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June 5, 2024 44 mins

We tap in with our Canadian Correspondent and newly crowned greatest rapper from Canada, Shad to talk about what it means that Drake isn't apart of "The Culture."

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Speaker 1 (00:02):
All media.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Today is special.

Speaker 1 (00:07):
First of all, what up, Welcome, We're gonna bring in
the Canadian correspondent. Cannot wait for y'all to talk to
my man Shad, who is now officially the greatest rapper
out of Canada. Please do your googles on Shad if
you like, do your googles Shad is. We got some
music coming out. We've already done music together. But Shad

(00:28):
is like a top tier artist hip hop evolution. His
show on Netflix, go watch it. The guys won an
egregious amount of Juno's, which are the Canadian Grammys. The
guys that he's just a stud anyway. Before we bring

(00:49):
him in to discuss the final final, final thoughts on
Kendrick and Drake and the Big three and what culture means,
let's drop in and do some current See it's like
this Bullduk is like this, Bullook is like this all right,

(01:15):
so Hunter fighting, So help me starting his case. His
case is on a gun charge for him lying on
his application saying he wasn't on no junk.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Now it's verifiably true. He was lying.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
He was on that junk and he talked about it
all the time. But on the application to get a gun.
The man said, na, I ain't on nothing. Now, remember
when we talked about what you won't do with Trump?
How a defense one could make is like, bro, you
ain't never lied on no application. That don't make it

(01:57):
all right. I'm just saying to be fair imbalanced, who
among us has not lied on some application. Now, this
is a federal case. So if bringing us to the
other news in the criminal justice system right now is

(02:17):
Trump is a whole felon.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
Thirty fort them beats thirty for them.

Speaker 3 (02:24):
Host.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
That was not a federal case. That was a state case,
the state of New York. So Trump's defense about this
being a political thing with Joe Biden making sure it happened.
Joe ain't got no jurisdiction over the New York courts.
That's New York did that. And that was a trial

(02:49):
by jury. The judge ain't even choose it.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
Nigga. The jury did.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
Twelve yo homies that y'all all agreed on when this
case started talking about I can't get no fair nigga happened.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
In New York. What do you want these people to do? Okay?

Speaker 1 (03:03):
So yeah, anyway, thirty four and most that was a
case brought by the state. The Joe Biden situation, where
he does have some control over, is a federal case,
and that case is against his son, and he ain't
stopping that one, you know what I'm saying. But in

(03:25):
that case, man, he probably gonna lose that I ain't
gonna I ain't gonna hold you. But anyway, Trump with
his thirty fold and felonies. Boy, now here's where it
gets really interesting. Let's just say he get a conviction
in Georgia on the Rico case. I'm pretty sure up
in New York he probably not gonna get no jail
time first time offender maximum four years.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
He in his late seventies, mid seventies.

Speaker 1 (03:52):
You know, probation community service is probably worse with somebody
like a man like him. But like, if he gets
that and then gets found guilty in Georgia and when
he tries to get probation, they're no leniency. They're like, wait,
you're a convicted felon. You already got probation in another state,

(04:15):
or we gotta give you time cause you get leniency
when you're a first time offender, but you already a
feling because so, oh lord, this.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
Might really whoa wait, it's stacking up on.

Speaker 3 (04:28):
It, Bret.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
Now Trump has.

Speaker 1 (04:33):
Consistently dodged a freakish amount of bullets. Now, I don't
know if he's out of his nine lives, but it's
hard to make any particular call about what's going to
happen with this man because he continues to defy gravity.
But I tell you what, to try to get probation
in another state when you already a feeling. If the
criminal justice system worked the way I know it works,

(04:55):
good luck, my gee.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
What else?

Speaker 1 (05:00):
Oh, Mexico got a el president TA They hired them
a female. They had an elected day first and what
was crazy was a female was their only option. It
was two females running for president in Mexico. They don't
shattered the glass in second half on your monkey, All

(05:21):
my rappers on my true hip hop fans know that
one right shattered that glass ceiling got them a female president.
It's really America, that's knuckle dragon. Because Afghanistan, for God's sakes,
has had female presidents. While we're out here talking about
they are developing country. You know what I'm saying. Anyway,

(05:42):
So we'll see, man, some of their feelings about this
is like you know. Now, I don't know if this
on some misogyny or nothing, but just like, hey, you know,
politicians are politicians, but maybe you know according I'm saying this,
this is the polls in Mexico. According to them, like
girls ain't gonna be following for the okie dog filing
for the coron that the men be falling for. Inside
of the Mexican government, they like, now that we got

(06:04):
a lady in there, it might be different.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
Now I don't know. I ain't over there. I know
women be doing.

