 Yep, Charlamagne the God, Andrew Schultz. We are the Brilliant Idiots podcast, and this week's episode is brought to you by Squarespace from websites and online stores, the marketing tools and analytics. Squarespace is the all-in-one platform to build a beautiful online presence and run your business. There are no hidden fees or price hikes and all websites are optimized for mobile. And it's so simple, start with a design template and use drag and drop tools to make it your own. Head to squarespace.com slash idiot for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, use the offer code idiot to save 10% off your first purchase. Let's start the show. How's the is here? What's up, baby? Sorry that we couldn't get in last week to knock out an episode, man. A lot was going on. But you know, I feel good. You know, came in here today. Alex took his microphone, bumped it across my lips twice. Why, that was crazy. My microphone, chill out, Charlamagne. I mean, you do own the microphone. This is your microphone. It's not Charlam's microphone. I mean, you ain't moved out the way when I did it. Well, the first time was an accident, and the second time you was flirting clearly. Yeah, that was a little bit weird. You know what I'm saying? He was out. It was really weird. Wow. Your reaction was also weird. And I'm not trying to judge, but like the first one hit, it went like that. And then you went like this. And the second one hit. And then it didn't move more, but you went like. See, exactly. I was like, whoa. For the third one, it was almost like, okay, you're ready, you know? It's like you've been waking out of your sleep like that before. Yeah. Has that happened to you? No, not at me. Because they say that a lot about people who've had a UFO encounters and alien encounters. No, it's anal proven. Never with the mouth. You never hear about oral proven. It's all anal. It is, but they say that that comes from actually like suppressed molestation. Really? My therapist never told me that one. But you never got anal proven. By aliens? Yeah, you never said that that happens to you in your life. I don't think so. The only time I've ever felt anal proven is after I got the colonoscopy. Because once the shit wears off, the anesthesia, you definitely feel like, okay, something was there. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah, yeah. As you should, something's up there. Absolutely. Just like something has been up there above us for the past couple of weeks and nobody gives a fuck. I have not spoken to you about this. I want to know what Andrew Schoach's theory is about these unidentified flying objects that America keeps shooting out the sky. First one was a Chinese balloon. We know it had a big ass made in China sticker on it. Yeah. Okay. They acknowledged it was made in China. The next three, they say were unidentified flying objects. They can't connect to China. They don't know where it came from. Haven't recovered, no wreckage. Don't think they will. What do you think they were? They're all China. You think they're all China? Yeah. We don't want to look like we're soft and just have Chinese shit flying up in the sky this whole time. So we're saying that we don't know what they are. UFO just means China. You know what I found interesting? For real, I really do believe that. Anytime it's UFO is China spying on us and we don't want to admit that we're just letting ourselves get spied on. If I throw a box of chicken fried rice, is it an unidentified fried object? It is. It is an unidentified frying object. Not flying. If I take some chicken fried rice and put it in something that's not the Chinese container and toss it, it's an unidentified fried object. That's an unidentified fried object. That's right. That's right. Until we identify it. That's right. And that's what I'm saying. That's right. We've identified these frying objects as Chinese. Yeah. No, not the last three, which I found interesting because China. We didn't get any of the information. We didn't. It's like we're trying to send a message to China like, oops, we don't have it, but we do have it. We know what you're up to, but we're not going to give you the credit for being so brazen and spying on us like that. But you don't think China would take the credit because China said. So you don't think it's weird that there's one person didn't show up to the podcast today? Ooh. Oh, wow. Wow, wow. Yeah. Oh, that's a little curious, isn't it? Wow. He's assigned to us. Charlotte? Our resident. That's our Chinese representative. Our resident trans-Asian did not show up. That's the CIA, Chinese Intelligence Agency. You thought that the CIA was the Central Intelligence Agency? No, UFO is unidentified frying object. Wow. Come on, bro. That is a good point. Come on, bro. Where is Chris? FBI, what is FBI? Fried. Hold on, hold on, hold on. What is FBI? What is it? I'm going to let you stall. Come on, Charlotte. What is FBI? You know it. You know the CIA? The fried bro of investigations. The what? Flat booty investigation. Listen, listen, listen, listen. If you don't think that every one of our intelligence agencies has been run over by the Chinese. They've been infiltrated. Damn. Yeah. Yes, and just now, we're finally getting privy to that shit. And Joe Biden's not doing shit. Joe Biden's Chinese. You don't think Joe Biden's Chinese, bro? Hold on, bro. Hold on, bro. You don't think Joe Biden's Chinese? Yo, listen, listen, guys. Listen, guys. What we're trying to say is the Chinese have taken over. OK? They've tried. And we didn't do something about it. That's so funny. What did they do? We got Chris here. Listen, it's a zoo. It's not just Chris. The whole section is red. It's Chris and all of them. What is that? But what is Chris? Chris is not here. We find three unidentified firing objects in one week. And then Chris just doesn't show up to the fucking podcast. They got called in. Here's the thing. I'm going to tell you why I'm disappointed that Chris isn't here. Because at this point, somebody does have to represent the Asian community. Absolutely. Because if people think that China is fucking with us in this way, if y'all thought the reaction to COVID was something, when they thought that COVID was a Chinese disease in China, people were doing chemical warfare, biological warfare. What do you think they're going to think now? What do you think they're going to think now? Yo, it's not like you're speaking Chinese. Man, shut up. That should do sound country as fuck. It's not a Chinese. I mean, it's a country and Chinese. What you all think that? Damn, I never noticed how much country in China Why do you think that is, bro? Why? Because they got you, dude. Man, shut up. They infiltrated the south. What y'all going to think now? That's crazy. You speed it up. No, no, you speed it up. If you speed it up, Southern, if you speed up. If you speed up. What y'all going to think now? No, you're right. What y'all going to think now? No, for real. If you speed up Honky Tone, I never thought of that. I never thought of that shit, yo. What do you want, a sweet tea? That shit makes all the sense in the world. Y'all want a sweet tea? No, for real. All that you do is speed up. God damn. Yeah. You speed up Honky Tone. Say what? I got to look into that. Why don't you say that fast? I got to look in that. I got to look in today. I got to look in today. Now, speed it up. Speed it up. Yo, this is just something to this show. No, there's something to this show. All you have to do is speed it up, bro. That's what they do, man. Yo, I never thought of that. That's what they do. Chinese sound like sped up Honky Tone. Yes. Why do you think black people love like anime so much and like kung fu movies? They understand it. Are? Why are Chinese restaurants so big in the South? Because it's Chinese food. Of course, it's delicious. But I'm talking about you. Think about all the times you walked in certain places and there's certain people that have accents or, you know, languages and you can't understand them. You ain't never had that problem with Chinese people. I haven't. What? I almost thought you were speaking Chinese. You broke me in and shut up. You broke me in and out, bro. I'll be honest. Yo, I can't hear it now. This is crazy. No, for real. You, when your Southern comes out, you go in and out. I cannot hear it. That's wild. I don't know what language you're speaking right now, man. I'm having an existential crisis. You convinced that those unidentified flying objects were from China? I am convinced, bro. OK. Yeah. OK. I'm not going there with you. I'm not going where, man. We've shot our load for China. That's it. And then we're done, dude. We're fucking done, man. We are done. We are. Come on. Dude, what, what, what? Let's just be done. Don't you think it's weird, though? Yeah. Yeah, talk that shit. The government shot down three unidentified flying objects, told the American people we don't know where it came from. We're not going to recover the wreckage. We don't know what they were. And nobody gives a fuck. Am I tripping? This is my favorite part of America. Talk to me. Our ability to not give a fuck about things that don't directly affect us, make us look cool, or improve our lives is impressive. Yeah. Impressive. Like, if you want us to get you to care about, like, anything, you just need to make, you just need to shame people for not caring or make them look really cool for caring. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, there's no in between. There's no, it's like, and it's all self-interest at the end of the day. And sometimes it's good that there is self-interest. Like, for example, black rights for black people. That's good. You should want rights. Yeah. Actually, non-black, so we should want rights for you guys, too. We should want that. Yeah, that's not necessarily a self-interest. It is, but it's an overall interest because that's what America promises to people. Yes, but I think a lot of the white people that got on board were doing it because they would feel shamed if they didn't. Oh, absolutely. If you can't, you can't call yourself an American. That also, but I think it became trendy. It became like a thing to wear. