 What's up? Welcome to I Have Notes, the show where people with surprisingly full IMDb pages discuss all things animation, creative, and nerdcore rap. I'm your host, Yusuf Badiola, and joining me is my lovely co-host, Kerry Shaw-Cross. Hi, everybody, and joining us this week are, well, first off, we have our regular special guest, Jordan Sweers. Hello, Jordan. Hello, I'm here again. And then we have our actual super special brand new guest, Richie Branson. Hey, how y'all doing? It's Richie. It's Richie. Richie. Good to see you. It was good to see y'all, too. It's, man, I'm excited. It's been like way too long since we've all talked, so even if it's over the internet, I'm glad it's happening. Absolutely. Yeah, it's like a family reunion. Internet style. Nerd style. So we like to open the show with basically asking how everyone's week has been, and it's been a week. Which is, yeah, become a longer and longer answered question every time. Yeah, it's been a year, Jesus Christ. Like, the weeks don't even feel like this week is going by. I mean, this month is, I forget the days, man. They blend together so, so much. Like, I have no structure in my life right now. Yeah, we're already, like, two weeks into June. Yeah. We have, in the animation department, we have a meeting called the Monthly Y'all Hands. And it's, it's, and it is genuinely every month. And this month, it was like, it was last Thursday. Yeah. And, and when Joe Clary, one of the co-heads, was like, was like, you know, it's been a month since we did the last one. Like, three people in the chat were like, wait, it's actually been a month. Are you kidding me? Like, somebody went and checked. I was like, has it actually been a month? Are you fucking kidding me right now? Yeah, it feels like two weeks. Oh my God. I feel like my smile just like slowly drops the more I think about it. Yeah. This year's been more like periods of time, as opposed to actual periods. Yeah, it's just like the new thing that's like taking over everyone's lives, you know, every week. Yeah. Yeah. What's going to happen next? What crazy ideological thing will we all fight over next week? I mean, is it going to be something a little less like substantial? Is it going to be like, can we lower the stakes instead of raising them every time? Yeah, I actually do like, looking back, I've missed the mask wars, right? Yeah, right. Those simpler times. I legit said that to my SO. I like looked at him and I was just like, man, I miss when all I had to worry about was coronavirus. Or that was just the primary worry in my head. It was just like, oh, wow. Man, although I am seeing more people without masks outside nowadays. And I'm like, this sucks. I mean, Texas, man. I'm in a small town, man. Population 998 and nobody's wearing masks out here. And, you know, like, I guess in some way it's like, all right, well, we're so isolated. Like, is it really going to hit? But I mean, I've been taking all my precautions, like wearing hand sanitizer, the whole nine. But it's like, you just see here, like it never felt like anything was shut down here. Like, you can still go to the general store. You still, you know, everything was open. There was nothing closed. The restaurant stayed open the entire time. There was no anything. I mean, there were signs and stuff like six feet apart, but nobody was really, you know, following kids still, you know, gathering birthday parties still being thrown. And it felt like the country. So, yeah. I mean, I guess if it's a small town, then maybe it's okay. I don't, yeah, I don't know. I was still like, I'm still very pleasantly surprised at like around the corner from my house is this like, it's like an ice house. It's not a gas station, but it's a corner store. And it's pretty sketchy looking, not going to lie. That's the one that's like an old shack, right? Yeah. It's just, it pretty much just looks like, you know, like when you go to the Home Depot parking lot and they have those like, here's like $10,000 or whatever you can buy like a giant shack. It looks like that. Oh, wow. It's fine. It's like people are, they're nice. It's fine, whatever. But like, when I saw that they had a sign that was like, mask required to come in, I was like, okay, oh God, it's bad. And also thank you for being responsible. It's like the Waffle House index where it's like, you know, things are bad when the Waffle House starts closing. Yeah. Waffle House is like the patron saint of bad hygiene and bad standards across the board. So when they're like, yo, we have to follow this rule. It's like, okay. All right. I've eaten at Waffle House, I think one time and I think I'm pretty good with that experience. That's it. That's all you need. It tasted good. It was fine. It's like, you can see your reflection on the countertop and it's like a coating of grease. It's not even like shiny. It's just, it's just grease. See, I lucked out in the one time I went, it was after like a work trip where I've been gone for like a week and I was just like home and hungry. So it like, all of that melted away for me. I just been, I come from an airport too anyways, where that's already kind of like, you know, not the cleanliest place ever. So I was just like, this Waffle is fucking great. That's this waffle right now. Yeah. Like honestly, like if I were to go into like a Waffle House blindfolded, like I think maybe like, I think Waffle House is one place where like your eyes make the food taste worse because you're looking around and just all the bite. You see the chef. He's wearing the same shirt. He wore like five days in a row. And you could tell because like it's just grease stain on top of grease stain. It's like, bro, y'all want to rotate shirts? What's going on? One of the, yeah, they did. Unfortunately. They rotate shirts amongst themselves. It's like, this is your yearly shirt. You get one. Oh, that's it. Jordan, you did, you e-raced, didn't you this last week? Yeah, I've been doing a sim race series where it's an interesting format where the races are only 20 drivers. So if more people are trying to like get into the race, you have to qualify. So they have like a day where you kind of set a lap. And if you're in the top 20, you get to make it to the race. And this is the third week. And I've been trying every week, but I got into this one and I streamed it. It was a lot of fun. It was a little frustrating. It was a little nerve wracking, but I finished there. There were two races. I finished 18th in the first one because I fucked up a bunch. And then finished 14th in the second one after some bad luck at the very end. But yeah, it was a lot of fun. I've been streaming it and stuff. So I've been having fun doing that. What's your wheel and pedal setup, Logitech? Yeah, I got a Logitech G27 on a wheel stand. So the car doesn't use a shifter, but I have the H-Pad and shifter next to it. And I could try to show it because it's right next to me. Please do. All right. So that's what it looks like. And it can fold away and stuff, but it's too much work. And then the pedals are on the ground. I want to get into that for real. Like I like cars. I love cars. I like racing. I drift amateurly. AKA, line the parking lot. Yeah, AKA, setting up cones in the parking lot. I used to have a 240SX and then I got a RX7. So like, I love every time I see you post about racing, I'm like, yo, I like cars too. You do. You wrote a song about it. Yeah, I love cars. I have a song called Drift King that's like car core. If I could go back in time, I would just make songs about cars. Like I would make a Toyota Supersong. You have Hen Thailand, Burgini. So yeah, crossover. All of my favorite songs are like car related. Cars are probably a bigger passion of mine than actual anime and video games. That's valid. Yeah, it's just an expensive passion to have. I mean, it is. Yeah, like e-racing is like sim racing is is still kind of expensive, but you can do it cheap and it's it's way cheaper than actually like racing in real life. So yeah, you don't have to worry about the fucking maintenance on the car. Yeah, buying the car, buying the tires. I actually like inquired. There's like a very like low budget casual series that runs across America. It's called used to be called chump car, but they changed the name to champ car after the actual champ car series. Oh, nice. Went bankrupt. But I thought you were going to say somebody just misheard the other person. They wrote the sign differently that time instead. But there's a guy who has a team in Austin and I was talking to him and he was like, yeah, you know, we got to got to change the brakes every race. We have two sets of tires for every race that we have to buy new ones for. And so like, and I didn't even have like racing equipment. So I needed to buy like suit and stuff, the helmet and gloves and shoes. And he was like, yeah, that's stuff, you know, you pay for yourself. And then we split the cost of entry fee, supplies, maintenance. And it was like, it's like $1,200 a race. And you're not even racing like that often. It's like, it's like every other month almost. So was it with your car? Was it with your car? No, he had his own. He had his own car. They have certain like specs and stuff that it was like, he had like an Audi 2000 or something, a 2008 Audi. I don't know what it was, but usually people just run Miata's and stuff. Yeah, I'm gonna say I thought about building a spec Miata like many moons ago. And I just got out. I was like, I'm just going to get a RX7 because I always wanted that car instead. All right, Richie, let's start our own race team. Yeah, I'm with it, man. I love it, you know, like that's that would be something. I like cars, but I like not enough to do what y'all are doing. So can I just be like the water boy on the side? That's cool. I mean, well, eventually who knows? We could we could be building the next one of the rare American F1 teams. Yeah, it's true. Yeah. When we can all hang out again, I need you and my roommate to hang out. I think you've actually talked to him over Twitter, but he's got a BRZ. Oh, nice. He loves that car. Yeah, he does. I think y'all would get along. See, I'm back in the market. I sold my Maserati a couple months ago. I'm like, I don't know what I want now, but I bought a minivan for the kids. Maserati to a minivan. Because it was just like, all right, I got getting domesticated, Richie. But yeah, I got that out the way. I'm like, all right, now I can start, you know, just go get a Tesla Model X. You can have like a little bit of both. Yeah, those Teslas are like ridiculously quick. Like they're that new roadster. I think it's like 260 in like two seconds or something like that. Yeah, that roadster was ridiculous. You can get the SpaceX version that like has booster rockets, I think. Yeah, they're insane. But I think I just wanted Japanese, like a 90s Japanese sports car again. I think I'm going to go back to that. That'd be cool. Probably like