Speaker 1 (06:09):
Dirt because girls is pepanes too, right, I know girls
be doing the dirt too, So I don't know. But
either way we'll see. That's a big deal. And lastly,
we may or may not have a ceasefire deal. Now
we done heard this before. And oh, Joe Senior, Joe
Biden talking about then y'allhoo told me when everybody left

(06:30):
that he really was trying to get this thing over with.

Speaker 2 (06:34):
So to which Joe out here like, oh.

Speaker 1 (06:38):
Then stand on business, that's what you believe, or just
tell me this and let me say it, because you
too scared that your whole government coalition will fall apart.
Now I'm gonna talk to you about what it means
to make a coalition in one of these hood politics episodes,
because it kind of makes it make sense.

Speaker 2 (06:57):
At the end.

Speaker 1 (06:57):
But even if you don't know, that's a full situation. Essentially,
if because the way that the Israeli government is set up,
netn Yahoo only got on power only, he only got
put on because he made a coalition with extremely right
wing people that are like burn it all down. So

(07:19):
if he falter a little bit, he out the game.
He has to stay the course. But the course he's
staying is chaos, and he knows chaos. So the man
ain't got no way out anyway. Now this ain't no
I'm not giving that man no cookies because he's also

(07:40):
facing multiple corruption charges himself, which is part of why
it was so hard for him to get elected in
the first place, and why they don't change the courts.

Speaker 2 (07:54):
Over there. We did an episode on this, but that's
going on over there.

Speaker 1 (08:01):
There might be a ceasefire deal first six week thing
to which they exchange hostages, give everybody back on and
they start removing troops, and then they finally talk about
how they going clean all this up that they just destroyed.
Like that's what they're trying to do. And maybe Hamas
is down because the Moss was like, why ain't make

(08:23):
a no deal with you? That's temporary, nigga, you just
blew up the whole city like talking about ceasefire. How
about like like for a little bit, like oh, just
so you could blow up the rest of the city,
Like what did you talk about? So they are working
on getting the rest of the deal back and we'll
see what's up.

Speaker 2 (08:40):
Man.

Speaker 1 (08:41):
Hopefully you know, hopefully this is a good sign, you
feel me, and then these people can begin the generational
trauma that they're going to experience.

Speaker 2 (08:54):
Is not funny, but.

Speaker 1 (08:58):
Maybe they could start the process of possibly existing with
PTSD for the rest of their life. All right, let's
talk to Chad. Welcome to Herd Politics with prop lessons

(09:41):
from the Big Three. This is a bonus episode which
ended up being lessons of the Big two, which some
could argue Big one, but we won't get to that.

Speaker 2 (09:54):
At this point. It seems as though.

Speaker 1 (09:58):
After all the responses and had deep it's got we
can't call anything right now. It's May sixth, the day
after at least California is calling Cinco di Kendrick h
So this is.

Speaker 2 (10:10):
The day after that.

Speaker 1 (10:11):
But we couldn't do this without tapping into our Canadian correspondent,
the now new number one rapper in Canada.

Speaker 2 (10:20):
This is so much shape, my man, Shad?

Speaker 3 (10:35):
What's good?

Speaker 2 (10:36):
Oh man? What of Shaddy? Is anybody ever call you Shaddy?

Speaker 3 (10:40):
Yeah? Yeah, actually my family does.

Speaker 2 (10:42):
Your family calls you shatty?

Speaker 3 (10:44):
Yeah? Like my parents, my aunt? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (10:47):
Okay is that off limits?

Speaker 4 (10:49):
No?

Speaker 3 (10:49):
No? I love it.

Speaker 2 (10:50):
Okay, okay, let's make it sure. All right.

Speaker 1 (10:53):
So obviously, as y'all know, we had to talk to
Shad because as someone who is a Toronto resident, a
bona fide Canadian, and a black man with a ton
of accolades in the hip hop and music scene of Canada.

(11:15):
So we're talking about this is a this is a
very respected voice in his scene and out here.

Speaker 2 (11:24):
So first of all, what up, Shad?

Speaker 3 (11:26):
What about? Thank you for having me? Let's get into it.

Speaker 2 (11:29):
Let's get into it all a waste of time? Okay.

Speaker 1 (11:31):
So uh, at the end of probably the greatest weekend
in hip hop history. You know, I already know you've
been You've been fielding a lot of interviews. What have
what have been the tenor of the interviews you've been
You've been a fielding out here.