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was almost like Lance Armstrong's shit where it's just like, live strong. It's like, you just want people to think you support cancer. You gave a dollar. It's like that for every marginalized group. Yes, so you got to make sure supporting your marginalized group makes you look cool. Sorry, makes your, what are they called, allies look cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. If your allies get points for supporting you, they're going to go support of you as everybody's motivated by self-interest. Well, somebody got to explain to me how come Joe Biden's supporting Ukraine so much, then. Bro, I don't get that shit at all, bro. I think that they need to do an investigation into President Biden and his relationship with Ukraine because he treats that shit like a mistress with a baby. They already did it. No, but they need to dig deeper. There's something there, bro. It's already moving. It's there. Ukraine was just paying fucking a hundred Biden money for doing nothing. I remember that. So what's up, all of this money, all of this money that they're dumping in Ukraine can't be going just towards the wall. Somebody explained this. I forgot exactly what it was, but in a way, it saves us money in the long run because we're destabilizing Russia. So instead of spending money to destabilize Russia in other ways, we're spending money directly there to destabilize it. That was the justification. Is Russia being destabilized, though? Well, what they're doing is they're spending an exorbitant amount of money in this war because they can't back out of the war because then it makes them look weak. So it's almost like we're back in an Afghanistan situation where the first country to go broke loses. Same thing as the space race. First country to go broke loses. So that's what the- So what if China starts bankrolling Russia? Well, now we got a little situation, but I don't know if China wants Russia to have much power. I think China's like, we want to be the only country in Asia with the power. That's what I think, but I don't know. I don't know either, man. I just don't like the fact that it looks like Ukraine got a blank check. They really do. And it's wild to go visit. Did you go visit Ohio after the train derailment? No, nobody cares. You know what I mean? With all the chemicals in the air out there? Americans don't care about Ukraine. We cared about it for a minute. Ukraine was like the perfect excuse for white people to take down their Black Lives Matter posters from their window. You know how like, as a white person, you can't take down your Black Lives Matter poster because the neighborhood is going to go, oh, now Black Lives Matter. But if you have someone to replace it with, you have a new cause where you still get to look virtuous. You get to throw that shit in. So now there's all these windows. And I saw it even in my neighborhood that had Black Lives Matter posters. And now they no longer do it. And now it's braver Ukraine. That's a service that Black people should offer. They come to your crib and take down your Black Lives Matter poster. Because you can't do it yourself as a white person. But if Black people come and take it down, that's a great idea. That's the shit I know white people do in the dead of night. Oh. That's like Santa Claus. Yo. 100%. Little kids coming out. Oh my. Johnny. What are you doing? Yeah. Jesus Christ. I'll tell you one thing too. America is a terrible place to have a world war for another world war to happen. Talk to me. There's so much of a melting pot. So it's so many that you have people from Ukraine here. You have people from Russia here. You have people from China here. You know what I mean? And then you just got Americans. And Americans are going to be, we've seen it a million times. That's why you think they have these Stop Asian Hate campaigns after 9-11 against all the Muslims. We know what's going to happen. Bro, that's why it was so hard with World War II. Think about it. America is a country that's like a lot. I'm going to say a majority, but there are plenty of Italian and German immigrants. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So World War II, England's got to get us into the war on their side to fight our uncles, our grandparents, our cousins, right? So they have to find a way to convince us to do it because obviously the Germans and Italians are on the same side. Absolutely. They're all Nazis. So that's a crazy little situation. That takes a lot of government manipulation. For World War III, that's... I'm going to tell you something, man. People really understand World War II. Do they? They really do. I mean, we've had a million movies made out of it. I know, but I've never heard anybody like put it in the proper context. Do you know 3% of the world's population got wiped out in World War II? Yo, that's light, bro. 3% of the world's population? If we're going on, I mean like, I think, what's his face, Genghis Khan, I think he took out himself 10% of the world's population. No, really? So look up Genghis Khan. World War II was 75 to 80 million people, like between Genghis Khan himself, him and his people, took out, I think it's something crazy. But that's, you can put all that on Hitler though. You can say because of Hitler, 3% of the world's population got wiped out. Oh, absolutely. I just feel like people, like, understand it, like when you... 10%. 10% of the world's population. Wait, wait, wait. You wanna look at... 40 million people. 40 million people he took out. But World War II was 75 to 80. There was just less people when Genghis Khan was alive. Oh, gotcha. But like, in terms of percentages, but the, you look at what was the bubonic plague. Yeah, yeah. That shit took out between a third to 50% of Europe. Half of the people. That's crazy. I think how much of the bubonic plague, 200 million people totaled out? One in three people in Europe. So I think they're saying total death is 200 million. God damn. That was because of Genghis Khan? No, that was bubonic plague. That was another Chinese one. Oh my God. Jesus Christ. It is. It came from China. It did come from China. He's right. 75 to 200 million people. And think about it, they weren't even, they didn't have like a census back then. You know what I mean? They weren't really counting people. So that's like rough estimates. Andrew shows his ability to how... I was talking about Hitler, Genghis Khan. He brought it back to China. I love China. I love China. My God. I love China. I was just trying to point out how there is no redeeming qualities about somebody like Hitler. I'm just saying, Asia got some wild shit. Asia got some, that's the moral. Asia got some wild, hey, you want me to do it again? You want me to do it again? No, no. You want me to do it again? Where's the swastika from? What country? No. India. Where's India in? Wow. Asia. Asians is the problem for everything. How's the swastika from? It actually means like freedom or something like that. What does it mean, Shubh? Purity and life. Oh, so that's what they thought they were doing. And they co-opted it. Yeah. That's what they thought they were doing by eliminating Jewish people. They thought they were purifying a race. Maybe. Yeah. Maybe, yeah. Yeah. Wild, right? I didn't know that. And think, so think about that. Like think about all the swastikas that are already all over India. All the swastikas that are already painted on things, part of the history, part of the culture. And now you're like a Western person. You go visit India for the first time. You just want to do yoga, relax, meditate. And then every time you look around, you're like, did the Nazis fucking get over here too? Yeah, you reminded all this trauma. Yeah, you're right. You want to stand up for your people? Uh, I mean, yeah, no, it's... Want a mic, Shubh? You want to stand up for your people? No, he's here. Like, I want to... I mean, look, I can't take my girlfriend back to India. It's just not possible. Because she's Jewish. Oh, wow. And if I take her back, she's going to go through whatever PTSD is built in the genes. Absolutely. But the swastika is a symbol of her life. It's a symbol for purity. It was co-opted by the Nazis because they believe in this, like, Aryan ideology that they're the master race. But there's this thing called the Indo-Aryan migration where the people from the Caucasus Mountains, they kind of split up over Europe, Iran, and India. So we all have, like, shared history. That's why Sanskrit is, like, so similar to Latin. That's why we have words that are the same across from India and Europe. Like, the word for pineapple, I think, is the same in, like, 15 to 20 languages. So there's a lot of shared history that way. So that's where they were trying to co-opt with the swastika is, like, they'll take that, and that's the symbol of the pure master race. Oh. Yeah, that's what I was just saying. Yeah, but in the racial hierarchy, we'd be fine in Nazi Germany. So question, do y'all try to defend the swastika to people? Of course. It's theirs first. Well, I mean, look, it's like culture appropriation doesn't affect us that much anymore because they took the worst thing, right? So we're fine with it. Like, you can have yoga, you can have turmeric, you can have all of that. Yeah. I just wonder why India didn't try to denazify the country, I guess, because the swastika just does not mean that. Well, we've had the swastika for, like, thousands of years. So the Nazis just came in, it's new. It's like a kid walking around in skinny jeans saying that he invented it, even though jeans have been around for 300 years. So how do y'all explain that, though? I guess that's what I'm trying to get at. If I'm Indian, how do I explain that to people? Like, they see me with a swastika, everybody knows what they, you know, you think that's gonna mean, like. My buddy has a bracelet that's got it on it. No. One of the little beads has a swastika on it. And I was like, brah, is that, what's up with that? And he was like, oh yeah, this has been around for thousands of years. Ain't no way. That's a brave motherfucker. Ain't no way. Yup. When my parents came here. Is this what you guys feel like when we do cornrows? No. Neither, though. No. I mean, it is making me think about. Because you're not like, damn, y'all ruin that. No. We're like, when we start dabbing. No. When we take a dance move and we popularize it. That's light cultural appropriation. We talking about stuff that's like life and death and got like trauma and blood attached to it. You know what I mean? People have died because of the swastika symbol. Yo, I was just. Trying to be funny. So I'll just stop doing that on this podcast brought to you by Nat Geo. Oh, Brittany Griner is officially back in the WNBA. Hey. Bram, bram, bram, bram, bram. Y'all still not going to watch. Yeah, that's