the kind of the boxy model. Yeah, exactly. I want that boxy stuff, man, a Japanese steel. So I'm thinking, I don't know, maybe like a 90. But like the 95s are now legal to import something like a 95 Skyline or something. That's exactly like the stuff I know all comes from Fast and Furious movies. Exactly, yeah. This is going to be in the cars. Fast and Furious, man, like. Oh, don't. That's my whole family here. Yeah, sorry to talk about cars, Issa. Oh, yeah. Issa, what are you, what are you repping? What's your whip? Yeah. Um, I'm finally playing video games again. So you don't play Chronicles or Master came out and someone turned me to Moonlighter, which is that indie game, which is basically it's an inventory indie game that is like both a shop simulator, because during the day you are shopped keep and you sell the items that you get from when you moonlight at night as an adventure in the dungeon. That's neat. It's totally up my alley because it's it's like time management strategy, but at the same time it's like the bit of action on top of like adventure adjacent. Yes, it's happening over there, but I'm cool here. Yes, exactly. And then you like build the town of like, oh, yeah, this is this is everything I ever wanted on top of Xenoblade because I love it. I love that game. I beat it. It was it was a lot of fun. Moonlighter is Xenoblade. Yeah, no, Moonlighter. Yes, but really all that's so cool. I'm yeah, no, I love the game. I'm trying not to go into it with guides because I just want to see how much I can experience a game. But also I'm like, I don't know if I'm doing this right. Like, I don't know. Not to like ask like too big of a question right off the gate. But hey, Richie, could you you've already mentioned like three different like hobbies and like you do a lot. Man, I was like, would you mind kind of like talking to people about like, you know, what you do besides being just like an awesome creative person or be, I guess, as an awesome creative person. I have like a very, very strange resume of just random shit. So man, I'll just tell the story, man. Like what year was it? 2015, 2015. That seems like so long ago, but it's five years ago. I was working for the government. I was like the guy that printed out your social security card. Like super. Yeah, if you ever ordered a social security card, like I was the guy. But the problem with it is when you work at the social security office, nobody just comes there just like excited, right? You go there when some shit's wrong. So it's like, oh, my check didn't come in. Let me go. You know, my claim got denied. Let me show up. Lost my social security card. Let me go. So like that job was the worst job I ever had. It was a great job. Don't get me wrong. Like it was good. It was stable. Like God bless the stimulus, all that stuff that happened to open up jobs for the federal government and somehow I got one. So I'm thankful for the job, but it did. It taught me that like I could not like, and it's crazy when I got hired, they're like, you're so smart. You're going to move up fast. And like every time a promotion would come up, I would just not apply. Like I was just like, no, yeah, I'm cool. I don't have I don't really have responsibilities. You know, I don't want additional responsibilities at this job. So my boss would always be like, I mean, I hired you because I thought you'd like be this rock star, move up in the agency, but you just kind of just chilling. And I was just like, yeah, I don't know. I'm more of a creative person like having to follow. There's no job that you have to follow rules more harder than the government. Yeah. And it would break my heart having to tell people, no, like I could not be creative about solving people's problems. Well, sorry, but your wife, she's got stage four cancer and her Medicare is canceled because you missed the deadline by one day. There's nothing I could, you know, like shit like that is depressing to have to be that person, you know. So, right. One day I just quit. And it's crazy because like I was just being lazy at the job. Like my last year there, like I didn't do any work. Right. And so one day my boss was looking, somebody called and was like, hey, I applied for a social security card. And it was like a year ago. No. So they looked back and they're like, oh, I should have went to the market. So they go to my desk and open my file cabinet up. And it was just full of work that I never did. Now, any other job, right? Like you'd be gone. Like what? You just let work pile up. So I came in, I was late for work that day and I walked by my desk and I see my boss looking through all this stuff. And I'm like, yes, I'm about to get fired finally. So she sends me the message like, hey, I need to talk to you after you get off. So I'm like, oh, they gonna make me work before they fire me. Okay. Oh my God. I get back to her office and she's like, got this big ass stack of like a year's worth of mail work that I never did. She's like, so what's up with this? Talk to me. And I'm like, well, you know, I just, I don't know. I just, I'm not in a zone here. I just feel like I'm more of a creative type of person in this job. Just doesn't really fit my thing. And she was like, well, I get it. You know, maybe we could try to transfer you to a different agency. Like, you know, there's the museum of, you know, the federal museum and they may have a music position open for you to DJ their historic radio or some shit. You know, it's like, okay. But she's like, but in the meantime, like, you know, if that opportunity ever comes up, man, maybe you should apply for it. But for now, like you gotta come on, you gotta stay here, man, and make this work. So what I'm going to do is give you six months to catch up on all this stuff. And if you do, it will not go on your disciplinary record at all. And at that point, I was like, I'm never going to leave this fucking job. Like if I don't just quit, I'm never going to leave because they'll never fire me. So I think three weeks later, I was just like, fuck it. I'm out in my two weeks and I was going. So I left the job and I was just like, I didn't know what the fuck I was doing. I spent all whatever money I had in my little retirement savings. I blew through that and ended up being broke. It was bad. But while I was like going through that, I was learning how to edit videos, learning how to like, because at that time I was getting sick. So around that time, like I was rapping. I was really trying to really pursue like this crazy rap career. And then I just started getting like, I started noticing I was just losing a step with being able to record and being able to make music. And I think that was around camp camp season one. So that was like right when you guys had emailed me about doing that. And I was like, yeah, bet I'll do that. So that's when I made Get Away. Get Away was like right on the precipice of like the sickness coming in. But I did Get Away and it was the other song Rain Rain. And those were fun. I was like, yo, this is cool. I like this. That was like, yeah, it was a pleasure. I was living in Wichita Falls at the time. Rat in a roach. Well, no, no roaches. But rats definitely had rats in the apartment. It was just, it was like bad. Like it was like the craziest like experience. So like you guys like really coming in, all right. Let me say y'all, I don't like to say you guys. Y'all coming in and you know, providing me with that kind of lifeline like really went a long way for me. So thank you. That email that y'all sent me was at a very much needed time. So I'll always owe you guys gratitude. Y'all always owe me y'all gratitude. I'm trying to stop saying you guys. Okay, that's my next mission. So I'm going to self-correct a lot of it. I owe y'all, yes. Yeah, we wanted to work with you for years. I think like when that came up, it was just like, oh, this like, yeah, like, like, you know, a big part of like, okay. I'm kidding. Jordan, you can speak to this is like, let's have this like kid looking show that is definitely not a kid's show at all. And like, what goes better with that than like rap? You know, like, let's do something that people aren't going to expect coming from like this like, you know, kid looking show. And I think like, it just works so well. Yeah, it's, it's amazing. And so I recorded those songs and then after that I got sick, found out I had thyroid cancer, which was terrible. I mean, for as a rapper, as like a human, that's not a bad cancer to get. That's a really cool cancer to have because it's not, it's not too crazy, but as a rapper, like them having to cut open your throat, that's not the type of cancer you want to have. So that's scary. And, and you've been, I mean, you've been, your rap career started like 2010? Yeah, wow. That's actually very accurate. Oh, Gary's a big fan. He knows everything about you. Oh yeah. Yeah. I, so I mean, like you've been doing this for really a long time already. Yeah, it's been 10 years. And then, man, yeah. I'm going old. So yeah, so 2016 it's all starting to fall apart and I'm really contemplating like, you know, anytime somebody tells you you have cancer, it's like, you don't think about, oh, well, this is just this and it'll be, you're thinking of like, am I going to be alive next year? Like, so after that, I think my car got repossessed next week. I was like dirt. Like it was like the worst time of my life. Like I was, I remember pawning. I was trying to pawn my laptop to have copay for my, my biopsy because I didn't have any money. So I'm trying to pawn my laptop to get copay money. And the guy's like, well, I need to see your ID. And I'm like, damn, my ID is expired because I don't have money to pay the speeding ticket in San Antonio. So I couldn't pawn my laptop. So I think I asked my mom for money. And luckily, you know, she, she, not luckily, like my mom loves me, but just in general, just knowing that I had a lifeline in that way was beautiful. So I got the money once on my biopsy found out I had cancer. So then now it was like, well, you know, I can't really rap. I'm trying to stay relevant. I'm not really recording music like I used to. So I started learning how to edit videos and I'm making all these funny memes. I think the best meme I ever made was I did when Pokemon Go came out. And so I edited it to look like I was playing in the hood and like Squirtle popped up and Squirtle, I made Squirtle have a gun and like, basically it was like Pokemon Go player is robbed by the Pokemon. So I put that out. I did like 10 million views and I was like, all right, this might be something. So I'm dead broke with 10 million views on the internet trying to figure out my life, man. But eventually, like after I had the surgery, I went through like a couple of months to just like learning more video editing and eventually Bleacher Report called me like out of nowhere. Like, yo, we want to give you this job. We're going to pay you