00:00:02
Speaker 1: Still broadcasting from the Civic Cypher Studios, welcome back to the QR Code, where we share perspectives, seek understanding, and share outcomes. The man you are about to hear from is a man with a heart of gold and a spirit of platinum. He is the Q in the QR Code. He goes by the name of Q-Work.
00:00:20
Speaker 2: The man that you just heard from is the model that I follow for everything he said about me. So if it's a great thing he said about me, I got it from him. The R in the QR code goes by the name Ram this job.
00:00:32
Speaker 1: All right. Stay tuned because today's episode includes a conversation about the story behind our tattoos. We're talking about two short walking back comments on attending a bidding party and much more. As always, for anything you might miss or may have missed, download the full episode at CivicCypher.com or BINnews.com or wherever you get your podcast. Again, C-I-V-I-C-C-I-P-H-E-R.com. BINnews.com or BINnews.com to get anything you might miss or may have missed. If you're just locking in here at the QR code, Ramses Ja, that's my name. Q Ward is the man on the other mic and it is time for Q Ward's clap back. Today's clap back is entitled, derived. Q, what you got?
00:01:15
Speaker 2: Monday morning before the sun came up, federal agents went into the Washington home of a sitting United States Congresswoman. Not the FBI. Homeland Security Investigations. That is the investigative arm of ICE. They had a warrant. A judge signed it. The Justice Department says it was a judicially authorized search, part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation. And I want that on record early because it's true and because the rest of this does not need me to shade that. Ilhan Omar has not been charged with anything. Here's what the warrant is reportedly about. Her immigration paperwork. False statements. Fraud. And a conspiracy count. Allegations. And she says she did nothing wrong. And then there's one more thing on there. And this is the part I need you to hear all the way through. They're examining whether she derived her citizenship from a father who may not have been eligible for his. Derived. That is the legal word. It means citizenship that came to you through a parent. This is not an investigation into something she did even. Are you understanding what I'm saying? This is an investigation into whether she is allowed to be an American at all. And the mechanism is her father's paperwork. A man's file from decades ago being used to ask whether his daughter gets to keep the country she has lived in, voted in, and been elected to serve by the people of Minnesota three times. They're not questioning whether she even broke a law, but whether she belongs here. Now, let me put the calendar next to it because the calendar... as I've stated, is not an accident. The midterms are three weeks out. Minnesota is already voting. More than 127,000 ballots already cast. Her name, of course, is on that ballot. And a month ago, the border czar went on television and confirmed the investigation out loud, saying no one is above the law, except his agents, of course. The president called her garbage. He has called her a terrible person. And he's now stating, and I quote, it has nothing to do with me. It's really up to the DOJ. End quote. I want to be careful, and I try to always be. Maybe there is something in those files. I don't know, and neither do you. And A judge found enough to sign a warrant, and I'm sure there's some clouds around that as well. But it is a fact, so I don't get to pretend it away even though I think it's nonsense. But a warrant is probable cause, as the government describes it, is not a verdict. And it tells you nothing about why. Out of all the files in America, this one got opened at 5 in the morning. three weeks before an election. So here's the part that should grab you by the collar. If the government can wake up a member of the United States Congress to ask whether her father's papers were in order decades ago, then there is no version of this where your papers are safer than hers. She has a title. She has a security detail. She has lawyers and a caucus and a microphone. And hundreds of thousands of people that have voted repeatedly for her. And they came anyway, in the dark. So what exactly is protecting the woman in your building who has been a citizen for 20 years and whose uncle filled out those forms or whose parents filled out those forms? Earlier this year, federal agents surged into the Twin Cities. The stated goal was undocumented Somali immigrants. The president has said he does not want them in our country. Omar says ICE pulled over her son and asked him to prove he was a citizen. Her son. So this did not start Monday morning. It was really never about paperwork. Paperwork is just the language it is being conducted in. One sitting member of Congress. One pre-dawn search. Again, no charges. And a question on a warrant that is not whether she even did something wrong, but whether she was ever really one of us or one of them, I should say. They're going to tell you that this is about the law. Watch and see if anyone asked for them to prove it. Rams.
00:07:15
Speaker 1: You know, um, you mentioned earlier that you got a chance to, uh, check in on, uh, checking on both of them. And you talked to, um, her husband, uh, who we met for the first time recently at CBC. Uh, I know that she's a strong person, but I know that this has to be something that plagues him too. I'd imagine his, his impulse is to want to protect his wife. And you, you mentioned that he, He appreciated us reaching out and saying that he had more strength than he knew.
00:07:53
Speaker 2: But....
00:07:55
Speaker 1: I'm glad that there are strong people in positions like that. Because they need to be. If you're just tuning in to us here at the QR code, Qboard, that is the best man I know. I go by the name Ramses Ja... Q, what's the story behind your tattoos?
00:08:13
Speaker 2: So.
00:08:17
Speaker 2: We don't have enough dialogue to tell all the stories because I got tattoos everywhere.
00:08:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, same.