Speaker 5 (11:47):
So I've done I've done a couple and I actually
have one after this.

Speaker 2 (11:52):
Oh my god.

Speaker 4 (11:53):
Okay, so you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (11:56):
Listen, because this is, like you said, this is the
biggest week in hip hop in my memory.

Speaker 5 (12:02):
Yeah, this is. This is monumental. This is a two
artists of their generation going at it. So a lot
of to your question, the interviews I've done, I've done
this one today will be for our public broadcaster, the CBC,
which is the biggest news organization in Canada and so

(12:22):
and so at this point it's national news like it
is partly because Drake is our guy, yes, but also
because just in music and entertainment and pop culture period,
this is the biggest. This is the biggest thing in
a long time.

Speaker 1 (12:41):
Which is crazy, right, It's just it's it's this. It
is officially international news.

Speaker 3 (12:48):
Crazy crazy Like Jay and Naws was not.

Speaker 5 (12:51):
I don't think they were doing a segment on the
you know, six pm National News.

Speaker 1 (12:55):
Yeah, in your version, in our version of like NPR, PBS,
like Canada's version of that, that wasn't happening. No, Yeah,
only when Dip said nim was on Bill O'Reilly being like,
oh you mad bro.

Speaker 5 (13:11):
So the tone of those interviews, a lot of it
has been setting the table, so to speak, you know,
like really explaining to a general Canadian audience what this is, yeah,
between these two, but also what is battling in hip
hop in general?

Speaker 2 (13:31):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (13:32):
You know why? Why is it a thing? Why does
it matter?

Speaker 5 (13:36):
So a lot of it has been setting kind of
setting the table some some basic fundamental understanding of what's happening.

Speaker 2 (13:44):
So, yeah, that's good.

Speaker 1 (13:46):
That's something that like I guess from from you and
me perspective, who like we're like, what are you talking
about Canada's King of the Doe?

Speaker 2 (13:51):
Like what do you mean? You don't know? You know
what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (13:54):
But that is a reality, like you know, sometimes we
find ourselves too. Like when we were driving today or
yesterday on purpose, I rolled down from where I live
in East Lost to Long Beach to real ones. We
had real ones yesterday, Uh, with my window down because
I just wanted to see, let me just see, like
it's is this does the city field the way I

(14:14):
think it does about not like us? And it was like, yeah,
every car you know what I mean, Like every car
as I'm driving down was playing this song because we
come from a place that is steeped in the culture
of making bangers for the coast, you know what I mean,
Like whether you I mean like Chili Peppers made bangers

(14:36):
for the coast, you know what I'm saying, Like, you know,
so we just have that history, and so that's something
that like if you're you know, to to Drake's like
in his defense, it's like, well, we don't have that history,
you know what I'm saying, Like I'm doing like I'm
breaking a lot of.

Speaker 2 (14:52):
Ground here, guys.

Speaker 1 (14:53):
You know so, yes, you know so in his defense, now,
obviously I would never ask you to like I would
never ask you to to to be fraudulent to your soil.
I would never ask you to do that. So I wouldn't.
I'm not going this is not this conversation like this,
you know for the listener.

Speaker 2 (15:09):
I would never do.

Speaker 1 (15:09):
That to Miami, Like I would never do that to you,
you know, Like like if you ask me, like how
I feel about like why somebody white ask me how
I feel about OJ, I would be like, well, I
ain't gonna say it on no recording but but I.

Speaker 3 (15:22):
Know, I.

Speaker 2 (15:24):
Know what I think Joe said, like.

Speaker 3 (15:30):
You're spare, You're sparing me what you know, we all
we all know.

Speaker 2 (15:34):
Yes, we're yeah, yeah, yeah, we're sparing that.

Speaker 1 (15:36):
But I think, so here's here's the conversation we want
to ask, Like I want to like, obviously, we want
to talk about politics, because that's what this show is about.
And what I always believe is that like there is
a there's a sophistication in the conversation that's happening in
hip hop and in black culture and period that can

(15:56):
be a microcosm to what's happening in the world right So,
so in our in our group text, we were talking
about like attention spans and like, you know, is is
it to Kendrick's detriment to be so cerebral in the
sense that and is it to Drake's advantage to be
more digestible? So like you were, you were waxing a

(16:20):
little philosophical on that. I'll just let you kind of like, yeah,
you know, pop off on that.