fast. Y'all motherfuckers ain't shit. Yeah. Y'all rallied around Brittany Griner, BG got freed, and the ratings in the WA did not spike at all. And I will be highly upset if she comes back to the Phoenix. Two things. If she comes back to the Phoenix Mercury and that game isn't on prime time on one of the major sports networks, that's fucked up, right? Because that shows you one thing. They know this shit ain't going to bring ratings. Boom. Because if that shit could bring ratings, that shit would be prime time on who you think? ABC? I mean, it has to be ABC. ABC, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, they're on the right side. That's right. If there's not a big media thing around her first game, they know that it don't bring ratings. That's all they give a fuck about. They don't care about what's right, you know what I mean? They don't care that she's actually home. Perfect example of like a great thing to virtue signal on. A great issue to virtue signal on. Perfect example about it. The truth of the matter is, if you really cared about BG being free, you would be supporting her line of work because that's what led her to have to go to Russia in the first place. The fact that they have to pick up extra money during the off season of the WNBA. So if you really don't want them to have to go out to these places and make extra money and put up their self at risk, then you would make sure that the WNBA, the profitable business, just by supporting it. Yeah, they're not going to. But you're not going to do that. Well, can we talk about real basketball? OK. How did you guys feel? How did you guys feel about just whites dominating the dunk contest? Unidentified flying object. That is. Unidentified flying object. And you know what I hate? I hate when everybody runs a joke into the ground. I mean, how many times are you all going to say, because white men care too? Oh, is that what they were saying? I heard that by a million different people. I'm like, come on, guys. I thought he was Asian. China Mack MacLung is crazy. Yo, China Mack MacLung? China Mack MacLung is crazy, yo. That's China Mack. China Mack MacLung is crazy. Yo. Oh. I was impressed, you know what I mean? I actually think that this was all staged, though. What do you mean it was all staged? Because if you know Mack MacLung, you know what I mean? He's had these highlights on YouTube for a long time. And last year, Steven A. Smith proposed that they go get the street ballers and put them in the Slam Dunk Contest because they be having super creative dunks. So Mack has gone viral for his super creative dunks. The fact that Philadelphia 76ers signed him the week of the Slam Dunk Contest. He was already drafted and he was in the G League. He was in the G League. But the fact that he got signed put a two-way contract this week. That does seem suspicious. Come on, man. Now, here's the thing that I would say about that is that the 76ers are contenders so win at all this year, right? They're in the running, yeah. So would you risk a roster spot to make that happen? Yes, because this is box office, baby. I mean, you're right. We're talking about it right now. This is box office because I want to see if he can play now. Yo, white people are really are bringing Duncan back. He's the white savior. That should be his nickname, white savior. The white savior. For all you people that get so mad and be like, I hate these movies that have these white savior. This is the white savior. That is the white savior. He saved the dunk contest. That is. They just didn't come out and say it. They kept saying, Mac McClung saved the dunk contest. He's a white savior. What is happening? That's his nickname, Mac. Mac, the white savior of McClung. That's right. Yeah. He's the white savior. And then I think Jason Tatum won the MVP by shooting a bunch of threes. So you have a white guy who wins the dunk contest and then you have a black dude wins the MVP by just shooting step back three pointers. Times of change. We are living in the, was it the upside down? Yeah. Times of change, right? Times of change. I saw a dunk that Mac did online that wasn't even in the dunk contest. That shit looked crazy. But he wasn't looking when he dunked it? My God. Like he's like just the whole time and then he like doesn't it ride his back and then like, I'm like, what the fuck, man? Yeah, we're the best, man. Jesus. No, we're the best. White people are the best at dunking. Can you want to do recasting right now? Immediately. Immediately. Like right now. Yeah. Can you like, where was this guy? Does this fuck up the narrative for white men can't jump? Nah. I mean, can you can insert them CGI if you want to? That'd be fun. Yeah. Rihanna, what? Oh shit, we weren't here last week so we didn't talk about the Super Bowl. That's crazy. Yeah. What'd you think? I didn't care. I played a video game the whole time. You didn't watch the, you didn't watch at all? No. You a cap, bro? No, no, no, no. Why you didn't want to watch the game? I was watching, I was playing Last of Us. I got Last of Us the video game. Oh. That shit was fucking incredible. Have you been watching that show yet? My wife watches it. Oh, it's so good. I wonder how many people have gone back to the video game because of the TV show. I'm one. Wow. And the video game is fucking exceptional. Really? I haven't played video games in 15 years. There's no PlayStation 1 in the show? PlayStation, yeah. Wow. And I got locked in nonstop playing. You bought a PlayStation just for that game. Now my wife, this was the dumbest move on her part. She wanted to play the Hogwarts, the new Harry Potter game. Yeah. She's a huge Harry Potter fan. She's like, so can we get a PlayStation? And I was like, fine. And then I downloaded that Last of Us. And then I was playing that shit so much. She almost threw it out the fucking window. I was up until four in the morning every night, waking her up by smashing the square button. Yeah. Like I was locked into this game. What is it about? Zombies, right? Yeah, but it's kind of cool the zombie scenario. Basically, all right. So right now there are these things called cordyceps. I'm probably mispronouncing them. And this exists in real life now. And what they do is they're a fungus that infects insects. And they take over the insect's body and make the insect do whatever the fuck they want with it. So the insect just stops living and it just becomes a shell for these cordyceps. And people are like, well, why can't they live in human beings? And it's like, because the temperature inside an insect is much lower than a human being. The temperature inside a human being is 97.8 or whatever it is, 98.7. So they just can't live on us, right? But, and this is the concept of the show, the plot of the show. With global warming, maybe these fungi now are able to survive in hotter temperatures because the earth is warming. And what's a hotter temperature than an insect? A human body. So they start infecting humans and taking over the human body. So the time I was watching it with my wife and I saw these two dudes tongue kissing the fuck out of me. That is one of the most beautiful episodes you'll ever see in television history. So, but that wasn't two humans. Third episode. There was one infected by insects? No, none. Those are still humans. They're just still humans. All right, so that was actually two gay people. Yeah. Oh, I didn't know. I just thought I never knew the plot of the show. It's a gay relationship that's like a non sequitur part of it, but it's really the best episode in television history. Really? One of the best. Like, literally, I'm messaging some of my buddies like represent the people who made the show. And I'm messaging them at the beginning of the episode. It's the third episode. It's basically about this relationship with these two guys that are living in the apocalypse, right? And the first message I see, I see that they're like a gay couple. And I'm like, here Hollywood goes with this fucking bullshit trying to inject the woke narrative and everything, right? Like 15 minutes later, I'm messaging like, hold on, this shit kind of good. And then 30 minutes after that, I go, I'm crying. I was crying by the end of it. And it was this beautiful, relatable love story that had, yeah, they were gay, but that wasn't the thing that they were trying to project. It was two people in love trying to survive. Well, they're gay aboard, bro. You said it's the post-apocalyptic. So what if all the women are infected with insects? Infected with the virus. Infected with the virus. Yeah, not insects. Infected with the virus. You know what I mean? What if there's no women around? What if y'all just bored? Like, no, that could happen too. And I'm sure that does happen. Yeah. But no, these guys were gay. Because it was one dude who was totally fine living by himself. He was like one of these doomsday preppers. Yeah, until that ass came in there. And then, right? That's right. Right? And there's a scene where they're like on top of each other and their chest hairs are rubbing into one another. It's woth. Really? Yeah, yeah. The ass of us. Yeah. Yeah. The last of us. As in bussy. That didn't go in? Oh, OK. That was good. I was shooting, man. You gotta shoot, man. Anyway, RiRi, what'd you think of it? I thought it was Rihanna's best performance. Oh, come on. I thought it might hurt. This guy's a fucking man. Let me give it some context. I was nervous for Rihanna going into this. Because you knew? I mean, Rihanna's never been a phenomenal live performer. We know this. Like, this isn't news to anybody. Like, you know what I mean? She's just Rihanna. Like, she's the coolest person in the room. Like, you're just happy to be looking at Rihanna. You know what I mean? But we've never, like, she performs like a rapper to me. You know what I mean? That's why I said to me, this was her best performance because they produced it very well. Like, they knew what her strengths are and they knew what her weaknesses were. And pregnancy or not, I think that they just put together a great production. Like, all the dances, the set looked great. She looked great. You know what I mean? They kept the vocals. I'm assuming she was lip-syncing. I don't know. You know what I mean? But it was a, it was a, to me, this was one of her best live shows to me. You know what I mean? Yeah, that's a hot take, my boy. That's a hot take. One of her best shows, Rihanna. I'm not comparing it to nobody. Have you seen her live show before? Yes. Oh, you've gone in