six figures and move you to the Bay Area. And you're going to edit videos for us full time. And I'm like, yo, this is crazy. So I took that job and like six months after I got my car repossessed, I had a Lamborghini. I'm not a Lamborghini Maserati. Like I wish I had a Lamborghini though. But it was like the craziest comeback story, man. And then that was around the time that y'all reached out for me to do music for the next season of Camp Camp. And it was like, oh, we want you to do all of the music. All of the songs. And that made me feel like special. Like, I don't think y'all realized for me the past, because I was working on the album at the time. I've been working on this album forever. But 2015, I started working on what was going to be my first full length studio album, as we call it from the Underground of the Stars. And it was supposed to be about me, right? Like the first album that's just me rapping about my life as opposed to rapping from the perspective of this anime character, this, whatever. So it was really supposed to be my debut as Richie Branson. This is me rapping still the nerdy guy, but just telling you about my life. But after I got sick, it was, I had no confidence to rap. I had nothing, I don't know, like the soul that an artist has to be able to create and to be able to tell those kind of stories was just gone. And so, honestly, y'all were like, sort of like life support for me. Like all these years, every season of Camp Camp was life support, because it was easy to rap from like kind of inspiration, to have some sort of external inspiration to go off of. And the show for me was that external inspiration. So while I was spending years just like stewing and trying to figure out like how to find my voice as an artist, y'all gave me the sort of like the ability to stay in practice as a musician. And so, like there would be no Richie Branson without Rooster Teeth. Yeah, it's heavy, but it's true. I'll be the one that cries this week. Yeah, but if y'all would have never reached out and given me something to create musically, I would have just withered away into something else. I don't know, I'd probably be working. Well, I mean, I probably still be editing videos, but I definitely know for a fact that I wouldn't, I wouldn't be a musician now, at least not as a rapper. But having such content to be able to, and having deadlines and structure, and like record this, we need this many songs. Like that was, again, that was more necessary for me than y'all will ever know. Yeah, I'm gonna try not to cry too, but yeah. Like I said, there wouldn't be Richie Branson without Rooster Teeth. Let me be the first to say about you saying that you owe us. It's like, oh man, we feel like we owe you, Richie. You have been such a, what's that word, a pillar of just like what Camp Camp is to us, what that show was. I think honestly, it's nice to hear you say that Camp Camp and Rooster Teeth kind of gave me that structure that you needed. Cause I really remember thinking whenever the producer or Maggie Jordan would email you being like, hey, this new song is out. And I would always think to myself like, oh man, Richie has it tough. He has to make a new song every week and you knock it out of the park every time. And I'm like, God, how does he do it? It's, I'm happy we could help each other in that way. But also I feel so indebted to you as someone who worked on Camp Camp. I love you, Richie. We would love like, I would always share the songs when they would come in like on Slack and be like, okay, here's this week's song. It's a banger again. And like, you know, people would like start like slagging like their favorite like lines from it and stuff. Oh, that's crazy. No, yeah, it's great. Jordan, didn't you total up how many there has been? Oh yeah, we were talking about that before we started recording. And I was like, one of the things I wanted to ask you is like how do you manage, you know, to make, and it's not just like writing it, which is like, to me seems like the most daunting thing in the world is writing a song lyrically. And then you got the beats, you're producing it, you're mixing it, you're setting it off, sometimes like, you know, under a week. And so for the three songs you did in season one, and then all of the episodes afterward, that's 49 songs you've made for Cubs. Just under 50, does it? Wow, that's a lot of songs. Did it ever feel like you were like, just doing another one? Oh God, I hate doing these. Well, you know, it's crazy. Like every time like the season rolls around and it's like, all right, Richie, like we're doing the season here, some episodes well in advance. And it's like, I'm like, I know I should be like, all right, let me bust some of these down early and like kind of, if it never works out like that. So I was like, oh shoot, this first episode is going to air this day. So they're going to need it a week before, the Monday before, all right, the week of the premiere. It's like, all right, here's episode one and the Monday before. And it just kind of starts that conveyor belt at that point. But it's like, for me, A, the pressure of that is essential, right? There is no creativity without a little bit of pressure. So you thrive on like the deadline. Exactly. I'm the Aaron Rodgers. I need to break a tackle and have that offensive line. Like, yeah, I have to like be that improvisation when it comes to this. So it's like, the pressure helps. So like, if nobody else knows, yeah, those songs get made like one week at a time, like, and the deadlines are very tight. So it's like, I'll start on a song. Like, if the episode is airing on Friday, I'm turning in the song on Monday. Usually I'm starting the song the weekend. So usually like, I'll sit out. Wow. And yeah, yeah. And like I said, I should be doing this. And I probably, I've got to have, now I have more structure and I'm a little more responsible. I think the next time there will be a healthy bank. And sometimes I'll bank them. Like, if I know I'm going out of town, because I travel a lot. So if I'm going out of the country, like I'll bank like three. Sometimes you'll get like, oh, here's episode five, six and seven. Here you go. And it's because I'm going to be gone. I remember one time, I think it was when you were moving to the Bay Area and you had just moved there and you didn't have anything set up and you were like, oh yeah, here it is. I had to record it and like mix it in my bathroom. Yo, yeah, that was, I know the exact song. That was, damn, what was that song? I think it was Family Matters. Oh. Yeah, yeah. It was Family Matters and Bomb Bomb Voyage. Those both got recorded like in a temporary condo in downtown San Francisco. And like downtown San Francisco, there's so many sirens and shit going on. So like, I'd have to like delete take because there'd be like big ass sirens blaring as I'm recording it. But yeah, I got that shit done. Yeah, like, that was, yeah, that sort of moving time was an interesting time for the Cancans. You're a trooper, man. Yeah, no, it's like, I'm one of those guys, like you tell me to do something, I'm going to get it done. Sometimes I don't know how the hell I'm going to get it done, but it's going to get done, damn it. I think the thing that blew me away was just like, how consistent you were. Yeah, like there was never any dip in quality or anything. No, it just always seemed like, oh man, he must have crafted this for months. Because there's never a song that just feels like, oh, he just, he just phoned this shit in. Well, one thing you kind of talked about is like he used Camp Camp to kind of keep you, keep the creative juices going before you kind of dove into this album. And one thing I noticed over time is like, you kind of did start putting more of yourself into the, into the music. Oh yeah. You would kind of rap about, you know, what's going on in your life and like, you know, how you used to like struggle with, you know, things financially and now things are better and like you got a daughter. Like it did seem like, you know, a certain maturity like coming through like as you, as you kept going. And I don't know. I thought I just find that interesting thinking about that after you said that. Yeah, that's actually a good observation. And I feel the same. Like I feel like there's sort of like, if you listen from season two all the way through like the most recent season, it's like there has been like growth as, and that's the beautiful thing. That's like, sometimes I'll literally go back and listen to the soundtrack all the way through. And I'll be like, damn, I was on one on this one. And it's like, you know, it's like, you know, if you go back and listen to some of your older, watch some of your old material that you directed or that you created, and it's like you can kind of like have, once you've separated yourself from it for a long time and you come back, almost feels like, because one thing I tell people as a creative, it's the burden of being creative. You never get to experience your own art for the first time. Yeah. So like, when I listen to a song, I never get to feel it the same way. Like you guys feel, y'all, the way y'all feel it when you open up the email and you hear it for the first time, you're like, oh my God, this is fire. I don't get to experience that. It's like, oh yeah, I remember when I wrote that line. I was taking a shit when I wrote that line. That's the line that took me 50 takes. Oh, I could have spit that a little better. And I know it's the same way. Like every time I watch a camp, camp episode for the first time, I'm seeing the finished product. But when you watch it, it's like, oh, this little animation here could have been a little tighter. I remember that vocal line. So it's interesting to be able to, once you've removed yourself from it, you kind of forget a little bit of what went into it. So when you hear it again, you're like, whoa, I was on one. I will always say the part that I dread the most at a production is when we sit down to watch what is supposed to be the final version that's going to go live. Because at that point, there's really nothing you can do. Like if there's a part that you weren't happy with or anything like that, it's like, you're just watching us to make sure that nothing is broken. And just looking at all these things is like, I learned from this. I learned from this. I wouldn't have done that. I'll do this differently better. Yeah, it's hard to, I still have trouble. I need to be better about this. I have trouble going back and watching my older stuff just because I've definitely grown a lot over the years and I did not start out doing very great. But it's important to go back and figure out how far you've come and maybe what you're still doing that you shouldn't be. I always like viewing it as a time capsule because it shows what I was kind of into and where I was taking inspiration from. And then there are other times