Speaker 5 (16:25):
Yeah, that was the funniest part of the discourse to me.
So far, we're seeing people online like I'm genuinely concerned
for people's reading comprehension levels if they think that euphoria
wasn't crazy, you know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (16:39):
Yeah, So there, you know, there's that part of it.

Speaker 5 (16:43):
Because when you talk about battles, you know, one of
the things that's so interesting about it is the intricacy. Right,
We're talking about two mcs going at it, and if
you don't have the attention span or the willingness to
engage deeply with what people are saying, then you're losing
the beauty and the value of this whole exercise.

Speaker 3 (17:05):
Right, This is what it's about.

Speaker 5 (17:07):
It is about MC sparring with skill, and so if
you're not willing to engage with that, then something is lost.

Speaker 3 (17:15):
Now.

Speaker 5 (17:16):
The other piece that there wasn't in a group text,
to me is the social media aspect, where one piece
of what somebody says can become the whole conversation.

Speaker 3 (17:31):
And again, now we're no longer engaging with all of what.

Speaker 5 (17:35):
Somebody said, right, So I feel like that's also happened
to this battle, is it's been reduced a little bit
to like two three lines or talking points, when really
both of these guys went in and brought a whole

(17:55):
lot of effort and a whole lot of lyrics. We
got like six six minute songs on our hands to
like parse through. So that's the other part to me,
you know, in terms of attention span and general cognitive abilities,
you know, being applied or not applied to.

Speaker 1 (18:16):
You know what I'm saying, there's definitely like, uh, in my
own in my own mind equating to like a magic
and Bird, you know type situation, because part of uh,
A big piece of California's disdain for Larry Bird was
that he's so good, Like you get like he's an

(18:38):
undeniably amazing basketball player, and it's like and that's part
of why we hate him, you know what I'm saying,
So like that, So in this but that as a
basketball fan, you know, to to make a comparison, if
you are a fan of basketball, I don't care if
you bleed purple and gold. Of course, it's like I
hate the Celtics, But in that hate for them is

(18:58):
a deep respect for that.

Speaker 3 (19:01):
That's a perfect analogy.

Speaker 5 (19:04):
That's a you can't actually have that strong feeling of
hate without.

Speaker 2 (19:08):
If the if they trash, yeah, if they trash yeah yeah.

Speaker 1 (19:11):
So like no, it's like, you know, it's he's an
amazing incredible hit maker. For the comparison here, I'm wondering
it is has y'alls. We could say in America, our
political discourse has evolved into the two to three minute
meme and.

Speaker 2 (19:28):
Clip. Is it the same up there?

Speaker 5 (19:30):
It's the same up here. We're like a little bit Listen,
this is how I explain it. In Canada, we like
to think of ourselves as less of that culture, uh huh.
But the truth is, if you were to zoom out
to the whole globe, we're the closest to American culture

(19:52):
of anywhere else.

Speaker 4 (19:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (19:56):
So it's like they call it narcissism of small differences.
It's like we define ourselves as so different, but the
truth is we're like actually very similar, very very very similar,
and something comfortably It's called narcissism of small differences.

Speaker 2 (20:12):
It's a good one man.

Speaker 3 (20:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (20:14):
So it's it explains sort of like Protestants and Catholics fighting, Right,
You zoom out from that, and it's like almost laughable,
Like these are the two most similar people obviously, yeah right,
but if you were to ask them, they'd be like, none.

Speaker 4 (20:29):
Of you're nothing like them. Yeah, we are nothing like them.

Speaker 1 (20:33):
Bro, that's crazy, Like I've heard an interview, is it
Dax Shepherd, I think where he was like, yeah, Pete
Holmes's podcast. He was like, okay, so just keep zooming out.
So you zoom out and your aliens looking at us
and they're like, that's crazy. Those hairless monkeys when they
make this sound, these other ones get angry and they

(20:57):
make these explosions. I wonder what that sound is, Like,
what is that sound that they make that makes the
other ones make explosions? Like you know, when you che
the camera loud it up, that's crazy. Anyway, I cut
you off exactly exactly.

Speaker 5 (21:09):
So I do think we are we are the same culture,
like by and large, you know what I mean, we
are still we are social media culture. We're all that.
We just have some other influences. So you know, if
you look at say the political sphere for example, yeah,
you know, we still we have the very similar discourse

(21:33):
right left, the division all of that. But a little
bit of a difference is in our politics we hate celebrity.

Speaker 4 (21:40):
Yeah, okay, we hate celebrity.

Speaker 2 (21:43):
That's good. Yeah, that's I wish we had that.