00:08:24
Speaker 2: But I'll talk about a couple. Sure. I once asked my mom if I could get a tattoo. My mom vehemently and swiftly told me no, especially not as long as I was living under her roof. So what do I do the day I'm no longer living under her roof? I go to the tattoo parlor. Boom. However, as you will see, if you ever get a chance to look at my tattoos up close, I am still Stella's child. That is one of my tattoos. So I knew I was going to have to see her again. I didn't move. I didn't move out to, you know, to never see mom again and never have to answer to her. So it had to be meaningful. I couldn't just come with my favorite comic book character or, you know, whatever else I decided was important to me at the time but when I was in high school my father passed away and I knew that if that tattoo was dedicated to him that it would resonate with her and that she would understand I wasn't just being flimsy I wasn't being disrespectful I wasn't just trying to do something that I thought was trendy but I was trying to honor the man for all that He tried to do because my father was a flawed man. He was not an incredible dad. But when I did get to spend time with him, I did feel loved. And we were in the process when he passed away of repairing our very very uh broken relationship so when she saw it it caught her off guard because in her mind her mind didn't say okay he moved out he could do what he wants now her mind said I told that boy not to get no tattooed But she read it and I watched the anger in her eyes kind of melt away once she realized what was there. So there was that. Famously, Stella's Child, self-explanatory. And I have a really large iris on my forearm from my late grandmother, Iris Ford. So those are three that mean a lot to me. I also have my family. symbols of my family, my son, a wolf cub, my daughter, a panda cub, and their mom, a lioness. Now, lioness have the reputation for their hunting, for their ferocious protection of their children. But we just finished watching this series called Lioness that gave it a whole nother meaning. So now the kids think that their mom is like a secret super spy agent military ranger super special forces uh just superhero and all of those meanings are accurate so you know those are some of the tattoos i have because i don't we don't have enough time for me to talk about all of.
00:11:30
Speaker 1: Them uh if you can just touch on the several detroit tattoos because people gotta know um.
00:11:40
Speaker 2: Yeah there's a lot i have the old english detroit tigers the I have the Renaissance Center that used to be Ford's world headquarters that is now General Motors world headquarters, I believe, or it used to be owned by Ford, but it's now GM's world headquarters. I have the United Auto Workers. It's a sculpture, downtown Detroit. My mom used to belong to that union. I'm trying to look at all of them now because I have so few. One of them I would have to show people. It's really, really difficult to describe it.
00:12:14
Speaker 1: I know.
00:12:14
Speaker 2: It's like the writing of an older time, like original text from like biblical times.
00:12:21
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:12:22
Speaker 2: But it says Detroit in English. It just looks like Arabic or Sanskrit. You'd have to see it to kind of understand what I'm saying. But there's a lot of Detroit representation in the ink.
00:12:32
Speaker 1: I love that. I love when.
00:12:35
Speaker 2: And shout out to H & H Soul Food, a historical monument in Macon, Georgia. Down there. My family's restaurant. So the logo and mark for that restaurant is also on my forearm. Yeah.
00:12:50
Speaker 1: I'm a fan of people being who they are. I love that. I love culture. I love people being proud of who they are, where they're from. And one thing I know is that people from Detroit, people from Chicago, people from Puerto Rico... They they they want you. That's like the first thing you learn about them people is where they from. So I love that. I never got like a Compton tattoo, even when it was like a cool thing to do. I never got one. But, you know, I'm I'm like you.
00:13:24
Speaker 2: That's not past tense. You said when it was cool. It's never going to not be cool to get Compton.
00:13:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, I still got I still got a little room if I if I ever get there. Anyway, I'm like I'm like you would both have. We're like covered in tattoo. I'm like, like not head to toe, but, um, and you know, we're DJs. We come from entertainment. We're entertainers. So we're on stages where, you know, that sort of thing. So it's a part of the look. Uh, if I do say so you wear your tattoos. Well, Q, um, I think the tattoos that, that stand out to me, um, I have a, I have a cousin who passed from leukemia, so I'm going to make sure that I shout her out. My cousin, Brittany, um, she got to live for 14 years. And, um, she was everything, everything and a half, man. She was great. And, uh, so I made sure to get a tattoo in, in commemoration of her. It's an Alto clef with a little halo over the top and her favorite color purple. And it's, you know, those know that, that clef, it kind of looks like a B. So that was my, my little Brittany tattoo. Um, I think one of my more popular tattoos, like everyone always wants me to like hold it up when I'm like getting shot for a cover of a magazine or a newspaper or something