where it's like, I remember working all night like you seeing this or something, you know? And it's like, yeah. You can kind of look back on it a little more fondly than when you were in the middle of it. No, I definitely, I get that. Yeah. This is a, since we're talking about it, I'm going to say the most talk show hosting I've ever said. I think we have the album art. Could we move it up, please? There we go. Shout out to Bo Vani to put that together like eight years ago, 80 years ago it seemed like. So you said, okay. So it's five years in the making. You've released it. It's gone out to Kickstarter backers, right? Yeah. So it's gone out to the backers already who were patient as hell. Like, yo, let me tell you, my backers are incredible because I understand like I did the Kickstarter. I was full of optimism. I was young ho, let's get it. And then my life fell apart. And then it's like, it fell apart. And, you know, it's like, what is that thing? When you, vertigo or whatever they call it, when you come up too fast, like when you're diving, you have to come up gradually, right? You got to work your way back to the surface. And so for me, being at my lowest point, and like within a snap of a finger, like I had no, all the worries that I had, I think November of 2016, no, December of 2016, they were gone in January. Like, I'll never forget, like I was dead broke. I got this job. They flew me to New York to fill out all the orientation and they'd be introduced to the team. And they put me in this fancy hotel, like right next to Central Park, right? They're like, yeah, yeah, we're gonna put you there. You stay there and you just walk to work from there. And my friend Kevin, shout out Kevin, he picked me up from the airport, took me to the hotel. I get there, they're like, yeah, so we're gonna need a credit card to, you know, just for incidentals. I didn't have a credit card. My credit was like a fucking three-something. I don't know, whatever the lowest credit card score was, I had it. So I didn't have any credit. I had negative $200 on my bank account. So I couldn't even, you know, do the debit card hold thing. So Kevin actually, he was like, here, just use my American Express and just don't spend anything. But just use it for incidentals. And so it was at that moment that I really realized like shit's really transforming for me. Like I'm in this situation. Now that was like my transitionary point. And then two days later, I got my first paycheck and it was more money than I'd ever made in my life. It was the first time that I had a paycheck that I didn't know what to, I couldn't spend it all. You know, and bill, like I spent all, I paid all my bills and I still had money left over. That never happens, you know? So that was my first time feeling like I was actually an adult of some sort, you know? And so, yeah, so to have gone up that fast, like it's kind of fucked my brain up, pardon my French, but that entire process had me depressed the entire time. And I, for years, I didn't know how to get over it in a way. Like the thing I liked about the doing the Camp Camp soundtracks is those were sort of like anti-depressants for me because I tried to take anti-depressants but the side effects were like, I'm not rocking with the side effects. So I stopped taking them and I just sort of tried to figure out how to dig myself out of it. I don't recommend that at all. Like listen, if somebody tells you to take whatever works for you, it has to work for you. But I knew that for me, it just wasn't for me. So I went through years of figuring out how to sort of get myself to be future-minded about things because depression, the one thing that it robs you of, it's it robs you of the ability to look into the future. So when I was at peak depression, like I couldn't see past a week. Like I'd be like, you know, then that's probably why those songs got made one week at a time. It's like I didn't plan that shit out. But it's like, you know, I couldn't see like, I wouldn't, I never thought about buying, you know, more property or planning a trip because it was just my life was in such a way my mind wasn't able to plan. So I spent years trying to figure out how to get out of that. And I think what did it was, I guess, like as my daughter got older and then her starting to vocalize like her desire to do things and saying, I love you, daddy. Like those things sort of like kind of brought me to realize that I'm responsible. Like children are like blank slates that you have to impart your entire life experience on so that they can have it better than you. And once that sort of those stakes sort of got presented to me like, okay, I'm in charge of somebody's worldview. What do I want my daughter to grow up? And what do I want her outlook on life to be? Do I want it to be like mine? Hell no. So it forced me to kind of figure it out, you know, and so I started traveling a lot. I was going out of the country every month. Like, and that was my antidepressant, right? Like I got to the point where I couldn't sit still going around, just do all this stuff. So all the time this album is just sitting, right? Like it's not getting any sort of progress and everybody's like, what the hell's going on? And it was mostly because I just had to figure out like who the fuck I was. Like I didn't know, and it's kind of crazy. Like when I was writing the album, when I first did the Kickstarter, like it was about, I didn't know what it was going to be about. I didn't have any, I had never really lived life. I grew up in the suburbs. I went to college, I dropped out, moved back home and got a government job. And it was like, it was my life, you know? I never had anything crazy happen to me at that point. And it's funny because I kind of prayed about it. I was like, you know, like I'd like to have something more substantial to be able to talk about. And yeah, be careful what you ask for. Oh, shit, I got a story. Oh god, God just decided to be like, oh, all right. Well, he drew everything at you, yeah. Yeah, so you know, I've traveled the world. I was in Hong Kong during the protest and got to see that firsthand. I think I got out of there like two weeks, no, like a couple of days before they shut down the airport. Weren't you supposed to be on that Ethiopian airline flight? Yeah, I was supposed to be in Ethiopia for two. I was going to go to Ethiopia. I'd already been once and I was going back. And this time I was like, well, while I'm there, I'm going to go to Nairobi and check out. Because Nairobi is a big tech city in Africa. And I was like, I want to go there and see what their sort of game development, software development stuff look like and maybe forge some relationships with people down there. And the exact flight that was supposed to go from Addis Ababa to Nairobi was an Ethiopian Airlines flight. And I was going to be on that flight and it crashed. The reason that I didn't go, the only reason I didn't go of my business partner Kevin, same guy who hooked me up with his American Express car. Now we're in the tech business, right? So he was going to fly out there with me. And then I can't remember what happened. It was something with his family. I think his daughter, I think his daughter broke her leg. Something just completely to where he had the back out. He couldn't get a refund on his flight. Like he had to just cancel everything. And so I wasn't going to go by myself. And at that point I was like, well, I'm not going to go either. You know, whatever, just bite the bullet. Oh my God. I did not heard that. Yeah. So, but if I had gone out of it, I'm going to fly it out. I'm in bed. It was crazy. Real quick, it was the Boeing 737 MAX. Yeah. Yes, sir. Is her leg okay now? Yeah, she's good. Yeah, she's good. Okay, good. I'm glad she broke her leg then. Yeah, let's do that. So, as long as she's okay now. That's twice that Kevin's really helped you out. So, yeah. Yeah, Kevin's my guy. So I tell him all the time, thank you for not being able to go die. And that was a morbid situation, but we would be out of there. That's crazy. Yeah, I was traveling so much, but from traveling, I've gotten to see like the best and the worst of the world, I feel. I've been to like the slums in Columbia. I got robbed in Columbia trying to buy weed. Yeah, I've been robbed. I've been in trying to, every time you try to buy drugs in foreign, just take it from Richie. Don't buy drugs in foreign countries. That could be a camp camp episode. Don't buy drugs in foreign countries. Don't do it. The most scariest situations I've ever been in in life have involved me buying drugs in foreign countries. Oh my God, Richie. Yeah, Columbia, I got set up. Rob me a knife point for $300. And the DR, I'm going to buy some weed. And it's like, you know, when you buy weed in America, it's like, you might got it. Worst, you have a guy that's like, what's up, bro? You need to weed. Here you go. And the DR, you're going to the hood. Like in an abandoned building. I swear to God, I'm in an abandoned building. Like they let you in through like this makeshift gate. You go in, you see a junkie laid out on a mattress. You've got a stray dog running around. The guy's like reaching into his pocket to pull out some drugs and a fucking gun falls on the ground. And he's like, oh, hold on. Hold this. I was like, oh, here. That's like a lot of coke and up. Yeah. Like he like, I saw somebody buy weed at a jack-in-a-box once like that. It's a lot easier here. Yes. So there it's like, you're really in every little little movies that make that shit look like. Yeah. Yeah, that sounds like it sounds like a movie. Yeah, that's the Dominican Republic, man. Beautiful place, though. But my God, like buying drugs there. Don't do it. You know, I've been on that level and I've been on the other level of like being in Japan and Hong Kong and China and all these places where you see just, I went to Dubai, which is crazy. There's so much money there. But just to be able to travel around and see different perspectives on life really sort of drug me out of like this feeling of like hopelessness. So now, you know, and it's crazy. Like every year it seemed like I'd get a little bit of a spurt of, and usually it would be after camp-camp season was over. I'd have like this residual creativity and I'd like drop three Richie Branson songs. Right. Like if you look back, you go back to like 2017 after that season, I dropped Otaku King Zero and I think I dropped a couple other songs, but it was like all those would happen after camp-camp season. And it was just like that residual. So literally the entire album, if you listen to it from the underground to the stars, the entire like I'd say 75% of the album was created on post-camp-camp creativity. So I was going to ask like, are there are there any songs that you like wrote, you know, five years ago when you started this and they just kind of sat there for a while? Oh yeah. Oh my