01:32:44.319
think their lineage is, or what their ancestry is, or
1702
01:32:44.359 --> 01:32:47.119
what their grand great grandparents.
1703
01:32:46.520 --> 01:32:49.640
And you don't know, right right, you don't know.
1704
01:32:49.680 --> 01:32:52.520
And then the thing about it to go further is
1705
01:32:52.560 --> 01:32:57.439
that you'll be amazed if you go historically, some of
1706
01:32:57.479 --> 01:33:00.119
our people, black people catch slaves.
1707
01:33:00.039 --> 01:33:02.640
Which I didn't know until recently, and then met somebody
1708
01:33:02.640 --> 01:33:08.520
who knew knew that her ancestors had slaves and still
1709
01:33:08.560 --> 01:33:10.720
was trying to say, how do you know yours didn't.
1710
01:33:10.760 --> 01:33:12.960
I was like, mine weren't even in this country. They were,
1711
01:33:13.000 --> 01:33:17.520
they were paupers overseas. I don't know for a fact,
1712
01:33:17.560 --> 01:33:19.560
but I'm pretty sure, but damn you. You're a black
1713
01:33:20.239 --> 01:33:23.520
woman and you're telling me you know that your ancestors
1714
01:33:23.520 --> 01:33:26.039
had slaves. Yet you're one of the most vocal people
1715
01:33:26.039 --> 01:33:28.079
out here, And it's like I'm not saying you can't.
1716
01:33:27.880 --> 01:33:31.239
Be, but damn like like we don't. We don't know
1717
01:33:31.680 --> 01:33:34.279
everything you know historically you don't.
1718
01:33:34.399 --> 01:33:41.680
And that's that's what always amuses me about religion, is that.
1719
01:33:43.720 --> 01:33:46.479
You got five thousand religions.
1720
01:33:45.960 --> 01:33:50.359
In this and on this planet yeap being practiced in
1721
01:33:50.479 --> 01:33:52.600
practice at least m hm.
1722
01:33:53.359 --> 01:33:55.079
So how arrogant is.
1723
01:33:55.039 --> 01:33:58.159
It of you to believe that only yours is correct?
1724
01:33:58.760 --> 01:34:01.600
And I want to touch that what people live in
1725
01:34:02.119 --> 01:34:05.439
Speaking of that, you know, Devil's Advocate, which you did
1726
01:34:05.439 --> 01:34:07.840
a video for, which you know is obviously one of
1727
01:34:07.840 --> 01:34:14.399
the best things. I mean, look, thought provoking, controversial, insightful, satirical,
1728
01:34:15.840 --> 01:34:17.840
satirical to a sharpened edge.
1729
01:34:17.840 --> 01:34:19.520
And what I mean is, I mean.
1730
01:34:20.960 --> 01:34:25.920
It's so legitimately true that it's it's undeniable. Yet it's
1731
01:34:26.079 --> 01:34:30.239
very pointed in stabbing, you know, and you don't hold
1732
01:34:30.279 --> 01:34:34.800
anything back. I mean, you know, and before you talked
1733
01:34:34.840 --> 01:34:40.600
about you know, coming up in a world where you
1734
01:34:40.640 --> 01:34:42.880
know that that can be whitewashed in many ways. And
1735
01:34:43.640 --> 01:34:47.159
and I think this poem's well beyond this obviously racial things.
1736
01:34:47.199 --> 01:34:49.319
But you know, even when you said that, I thought
1737
01:34:49.359 --> 01:34:51.640
about the images of the white Jesus.
1738
01:34:51.279 --> 01:34:53.359
And all that nonsense. You know that that.
1739
01:34:53.399 --> 01:34:56.039
Permeates how we think. And I mean, you know the
1740
01:34:56.159 --> 01:35:00.439
Jesus that we see in every candlestick, in every picture,
1741
01:35:00.479 --> 01:35:04.359
and is this like fair white, you know, light brown
1742
01:35:04.479 --> 01:35:07.680
haired guy who we now know from history is like
1743
01:35:07.760 --> 01:35:11.640
Michelangelo's uncle or something. You know, it's not anything like
1744
01:35:11.680 --> 01:35:13.880
the real Jesus would have looked like. But I mean,
1745
01:35:14.159 --> 01:35:16.279
you know this goes beyond that. Tell me talk to
1746
01:35:16.279 --> 01:35:18.600
me a little bit about and that'll be the last
1747
01:35:18.640 --> 01:35:20.159
poem we touched them before we tell people how they
1748
01:35:20.159 --> 01:35:23.560
can get this book. But Devil's Advocate man speaking of religion,
1749
01:35:23.640 --> 01:35:27.119
speaking of people having emotional attachments to their beliefs.