like that, or, you know, press photos or whatever. I have the words, I love you down my forearm, I guess this would be. And it's my right forearm. So if, and it's written in such a way to where if I hold a microphone, this is what I was thinking at the time. Excuse me. I thought to myself, what is something that I always want to say? What is something that I want to do with this position that I have in the world where I get to be presented to rooms that I walk into in the most flattering light possible? Everywhere I go, people are happy I showed up. What am I going to do with that attention? What am I going to put into the universe? And I thought, You know, why not try to put love? You know, it's easy and it sounds silly, but that's really consistent with my heart. Q would tell you. It's a very simple thing. And to me, it's very meaningful. So when I was thinking like of getting a tattoo, I'm like, why don't you get, I love you right there. So if I hold a microphone up to my face, like I'm talking in it, the tattoo is oriented to the crowd that would be watching me. So even if that mic cuts out, even if you don't agree with what I'm saying, anything like that, you do see, the message, I love you. It's huge letters. You can't miss it. Um, that one is, is really, uh, important. And a lot of people recognize that one. Um, I have like music notes and Egyptian hieroglyphics all over me and stuff like that. My name is Ramses. So, you know, um, I got to do that. Another one that's really meaningful. I have the, the, the name Gomez on my wrist. So people can see this one, even if I wear long sleeves, uh, my right wrist and Gomez is written Not to where someone else can read it, but to where I can read it. In other words, it's legible to me if I turn my wrist to myself, right? And the idea is, it's on my right hand. And I was thinking, you know, Gomez from the Adams family. This is a character, for those that don't know, who's like obsessed with his wife, Morticia, right? He loves her out loud in the ways that are meaningful to her. He's just a gentleman, the weird, super weird family. But one thing is true about this family is they're the opposite of what you would see on TV when they first came out. And the opposite was, because all those TV dads were like really mean to their wives and for the sake of comedy, this guy was in love with his wife. And I always loved that. I got a kick out of that guy. And I got this tattoo on my wrist so I could read it. just in case I ever reached my right hand out to take a woman's hand, I could be reminded of Gomez and the way Gomez reached his hand out for his wife, Morticia. And to always know that in my heart of hearts, it is my desire to regard a woman and treat a woman in the same way that Gomez treated Morticia. So this is a little reminder for me Not that I needed it, but I thought it would be cool. And so people ask me about this one all the time. Like, who is Gomez? And I got to tell them this long story. So there's a couple tattoos like Q I'm covered in them, so I'll never be able to tell them all. But hopefully that gets you up to speed.
00:18:01
Speaker 2: All right.
00:18:01
Speaker 1: If you're just locking in with us here at the QR code, Ramses Ja, that is my name. Q Ward, that is your host today. We're going to be talking to Q about this next one. I guess I might chip in a little bit too, but Too Short walks back comments on attending... Diddy's welcome home party. All right, let's get right in. A share from TMZ. Too short is walking back his words, apologizing for saying he would attend Diddy's welcome home party once he gets released from prison. And to be fair, real quick, sorry. To be fair, I know that this is something that we hadn't been able to get to, but I did want to hit this one and Q said it was cool to do it. So here we are. All right, I'll continue. He posted a video. singing a different tune, acknowledging he was a little insensitive with his words and claimed to not have known the full extent of the allegations when he made those comments. As you know, he had proudly declared on the TMZ podcast last week, quote, I'm going to the Puff Daddy coming home party, unquote. The rapper claims he'd been to dozens of Diddy parties in the past, insisting, quote, never once have I seen a naked person or sexual act, unquote. He says the parties he went to were ones where people socialized and were great parties. Too Short seems to think redemption is possible for Diddy, saying that he hopes he's grown by the time he gets out. He said, quote, I hope that when he comes home, he's not an abuser anymore. Let's take a listen to what Too Short had to say in his own words.
00:19:32
Speaker 3: I want to thank all the people that called me yesterday, text me, hit me up about this TMZ Puff Daddy thing. I was a little insensitive with my words I said that I didn't condone what he did to Cassie but I would go to his party if he came home and I really didn't know the full extent of the case. I did not know that there were a lot of women who had claimed that they had been abused by Puff Daddy and how it affected them. I do not condone abuse in any kind of way. Not emotionally. not physical, not sexual. And I don't support anybody that does it.
00:20:10
Speaker 1: All right. That's, that's a good amount right there, but you get the, you get the, the sense that he's, you know, apologetic, right?
00:20:18
Speaker 2: Okay.