gosh. Okay, okay. It's crazy because like you can literally hear every stage of this journey I've been through from, you know, being sick, being depressed. I have a song called Paxil. Paxil was what I was prescribed as an anti-depressant. And so I got a song that I wrote after I stopped taking it. And then I got a song that I wrote when I was diagnosed with cancer. I got the first song that I made when I got over it and felt like, oh, shit's good again. Then I got a song that I wrote when I was like, no, because even still now, like the nerve damage that I have from it, it is debilitating as an artist. If I do a concert, I can't really do longer than maybe 40 minutes, 30, 30 minutes, 40 minutes. Once you get into 40 minutes, like my throat hurts. So like, even like talking, I can't talk a lot unless I like to talk, but like I take painkillers just to be able to like do stuff like this. Like it's kind of, you know, it's rough, but you know, I'm thankful to still be here, you know, and that's what's most important. So to me, it's almost a testament to, you know, when you go through shit, you don't always make it out without like shit on you. Sometimes you still have residual shit on you, but you just have to learn how to live with it. So I've been through a tunnel of shit. You just have to live with the smell, I guess. That's a horrible, what's a horrible thing you smell. I love it. That's great. Yeah, I just like, I can never, anytime like I talk to you or like, I hear you talk on anything like I can never get over everything you've been through and just also how positive you still are. It just like boggles my mind. Like I, I applaud you, man. Like I, you know, I know you're saying there's been some rough times too, but like you are just like this like positive force. And I just, I fucking, I love it. I love you. I just like, I can't. Yeah. Sorry. That had no point. I just want to say, you know, it's crazy. Like the thing that taught me the value of life and the fragility of life is when Monty passed away, like that moment for me, and I mentioned him in a lot of songs and all that because he was the very first time person to reach out to me from Rooster Teeth. And it was wow. Cause when he reached out, I was like, what the hell is Rooster Teeth? Who are these people? And then I'm like, oh, oh, okay. So I got it. You know, and you know, that was when Ruby was like first starting to be a thing that was being created. And y'all brought me up to the studio to get to see that like in animatic form. I don't even know, like I talk about the stuff that I still remember. I think that the first meeting we had was we drove down to San Antonio. Yes. And we ate at Hula Hands right off the 1604. Yep. I remember. And I was just like, we're in Austin. We're just like, all right, just fuck it, whatever. Let's just go. And we just took like a three hour lunch to come meet you. Yeah. And that meant a lot to me. I'm so glad we did it. Y'all just came and just sat out and ate with me and then just went back to Austin. I'm like, y'all, those people are cool. That's what we said about you though. Yeah. And you know, I got to come to the office back when it was the hanger thing. It looked like a hanger, but it wasn't a hanger. Yeah. But yeah. The old warehouse thing. Yeah. 636, yeah. Yeah. So I got to go there, see the stuff being created. And I just remember thinking like, this is going to be amazing. Like, oh my gosh. Like, and now it really hit home to me when I was in Japan. I was in Akihabara playing one of the UFO machines. And all the toys in the UFO machine were ruby toys. Oh, shit. And I remember thinking like, yo, if Manny was alive to see this. And that really brought it home to me. Like, I've always struggled ever since I had cancer. I've always struggled with this mortality thing, right? Like, I've always like, because I was diagnosed with a condition. This is the first time people are going to hear about it. I've never talked about it. But it's called Lee Ferengi syndrome. I don't know if I'm pronouncing that shit right. But basically, all of my cells in my body have a, there's every cell in your body has something that controls it, or it stops it from creating tumors. So you have something that's like, all right, you're growing too fast, stop. I don't have that. So the thyroid cancer was actually just a symptom of that, which means that I have a very high chance of getting other things like that in my life. So I was super depressed about that because I realized that my mom probably had it because she had breast cancer and ovarian cancer. Twice, like it's rare that you have those happen like once with one person. And it's crazy because when they read me the results, they were like, oh, we have to have you see somebody special to read this shit to you because it's heavy. And I was like, oh, God. So they told me that and I was like, well, damn, to my entire life, I'm going to be looking over my shoulder for if something else happened. So it's forced me to have to think about like beyond like, what is, what is the point of life? Like if I live to be 80, that's dope. But if I don't, what can I do? What am I doing? Just what am I doing? You know, what are people going to remember me by? What is my impact going to be on this world? Because we really don't know how much longer we had. And it's almost like, you know, like I said, looking back at with with the Pasig Omani, it's like, and looking to what has grown since, it's like the man left the legacy that is outstanding. You know, and I don't know, like that inspires and that in and of itself, just him and what he did, that inspires me to just try to do something like that. I just, yeah, it's heavy. But I just, yeah, I don't know if it'll be that big because Ruby, God, that's, that's. I mean, you're, you're, you're living, you're living your life, like you're living your truth, you know, like that's how that's, that's all you can do. Like that, that's impactful enough as on its own, you know. Yeah. You know, you're, you're going out, like you're doing, you're expressing yourself. You have, you have your, your worldview and you're sticking to it. I mean, I respect that a whole lot. Yeah. You know, and that's, that's like one thing I try and I'm thankful. Like, you know, looking at with everything that's happening now, um, one thing that I, I've looked back at, at my Rolodex of people that I've dealt with. And there's not one person that has sort of been on, like, shut up about all this stuff going on in the world. Like everybody is being courageous about speaking up. And it's like, this is going to go into some heavy stuff. Triggered morning. Let's do it. You don't want to talk about this stuff going on right now. Fast forward through this segment. But you know, it's, it's, I have stories, you know. Um, I mean, obviously you can look at the camera and see I'm black. Okay. But, um, being, um, black person in nerdy spaces, um, it's interesting. It's a, it's an interesting thing. So, um, in these times, especially right now, this has sort of been one of the first times that I felt emboldened to, to, to, to speak my peace on it and not feel like the fear of like being, um, any backlash, if you will, right? Um, I remember 2012, I was on tour with MC Chris. Um, I love MC Chris. That's my guy. Um, but, um, I was on tour with him and something happened at a show in Philadelphia. Um, I was rapping and all of a sudden MC Chris comes out during my set. He was like, I need Mike Taylor to come up to the front. If you're Mike Taylor, raise your hand. This guy steps up, raises his hand. He's like, go to the nearest security guard and tell him to get the fuck out. You got to get the fuck out of here. You know, you don't talk trash about my openers. And it was like, so when that happened, I thought he said something bad. I was like, what did this dude say? Cause he said he was on Twitter talking trash. So I thought he said something bad, like vile, maybe racial. I don't know, but I knew it had to be something bad. So I go off stage and I read the tweet and it wasn't that bad. It was like, hey, artist opening up for MC Chris. You're not good enough to pander to me better like next time. That's a douchey thing to say, but yeah, kick somebody out for it. Probably not. Right. I'm a big boy. So I mean, I got, I was like, oh, that's crazy. And the whole night I'm just like, oh, that's crazy. Well, dude was a redditor. He goes on Reddit, writes this long post about what happened. And by the morning time, this shit is everywhere. It's on the front page of Kotaku. It's on, they're talking about it on MTV. Like it was big. And when I say my inbox was flooded with, I've never seen so many inwards in my life. It was crazy. I was like, and it was the sad thing was a lot of those people were like MC Chris. Like a lot of, a lot of people were like, it was either one or two people. It was just people trolling. And it was people like, you know, good inward. You messed up MC Chris's career, you know, FU. And it was like, oh, these are the people that, you know, this is the. So it was one of the situations where it struck a lot of fear in my heart about even ever wanting to, to even, I don't know. And, you know, everybody has a story like that, you know, where, you know, you kind of can't mess up, you know, like if you're, if you're, if you're a content creator in this space, like, you can't mess up. So I've always felt like I was walking on that kind of, ever since that moment, I felt like I was walking on a tightrope in terms of like. Like don't say anything that could like, you know, upset anyone, like the broad. Exactly. And it's like, you know, like you kind of almost put your experiences to the side in a way. Like I don't, like one thing, like it was a while where I wasn't even cussing in songs, like this camp, camp, or I'm saying, I wasn't even cursing. That's how like I got to be straight and narrow. I don't want them to even, you know, I wouldn't talk it about myself. I wouldn't talk about whips. I wouldn't talk about shit because I felt so scared that people would be like, Oh, who do this is, he's not nerdy enough because, you know, and I didn't want any of that. So there was the most cornyest music I ever made because I was so scared. But over time, I started to realize like, you know, I don't want to hide who I am. I don't want to ever be in a situation where I feel like I can't be my authentic self because of some backlash that's going to happen. So at some point I just said, fuck it. I, I, anybody who was like, ah, yeah, I don't really fuck with like rap music, but I listened to you. I used to treat that as a compliment. I used to be like, oh, you don't fuck with rap music, but you listen to me great. But now I treat it as an opportunity to introduce them to rap music because if you like my music, you like rap. You may not like all like, oh, what's on the radio, but you like rap. And that's what I want to