1750
01:35:27.119 --> 01:35:28.720
I mean, you really.
1751
01:35:28.439 --> 01:35:33.399
Took it out logically and in depth and artfully and
1752
01:35:33.520 --> 01:35:36.359
kind of really said, you know, you just called people
1753
01:35:36.399 --> 01:35:40.640
out and called society out. I mean, what's behind that poem?
1754
01:35:41.239 --> 01:35:41.479
You know?
1755
01:35:43.359 --> 01:35:46.039
And you spoke you said, you know Jesus as a
1756
01:35:47.239 --> 01:35:51.079
as another poem in the book called black san Yes,
1757
01:35:51.439 --> 01:35:57.520
And you know, I'm like, you know, we're taught, you
1758
01:35:57.560 --> 01:36:02.560
know that our savior is you know some you know,
1759
01:36:03.199 --> 01:36:06.840
bearded white guy Jesus or saytah, because it's the same
1760
01:36:07.359 --> 01:36:12.520
when Jesus or saying because ironically they both have beards,
1761
01:36:12.600 --> 01:36:15.199
they're both you know, coming to give us gifts, and
1762
01:36:15.680 --> 01:36:17.439
you know, we're taught to sit on their lap, and
1763
01:36:17.520 --> 01:36:17.800
you know.
1764
01:36:19.000 --> 01:36:20.479
You know, and as black.
1765
01:36:20.520 --> 01:36:23.520
And again, I ain't had no chimney when you play,
1766
01:36:23.800 --> 01:36:26.640
you know, like I get in the house and then
1767
01:36:26.680 --> 01:36:29.079
he coming there getting shot, you know, like you know,
1768
01:36:30.079 --> 01:36:34.920
so I just poked fun by saying that. But I
1769
01:36:35.000 --> 01:36:40.960
used to get into my family really religious. My grandmother
1770
01:36:41.479 --> 01:36:45.119
God rest her soul when my mother got murdered.
1771
01:36:46.199 --> 01:36:50.079
Mm hmm. She needed faith, yep.
1772
01:36:52.800 --> 01:36:55.800
And in a way, as I got older and learned
1773
01:36:55.840 --> 01:36:58.520
about my mother's murder, I did the opposite.
1774
01:36:58.520 --> 01:37:00.399
I started shunning faith, right.
1775
01:37:01.840 --> 01:37:07.720
I had no faith in humanity when that happened, right, because.
1776
01:37:09.079 --> 01:37:14.079
You know, it's like, so somebody.
1777
01:37:13.920 --> 01:37:21.319
Who's almighty, all powerful, they overlooked my mother being stabbed
1778
01:37:21.399 --> 01:37:24.439
up seventy sometimes and didn't come from the sky, didn't
1779
01:37:24.479 --> 01:37:25.960
throw a lightning bolt, didn't do shit.
1780
01:37:27.239 --> 01:37:29.880
And I'm supposed to believe in this person.
1781
01:37:30.000 --> 01:37:34.039
Why And I've.
1782
01:37:33.880 --> 01:37:36.960
Gotten to really heat it interactions.
1783
01:37:38.079 --> 01:37:38.680
But then.
1784
01:37:40.479 --> 01:37:45.319
A lot of my family began to understand. They begin
1785
01:37:45.399 --> 01:37:52.079
to understand why I carried the resentance right, which they
1786
01:37:52.079 --> 01:37:56.720
should have knew anyway. Of course, you know, it wasn't
1787
01:37:56.760 --> 01:38:02.520
just about my mother. It was about I have I
1788
01:38:02.720 --> 01:38:06.239
had friends who got killed. I'm seeing all of this
1789
01:38:06.359 --> 01:38:10.079
crap around me, and then I'm reading the command What really.
1790
01:38:10.079 --> 01:38:12.640
Did it for me? I started thinking critically. I started looking.
1791
01:38:12.439 --> 01:38:16.800
At the commandments, and I started seeing racism in them.
1792
01:38:17.119 --> 01:38:20.079
Yeah, you say, daw should not steal.
1793
01:38:21.319 --> 01:38:23.920
And I sat not just racism but classicism. M h.