Speaker 5 (21:48):
And I don't know exactly the difference is, but yeah,
but as it relates to this beef. It's like, yeah,
I think it's the same culture and there's this that's
there's that same discourse going on about our.

Speaker 3 (21:58):
People really engaging with the with the whole thing.

Speaker 5 (22:00):
Because when this started, before this started, I was thinking,
you know what, Drake's style really applies better to a
battle like this, because when it comes to just a
straight up battle, it's like Drake is so clever and witty,
and he's got the flows and he has that songwriting

(22:21):
gift of like those lines people are gonna remember, whereas
Kendrick's gift seems more to be you know, as a
recording artist, as a performer conceptually artistically. That was my
feeling at the outset. But you know, Kendrick displayed. I

(22:41):
think Kendrick surprised everybody in terms of what he displayed
with this, like yeah, he's got this, he's got it
for battling. He's he's got and we saw hints of
it with control and you know, backseat reestylli of stuff.
But I still, before going in, I would have been like, yeah, no,
like Drake A he's very battle tested, whereas who's dumb

(23:04):
enough to go at Kendrick?

Speaker 2 (23:05):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (23:06):
And and b He's got that very straightforward understandable.

Speaker 2 (23:12):
Yeah, I mean he can make yeah, yeah, that was
my thought.

Speaker 1 (23:15):
I was like, Drake can make songs like these will
be battle songs. I was like bar in my mind,
I was like bar for Barr, Like it's because of way.

Speaker 2 (23:25):
We think about him.

Speaker 1 (23:26):
Seeing I was like, ah, nah man, like I think
bar for I was thinking bar for Park Kendricks gonn
mop the floor with him. But if we're going song
for song, this might be different. You know what I mean,
who's gonna give us something that we're gonna Who's gonna
give us the ether? Who's gonna give us the anthem?

Speaker 2 (23:42):
You know what I'm saying?

Speaker 1 (23:44):
And me and you're right, Like I like as a
fan of rap, like West Coast bias aside as a
fan of rap, I was like, I did not the
angles for which Kendrick took. This was like, okay, you
you you went into another gear that I didn't know
you had, you know, and didn't didn't didn't know it,
didn't know yet. Yeah and and and and I think

(24:06):
it was interesting to your point, like this being a
new era. Like somebody reminded me recently that like the
the space between Takeover and Ether was six months and
they were on albums.

Speaker 2 (24:19):
Do you know what I'm saying?

Speaker 1 (24:20):
Like like that's how that's how how far apart it
was right.

Speaker 5 (24:27):
And we got this weekend, you know, by the end
of it by Sunday night. A lot of the conversation
online was like, Yo, I'm exhausted, Yo.

Speaker 4 (24:34):
It's tired, Yeah, tired.

Speaker 1 (24:36):
I was like, I don't know, like I'm tired. I
can't keep up with the group text like I'm tired, yes,
pray oh man, So I think live okay, So I

(25:10):
don't have much more time with you, but so I
want to really cut to the chase here as far
as uh like when we say, like when Kendrick says,
this is how the culture feels, and then so we
have to be like, well, who or what is that
that's been something that's been Who's the arbiter of it?
Like how do we decide like is there an actual

(25:32):
border around what we mean by culture?

Speaker 2 (25:36):
Who's in, who's out? You know? And then.

Speaker 1 (25:41):
Which obviously is a is a bigger conversation about what
we mean by blackness, you know, because that's been a
very good to me, like an important thing at Reckoning
if you will that we need to talk about just
a hip hop and in black culture in period. Because
obviously when when we say well, I don't want to
end to the question already, but when we say culture,

(26:02):
we mean a lot more than just rap. It's not
just hip hop, and it's not necessarily melanin. Right, it's
not necessary because nobody's questioning j Cole's blackness, like you say,
just light skin. So if you were to try your
best to be on your version of PBS, what is
it CBC?

Speaker 2 (26:22):
Is that what it's called? And somebody was like, hey,
so what's what's the culture?

Speaker 5 (26:28):
Yes? Wow, So this is a great question. I think
like in the aftermath, when the dust settles, this is
the stuff, this is the stuff that this battle has
brought to light.

Speaker 3 (26:42):
The people are going to be parking out right, Okay, So.

Speaker 5 (26:47):
I'm going to try to answer your question speaking about
Drake specifically, because he's such an interesting case. Okay, Yes,
Drake in Canada before he signed Young Money and everything,
he was getting checked about these exact same things within Canada.