00:20:18
Speaker 1: So, um, I don't know if I have a lot here, but I'll give what I got. Uh, the first thing I could totally see too short, just kind of having a paying, like, the minimum amount of attention to the Diddy trial. Obviously, he knows Diddy, this is something that's happening, but I could see him saying, because he says in the video, he's like, I didn't know there was a ton of people that came forward alleging abuse. I didn't know that. I thought that it was the Cassie video and that Diddy had to go to trial for you know, whatever, like having sex at his parties or something like that. And that seems plausible enough, right? So that's something that I'll say that, you know, maybe there's some truth there. I also want to say to the opposite, that I recognize how people could say, this is interesting coming from Too Short, whose whole entire decades of long career. He's been rapping for 40 years, something like that. Um, you know, this whole time too short has made music that for all intents and purposes does condone sexual violence, sexual exploitation, you know, on and on and on. And so he, him, realizing that he might, you know, run afoul of the culture might be more of what prompted this apology. I could see people saying that too. And technically speaking, they'd be right. But I think the last thing I'll say, because it's really challenging for me to crucify a black man. It's challenging for me to do that to anybody, to be fair. But Black men and black women. I realize that the world doesn't need more of that from Ramses. I don't need to bring anybody down. I usually just shut up and mind my business. But in this case, I feel like, and in all cases, I mean, people that listen to the show know, I say this repeatedly. Nobody's simply the worst thing that they've done. People deserve the opportunity to grow. People change. They change very slowly. And that doesn't mean that because you change, you're not accountable to what you've done in the past. But I do believe that people can learn. Lord knows Ramses has certainly learned in his life. There are things that I did when I was younger that I would never do now. This will sound kind of silly, but it's a super big deal in my world. I used to make fun of my little sister. Think about that. My sister is a gift. And when I was a younger man, I thought making fun of her was the right thing. I thought that's just what you did. How dare I ever utter a word about my little sister that would hurt her feelings ever. I wish I could go back and undo that. It's like one of the biggest regrets of my life is that I made my own sister. And I would never do that now. So people can change, right? My sister knows this already and I apologize every three, four years. But anyway, so, you know, if I can allow myself that and forgive myself for that, Lord knows I can give a little bit of grace to someone like Tushar. Q, what are you thinking here?
00:24:16
Speaker 2: You know, listening to the apology was weird. Not because he was apologizing. It just, the explanation didn't match what he said. If he'd said, You know, I said, you know, I knew what happened to Cassie and I wasn't with it, but I would go to his party. But I didn't really know what happened with Cassie. Or if he just said, hey, I said I would go to a Diddy party and then I saw what he did to Cassie and I'm no longer with it. It would make sense. He came into this already knowing what happened to Cassie. And then said, I didn't know that it had happened to so many people. And I don't condone or support anybody that would abuse anybody in any way.
00:24:58
Speaker 1: Well, wait, you started.
00:25:00
Speaker 2: With what happened to Cassie. So how do you start there? Say, but I'd still go to the party. And then once you feel some pressure, say, well, you know, when I said that I was just talking about Cassie, I didn't know he'd abused a lot of people. And I don't condone abuse in any way, sexual, physical, all the different ways that he said. It just, that doesn't make it, those things don't make any sense.
00:25:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, I see what you're saying.
00:25:26
Speaker 2: So there's definitely grace and he can definitely apologize, but just say, I'm sorry. Don't qualify it with a reason that disqualifies what you already said. You knew what happened to Cassie, so you already knew he was abusive and you still was going to go to the party. So it was the pressure from people and a response to what you said that made you maybe backpedal and realize, okay, I'm tripping. And I was tripping is a way better explanation than, well, when he abused that one girl, it was cool. But when I learned he was a serial abuser, then I decided I want to party with him anymore. Cause we watched him stomp her out on video. That's, that's all I got on it.
00:26:08
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. I, um, I don't know, man. I, I, Again, this is not me. I'm just trying to put myself into his brain and see where he might have been, you know, in terms of his thinking, where he might have gone. And I think you mentioned it, and I think that's probably it. You know, maybe if Diddy did this one thing to Cassie, then... You know, he's going to jail for it. He's going to get out. That's that. You know, he paid his debt to society, gave Cassie millions of dollars. He apologized. You know, what more is there to see here? And then if it's a matter of like, okay, there's a whole group of people that have come forward because this is a serial thing that has happened for many, many years to lots of different people, then it's less a, one and done and he atoned for it and he apologized, blah, blah, blah. And this is really more his character. So again, that's me giving him as much grace as I possibly can after trying to put myself into his brain. Lord knows I'm not going to any diddy party. Well, diddy parties don't make their way to me. You know where I'm going? I'm going home. That's where I'm going. That's my favorite place to go. These days, I don't want to go anywhere. I've spent too much of my life in nightclubs and The concerts and backstage, all this sort of stuff. And I am very happy. If I do go to a concert, I'm backstage. And if I go to a nightclub, it's for about, I got about 10 minutes. And then I'm out of there. Unless I'm working, in which case that's fine. Because I'm getting money. But yeah. So, I don't know. Good luck to you too, short.
00:28:00
Speaker 2: Hope you figure it out.
00:28:01
Speaker 1: All right. That is about it. You've been listening to The QR Code. Today's show was produced by Chris Thompson. If you have some thoughts you'd like to share, visit CivicCypher.com to ask a question, share some encouragement, or buy us a cup of coffee. And while you're there, be sure to hit subscribe and download all of our episodes. Today's episode includes a conversation about Too Short, walking back his comments on going to a ditty party, Ilhan Omar's home getting raided by the feds, and much more. As always, for anything you might miss or may have missed, download the full episode at CivicCypher.com or BINews.com or wherever you get your podcasts. For our editorial content covering hip-hop culture, visit HipHopWeeklyMagazine.com. Also, be sure to check us out on all social media at CivicCypher. C-I-V-I-C, C-I-P-H-E-R. I am your host, Ramses Jha. On all social media platforms, you can find Q at I-M-Q Ward. And be sure to keep it right here because we'll be back to share our news with our voice from our perspective right here on the QR Code.