person? No, no, I've never. How about going to Rihanna's show in person? I don't think so. Well, they did like an HBO special or something like that. No, I did, no, no. I did see Rihanna in person. I saw Rihanna in person one time. I don't remember when. I feel like it was in Philly years ago, though. I don't remember. Never like a VMA or something like that? Bro, that's what I'm talking about. Y'all, y'all need to Google Rihanna at the 2016 VMAs. Why? That's all I'm going to tell y'all. Google her at the 2016 VMAs and watch that performance. I remember her getting killed for that performance. You know what I'm saying? I remember her, I remember people being overly critical of Rihanna and her live performances. It got to a point where you didn't have nothing else to talk. Talk about her about it. You know what I mean? It was like she's flawless in every other way. Everybody loves Rihanna. So the only thing people would critique her about was her shows. You know what I mean? Right. So you basically went into this going, I'm not expecting Beyonce. I'm not expecting Michael Jackson. And then you had low expectations. And then you saw that the way that they crafted the performance. You're like, oh, this is really cool what they did. I didn't have low expectations. I just, oh, that was a dope show too, though. I remember this one. But I mean, the 2016 VMAs was a dope performance. But yeah, I didn't have no expectations, though. I just didn't. What do you say about the reaction to it? I think people were being overly critical just because that's the era that we live in. You know what I'm saying? I think people were being overly critical just because that's the era that we live in. People love, they look at Rihanna. She's a billionaire now. Like, yo, do you understand we lived the tear successful people there? Yeah, we do. Like, nobody was going to walk away from this performance. Rihanna could have sang like Adele and dance like Beyonce. And nobody was going to walk away from this performance and be like, man, she killed that. That's not what we do. That's why when people like Rihanna decided to stay away from music forever and just make their money off of selling makeup, I'm not mad at her. I thought she always lip synced. Well, that's why some people lip sync. You know what I mean? But she listened. To me, she performed like that performance right there at the Subo halftime show. It reminded me of a Jay-Z performance. Because there was a time when people, and Jay-Z will probably admit this himself. Like, he was not a great performer compared to the bustin' rhymes of the world and the DMXs. You know what I mean? But he found a way to take his cool, curate it and translate it on stage in a way that was dope. And to me, that's what she did. To me. Yeah, that is an interesting point about Jay-Z. Instead of trying to like, compete with the DMXs or the bustin' rhymes in terms of like energy or charisma on stage, he found a way to do it by being subtle. I remember seeing him live and feeling that way. That's what Rihanna did to me. Yeah. Rihanna was the coolest person in the room just doing enough. She ain't gotta, just doing enough. Let the dancers do all the real work. Hit a little butterfly here and there, you know what I mean? Like, it was, it was cool to me. Yeah, are you, okay, here's, do you think her being pregnant actually was to her advantage? In that people can go, yeah, she wasn't being so dynamic up there because she's pregnant. No, not if you've been, if you've been watching Rihanna all of these years. I'm saying for the people who haven't, what their lines are they so. I mean, yeah, they can use that in these, but their lines are they so. Ah, okay. Like that's like, she would have did that same performance if she wasn't pregnant. That's what I'm saying. So it was to her advantage that she was. I mean, I mean, the pregnancy, hey, I guess, yeah, I can see why people say that. But to me, without the pregnancy, that was one of Rihanna's best live performances that I've seen personally. That was one of my personal favorites. I loved it though. I mean, I love watching everybody jump out the window. Why do we tear people down? Why do we build people? Jealousy. Tear them down. And enviousness. And don't want to admit it. And then how do we, how do people avoid that from happening? How do you stop that? You can't, you just can't. You have to accept it as part of the game. You can't, there's nobody that everybody loves universally. Yeah. The more people love you, the more people are going to hate you. Cause we live in this world where everybody wants to be a contrarian. Think about it. Everybody got a podcast. Everybody got a YouTube page. Everybody got a blog. So what do you have to have when you have those things? A fucking opinion. So if everybody got the opinion of, ah, Rihanna did her thing. Let me just take the opposite stance just because. There's some attention there. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the world we live in. We live in the age of opinions for sure. Never have there been this much access to different opinions in the history of the world. And not just opinions, opinions that people can be rewarded for. And I'm putting rewarded in air quotes because rewarded to them is getting reposted on Shade Room. Now. You know what I mean? Could someone say that you're doing this as well by having the opposite opinion of everybody else on the Rihanna performance? No. Because I feel like my opinion is rooted in what I've seen. And what I've seen throughout the years. And your thing there's is rooted in attention. It's not really what they feel. No. They know that they can say to get attention. Because if I was taking attention, I would have said from the beginning, I'm nervous about Rihanna's performance. You know what I mean? When he announced it, I'd have been like, oh man, I don't know, yo. And I'd have been pointing out all of the different times we've seen Rihanna not be the best on stage. You know what I mean? But I don't want her to not succeed. Did you find that happen with you? Like on your way up, everybody really excited for you. And then once you guys get to the top, did you feel like there was more hate? No, I think it's always been 50-50. But I think that what we tend to do is pay attention only to what we want to hear. You know what I mean? What satisfies Rihanna. What satisfies you. Perception of self. Absolutely. And that's why- But that's dangerous, because if you have negative perception of self, then you're gonna listen to all the negative stuff. If you have positive perception of self, maybe you'll only listen to the positive. You have to have like a very balanced perspective. You don't listen to any of it. And if you do listen to it, I always remember what my dad said. You're never as good as they say you are and you're never as bad as they say you are. My guy, Cadillac Jacks, Luther Cadillac Jack, another great mentor of mine in this radio game. Rule of 10. Three people gonna like it. Three people not gonna like it. Four people don't even give a fuck. Four people just sitting around waiting to see what everybody else think. There's that great quote. You would care. You wouldn't care so much what people think of you if you realized how little they did. We be in our own heads and our own bubbles. That's why social media is so dangerous show. Social media will have you thinking you got an audience because there's 10 people that tweet you. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Or there's five people that leave a comment on one of your videos. I'm like, you really think all of a sudden you got this huge audience and everybody gives a fuck about what you got to say. That shit, I've seen that shit drive a lot of people mad. Really? That's what we need to start talking about. I haven't come up with the term for it but it's a disease that is driving people mad. That's shit you're talking about with the insects taking over people's bodies? That's what attention is. That's what this new era is of all of this shit. Whether it's the YouTube podcast or being a social media influencer, like that shit gets to you. Your opinions start being derived from what people are saying online. Nothing pisses me off more because I'm the type of person. I'm aware of everything even though I might acknowledge nothing. I pay attention. There's nothing worse to talk to a person and they're repeating a bunch of things they saw on social media and you know they got it from social media. And all you got to do that is know why you think like that. They have no reason. They have no reason behind why they think like that because all you did was see somebody saying on social media, now you're running with it. But why do you feel that way? They don't even know. They just ran with it because it sounds good. That shit is annoying. They got the playbook on that idea. They got the playbook on that theory and they just ran with all the talking points. You see that in politics a lot. I guess we expect it in politics but we don't expect it in just like random culture. And to see people just hop on it. Wow, that's tricky. Yeah. So what is that? I'm taking all that to say you hated Rihanna's performance. Is what you're saying? No, I didn't watch it. And then when I saw it, I was like, okay, it's fine. I wasn't like blown away by it. But I think that there was a lot more hate than was necessary. I wonder what they were expecting. I guess I had maybe a similar expectation from you. Like I thought the cool thing about Rihanna was her vibe and I thought that her energy and that's what people are so drawn to. Not necessarily her like dancing, pro-S. So. Pardon? They dismissed. Oh, okay, guys. Let me tell you something about Rihanna. Yeah. Some people just are stars, bro. Yeah, like some people are just natural born superstars. Some people just got it. Yeah. Okay, Rihanna is the type. Somebody was telling this story the other day. I forgot who it was, but they were saying how they were in the lobby a deaf jam years ago when Rihanna had, I think I don't even know upon the replay was out yet, but they was like, when she walked through the lobby, everybody was turning like, yo, who was that? Who was that? Some people just got it. Yeah. You know what I mean? That's why I hate when people say things like, oh, you're not ugly. You know, you just broke. No. You're ugly. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? You could be both. Because Rihanna, this person right here was this person always. Right. She's always been this version of herself. Right. You know what I mean? It's just that she's constantly grown, constantly above. She's the coolest person in the room. She got an energy. She got a vibe. You can't fake that shit, man. That's why even with the debate that about this vocal is so stupid to me. What's the debate? People are saying this is an agenda to emasculate the black man. You know what I mean? As if you've never been a man holding your child, walking behind yourself. Yo, black dudes can't win, bro. You in your kid's life. You holding your baby. It's like you emasculate, like, how would you want this cover? Rocky's not there? First of all. Rocky's nowhere to be found? First, this has nothing to do with agenda. This is about star power. It's Rihanna, bro. Yeah, Rihanna did the Super Bowl. Now Rocky. And Rihanna's a superstar. Yeah. So two things. Rihanna's a superstar. She's gonna be on the front cover in that position regardless. And, hey man, I want my child and my soon to be husband on the front cover of Old Whitney. Yeah. Boom. That's what superstars do. Also, if you're a husband, why would you be upset at holding your kid? And this is just. It's unbearable. Yo, it's hard. You know, I never realized this until right now. It's kind of hard to be black, man. Oh, wow. I know we've been doing this bop for about a decade and we've spoken about a lot of topics. It's the bowl cover that makes you nervous. It's the bowl cover that let me know that it's kind of hard to be black, dude, dude. Now it is interesting with ASAP, though. ASAP, you know, ASAP got a lot of flak when he first started, because everybody was like, oh, you know, he's from New York, but he sounds like he's from down south. Then they gave him a flak because he was, they say he would wear dresses, right? And then, you know, you see things with ASAP, like he went to jail in Sweden, right? Think about this, right? There's nothing ASAP can do to win people over, right? Because all this shit that allegedly makes you real, he's done. Yeah. He went to jail. Right now, he's facing charges, shooting somebody. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I thought that was the shit that y'all liked. I thought that was the shit that y'all said made against them. You know what I mean? So what do you think they just don't like about him? That he's winning. He's with Rihanna. Yeah. Like, bruh, he's with Rihanna. Yeah. He won. There's nothing y'all can say to ASAP Rocky. That man is, and forget the fact that he's with Rihanna. This man is with a beautiful woman that he's raising a family with. You can look at him and tell he's happy. Is that not the essence of life, bruh? Yeah. Is that not what success should be about? Yeah. Is that not it? I can care less if they was worth $500. They are happy. All I see is a happy couple on the front of Vogue magazine. If you see something else, something's wrong with you, bruh. Yeah. That you ain't never held your child and walked behind the woman you love? Nope. Because you ain't got kids yet? Exactly, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And people act like it's a problem with a woman being in front. What if she knows what she's going? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I'm saying- I'm saying like, what if I don't know where I'm going? And I'm following my woman? Yeah. Or what if she forgot where she parked her car? And then you guys are just looking for it. I'm following my woman. Yeah. I think there's a lot of times where a woman will walk in front. I don't mind my woman walking in front. I don't even think about stuff like that. Don't even cross my mind. I don't like it when we're walking and then she makes like a turn somewhere without letting me know. Well, get off your phone and pay attention. No, I'm paying attention. But we're just walking and she's mid-sentence. She'll just make the left turn on that street. I've been like, yo! Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. All I know is, man, to put image- I think sometimes my wife thinks I'm the dog a little bit. Do you know what I mean? You're not the dog, you're just the man. Yeah, I guess. But that is weird. You got to nudge me and be like, we're turning left here. Like, I'm halfway through the crosswalk. And then sometimes just because I'm so frustrated. You're giving dogs too much credit. You got to give a dog a little pull when you walk. Pull me! Pull me! Sometimes just out of being pure stubbornness, I'll walk the other way. And I'll be like, well, I'll meet you at home. But I'm not going to follow you around fucking Soho. The fuck I look like a golden doodle to you? I need a nudge or I need some sort of acknowledgement. Yeah, yeah, yeah. My wife will just be walking mid-sentence. Yeah, so I think maybe we should look into maybe going on safari and then just turn that way. Yeah. Not get it? That's an asshole thing to do, right? Is that not? Not if you're walking together. Did you expect that I'm just like looking at her fucking head the entire time we're walking just in case she moves? The reason I don't think so is because if y'all walking together, clearly y'all have a destination in mind, right? Yeah, but there's different ways to get to the destination. So if she makes the right, just make the right way to. If I don't know she's making the right, now I walk three steps and I got to go back. Pay attention. How about an acknowledgment? You wanted to hold your hand like Rihanna was holding Asap's hand? Yeah. OK, I'm with that. Nothing wrong with that. Or just follow me where the fuck we're going. What if you don't know where you're going? Then we're going to get there late. What the fuck we need to be early to put the laces on you. That's what you put the laces on. I'm OK with that. I'm OK with that. I just think that if a magazine cover threatens your manhood in any way, shape, or form, you're not much of a man. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, wait, why? Was Asap upset it? No, those people was upset saying it was a man. Can you grab me a water? Emasculating the man. But that's just this like, yeah, I think I think man, I think are a little bit sensitive right now to emasculation. Why? I think that sometimes like, put it this way, you know how like. Nothing can make me feel like less of a man. I'm going to explain it to you. You know how like, why there are certain white people that see equality as a threat and a loss? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, like, like. You're taking what's mine. Them being equal with somebody else is taking something from them. Exactly. And I think that there are certain men that also view equality like that. Yeah. You know, that's a good point because I had a thought. I feel like patriarchy and white privilege are the same thing. No, here we go. No, I tell you why. Because I feel like it puts mediocre people in positions of power and it puts them in positions that they may not be qualified to be in. Like just because you're a man doesn't mean you're a fucking leader, bro. Yeah, some of these dudes ain't going to do shit but lead you off a fucking cliff. There's plenty of women that I trust in leadership roles way before I do dudes. Like just because you got a dick or you're a man does not mean that you qualified to be a leader. And if you got to create a system, if you have to create a system to keep you in that position of power, you will suck it at me. Let's get rid of the system and let's compete for real, for real. I'm with you. I like that. I like decentralized systems because I want to compete one on one. But what man has done from the beginning of time, no matter what the race is, their race is, is the second they establish a business. They've tried to create a moat, a metaphorical moat around that business to protect them and them only. They're the only ones that could sell this. Hey, if you want to sell alcohol, you need a liquor license. So why do we need a liquor license? Well, we can't just have everybody out here selling alcohol. So they're just trying to protect their business. I think that is what mankind does no matter where you go. They create a system. They create a system to protect their business. And I agree with you, if your business is that good, why don't we just compete in the free market? That's the idea of capitalism. So it's not very capitalistic, if you look at it. But naturally, mankind, we are in a competition for resources and we will protect those resources with whatever we can, whether if it's military, whether it's legislation, governments, we'll find a way to do it. So I think that is like how we naturally just gravitate towards things. And then maybe that's better than the alternative, which is just murdering one another. You want to get to Buckingham. Let's see what you got. You want to get to Buckingham. But you could argue that's what podcasting is, Charlotte. And like, like this is actually, no, that's a good argument. Like there's exactly what it is. But there's radio, right? There's a few different radio stations. Well, there's a bunch of radio stations, but there's a few different syndicated national ones. And then we start podcasting. Now you could go, you know what? Fuck this. Why are we letting all these other people compete? Why are we letting all these other people get? Involved in this game, this game is our game, and our game alone. But instead you said, no, I'll do a podcast too. Yeah, but you know why? No, I did the podcast because of our guy, Chris Moreau, you know what I mean? Yeah. But to your point. Meaning you weren't angry at it. You weren't insulting them. No, and I'm not angry at it now. And the reason I'm not angry at it is because what we're talking about, the cream will rise to the top. Yeah, you believe in your ability. And everything else will ex the self out. Last week, New York Times, podcast companies once walking on air feel the strain of gravity. The dumb money air is over as layoffs, budget cuts, and scuttle deals challenge a long booming industry. The dust is settling now, baby. The dust is settling now. This is the fun time. Only the strong survive, baby. This is the fun time. Now we really get to see what you got. Yeah. I saw the Reed celebrating 10 years, 10 years this weekend. How many motherfuckers can say that? That's right. You understand what I'm saying? Yeah. 10 years of excellence, dominance. 10 years of high listenership. 10 years of selling merch out crazy. 