1794
01:38:25.439 --> 01:38:29.760
If I'm born in a place mother broke, father broke,
1795
01:38:29.880 --> 01:38:34.199
mother dead, father not there on drugs, there's nothing in
1796
01:38:34.239 --> 01:38:37.840
my cupboard to eat, mm hmm. I go and I
1797
01:38:37.920 --> 01:38:39.920
steal a damned honey butt out of the corner store.
1798
01:38:40.399 --> 01:38:45.960
M So technically I'm stealing mm hm. And I'm conscious
1799
01:38:46.039 --> 01:38:47.960
because I've been in church, I'm conscious that, oh I
1800
01:38:47.960 --> 01:38:51.520
shouldn't steal. But this is what my life is. Am
1801
01:38:51.560 --> 01:38:52.159
I going to have?
1802
01:38:52.960 --> 01:38:55.399
Right? Right? You know?
1803
01:38:55.520 --> 01:38:57.279
And who wrote these commandments?
1804
01:38:57.520 --> 01:38:59.279
Because I'm like in my mom, I'm like, I have
1805
01:38:59.319 --> 01:39:02.840
a hard time, but leaving that and impoverished people wote
1806
01:39:02.840 --> 01:39:10.399
these commandments right, right, So it started messing with my
1807
01:39:12.000 --> 01:39:14.439
spirit in regards. And then I grew up in the church.
1808
01:39:14.520 --> 01:39:16.920
I went to church every Sunday. Didn't go for the
1809
01:39:17.000 --> 01:39:18.880
right reasons. I want to try to holler at girls
1810
01:39:18.880 --> 01:39:23.079
and shit, you know, you know, I thought I was
1811
01:39:23.199 --> 01:39:25.279
number there to listen to what the pastor was at
1812
01:39:25.359 --> 01:39:29.119
the same even though the pastor who's now the bishop,
1813
01:39:29.720 --> 01:39:31.560
I actually have a lot of respect for it because
1814
01:39:31.560 --> 01:39:34.600
he was a former drug addict, changed his knife around,
1815
01:39:34.920 --> 01:39:36.840
and when he he didn't preach bullshit.
1816
01:39:37.399 --> 01:39:38.800
M of it I agree with, but he ain't.
1817
01:39:39.119 --> 01:39:42.479
I can say he didn't preach bullshit right, and I
1818
01:39:42.560 --> 01:39:44.560
know that he was coming from a place of the
1819
01:39:44.560 --> 01:39:47.279
position that he actually was in what he was saying.
1820
01:39:47.319 --> 01:39:50.119
So I had a lot of respect from that aspect.
1821
01:39:51.000 --> 01:39:52.840
But I didn't like a lot of stuff I saw.
1822
01:39:53.359 --> 01:39:55.640
I didn't like when they would come around with a
1823
01:39:55.680 --> 01:39:58.960
collection plate trying to now you know now as the
1824
01:39:59.000 --> 01:40:02.359
man that they needed that they need whatever money.
1825
01:40:02.039 --> 01:40:03.439
Get to keep the place funny.
1826
01:40:04.000 --> 01:40:06.840
Yes, but it's just, you know, it's just it was
1827
01:40:06.840 --> 01:40:10.680
a sour It created a sour, sour taste in your mouth,
1828
01:40:11.760 --> 01:40:14.159
you know, to see little stuff that would go on
1829
01:40:14.199 --> 01:40:17.239
in the church and then you then you know, you
1830
01:40:17.279 --> 01:40:21.520
see people, you know, God fearing people, but they achieved
1831
01:40:21.520 --> 01:40:25.319
on their husband and wife, you know, or wife right,
1832
01:40:25.439 --> 01:40:27.199
you see some women who are married but they're trying
1833
01:40:27.199 --> 01:40:30.359
to get out the pastor you know, bahad closed door.
1834
01:40:30.479 --> 01:40:33.720
You see all of this stuff, and then you say
1835
01:40:33.760 --> 01:40:37.520
to yourself, is the real work of God? If God
1836
01:40:37.560 --> 01:40:40.479
doesn't exist, doesn't even does it actually even happen in
1837
01:40:40.520 --> 01:40:40.880
the church.
1838
01:40:41.840 --> 01:40:44.319
I'm sitting in the stage from a salvation, and the
1839
01:40:44.399 --> 01:40:47.600
salvation is outside the work that needs to be done,
1840
01:40:48.439 --> 01:40:51.199
you know, spiritual work needs to be done on the
1841
01:40:51.239 --> 01:40:52.159
speak corners.