Speaker 1: Still broadcasting from the Civic Cypher Studios, welcome back to the QR Code, where we share perspectives, seek understanding, and share outcomes. The man you are about to hear from is a man with a heart of gold and a spirit of platinum. He is the Q in the QR Code. He goes by the name of Q-Work.
00:00:20
Speaker 2: The man that you just heard from is the model that I follow for everything he said about me. So if it's a great thing he said about me, I got it from him. The R in the QR code goes by the name Ram this job.
00:00:32
Speaker 1: All right. Stay tuned because today's episode includes a conversation about the story behind our tattoos. We're talking about two short walking back comments on attending a bidding party and much more. As always, for anything you might miss or may have missed, download the full episode at CivicCypher.com or BINnews.com or wherever you get your podcast. Again, C-I-V-I-C-C-I-P-H-E-R.com. BINnews.com or BINnews.com to get anything you might miss or may have missed. If you're just locking in here at the QR code, Ramses Ja, that's my name. Q Ward is the man on the other mic and it is time for Q Ward's clap back. Today's clap back is entitled, derived. Q, what you got?
00:01:15
Speaker 2: Monday morning before the sun came up, federal agents went into the Washington home of a sitting United States Congresswoman. Not the FBI. Homeland Security Investigations. That is the investigative arm of ICE. They had a warrant. A judge signed it. The Justice Department says it was a judicially authorized search, part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation. And I want that on record early because it's true and because the rest of this does not need me to shade that. Ilhan Omar has not been charged with anything. Here's what the warrant is reportedly about. Her immigration paperwork. False statements. Fraud. And a conspiracy count. Allegations. And she says she did nothing wrong. And then there's one more thing on there. And this is the part I need you to hear all the way through. They're examining whether she derived her citizenship from a father who may not have been eligible for his. Derived. That is the legal word. It means citizenship that came to you through a parent. This is not an investigation into something she did even. Are you understanding what I'm saying? This is an investigation into whether she is allowed to be an American at all. And the mechanism is her father's paperwork. A man's file from decades ago being used to ask whether his daughter gets to keep the country she has lived in, voted in, and been elected to serve by the people of Minnesota three times. They're not questioning whether she even broke a law, but whether she belongs here. Now, let me put the calendar next to it because the calendar... as I've stated, is not an accident. The midterms are three weeks out. Minnesota is already voting. More than 127,000 ballots already cast. Her name, of course, is on that ballot. And a month ago, the border czar went on television and confirmed the investigation out loud, saying no one is above the law, except his agents, of course. The president called her garbage. He has called her a terrible person. And he's now stating, and I quote, it has nothing to do with me. It's really up to the DOJ. End quote. I want to be careful, and I try to always be. Maybe there is something in those files. I don't know, and neither do you. And A judge found enough to sign a warrant, and I'm sure there's some clouds around that as well. But it is a fact, so I don't get to pretend it away even though I think it's nonsense. But a warrant is probable cause, as the government describes it, is not a verdict. And it tells you nothing about why. Out of all the files in America, this one got opened at 5 in the morning. three weeks before an election. So here's the part that should grab you by the collar. If the government can wake up a member of the United States Congress to ask whether her father's papers were in order decades ago, then there is no version of this where your papers are safer than hers. She has a title. She has a security detail. She has lawyers and a caucus and a microphone. And hundreds of thousands of people that have voted repeatedly for her. And they came anyway, in the dark. So what exactly is protecting the woman in your building who has been a citizen for 20 years and whose uncle filled out those forms or whose parents filled out those forms? Earlier this year, federal agents surged into the Twin Cities. The stated goal was undocumented Somali immigrants. The president has said he does not want them in our country. Omar says ICE pulled over her son and asked him to prove he was a citizen. Her son. So this did not start Monday morning. It was really never about paperwork. Paperwork is just the language it is being conducted in. One sitting member of Congress. One pre-dawn search. Again, no charges. And a question on a warrant that is not whether she even did something wrong, but whether she was ever really one of us or one of them, I should say. They're going to tell you that this is about the law. Watch and see if anyone asked for them to prove it. Rams.
00:07:15
Speaker 1: You know, um, you mentioned earlier that you got a chance to, uh, check in on, uh, checking on both of them. And you talked to, um, her husband, uh, who we met for the first time recently at CBC. Uh, I know that she's a strong person, but I know that this has to be something that plagues him too. I'd imagine his, his impulse is to want to protect his wife. And you, you mentioned that he, He appreciated us reaching out and saying that he had more strength than he knew.
00:07:53
Speaker 2: But....
00:07:55
Speaker 1: I'm glad that there are strong people in positions like that. Because they need to be. If you're just tuning in to us here at the QR code, Qboard, that is the best man I know. I go by the name Ramses Ja... Q, what's the story behind your tattoos?
00:08:13
Speaker 2: So.
00:08:17
Speaker 2: We don't have enough dialogue to tell all the stories because I got tattoos everywhere.
00:08:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, same.