drive. There's other rap out there for these people. Yeah. And there's other rap that you can identify with. And that's sort of been my mission now is to let people know that hip hop, it's not what you hear on the radio. It's not a specific type of content matter. Hip hop is just people who talk about their life experience in rhyme form. And if you're being real to yourself, then you're making hip hop music. But I say all that to say, damn, that was a tangent. But, you know, it's just, these are heavy times, man. Like, and it's, I'm going back, like I said, I was thankful to see like I saw what y'all put up and everybody has been so outspoken at Rooster Teeth about what's happened. And I know with every company, like I look at the NFL, they said some shit. And the NFL, though, I kind of give them a little bit of a side. I had a big side. Yeah, like, like, yeah, you could have helped a little bit. Yeah. Four years ago. Yeah. Yeah. And I know and I try to like look at these situations as it's an evolution thing. You know, I look at myself and some of the biases I've had, some of the things I've done. Like, what, 822? I can't remember how long it's been since, but there was a day when you could say, you know, the Epsilon towards gay people is just a casual thing or even not even that. But you just, if something bad happened, you're like, that's so gay. You know, like it used to be a thing to say. And over time, it was like, well, that's not cool. And so I've evolved my lexicon to not describe things as gay when they're bad, you know. And so being able to understand what it's like to be in a position of privilege towards another marginalized group of people, I know what it's like. You know, I can identify with people that are maybe didn't realize the viewpoint that they might have had might have came from a slight place of like, you know, you call it privilege. You can call it like just unaware. Yeah. But just yeah, ignorance or whatever. So we've all had it. I'll go ahead. I was just going to say so much of like what we're facing is just like people not knowing or wanting to accept that, you know, there is such a thing as like privilege or, you know, like they can be ignorant about somebody else's experience. Exactly. Like it was a funny thing. I had to check my own privilege like a couple of days ago. I saw it was something, it was a cop, it was a cop that pushed some girl down and this black woman cop got up and like demanded this cop like, go, go, get out of here. Get out of here. You're not helping the situation. So she really stood up for trying to keep this from boiling into a situation where violence was being incited, right. And so somebody a black woman on the post was like, why aren't there any black male cops doing this? Why is it always a black woman who has to rise up and be strong in these situations? And me seeing that, well, what do you mean? And I started to like type in, well, there's been a lot of black male cops doing the same thing. So basically I was like, not all black men. And then I caught myself like, wait a second, she has experiences that she's been through that has led her to feel like as a black woman, she is bearing an unfair burden in this fight. I don't know what her experiences are. But for me to kind of like hit her with this, we got to be united as black people. And we got to, you know, we can't be divided. That's not helping. You know what I mean? Like I'm doing exactly what I hate to see doing when I'm like, yo, I'm tired of getting pulled over 50 million times. Like I'm not an objectively worse driver than a white person. So like to have people look at me and say, well, now you're just being divisive. Like not all cops and it's like, that's the same thing I was doing to this woman. And so that opened my eyes to the fact that a lot of people on in this that are that are being outspoken about this on our, they're coming, they're speaking passionately, speaking passionately and they mean well. It's not a lot of people that I feel that are just like, except from there's a few, but there's a lot. But I feel like a lot of people are just genuinely coming from, from a place of like trying to find a way to make the situation better. Like I was trying to convince this woman, like no, there are some good men out there, but there's a better way for me to do that. And it doesn't involve me minimizing her voice. It means me saying, well, I'm sorry, you've been through some shit. And I know that it's led you to have this worldview. And I don't want to take that away from you. How can we fix it? You know, we have to be solutionous. Can't be, we can't keep fighting over who's right. Exactly. All that does is it just starts an argument and then what, and then you win it. Good, good job. Like, you know, it didn't really accomplish anything. And exactly. I saw you tweet a couple of times over the last week about like, being in the phase where you just want to fight everyone on the internet. Oh, I mean, I've been going through that man. And it's like, I mean, just just before we started recording, I kind of did that. And I was like, I didn't really feel better after doing it, you know, and then like the person, I didn't like convince this person of anything, you know, I didn't take the chance to educate or like, you know, try to put myself in like what they, what they believe and why they believe it or, and then how best to address that. So it's the bloodlust, man. It's like we are getting people down and it's like, we get witty and we get snarky. It feels good until afterwards. You're like, well, that person is not going, that's not a changed heart, you know. Exactly. And then I feel like, and this goes beyond just this topic, but then you run the risk of like, well, that person's like never going to change now because you like, Yeah. Like I was mean to them. So now they're always just going to like jump to that feeling. Yeah. It's going to be that much harder to convince them now, but at the same time, like, It's like the people on that side, they just do this. They just fight and you know, it's like it's so, who cares? No, we're just, we're frustrated. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So it's like, yeah, it's, it's some, it's going to take a lot of just empathy. It's going to take time. It's going to take a lot of time. I don't think it's, it's going to take a different president. I only want to, it is regardless of what your politics are, this is not going to get fixed by this president. Yes. Yeah. No, I think everyone, everyone on both sides can agree on that. Yeah. In very different ways. Yeah. They can't even give a shit about this. So that's the thing too. It's like, we were talking about this earlier of like, it's like first it was coronavirus and now, now it's these protests and, and trying to like push this, this Black Lives Matter movement. And it's like, they're going to, they're on top of each other and they're going to keep going. And when the next thing happens, we can't forget to wear our masks and we can't forget to still advocate for what needs to happen. Yeah. We're just going to be adding like another thing to like the mental weight of this nation, but it's what we need to do right now. The alien invasion is happening, but also don't forget Black Lives Matter. Yeah. But that, that's what it's going to take is like, it has, this has to stick around. Yeah. It's kind of like the best, the one thing I just, I have to iterate, reiterate because a lot of people feel that when you say Black Lives Matter, it's like, oh, well, what about every other life? Like what's the, why are you guys saying Black Lives Matter? Are you saying that other lives aren't as important? It's like, well, there's the, the implied meaning of that is Black Lives Matter just as much as everybody else, right? Like that's, that's what it needs. Nobody's saying it. Yeah. And it's too long to be a hashtag. Like for marketing purposes, Black Lives Matter just as much as everyone else's, it's too long of a hashtag. So we cut it down. It's not this terrorist supremacist organization that wants Black people to be on top of everybody else. No, it's just, it's just, you know, it's just when one group, it's like, and I don't even talk about it because it's going to be some crazy, but it's basically like, if trans people are getting beat up, and they are, we have to advocate for that problem to be fixed. It doesn't, and I tell people this analogy because I've been through it. I've had cancer, right? But when breast cancer awareness rolls around, and they put in the pink, breast cancer is the most marketed cancer. It is the most donated to type of cancer research in the world. Yet, it doesn't take away from the fact that there are other cancers that are, that are even deadlier. Pancreatic cancer is super deadly. You get that, you're out of there. But it's like, it doesn't take away from that. It's just this, this is an awareness because breast cancer, it's psychologically down because I've seen my mom go through this. My mom survived breast cancer and to know that they have to literally cut your breasts off. And if you're a woman who identifies with her body, that's a very, that's a very traumatic experience to go through. And so for that, for reasons that they advocate and people want research for that because it's like I said, it's a traumatic thing for women to go through and we need to support it. Men get it too. So it's one of those things that, you know, we do the research for it. We want to get it fixed. But it doesn't take away from other cancers, ovarian cancer, which is deadlier. Then take away from that. It's just, this is an awareness for this particular issue. It's like that comic where there's like two houses and one's on fire and they're like, we got to help this house. And then the person who owns the house that isn't on fire is like, what about my house? All houses matter, you know? Yeah. So it's just basic, it's just a basic request for just look at this problem. This is a problem. And honestly, if we fix this problem, it actually fixes. It's like, you know, they say the tide rises, all boats rise, right? Yeah. I think part of it goes back to like, Richie, what you're saying about like, you know, just because we're advocating for one thing doesn't mean we're trying to take away from others. Like I keep, I keep seeing people get frustrated at the idea of, you know, when we're saying like, we need, we need more black people, we need more people of color in the animation industry. We do. And it's not that, it's not, it's not going to take jobs away from white people. It's just that, and it's not that we're going to give a black person a job just because they're black. It's that we need to open up more opportunities for people. And it's still going to be the best person is going to get the job. But people, some people are not getting the same opportunities as everybody else. And that's the problem to me. Yeah. It's like the issue is, and like as a black person in the games development world, now I work with harmonics, music, we're making games. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. So we're making games for harmonics, which is beautiful. I get to work with the guy who co-founded the company and made Guitar Hero. We talk every day like, so it's cool. Like it's working with people that like made games that I played in college is crazy. And I'm a designer. Kind of like, it's like everything you do combine, like, you know, your music and your games, like everything's combining. Yeah. So now it's like, that's cool. I am a full time game designer, right? Dude, the, I don't see a lot of people that look like me. I just say that. And it's not like, I look for it. It's not like I'm like, we're all the black people that work for games. But I know growing up and I know like, from my perspective, like that was something that wasn't even on my radar because I never knew anybody who did it. I love video games. And if I would have known like, oh man, my boy's cousin, he works at EA, he does this. Then maybe I would have saw that as a path, you know, or I would have known like, oh, or maybe if, you know, there was a more stem and more like, you know, just sort of tech focus in some of these schools in neighborhoods where people like me grow up, same thing. So it's like, it's an issue of, I think it's, it's a lot of things. It's complicated. It's not something that you could just pin on one cause and say, oh, it's because they don't want black people to work for games. It's just, you know, the way that the system, if you look at the way America came up, I mean, there was a time when like, you know, when the country was started, it was like, obviously there was like this active, you know, these active institutions in place that promoted, you know, things like slavery or Jim Crow or whatever. But it's like, the people don't realize like, the attitude that these institutions that were created to enforce these things, they still exist today, even though the, you know, the active racist intent behind it isn't there, all of the structure that was created for it, it's still there. And now it's sort of running on autopilot, if you will. Like you said, it's not a lot of people that are maybe actively being racist. Like I'm sure, you know, most police officers aren't racist. Like they're not racist. Even the biased ones may not be racist, but the way that they are trained, the way that the system is built for them allows those biases to turn, you know what I mean? It's like these intangible things that have like, that are so deeply ingrained that like, they don't even realize that they're probably like, pulling over black people more often than white people. Exactly. But it's what they're doing. And it's because like, for example, both of my parents are cops. My dad was a cop. My mother is a cop. And so when people talk to me about these issues, and they're like, or are you anti-cop? I'm like, no, like I want my mother to come home every day. You know, I would never want my mother to end up dead or put herself in a situation that's dangerous. So when I, when I see these situations happen, I always like frame it as, what would my mom do? What would I want my mom to do? You know what I want? Exactly. And you look at like the death, the George Floyd death, what I want my mother to serve a community and be on camera while the everybody's crowded around her. And these are the people that she's there to protect and serve. And they're begging her to get off of this man's neck. These are people that she has to, she has to protect and serve these people. These people have to trust her. And for, for, I can't imagine her just looking at all of these people that she's sworn to serve and protect and smugly keeping her knee on this man's neck. Putting her hand in her pocket. How does that, that doesn't, that doesn't create any sort of, because in order to protect people and to serve them, you have to have their trust. Doesn't mean that you have to bow down to them. It doesn't mean, but the problem is police. You have to listen to them. Exactly. And we've lost that service mentality. Not just with police, but just in, in any position of authority, we've lost that service. Any, any public, yeah, public official, elected official. Yeah. Like it, and I think we also forget ourselves as like their constituents and like, you know, the funders as taxpayers, we forget that they answer to us and we can hold them accountable. And we don't even vote for them. We just vote for president. We don't even look at what's down the ballot. Exactly. Yeah. So I don't know who the 12th circuit judge is, but this guy, you know, that's the motherfucker putting people in jail. You know, this, this police chief or this sheriff, that's the person that's saying, Hey, you know, this is what we do. So it's like we don't, and it's crazy. Like when you look at like a lot of the places where these police are the worst, if you democratic places, right? Like it is, it's because people are thinking of the top level, but we're not, we're not really paying attention to what's going on in the mid level. Like I politically am like, I'm, I'm an either crap, you know what I'm saying? Like I have certain like beliefs that are more literal and I have certain beliefs that are more conservative, but I think the problem with America, the damn it's getting deep. I'm sorry guys. I think the problem is no matter what you are like, my neighbor is a Trump support here. Big ass Trump flag, but like when we talk to each other, like that never comes up. Cool people, right? Like, but I know like politically, like we think totally different, but we've lost the ability to just like focus on what brings us together, right? Yeah. Right. And the problem is our country's politics, they enforce that. Look at how- Feed off of it. Yeah. Like politicians now, no matter what side of it, it's like our country's so divided because of those people on that side are being stupid. It's like, well, that helps. That's not healthy. So it's like, we've sort of entrenched ourselves and you look at like more advanced democracies, right? They're like 80 parties. It's like you have to form these coalitions to get shit done. Yeah. And that's what's missing from America. So we got two parties and it's like such an easy, clean, neat division to have. Like, let's divide these people up into two parties and have the fight all the time while we don't do shit. Think about how many people vote because it's like, I'm going to vote because- Of this one issue. This one issue. Let's say it's guns. I'm going to vote because I don't want the Democrats to take my guns away. Barack Obama was in office for eight years. Guns never got taken away. I'm going to vote Democrat because I don't want abortion rights to get destroyed. Right. Trump's been in office for three. Roe vs. Wade is still standing. It's like they know this. They know that all they have to do is generate fear. I'm going to vote because I don't want this to happen. And then when we get complete supermajority, the needle moves. The needle's always moving just a little bit left, a little bit right, but there's never this revolutionary I'm going to get everything done that I say I'm going to get done. That wall is not built. Yeah. It's not- Yeah. I'm hoping- I'm hoping this is the beginning of something much bigger because I think when it comes to this and when it comes to just- I think politics in general, like we need a big change. Yeah, it's stupid. It is dumb. I'm tired of it, man. I look at- Incremental changes. Yeah. Yeah. I'm just- I'm exhausted because it's like I want to be able to say- I want to be able to be the type of person that's like, look, I think that, look, gay people should be allowed to get married and do what they need to do. That's love. Love is love. Love has no- You know, as long as it's legal in a sense of like, there's no exploitation being done. You're not loving kids, like stuff like that. Like if it's two consenting adults, they can love each other however they want, right? But I also believe like, I don't like getting the shit taxed out of me to pay for earthworm studies. So why can't like, I'm not, you know, I don't want to be put in a box of like- Yeah, people are complex, exactly. Like everyone's different, so yeah. I don't like high taxes, so I'm a Republican, no. But I don't like, you know, people being, you know, biased against, you know, this marginalized people, so I'm a Democrat, or am I just somebody who is socially liberal, fiscally conservative? Yeah. But we're not there yet. As a society, we have gotten down to this simplistic political thing, and it's just fucked everything up. That's why masks, we argue over wearing masks. Yeah, masks is now a political thing. Yeah. If you don't wear a mask, are you just being like, you Trump supporter? I, I, there was this like, really brief period of time where like obviously like, you know, wish COVID never happened, all that kind of stuff, but there's this brief period of time where I was like, you know what, if nothing else, I don't think I've ever seen this more united before. Like holy shit, people are actually coming together and like working on stuff together. I mean, a lot of people have said this, but it reminded me of like 9-11. Yeah. It was like the first time where like, politics and that shit didn't matter, and it was, let's all just like work together. And then it was. That lasted for about two weeks. It was a great two weeks. Bruh. Oh man. Bruh. When they started saying like, oh yeah, we're in masks, and people were like, the science behind some of these people were like, no, if you wear a mask, you'll get sick from CO2, re-in. Oh my god. The surgeons wear masks every day, all day, and they're fine, but it's just like the mental gymnastics that people go through to support their worldview, just to be on the opposite side, we can't come together. We can't come together, man. This police brutality thing, same thing. Like you got, when the old white guy got pushed down by the cop, and busted his head on the concrete, that should have been like, yo. To all lies matter, people always say like, y'all don't ever talk about the, there is plain as day, we are expressing outrage at this white man. Yeah, exactly. Who was brutalized by the cops, and it's like, well, no, we shouldn't have been in their faces like that. Exactly. There's always, that's what I was going to say, like even if like the looting and the rioting wasn't happening, there's going to be something that the other side who wants to support the status quo could point to. And yeah, it would just, it would just continue. Like the argument would continue. There was no looting happening when Colin Kaepernick was kneeling. I'm just saying. Exactly. There's not a single building looted, but he was enemy number one. And