1842
01:40:52.439 --> 01:40:52.760
M hm.
1843
01:40:52.920 --> 01:40:55.000
Those people that you need to you know, be trying
1844
01:40:55.039 --> 01:40:58.920
to convert, you know.
1845
01:40:59.319 --> 01:41:02.560
And then then I looked at it like, okay, is
1846
01:41:02.600 --> 01:41:03.239
this something.
1847
01:41:03.039 --> 01:41:04.399
You believe or do you do?
1848
01:41:04.439 --> 01:41:07.520
You just you know, it's an insurance policy because you
1849
01:41:07.560 --> 01:41:10.079
don't you feel like, as long as I believe in God,
1850
01:41:10.119 --> 01:41:12.680
I ain't gonna go to Hell, whatever that is. I
1851
01:41:13.159 --> 01:41:16.840
personally believe that there's a place with fire and you know,
1852
01:41:17.720 --> 01:41:19.520
bringstone and all your worst things.
1853
01:41:20.199 --> 01:41:22.279
I believe that hell is something that's inside of you.
1854
01:41:22.760 --> 01:41:25.239
Yeah, that can be inside.
1855
01:41:24.840 --> 01:41:29.960
Of you if you don't operate in your life from
1856
01:41:30.000 --> 01:41:35.880
a from a place of peace and and so on,
1857
01:41:36.199 --> 01:41:40.119
you know, like exstense. So when I started writing and
1858
01:41:40.159 --> 01:41:42.159
I'm starting that. I'm thinking about that. I'm thinking about
1859
01:41:42.159 --> 01:41:46.720
my own life, my father, m hm, my mother, my friends,
1860
01:41:47.680 --> 01:41:50.800
things I'm seeing, And that's where the poem came from.
1861
01:41:51.000 --> 01:41:52.359
And that's why I started architect.
1862
01:41:53.079 --> 01:41:57.279
When I did the video shouting to my man Donathan Cutlery,
1863
01:41:57.600 --> 01:41:59.199
I've spoken to him in a while, you.
1864
01:41:59.159 --> 01:41:59.520
Know, but.
1865
01:42:01.239 --> 01:42:04.199
You had to cot because he came to me while
1866
01:42:04.199 --> 01:42:07.640
the book was still all the all the poems were done,
1867
01:42:07.680 --> 01:42:09.560
but I didn't have anybody to grab his arm stuff
1868
01:42:09.600 --> 01:42:13.920
yet mhm. And we were starting to get the phoos together.
1869
01:42:14.920 --> 01:42:17.359
We actually ended up going to this like it was
1870
01:42:17.439 --> 01:42:25.439
like a abandoned church school, completely gunned out.
1871
01:42:24.840 --> 01:42:25.039
You know.
1872
01:42:25.119 --> 01:42:26.960
So but he was like it was a perfect esthetic
1873
01:42:27.680 --> 01:42:37.840
h for what we're doing because because it just it
1874
01:42:37.840 --> 01:42:41.239
gets gay us. This this aura a menaced and like
1875
01:42:41.279 --> 01:42:43.600
a haunted house church type of rob.
1876
01:42:43.479 --> 01:42:47.000
And where was it was a trend.
1877
01:42:47.159 --> 01:42:49.720
We we did a guerrilla style like nobody let us in.
1878
01:42:49.760 --> 01:42:52.560
We climbed through a window in the back of it.
1879
01:42:52.600 --> 01:42:53.920
I'm like, what the hell are we doing here, because
1880
01:42:53.920 --> 01:42:56.720
I'm in a suit in the video, I'm wearing a suit.
1881
01:42:57.520 --> 01:43:00.439
We climbing up ship, climbing on gates, something like full
1882
01:43:00.520 --> 01:43:00.920
shoot them.
1883
01:43:00.960 --> 01:43:06.399
I'm like, so, but we did an excellent shoot and
1884
01:43:06.399 --> 01:43:06.640
then the.
1885
01:43:08.199 --> 01:43:09.359
A couple of the pictures from there.
1886
01:43:09.359 --> 01:43:10.520
There's another picture.
1887
01:43:10.359 --> 01:43:14.239
From from a poem that's kind of the beginning where
1888
01:43:14.239 --> 01:43:17.000
I'm kind of like like kind of a shadowy figure
1889
01:43:17.000 --> 01:43:19.359
with a hat, you see all the garbage around me.