10 years of live sold out shows. They put in that motherfucking work. Built that shit brick by brick. They have a foundation. They have something that cannot be penetrated. And they were in on it early. They were in on this gold rush early. Really, Nydia's celebrating 10 years this year, even though we're a new podcast. We're a brand new podcast. That's about to launch. Brand new podcast, about to launch. We're celebrating 10 years. You sure? I think it's next year. No, I think this year. No, this year it's in. This year it's in. Yeah, I looked it up. Because the Starship Star Shame Enterprise was 2013, our first episode with Jazz Fly. I forgot exactly when, but it was 2013. My point is, the strong have not only survived, they've thrived. And everybody that's just jumping in now, y'all jumped in a little too late, buddy. Y'all jumped in a little too late. And you have to be, like, exceptional. Like, exceptional. Who's it? What's the last podcast you've heard that's exceptional? Like, unbelievable. Like, oh, I got to listen to this. I got to check this out every week. Like the most recent one that came out? Yes. I can't, I can't think of it. Me neither. I like this. I like competition. I like when shit drives up. That's my point. But also when shit drives up, you find out who really wants to do it. Like, I think there's a lot of people in the game. Everyone and their mother hopped in the podcast game because they're like. The thing is a quick lick. Exactly. Because all these companies were just giving out money and all this shit. They thought it was a quick lick. And then once the money drives up, we get to see who really wants to be in it. Absolutely. And then once those people leave, you know what's more available? The money. Oh, there's already an article. The people who are going to make the money in podcasting over the next couple of years are the people who are already established. The Reeds. The brilliant idiots. No, seriously, these shows that have been around for five, 10 years. Like, why am I going to spend money on a podcast that isn't proven in any way? Absolutely. Shape of form. That's just business. I think it's natural. Like, what happens is like when there's a new thing. And again, for example, DJing wasn't new. But it became easy. Once you had to stop lugging around the crates and you could just put everything on a USB, the barrier of entry to DJing became really easy. And then you saw all these celebrities hop on a DJ shit. Didn't last, oh. Well, that's my point, right? So they hop on and everybody's like, oh, I want to go see this celebrity DJ. I'll see Paris Hilton DJ. I'll see these people DJ because you're just in the same room as a celebrity. That's right. It's like a meet and greet. That's right. Eventually, either the money dried up or they weren't that good or whatever it is, and then they leave the game. And I think that's probably what ends up happening in a podcast. Yes, man. And listen, the reason I always keep going back to the read, even though they have a love-hate relationship with me and I understand why. I can be a bit much. I have been a bit much over the years. But the reason I keep going back to them is because the first time I ever saw Kid Fury, Kid Fury was on YouTube 15 years ago. Like honing his craft. And you could tell, like, this kid's got this guy's special. Like, you know what I mean? He just had something, right? Same thing with the Crystal. You can take Crystal and put her anywhere and it translates. We've seen it. But I have to have her on uncommon sense. You put Crystal next to anybody, she body and folks. So when you take these two together and these people have more than put in their 10,000 hours, that's how you build something special like you read. You look at the brilliant ideas. Okay, Chris says, I'm going to go get this guy, this guy that does morning radio telling me he needs to do a podcast. Oh, Andrew Schultz, stand up comedian. You see him on GuyCold giving these takes. See him on social media giving these takes. This got to translate to podcasts, right? 10 years later, boom. We still here by the grace of God. And because, you know, we got a great fan base that listens to us. That's the difference. Then just bringing, you really got people that think they can just come off the screen yesterday and we make it look that easy that you can just get in front of a microphone and just talk. And you wonder why your shit ain't translating. You wonder why your shit not connected with nobody. Yes, you can. You can start today. You can start today and be a huge... I told you this before and I'm going to tell you again. I hate your business. I've told him this before. I hate... I hate WT, listen. This woman, right? Hold on. This woman, we need to protect this woman that posted this. Who's this woman, yo? I retweeted her. Her name is at the baddest Mitch on Twitter. She said the CIA dropped those red cartoon boots off into black neighborhoods like they did crack fireworks and podcast mics. I agree with her. 100% agree with her. And y'all should start having more criteria. Son, I meant so. What you mean? What do you mean? Yeah, that's true. What does that mean? I'm not in the hood. I'm not in the hood. You said... No, I mean y'all should start having more checks and balances. You should do mental evaluation tests for people who want podcasts. So you should sit them down and ask them... So I gotta kick your ass out of here then. Maybe. But you should ask them why they wanna start a podcast. Seriously. But no, I think we gotta be supportive of everybody who wanted to do it. And I don't say that just to support your business. I mean that sincerely because I think that's how you show the cream, right? It's like, I want everybody to try podcasts. I want every famous person and thing is just talking on the mic. I feel the same way about stand-up. I wish more people tried stand-up so they know how fucking hard it is. A lot of people never tried stand-up. They make their friends laugh. They make the people at work laugh. So they're like, oh yeah, I can just go on stage. I like that. It's like, I'm sure the same thing exists with radio. It's different when you gotta go for hours and talk on the microphone and then you realize that your show's bombing and it's like, oh. You know why you're right? Because now you'll get that person on the right path. See? Now that person will go figure out what it is they should actually be doing. And they put some new respect on the game. They go, oh wow, these people are really good at that thing. That's a skill. You're right. And the fact that it looks accessible, the fact that it looks like you can do it shows our skill. That's right. And I want everything to look easy. And I don't want to, I'm not shitting on the people coming fresh off the screen because that wouldn't be right, right? Because once again, to read is a perfect example or a horrible decision. It's a perfect example of people who didn't have any experience in media but clearly had a calling to be in front of these microphones. Because to Andrew's point, you got celebrities, you got successful comedians, singers, rappers who do podcasts and they don't work. You know what I mean? This shit is not for everybody and you will know pretty quickly whether or not this shit is for you. Do you remember the first podcast we put out? Yeah. Of course, you remember. Do you know how many views it had? 50,000? 50,000. And I was like, oh shit. Because in my mind, damn, I was like, no, you keep trying to put this shit in my mouth. He pulled it wide underneath. That was God saying, don't suck your own dick right now. That's what God was saying, stay humble. You know what I mean? No, but in my mind, I was like, yo, I didn't think nobody wanted to listen to me outside of radio. That's really how I felt. That's one of the reasons when Chris came to me about doing a podcast, I was like, why would I do a podcast? I got more on the radio. Yeah. And in my mind, I was like, I don't think, I was like, why would people want to hear me when I'm not on the radio? I knew people would want to hear you. I didn't. I'm not even joking. When I saw that 50,000, I was like, oh shit. Then we was texting each other like, yo, you know we number one on these Apple charts? You see, you know, they got charts for podcast and we number one on this shit. Like, I didn't think none of it. So then it just became a thing of I thoroughly enjoyed coming here every week and kicking shit with my friend. Yeah. Then, yeah, go, go, go, go. I remember getting to chat. And you were like, huh? Yeah. And I remember one day Andrew was like, whoa, we're pranked money. We told you, we was like, oh my God, this shit is unbelievable. And it was unbelievable. I was like, hold up, you can pay for this shit too. I didn't, Chris didn't say that part. He just was telling me to start a podcast. I'm like, all right, why not? Cause I saw a Combat Jack doing it. I saw the Reed doing it. Chance podcast is another one. Neil's running the motion cashier. But I just thought that was some neat shit. Now it's everybody's doing it. Which is great. I know that frustrates you, but I do think it's great cause I want more people to do something so they appreciate what greatness is within it. It's like more people that play basketball recognize how great Jordan is. The more people that play soccer recognize how great Messi or Ronaldo is. So I like it. I like more people being interested. Also the more people who are doing podcasts and listening to podcasts, the more podcast fans there are. Because their fans will also seek out other podcasts. The more interest there is in a space, one, the more money is in a space, the more eyeballs are in a space. It's like, it's great for... Yeah, I don't know how much the podcast audience is growing. That's the only thing that's kind of scary. Oh, I think it's growing like crazy. I don't think, I'm not sure. Yo, think about it like this. The movie You People, the leads are podcasting. Yeah, podcasting. The show Sex and the City, Shorty comes back to do a podcast. Like podcast becomes part of the lexicon. It's almost like, you know how Jiu Jitsu is really popular? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, like the martial art? Like in movies back in the day, when we were growing up, it was karate, right? Absolutely. You know, you see the movies, it's Jiu Jitsu. It's just the new trending thing that people are really into. And the more popular it is, like the more filled those classes are, et cetera. So, so I think it's, I love it. I love it. Yeah, and I want to salute the loudspeaker network. You know what I mean? I salute to my guy, Nori. I swear, Nori had everybody upset because of some comments that he made about loudspeaker. We can play the comments. You said about loudspeakers? Yeah, he was saying about loudspeaker. You know, me and Nori spoke about it. I mean, in reality, this situation is Nori was just wrong. You know what I mean? Because the things he said about loudspeaker just weren't true, you know? And rest in peace to Combat Jack. And, you know, I think maybe people didn't know. I thought they did. Combat Jack wasn't signing the loudspeaker network. He owned the loudspeaker network. You know what I'm saying? Combat Jack, Chris Murrow, they owned the loudspeakers network. They founded the loudspeakers network. They launched the loudspeakers network. They owned the loudspeaker network, you know? To reduce combat to just a talent that was signed to a company, that's not accurate, you know, in any way, shape or form. And I think Nori was saying how, you know, people were signing their YouTubes over the loudspeaker. Loudspeaker was not on YouTube, you know what I mean? And then when they did, like when Combat was posting his show on YouTube after a while under the loudspeaker network, that was Combat Jack doing that for his show, you know? So anybody saying loudspeaker, you know, takes money from our audience or takes money from talent. Yeah, that's just not accurate. That wasn't accurate. That wasn't accurate at all. And I mean, Nori, you know, he knew he didn't have information right after we spoke, you know, but... Well, hopefully he'll correct that then. Yeah, hopefully, I don't know if he might have already. I don't know. You know what I mean? Yeah, it's tricky. I'm sure, like, you probably come from a business that's a little bit more exploitative, is that the word? Right. He comes from that. Absolutely. So he probably assumes the same thing would apply to podcasting. But the reality is, especially in the early days of podcasting, that's not the case at all. You know? Yeah, see, yes. And I saw Nori tweet this, he said in December, I guess you wanted to come on Drinkchamps. Remember, FYI, I would never discontent our tax. But I did state facts and I never dissed loudspeaker after watching the whole thing. Not what? Oh, not clips. Yeah, but Nori wasn't stating facts though. So, yeah, don't do that to loudspeaker. Like, if we're going to be accurate about history and, you know, who did what in the podcast space, you can't even have those conversations without talking about the loudspeaker network. Yeah, the first hip-hop podcast were Combat Jack and Wannep. And I don't even think I like those guys. Okay? But I would say that. I mean, I'm not going to ever hate on them in that way. Because history is history. You're not going to ever, you know, take away somebody's history. Yeah. First hip-hop podcast were Combat Jack and Wannep. Those are the first two I remember. Right, those were the first two. First lifestyle commentary podcast I personally heard was the read in Joe Rogan. Yeah. Those are the ones that I heard about. You know what I mean? Yeah. So, you know, let's give credit where credit is due, people. All right? Want to pay some bills? Let's do it. All right, guys, we'll take a break for a second because I need to talk to you all about therapy, man. Therapy is this beautiful, amazing thing. And talk space was really ahead of the game. What talk space does that makes therapy incredibly convenient to you. It's going to match you with the therapist of your desires. And you could do the whole thing on Zoom. You could do it over the phone. It is so incredibly convenient. Now, I know before the pandemic, back in the day, nobody was going to do a therapy session on the phone. Okay? What were they doing back in the day? They weren't going to do a therapy session over Zoom. But now that is how it is done. And talk space has got you back. And they're going to be there so you can work through all the problems, the anxiety that you might have. I'm telling you, sometimes the most difficult thing is not knowing why you're so anxious. Not knowing why you're so stressed. Not knowing why you have some sort of crippling, uncomfortable fear when you're put in certain situations. And a great licensed therapist is someone who's going to help you work through those moments and really help you get your life back on track. I can't say enough great things about therapy. I'm very fortunate I was raising a family that was very comfortable with going to therapy. Most of my parents went through therapy. So therapy never had any stigma. And now I feel like a lot of people are realizing the value to it. So I hope you guys do too. And talk space has got your back. Now, as a listener of this podcast, you are going to get $100 off your first month with talk space when you go to talkspace.com slash idiots. Okay? Now, if you want to match with a licensed therapist today, you go to talkspace.com slash idiots to get $100 off your first month and show your support for this show. That's talkspace.com slash idiots. Now, Charlemagne, this show is also brought to you by Squarespace. Did you know that? Squarespace is the all-in-one platform for building your brand and growing your business online. Stand out with a beautiful website. Engage your audience and sell anything, your products, your content, even your time. I'm telling you, if you have a business and you do not have a website, you do not have a business. Nobody's taking your shit serious. 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I'm telling you, Squarespace is where it's at. And right now, if you head to squarespace.com slash idiot for a free trial, when you're ready to launch, use the offer code idiot. You're going to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. That's squarespace.com slash idiot with the offer code idiot for 10% off your first purchase. Now let's get back to it. Go. Let's do some church announcements for the show. Yo. I've agreed to do one stand-up show. Ooh. One. I'm coming up to Calgary. And I'm going to do a show up in Calgary. I think it's August 27th. Tickets are at TheAndrewShows.com. The Great Outdoors Festival. It's crazy. It just, yeah. I've seen some videos and pictures of this place. It looks fucking unbelievable. So I was like, this looks really good. So yeah, but I'm back in the clubs and I'm back up and it's exciting to be doing stand-up again. And yeah, I'm excited to, I'm very excited, man. I'm very excited. So yeah, I've agreed to go do that. That's August 27th. Go get those tickets, TheAndrewShows.com. What do I have? I will be doing the Roots Picnic on June. Well, the Roots Picnic is June 2nd through the 4th in Philadelphia. I'll be on the podcast stage at the Roots Picnic. I was trying to make it a brilliant thing, but the show's never responded back to me. I did say, I said I'm down. No, you did not. I did. I texted you and I said, yo, you want to do the Roots Picnic, you ain't left me on reek. Red? What'd I say? What'd I say? You talk for a living, man. What'd I say, yo? What'd I say, yo? Yeah, that. Wait a minute. So what's the deal? Well, I mean, they, they, they, I wanted to do Brilliant Idiots because, you know, they asked me to do it. And so now I'm going to do, I'm doing a one-on-one conversation with somebody. Well, maybe that's the reason. What? No, I wanted to do idiots. I had to give them an answer. I hit you. I said, yo, you want to do. Let me see. I can't even find the fucking text now. Well, is it too late to change it because I don't know, you know, people would love to see you guys do a live show. I don't know. I mean, I'm listening. Listen, I don't want to. I'm not against it. I don't want to encroach on this one-on-one. Maybe it's a really interesting one-on-one interview. Maybe. Yeah. But. Yeah. It might actually be even better if it's a tag team. Well, there's no question it'd be better, but I don't want to. But I actually would like to see you in conversation with this person. If it's Dr. Umar Johnson, we're going to shut down the entire internet. And I must beat him up. It's not Dr. Umar. Can you say who it is? No, because it's not confirmed yet. Yeah. But yeah, I'll be doing the Roots Picnic, June 2nd, 4th. Maybe it'll be a brilliant, nittiest thing. I don't know. Yes, we haven't announced that yet, but we will announce it. But shut out the Roots Picnic, man. That's a really cool event. I want to feel the energy. Yeah, I think it's really cool, man. I've went a couple of times. It's great. I've seen it. I don't know. I think the energy around it is always really cool. And I think Quest is the man. Quest is that guy. I've never been... He really is that guy. So, you know, the fact that they want me to headline the podcast age this year. I think that's a great idea by them. And I think that you would have an awesome one-on-one interview with whoever it is. And... Brilliant idiots would be crazy. But if they want to do brilliant idiots, and, you know, obviously the schedule's all aligned, I'd be down for that too, man. What else we got? Something else I wanted to say for church announcements. God damn it. What else? What else? What else? Oh, I forgot. Salute to Erica Alexander for winning the DuPont Award for finding Tamika. And Erica is also nominated for what they call the... God damn it, Chris. Why are you not here? Hold on. What's this thing called? Because Chris nominated for it too. The... I can't find the shit. Oh, the Ambies. Finding Tamika is also nominated at the Ambies for Best Documentary, Excellence in Audio, and Summer of 85 is also nominated. I forgot what category, though. Text me and tell me what category, Chris. But Chris is nominated at the Ambies too. What is Ambies stand for? He's nominated for Summer of 85... Oh, the Audi. Oh, my bad. Summer of 85 is nominated for the Audi Award. These are just the big Audi Awards. Like the DuPont is like the Oscar of Audi Award. And Finding Tamika won that. It's an award that Columbia University gives out. But then the Ambies and the Audies are also two big huge award shows in the audio space. So Summer of 85 is nominated for an Audi and Finding Tamika is nominated for an Ambies. So we're doing our thing at SBA Productions with Audible, man. And we got two more projects coming out this year. I can't wait to tell y'all what those are. I can tell y'all one of them though. Because we already announced them. Unleashed with Love by Alicia Renee. That would be our first scripted... She wrote it? Her and Serita. I'm blanking