00:08:24
Speaker 2: But I'll talk about a couple. Sure. I once asked my mom if I could get a tattoo. My mom vehemently and swiftly told me no, especially not as long as I was living under her roof. So what do I do the day I'm no longer living under her roof? I go to the tattoo parlor. Boom. However, as you will see, if you ever get a chance to look at my tattoos up close, I am still Stella's child. That is one of my tattoos. So I knew I was going to have to see her again. I didn't move. I didn't move out to, you know, to never see mom again and never have to answer to her. So it had to be meaningful. I couldn't just come with my favorite comic book character or, you know, whatever else I decided was important to me at the time but when I was in high school my father passed away and I knew that if that tattoo was dedicated to him that it would resonate with her and that she would understand I wasn't just being flimsy I wasn't being disrespectful I wasn't just trying to do something that I thought was trendy but I was trying to honor the man for all that He tried to do because my father was a flawed man. He was not an incredible dad. But when I did get to spend time with him, I did feel loved. And we were in the process when he passed away of repairing our very very uh broken relationship so when she saw it it caught her off guard because in her mind her mind didn't say okay he moved out he could do what he wants now her mind said I told that boy not to get no tattooed But she read it and I watched the anger in her eyes kind of melt away once she realized what was there. So there was that. Famously, Stella's Child, self-explanatory. And I have a really large iris on my forearm from my late grandmother, Iris Ford. So those are three that mean a lot to me. I also have my family. symbols of my family, my son, a wolf cub, my daughter, a panda cub, and their mom, a lioness. Now, lioness have the reputation for their hunting, for their ferocious protection of their children. But we just finished watching this series called Lioness that gave it a whole nother meaning. So now the kids think that their mom is like a secret super spy agent military ranger super special forces uh just superhero and all of those meanings are accurate so you know those are some of the tattoos i have because i don't we don't have enough time for me to talk about all of.
00:11:30
Speaker 1: Them uh if you can just touch on the several detroit tattoos because people gotta know um.
00:11:40
Speaker 2: Yeah there's a lot i have the old english detroit tigers the I have the Renaissance Center that used to be Ford's world headquarters that is now General Motors world headquarters, I believe, or it used to be owned by Ford, but it's now GM's world headquarters. I have the United Auto Workers. It's a sculpture, downtown Detroit. My mom used to belong to that union. I'm trying to look at all of them now because I have so few. One of them I would have to show people. It's really, really difficult to describe it.
00:12:14
Speaker 1: I know.
00:12:14
Speaker 2: It's like the writing of an older time, like original text from like biblical times.
00:12:21
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:12:22
Speaker 2: But it says Detroit in English. It just looks like Arabic or Sanskrit. You'd have to see it to kind of understand what I'm saying. But there's a lot of Detroit representation in the ink.
00:12:32
Speaker 1: I love that. I love when.
00:12:35
Speaker 2: And shout out to H & H Soul Food, a historical monument in Macon, Georgia. Down there. My family's restaurant. So the logo and mark for that restaurant is also on my forearm. Yeah.
00:12:50
Speaker 1: I'm a fan of people being who they are. I love that. I love culture. I love people being proud of who they are, where they're from. And one thing I know is that people from Detroit, people from Chicago, people from Puerto Rico... They they they want you. That's like the first thing you learn about them people is where they from. So I love that. I never got like a Compton tattoo, even when it was like a cool thing to do. I never got one. But, you know, I'm I'm like you.
00:13:24
Speaker 2: That's not past tense. You said when it was cool. It's never going to not be cool to get Compton.
00:13:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, I still got I still got a little room if I if I ever get there. Anyway, I'm like I'm like you would both have. We're like covered in tattoo. I'm like, like not head to toe, but, um, and you know, we're DJs. We come from entertainment. We're entertainers. So we're on stages where, you know, that sort of thing. So it's a part of the look. Uh, if I do say so you wear your tattoos. Well, Q, um, I think the tattoos that, that stand out to me, um, I have a, I have a cousin who passed from leukemia, so I'm going to make sure that I shout her out. My cousin, Brittany, um, she got to live for 14 years. And, um, she was everything, everything and a half, man. She was great. And, uh, so I made sure to get a tattoo in, in commemoration of her. It's an Alto clef with a little halo over the top and her favorite color purple. And it's, you know, those know that, that clef, it kind of looks like a B. So that was my, my little Brittany tattoo. Um, I think one of my more popular tattoos, like everyone always wants me to like hold it up when I'm like getting shot for a cover of a magazine or a newspaper or something