1890
01:43:19.399 --> 01:43:21.760
That's also in the same place. We did a lot
1891
01:43:21.760 --> 01:43:25.199
of shots in that, in that abandoned church school.
1892
01:43:25.520 --> 01:43:26.159
It makes sense.
1893
01:43:26.560 --> 01:43:28.520
That's a great and if people haven't checked that video,
1894
01:43:28.640 --> 01:43:30.720
they got to check that video out too, to give
1895
01:43:30.800 --> 01:43:31.800
him a taste of.
1896
01:43:33.640 --> 01:43:37.079
Yeah, I'm not gonna start getting into doing more doing more.
1897
01:43:38.399 --> 01:43:39.000
Videos.
1898
01:43:39.520 --> 01:43:43.239
I just need I just need solid videographers that you know,
1899
01:43:43.359 --> 01:43:45.640
that charge at a rate that makes sense.
1900
01:43:45.720 --> 01:43:47.399
But I want to do a poem.
1901
01:43:47.399 --> 01:43:48.640
I want to do the poem.
1902
01:43:48.399 --> 01:43:50.000
My father's You and Me poem.
1903
01:43:50.520 --> 01:43:52.159
Yes, I already talked to him about it, that he
1904
01:43:52.199 --> 01:43:54.239
would be in it, like we kind of be like,
1905
01:43:54.680 --> 01:43:57.199
I don't know if you ever saw the thirty for
1906
01:43:57.279 --> 01:43:59.720
thirty documentary Doctor Darryl.
1907
01:44:00.680 --> 01:44:03.880
I didn't. I didn't see that. Yeah, well if you
1908
01:44:03.920 --> 01:44:04.399
ever go.
1909
01:44:04.279 --> 01:44:06.640
Watch it, Like they're kind of like they meet each
1910
01:44:06.640 --> 01:44:09.760
other at this diner and they're talking about the past,
1911
01:44:09.800 --> 01:44:12.439
the eighties and you know the drug addition, and there
1912
01:44:12.439 --> 01:44:14.159
just sitting there at a diner. That's why I wanted
1913
01:44:14.159 --> 01:44:15.640
to be with me and my father is sitting at
1914
01:44:15.640 --> 01:44:19.600
a diner that's dope king your coffee. And then the
1915
01:44:19.720 --> 01:44:23.439
video would be part of our conversation. And then the
1916
01:44:23.479 --> 01:44:26.000
Paul myself parking it back through those times for the
1917
01:44:26.079 --> 01:44:27.640
nineties late eighties.
1918
01:44:28.279 --> 01:44:28.640
I love it.
1919
01:44:28.680 --> 01:44:30.880
I mean, I'm trying to trying to get my money
1920
01:44:30.880 --> 01:44:32.960
together so I could upgrade my computer system because I
1921
01:44:32.960 --> 01:44:34.720
got that camera, you know, I do the photography. I'm
1922
01:44:34.720 --> 01:44:37.960
trying to upgrade to video stuff. At some point I
1923
01:44:38.000 --> 01:44:40.039
need somebody to shoot some music videos. But this this
1924
01:44:40.119 --> 01:44:42.720
ain't my interview, but we'll talk about that another time.
1925
01:44:42.760 --> 01:44:45.680
But so Bro, I appreciate having you on.
1926
01:44:45.800 --> 01:44:45.880
Man.
1927
01:44:45.920 --> 01:44:47.399
I think you brought a lot to the show. I
1928
01:44:47.399 --> 01:44:51.000
think you know, in terms of general conversation and discussing
1929
01:44:51.039 --> 01:44:53.119
this this art, you know, work of art you did.
1930
01:44:53.359 --> 01:44:55.600
Where can people find out more about the book? Where
1931
01:44:55.600 --> 01:44:57.520
can they get the book? Give them all the details
1932
01:44:57.640 --> 01:45:00.000
and I'll also post it, you know, online and whatnot.
1933
01:45:00.920 --> 01:45:04.760
Oh yes, sir, yes, sir, Well you can find the
1934
01:45:04.800 --> 01:45:07.800
world as I see it, Right now it's on everlu
1935
01:45:07.880 --> 01:45:09.199
culture dot com.
1936
01:45:09.640 --> 01:45:14.840
That's e v O l U c U l t
1937
01:45:15.640 --> 01:45:17.680
U r E dot.