on Serita's last name. Her and a young lady named Serita wrote Unleashed with Love. And it will be out later this year. So look for that. That'll be the next release coming out on Audible. What else we got? Let's do some asking idiots, man. Because we got things to do. Serita Wesley. Salute to you, Serita. We got things to do. Salute to Jess Alaris. Jess Alaris will be hosting with us on Breakfast Club all week long. Y'all got to stop with everybody being your favorite guest host too, man. That's why you don't listen to the internet. G.C.77 says, Showed, when did they sell Capris for men? Today I looked in my own pants and I was like, man, these are a little short. Don't yes, bro. You've been wearing short pants too after you followed me, bro. You've been following me, bro. Go look at every flagrant episode. This guy got the ankles out just like your boy. Whatever I do, people do. You're talking about the taste maker. You're talking about the gatekeeper. You're talking about the king maker right now. My pants are exactly as long as they're supposed to be. The reason why your pants don't touch your ankles is because you're a midget. What's this guy's name? Did you just say that? What's this? Yeah, yeah, but then I flip. I realize my confidence needs to come back. G.C.77. Yeah, G.C.77. G.C.77. Get longer legs. Why don't you get some longer legs? This is what happens in pants when you got long legs. Okay? Simple as that. Don't be mad at me. Be mad at your parents. Welcome to life over six feet. Yeah, yeah. Woo that one, Charlotte. Woo. I don't even realize I'm short, bro. Thank you. I don't. I only realize it's short nears. I walk in the room looking down on people. Exactly. Thank you. I'm with you in that regard. I don't be realizing I'm short. All right. Yorker T. If Thanos snaps all the black people out of the U.S., how many things will perish? I don't even know what that means. Parish? Oh, he meant perish. Yeah. Oh, it's okay. He tried his best. Great movie. I mean, great play. There's a great play called Ain't No More that Jordan Cooper wrote. Lee Daniels lean away for producers on it. And they addressed this in a way that I don't even know if they addressed it. And what I found interesting about it, the play is about a group. Like black people basically get allotted a one-way ticket back to Africa. All the black people in America can leave and go live in Africa. And there's this bag in the play. And the bag basically represents all the things that black people have contributed to culture. So one of the characters is like, we can't leave that bag. I might do all the black people don't leave, but you can't leave this bag. You can't leave this bag. You can't leave this bag. But am I giving away the play? At the end of the play, when he tries to take the bag, the bag won't move. The bag doesn't want to come. The bag is not going. But what that symbolized, at least to me, was the stuff that we used here to survive and then thrive. We don't need it where we're going. That's just baggage. That served us already. Leave it. You know what I'm saying? So when you say snap all black people out of the U.S., how many things will perish? I don't know. Because I don't know how many things are actually for others as opposed to those things actually being for us. I think what he's trying to say is like, do we stop watching the NBA? No. You got Mack Mccung. Mccung. Don't do it. Don't do it. Don't do it. I'm just saying, it's just going to make room for those white guys who can ball. Oh, I thought you were doing what you were doing earlier. No, I'm not doing honky-tonk. I'm not doing Asian honky-tonk. You were doing Asian honky-tonk. I'm just saying, it's going to make more room for those guys. I bet you it's a bunch of Mack Mccung's in the G-league. Bro, stop it, bro. It sounded crazy. Yo, you need to chill out, man. I felt like I said something about a gong. Did I? Charlemagne? That's crazy. Charlemagne. Charlemagne. You're doing it again. You're getting a little riled up. You're getting a little riled up, but when you get a little riled up, bring it down. Just chill out. You're too high. You're too high. Come on. You don't need to be that tall, y'all. You don't. Come down. God damn. Gosh darn it. Gosh darn it. You did it again every once in a while. You let one slip out, and you don't realize it. And then you just keep moving on. All I was saying, there was no need for me to be that high. Is that it? I'm going to bring it, me and Jeremy Lin. We're going to bring it right back down here. You keep saying Asian things. No, I'm not. You do keep saying it. Am I supposed to believe that was just a random analogy that you were using right there? I used two of them. I used the tall one and the shorter one. Is that like a yin and a yang or like? Exactly. Okay. That's all. All right. Okay. Okay. All right. That makes sense. No less scope. No less scope says if your industry didn't exist, what will be your God damn it? Let me say hi. Let me read this shit the way he wrote it. If your industry wouldn't exist, what would be your of you guys? I don't even know what the fuck he's trying to say. Like what would we do? I guess that's what he's trying to say. If your industry wouldn't exist, what would be your of you guys? I'd probably be a Chinese spy balloon pilot. I think that's what I would do for a living. I'd be a Chinese spy balloon pilot. But you don't even got to be in the spy balloon though. You can do that shit from remote control somewhere. Yo, do you think they drive the balloons because in the air you have the least chance of crashing? Yeah. I think so. That makes a lot of sense. Back to 4.6 says when were you most starstruck in your life? When was I most starstruck? Starstruck. I've never been starstruck. You've never been starstruck? Nah. I've been stupid. First thing that had me starstruck, it was just like stupid. I just was dumb when I saw it. That's what starstruck is. Nah. Nah. It was just early in the morning. What? What? What? What? I didn't realize how many Asian sales you just made. It's unbelievable. It's unbelievable. Bro. Yeah, this is crazy. I can't believe it. Your sales is super Asian, bro. I'm hearing so much goddamn cultural appropriation. You really do, man. Oh, you said me. I thought you just meant in general. You. I thought you were talking about juvenile, huh? No, you just did that. What I said. You said, huh. No, I did not. This guy. I did not do that. This guy. I'm not doing anything. You are being you. I do think, but by the way, we do need the moral of this whole thing. What is the moral of this? The bring together the fact that people down south do sound Asian and Asians do sound like honky tonk people. We did not realize that until today. They do. So there's a similarity there. They do. We need to show that. I'm almost like, do we try to slow down Chinese and see what it's like? I think we should. I think we should do it. Because somebody's going to do it. Somebody's going to hear this episode and they're going to do it. They're going to chop and shrew the Chinese people and then they're going to speed up honky tonk people to see what the similarities are. So you might as well do it ourselves. Yep. What you think? I think, yeah. I think we're just coming closer together. It'd be beautiful to find out that Mandarin or Cantonese is really just like a sped up version of the American Southern twang. That's beautiful. Let's end on this one. This is good. Brad Krim III says, how you feel about the NBA celebrating LeBron so much? I told you people just live to hand out successful people. Yeah. That is a fucked up question, yo. Why shouldn't they celebrate him? They broke the all time NBA scoring record, meaning that there's nobody in the history of the NBA who has scored more points than him. That is a huge deal in a sport like basketball. Why wouldn't they celebrate him? They should celebrate him, bro. This is history. This is absolute positive history. That's just a wild question to ask. How do we feel about the NBA celebrating LeBron so much? What are they supposed to do? Who are they supposed to celebrate this year, if not LeBron? Matt McCung. It's McClung, bro. What's his name? Matt McClung. Matt McClung? Yeah. Every time I say that shit, I hit a gong go off, bro. It's crazy. Yeah. You're like an interesting guy, man. What do you mean? You just need everything to be Asian. I think you really just love Asia so much. I think you have a real affinity for Asia. I do. We're supposed to go to Asia this summer, actually. Really? We're supposed to. If we put the trip together. Where in Asia? Shit, I don't want to say nothing. It might not be Asia. I thought it was Asia. Japan. Bro, of course, Japan is in Asia. Japan is Asia, right? Yeah. I thought so. Have you questioned myself? Like, damn, did I say something wrong? Japan is Asia. Japan is variation. Crazy. Variation. Crazy, yo. Yeah, it's super Asian. They flag or throw you off, though. What? You ever seen the flag of Japan? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Pull up the flag of Japan, bro. What, the rising sun? That's what that is? Yeah. What did you think it was? I don't want to go outside. Bring up that goddamn flag immediately. Yo, bring up that fucking flag immediately. Don't fucking stay. Pull up the flag. Pull up the flag. Pull up the flag. We can end on this. Just get the Japanese flag, Taylor. If we don't edit it. Japanese flag. I don't know how this is going to be taken. For a long time. If for a long time. You thought that was the Indian flag? You thought it was the Indian flag. You thought it was the Indian flag, didn't you? Amen. Just a little, huh? India is in Asia. But I understand why you thought it was the Indian flag. That's all I'm saying, bro. That does make sense. No, no, no, no. That's all I'm saying. I didn't know any better. That's all I'm saying. But that is the Japanese flag. That's the rising sun. They are the land of the rising sun. Word. Okay. That's it. Yeah. The sun rises in the east, sets in the west. Boom. I got it. We got it. You learned. Oh, as always. We don't want to try it. No. As always. If you listen to this podcast and you think we just a couple idiots, no, no shit. You're absolutely right. Listen to this podcast and you think that, you know, I don't even remember what the fuck I'm saying. Hold on. If you think we're smart, if you think we're smart, you think we're intelligent, you think we're brilliant, you're absolutely right too. It's the brilliant idiot's podcast. Thank you for listening.