like that, or, you know, press photos or whatever. I have the words, I love you down my forearm, I guess this would be. And it's my right forearm. So if, and it's written in such a way to where if I hold a microphone, this is what I was thinking at the time. Excuse me. I thought to myself, what is something that I always want to say? What is something that I want to do with this position that I have in the world where I get to be presented to rooms that I walk into in the most flattering light possible? Everywhere I go, people are happy I showed up. What am I going to do with that attention? What am I going to put into the universe? And I thought, You know, why not try to put love? You know, it's easy and it sounds silly, but that's really consistent with my heart. Q would tell you. It's a very simple thing. And to me, it's very meaningful. So when I was thinking like of getting a tattoo, I'm like, why don't you get, I love you right there. So if I hold a microphone up to my face, like I'm talking in it, the tattoo is oriented to the crowd that would be watching me. So even if that mic cuts out, even if you don't agree with what I'm saying, anything like that, you do see, the message, I love you. It's huge letters. You can't miss it. Um, that one is, is really, uh, important. And a lot of people recognize that one. Um, I have like music notes and Egyptian hieroglyphics all over me and stuff like that. My name is Ramses. So, you know, um, I got to do that. Another one that's really meaningful. I have the, the, the name Gomez on my wrist. So people can see this one, even if I wear long sleeves, uh, my right wrist and Gomez is written Not to where someone else can read it, but to where I can read it. In other words, it's legible to me if I turn my wrist to myself, right? And the idea is, it's on my right hand. And I was thinking, you know, Gomez from the Adams family. This is a character, for those that don't know, who's like obsessed with his wife, Morticia, right? He loves her out loud in the ways that are meaningful to her. He's just a gentleman, the weird, super weird family. But one thing is true about this family is they're the opposite of what you would see on TV when they first came out. And the opposite was, because all those TV dads were like really mean to their wives and for the sake of comedy, this guy was in love with his wife. And I always loved that. I got a kick out of that guy. And I got this tattoo on my wrist so I could read it. just in case I ever reached my right hand out to take a woman's hand, I could be reminded of Gomez and the way Gomez reached his hand out for his wife, Morticia. And to always know that in my heart of hearts, it is my desire to regard a woman and treat a woman in the same way that Gomez treated Morticia. So this is a little reminder for me Not that I needed it, but I thought it would be cool. And so people ask me about this one all the time. Like, who is Gomez? And I got to tell them this long story. So there's a couple tattoos like Q I'm covered in them, so I'll never be able to tell them all. But hopefully that gets you up to speed.
00:18:01
Speaker 2: All right.
00:18:01
Speaker 1: If you're just locking in with us here at the QR code, Ramses Ja, that is my name. Q Ward, that is your host today. We're going to be talking to Q about this next one. I guess I might chip in a little bit too, but Too Short walks back comments on attending... Diddy's welcome home party. All right, let's get right in. A share from TMZ. Too short is walking back his words, apologizing for saying he would attend Diddy's welcome home party once he gets released from prison. And to be fair, real quick, sorry. To be fair, I know that this is something that we hadn't been able to get to, but I did want to hit this one and Q said it was cool to do it. So here we are. All right, I'll continue. He posted a video. singing a different tune, acknowledging he was a little insensitive with his words and claimed to not have known the full extent of the allegations when he made those comments. As you know, he had proudly declared on the TMZ podcast last week, quote, I'm going to the Puff Daddy coming home party, unquote. The rapper claims he'd been to dozens of Diddy parties in the past, insisting, quote, never once have I seen a naked person or sexual act, unquote. He says the parties he went to were ones where people socialized and were great parties. Too Short seems to think redemption is possible for Diddy, saying that he hopes he's grown by the time he gets out. He said, quote, I hope that when he comes home, he's not an abuser anymore. Let's take a listen to what Too Short had to say in his own words.
00:19:32
Speaker 3: I want to thank all the people that called me yesterday, text me, hit me up about this TMZ Puff Daddy thing. I was a little insensitive with my words I said that I didn't condone what he did to Cassie but I would go to his party if he came home and I really didn't know the full extent of the case. I did not know that there were a lot of women who had claimed that they had been abused by Puff Daddy and how it affected them. I do not condone abuse in any kind of way. Not emotionally. not physical, not sexual. And I don't support anybody that does it.
00:20:10
Speaker 1: All right. That's, that's a good amount right there, but you get the, you get the, the sense that he's, you know, apologetic, right?
00:20:18
Speaker 2: Okay.