I tell people a lot of the time, Martin Luther King, they bring up Martin Luther King and say, oh, he's a great, great non-violent protester. This dude was, it's crazy. I had the privilege of working with his son, Martin Luther King III. Oh, wow. And yeah, it's crazy. That's another thing on the resume. That is, wow. I set up his Twitter account. That is, wow. I set up his Twitter account. Damn. But no, like to see people like, there were people literally trying to tell this man what his father really stood for. This is the person who, like grew up with this man, right? Like, your father had this quote. He wouldn't support what's going on right now. Oh my God. That's his damn daddy. Come on, man. Like, that's what we're at with him. He was also vilified though. Like, yeah. He was hating. He was shot in the face. He was angry. Damn. He was, oh. And there were riots. That didn't happen because he was a good protester. Yeah. There were seven days of riots after that. And nobody is like, well, those people back then riot. Now, seven days of riots, and then the civil rights act passed. So it's like, you look at history, and you look at all of the things that people say, well, Martin Luther King was great. No, he was hated. Colin Kaepernick hated. And it's not going to be maybe, maybe 20 years later, people are going to look at Colin Kaepernick and be like, he was a great nonviolent protester. Yeah. But when, Why couldn't it be like him? Yeah. But when they were sitting in on people's restaurants, like the black people would come in and sit in and do the protests on whites in restaurants. They were like, why are they disrespecting? This is the one chance I have with my family to sit down and have peace. And these black people are ruining it with their protests. Fast forward 20 years, 30 years later. This is my one moment to have time with my family in peace. And this man is kneeling while I'm watching him a football game. Like, how sit, we've got that. It's almost like worse. Like, you don't even have to see this man in your living room. It's not like you're in your living room. Close your eyes. He's on a TV. He's on TV. But it's just crazy to me. Like, like I said, America is a funny place. I love this country. And when I say I love this country and if you love America, you got, it's like if you love your body, right? You love your body. Do you love taking care of yourself? Oh, yeah. So if you stink, you're gonna be like, you know what? I'm gonna take a fucking shower so that I could like wash my body because I care about my body. That's America. America, we're a little musty right now. We need to take a shower. I don't want us to be musty. I'd like us to take a shower so we could clean our shit and keep it moving, man. Sometimes I feel like that stench is just like ingrained though. And like no amount of scrubbing is gonna come off. And those are the hardest times for me where I just feel like there's no reason for optimism. But you give me hope. You're a really optimistic guy. And I appreciate it. We just gotta shower, man. Like I said, I love everybody, man. I love people flawed. Like I said, I'm in Trump country right now. All of my neighbors are Trump people. And it's cool. Like I don't have any beef with them. Like I said, we don't agree on politics, but you know what? Like this is where I gotta live. You know, this is where I am right now. And it's like I gotta make the best of it. For me, it's about, we gotta build bridges with each other. This is gonna be some hard work. It's gonna be like sometimes when we gotta be like, especially with this shit that's going on right now, we have to have a frank discussion. We have to be like, and that's why I've been so forceful on Twitter about it. Like I've been like passionate about this shit. Like we cannot just turn a blind eye. Like fuck the semantics. Like let's get past the whatever arguments you wanna have that are semantics that are about respect, it's a psychological construct. I don't care about your respect. Respectful is a point of view in an opinion. Exactly. You know what I'm saying? Like there's nothing that's gonna be respectful to anybody, to everybody. You know what I'm saying? Why don't we just talk about the issue instead of how respectful it is. Exactly. You know what I'm saying? There's a time way down the line where we can kind of reset that and they'll be like, okay, cool. Sure, whatever. But it's like that's not right now. Right now is, we need to be just honest. Like pride and respect. Like those, you know, pride come before the fall. And it's a lot of people that are trying to hold on to that pride, man. We gotta have pride. Boy, you talk about having family who are cops. I also have some family who work in policing and it has been really hard to like balance both those relationships and what I want to see change. Yeah. And you know, my mother, same thing. And let's see, my mother is and I hate saying it like that, but she's a good cop, you know, in the sense that she's actually doing something to make things better, besides just going with the flow. But there are a lot of cops, regardless, like, and one thing I will make very clear is like when we say like police, when we're talking about police as an institution, it's not white police. It's all police. Yeah. It's not, yeah. And it's not an individual police officer. I've been like, I've had, I've had some run-ins with black cops. Like we're the same color, but it's like the training and the instant they, you get, it's a gang. Like, let's just be real. Being a police officer, you are joining a gang. Think about all those cops that have like 80 infractions and they're still in the streets because the union is like, nah, he gotta get his job back. There was a story about a cop who literally kicked somebody in the back, kicked somebody in the face while they were handcuffed, laying on the ground, broke three of their teeth. But I did that at my job. I'll be in jail right now. Yeah. This cop got his, this dude got his job back. How? You know what I'm saying? Like it just, in any position where you have people's lives in your hands. You need to be held the most accountable. Yeah. You cannot have the longest leash. Yeah. If you, if you bust somebody's teeth in like that, and they, you know, or it permanently injures somebody or kills somebody, like that needs to be addressed with the utmost scrutiny. It's not, I got fired from my first job. My first job, I was working at H-E-B as a cashier. I got fired because I let somebody leave. They had a couple of like packs of ground beef under their basket and I didn't see it. How dare you Richie? Yeah, I got fired for that shit with no recourse. I couldn't get my job back for that shit. But it's people that have bodies on their record. They have blood on their hands and they're still in those streets. I watched, I watched the documentary on Netflix the 13th. Oh, you watched that? Yeah, I watched that last night. And that was made in early 2016. I think it came out. Everything about it like is just an echo of what's going on right now. And yeah, that's probably what's been going on for a hundred years too. So you realize like it starts that you realize like the police is just like the intro. That's like the intro. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. So much more. So much more that needs to be reformed. It's the tip of the iceberg. So yeah, yeah, it's all it all goes deep all the way back down to the founding of the country. Yeah. So if you're still watching this and you haven't like turned this shit off because of this uncomfortable conversation, we appreciate it. Yeah, I was going to say I hate to say but we got to wrap up here. Yeah, I don't want to say. We've got to have you back on. Yeah, yeah, I'm really happy. We're able to give you this platform for you to talk about like not just your life and your music, but also your viewpoints. And it's really clear that you you've thought about it and you speak so passionately about it because this is something you really believe in. And that's something that's like that's so important. And that's something that we really want to support. Like you've been awesome, Richie. Absolutely. But most importantly, like, thank y'all. Like y'all are an amazing company. Um, I've seen you guys's praises all the time. So people look with the way these companies are coming out and the things that they're doing, like I'd rather work in y'all's mail room than in the executive boards and these other places. So if y'all are ever hiring for a mailboy, look out. I wish you could just picture me, Pete. We love working with you and we love your work. So like any time. Likewise, like it's yeah, like I said, it's really something. I guess that in these times, like when I'm just looking at everybody, like with this eye of like, who are you? What side are you on? But to see that y'all are just incredibly compassionate. You guys sent me a turkey. I'll never forget that. I'm sick. Y'all sent me a turkey. And that was like, I'll never forget that. Y'all just have always been, like I said, like family to me. Through some of my darkest times, you guys have lifted me out. And so I will always be in your gratitude and I'm always excited and honored to do anything, anything with you guys. You guys gave me my first voice acting credit. That's true. That's right. Yo, yo, yo, yeah. Jake Stonewall. Jake Stonewall. Yeah, Jake. So, you know, whatever Jake gets that solo episode. We can get, we can see one more. So, do you know when your album's coming out yet? It actually today, it just got cleared by, it took forever because I guess COVID, the album inspectors with the distributor took forever. So it's either going to be this Friday or next Friday. All right. Hopefully this Friday, but if not this Friday, then definitely my next Friday. This comes out on YouTube on Friday, so it could be out today. If you're watching this on Friday, please go look. So if you guys watch this, if you're watching this, it may be too late. But no, you'll find it. By the time this airs, my website will be back up, richiebranson.com. I'm going to start streaming on Twitch and shit, so follow my Twitch, Richie Branson, Twitter, Richie Branson. Everything is Richie Branson. You know? That's good. I'm sorry to do it. It's uniform. Yes, just uniform. It's really easy. And even if it hasn't come out yet, you're cool enough to let us. At the end of this episode, we're going to put on one of the tracks from it. So if it's not out yet, sneak previews coming up right after this episode. But Richie, thank you so much. Seriously, you're a joy of a human being. So we're just happy to be around you. So please everybody go support Richie. And thank you for watching another episode of I Have Notes. Yes, heavy notes, but notes nonetheless. Well, we'll be back next week. And yeah, thanks, everybody. Be safe. Ripping the momma. I'm chasing the bag. They tried to tell me.