1938
01:45:17.479 --> 01:45:21.199
Com everlue culture dot com. Right now, I'm developing a
1939
01:45:21.239 --> 01:45:25.479
link tree uh to attach to my social media profiles,
1940
01:45:26.479 --> 01:45:28.920
and I'm also going to have the books on Amazon actually,
1941
01:45:29.560 --> 01:45:33.960
and then I'm I'm in talks with Barnes and Nobles about.
1942
01:45:33.680 --> 01:45:37.359
Getting into that distribution chain. But right now it's elue
1943
01:45:37.359 --> 01:45:38.560
culture dot com.
1944
01:45:38.760 --> 01:45:42.720
And then there'll be you know, several other outlets and
1945
01:45:42.760 --> 01:45:46.439
then you can just message me, you know, come to
1946
01:45:46.520 --> 01:45:49.640
my social media profiles. Hey, I want a book. I
1947
01:45:49.680 --> 01:45:53.199
shipped the books directly next day air. Go write to
1948
01:45:53.239 --> 01:45:57.319
the post office and you can sell me Apple pay
1949
01:45:57.840 --> 01:46:01.079
dash App and then next me at the post office
1950
01:46:01.119 --> 01:46:03.479
and to be you know, actually doing set.
1951
01:46:05.159 --> 01:46:05.359
Dope.
1952
01:46:05.439 --> 01:46:07.119
Yeah, and you guys can hit me up as well,
1953
01:46:07.319 --> 01:46:09.680
and I'll get in contact with Elliott for you and
1954
01:46:09.680 --> 01:46:13.079
get him shipped out uh and you know, facilitate your
1955
01:46:13.119 --> 01:46:15.199
contact with him so you could buy directly from him.
1956
01:46:15.199 --> 01:46:17.399
So feel free to reach out to me too. It's
1957
01:46:17.439 --> 01:46:21.039
an excellent book. I've been reading it. It's it's right
1958
01:46:21.079 --> 01:46:23.680
on my table and and it's it's really a work
1959
01:46:23.680 --> 01:46:25.279
of art and it's well worth reading if you're a
1960
01:46:25.279 --> 01:46:28.720
thinking person and you enjoy good artistry, you know, and
1961
01:46:28.720 --> 01:46:31.000
and honestly something that is well put together with a
1962
01:46:31.000 --> 01:46:34.319
lot of effort, and you know, an eye upun intended
1963
01:46:34.359 --> 01:46:36.399
toward you know, a deeper meaning.
1964
01:46:36.479 --> 01:46:38.399
So I encourage everybody to get up on it, man,
1965
01:46:38.439 --> 01:46:39.399
and I'll.
1966
01:46:39.199 --> 01:46:42.039
Be back with you guys soon to talk about you know,
1967
01:46:42.119 --> 01:46:44.560
more news events and whatnot. But I hope you enjoyed
1968
01:46:44.600 --> 01:46:47.760
the interview and feel free to reach out to me
1969
01:46:47.920 --> 01:46:50.159
or Elliott with anything else. He'll be back on the show.
1970
01:46:50.920 --> 01:46:53.319
And I really appreciate it. Appreciate you coming on my brother.
1971
01:46:54.159 --> 01:46:57.079
Yes, sir man, you will just dudes, I know, man,
1972
01:46:57.279 --> 01:47:01.520
so and you got a platform that's like crazy.
1973
01:47:01.520 --> 01:47:03.279
You want more challenge, dudes, I know you got your
1974
01:47:03.279 --> 01:47:05.000
hand and everything. I appreciate it.
1975
01:47:06.680 --> 01:47:08.680
I try, I try, bro, but and we got some
1976
01:47:08.720 --> 01:47:12.079
stuff coming. So everybody stay tuned and we'll talk to
1977
01:47:12.159 --> 01:47:14.399
you soon. Brother, stay stay on the line. But I'm
1978
01:47:14.439 --> 01:47:16.960
a I'm gonna in the show now. Tune into the
1979
01:47:17.000 --> 01:47:19.479
other logic and Larry stuff share it and and uh,
1980
01:47:19.600 --> 01:47:22.159
you know, stay tuned, bro. We we are out here.
1981
01:47:22.479 --> 01:47:25.319
I'll talk to you guys all very soon. Logic and
1982
01:47:25.399 --> 01:47:26.039
larry out.
1983
01:47:27.119 --> 01:47:27.640
Love y'all,