00:20:18
Speaker 1: So, um, I don't know if I have a lot here, but I'll give what I got. Uh, the first thing I could totally see too short, just kind of having a paying, like, the minimum amount of attention to the Diddy trial. Obviously, he knows Diddy, this is something that's happening, but I could see him saying, because he says in the video, he's like, I didn't know there was a ton of people that came forward alleging abuse. I didn't know that. I thought that it was the Cassie video and that Diddy had to go to trial for you know, whatever, like having sex at his parties or something like that. And that seems plausible enough, right? So that's something that I'll say that, you know, maybe there's some truth there. I also want to say to the opposite, that I recognize how people could say, this is interesting coming from Too Short, whose whole entire decades of long career. He's been rapping for 40 years, something like that. Um, you know, this whole time too short has made music that for all intents and purposes does condone sexual violence, sexual exploitation, you know, on and on and on. And so he, him, realizing that he might, you know, run afoul of the culture might be more of what prompted this apology. I could see people saying that too. And technically speaking, they'd be right. But I think the last thing I'll say, because it's really challenging for me to crucify a black man. It's challenging for me to do that to anybody, to be fair. But Black men and black women. I realize that the world doesn't need more of that from Ramses. I don't need to bring anybody down. I usually just shut up and mind my business. But in this case, I feel like, and in all cases, I mean, people that listen to the show know, I say this repeatedly. Nobody's simply the worst thing that they've done. People deserve the opportunity to grow. People change. They change very slowly. And that doesn't mean that because you change, you're not accountable to what you've done in the past. But I do believe that people can learn. Lord knows Ramses has certainly learned in his life. There are things that I did when I was younger that I would never do now. This will sound kind of silly, but it's a super big deal in my world. I used to make fun of my little sister. Think about that. My sister is a gift. And when I was a younger man, I thought making fun of her was the right thing. I thought that's just what you did. How dare I ever utter a word about my little sister that would hurt her feelings ever. I wish I could go back and undo that. It's like one of the biggest regrets of my life is that I made my own sister. And I would never do that now. So people can change, right? My sister knows this already and I apologize every three, four years. But anyway, so, you know, if I can allow myself that and forgive myself for that, Lord knows I can give a little bit of grace to someone like Tushar. Q, what are you thinking here?
00:24:16
Speaker 2: You know, listening to the apology was weird. Not because he was apologizing. It just, the explanation didn't match what he said. If he'd said, You know, I said, you know, I knew what happened to Cassie and I wasn't with it, but I would go to his party. But I didn't really know what happened with Cassie. Or if he just said, hey, I said I would go to a Diddy party and then I saw what he did to Cassie and I'm no longer with it. It would make sense. He came into this already knowing what happened to Cassie. And then said, I didn't know that it had happened to so many people. And I don't condone or support anybody that would abuse anybody in any way.
00:24:58
Speaker 1: Well, wait, you started.
00:25:00
Speaker 2: With what happened to Cassie. So how do you start there? Say, but I'd still go to the party. And then once you feel some pressure, say, well, you know, when I said that I was just talking about Cassie, I didn't know he'd abused a lot of people. And I don't condone abuse in any way, sexual, physical, all the different ways that he said. It just, that doesn't make it, those things don't make any sense.
00:25:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, I see what you're saying.
00:25:26
Speaker 2: So there's definitely grace and he can definitely apologize, but just say, I'm sorry. Don't qualify it with a reason that disqualifies what you already said. You knew what happened to Cassie, so you already knew he was abusive and you still was going to go to the party. So it was the pressure from people and a response to what you said that made you maybe backpedal and realize, okay, I'm tripping. And I was tripping is a way better explanation than, well, when he abused that one girl, it was cool. But when I learned he was a serial abuser, then I decided I want to party with him anymore. Cause we watched him stomp her out on video. That's, that's all I got on it.
00:26:08
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. I, um, I don't know, man. I, I, Again, this is not me. I'm just trying to put myself into his brain and see where he might have been, you know, in terms of his thinking, where he might have gone. And I think you mentioned it, and I think that's probably it. You know, maybe if Diddy did this one thing to Cassie, then... You know, he's going to jail for it. He's going to get out. That's that. You know, he paid his debt to society, gave Cassie millions of dollars. He apologized. You know, what more is there to see here? And then if it's a matter of like, okay, there's a whole group of people that have come forward because this is a serial thing that has happened for many, many years to lots of different people, then it's less a, one and done and he atoned for it and he apologized, blah, blah, blah. And this is really more his character. So again, that's me giving him as much grace as I possibly can after trying to put myself into his brain. Lord knows I'm not going to any diddy party. Well, diddy parties don't make their way to me. You know where I'm going? I'm going home. That's where I'm going. That's my favorite place to go. These days, I don't want to go anywhere. I've spent too much of my life in nightclubs and The concerts and backstage, all this sort of stuff. And I am very happy. If I do go to a concert, I'm backstage. And if I go to a nightclub, it's for about, I got about 10 minutes. And then I'm out of there. Unless I'm working, in which case that's fine. Because I'm getting money. But yeah. So, I don't know. Good luck to you too, short.
00:28:00
Speaker 2: Hope you figure it out.
00:28:01
Speaker 1: All right. That is about it. You've been listening to The QR Code. Today's show was produced by Chris Thompson. If you have some thoughts you'd like to share, visit CivicCypher.com to ask a question, share some encouragement, or buy us a cup of coffee. And while you're there, be sure to hit subscribe and download all of our episodes. Today's episode includes a conversation about Too Short, walking back his comments on going to a ditty party, Ilhan Omar's home getting raided by the feds, and much more. As always, for anything you might miss or may have missed, download the full episode at CivicCypher.com or BINews.com or wherever you get your podcasts. For our editorial content covering hip-hop culture, visit HipHopWeeklyMagazine.com. Also, be sure to check us out on all social media at CivicCypher. C-I-V-I-C, C-I-P-H-E-R. I am your host, Ramses Jha. On all social media platforms, you can find Q at I-M-Q Ward. And be sure to keep it right here because we'll be back to share our news with our voice from our perspective right here on the QR Code.