Speaker 2 (27:05):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (27:06):
Okay, Right, Because.

Speaker 5 (27:09):
Like you said, culture is not just skin color. It's
a lot of things. Right, So the case of Drake. Yes,
he's light skin. Yeah, came up in the acting teen
drama world. So that's outside of the culture, that's outside

(27:30):
of hip hop. He didn't come we didn't get to
know him first in hip hop. We came to get
to know him first in mainstream teen drama.

Speaker 3 (27:38):
Okay. So that's outside. Then the neighborhood.

Speaker 5 (27:43):
The neighborhood conversation was interesting to begin with in Canada
because in I think his high school years at least,
if not maybe a bit younger, he lived in one
of the most affluent neighborhoods in Canada. Now he lived
there in the basement apartment or in some sort of
apartment with his mother. But so it's like there's complications

(28:05):
and nuances.

Speaker 3 (28:10):
His father. So okay. So blackness in Canada.

Speaker 1 (28:14):
Okay, Yeah, which we were ultimately going to get to. Yeah,
like because that's super curious to me.

Speaker 3 (28:18):
So then that's a whole other thing, right, So blackness
in Canada, Okay.

Speaker 5 (28:22):
We have in Canada descendants of Slavery mm hmm. That's
a black population, and we have a lot of immigrants, okay.
So there's there's little pockets all throughout Canada of people
that came to Canada through the underground railroad in some place.

Speaker 3 (28:43):
In some places like or or we're fought on the side.

Speaker 5 (28:46):
Of the British in the Civil War and we're rewarded
with land in Canada. So you have black people that
are like six seven generations black Canadians. Okay, you have that.
Then you have immigration from the Caribbean, which has flavored
a lot of what we consider kind of the black

(29:07):
Canadian identity. A lot of it is colored by that
because that's a major thing. You have African immigration, like myself.

Speaker 4 (29:13):
Right, Yeah, so.

Speaker 5 (29:15):
Drake is none of those things exactly. Drake has a
black American father who's deep in the culture and a
white white Canadian mother Jewish mother.

Speaker 2 (29:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (29:34):
So all of this to say from the culture standpoint,
Drake was getting checked on this from Jump within Canada,
within Canada, right, but.

Speaker 3 (29:47):
He overcame that largely, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 5 (29:50):
Like because of years, you know, decade and a half
of hits of work with all all sorts of artists
that are deep in the caulture.

Speaker 3 (30:00):
And then now Kendrick is calling into question.

Speaker 5 (30:05):
That he's saying now but so okay, so you got
accepted into the culture but did you get accepted into
the culture.

Speaker 3 (30:16):
Because you kind of paid your way.

Speaker 1 (30:18):
And yeah, by.

Speaker 5 (30:22):
Co sign and by ingratiating yourself and by using you know,
it's the real nuances of cultural appropriation, right like, because
of course culture, to me, cultures meant to be shared facts,
cultures meant to be shared. The question is just in
that sharing, in that exchange, what's the power dynamics, who's benefiting,

(30:44):
who's getting shine, who's getting celebrated, all of those dynamics
within that very natural exchange. So this is a long
winded answer to your question.

Speaker 2 (30:54):
No, it's perfect.

Speaker 3 (30:55):
Like to try to.

Speaker 5 (30:56):
Answer it through Drake, I think is the most helpful
because Drake is just and I also don't do not
believe in faulting people for just who they are and
who they're born at you know what I'm saying, Like,
that's not cool at all. But this battle does raise
this question of what exactly is Drake's relationship to the culture?

(31:18):
Is it?

Speaker 3 (31:19):
And and.

Speaker 5 (31:23):
Exactly what exactly is Drake's relationship to the culture.

Speaker 3 (31:26):
Isn't fair if you if.

Speaker 5 (31:28):
You were to take my guess, and again I'm trying
to put my my local bias aside. I think Drake
is first of first, almost a very good rapper period,
so that you know, in terms of relationship for the culture,
he respects it in the sense that he's good at it. Yes,
he learned the crap and he became good. I think
he has genuine.

Speaker 4 (31:48):
Love for the culture.

Speaker 5 (31:51):
But I think there is something to be investigated because
he's become not just the biggest artist in.

Speaker 3 (32:00):
The culture, but like too big to fail.

Speaker 2 (32:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (32:04):
Yeah, And once you get to that status, I think
it is only fair that we we ask we take
a look at what is your relationship to the culture.
Who is benefiting all of these things that are important
to look at, you know what I'm saying. Yeah, so that's
a very long winded answer.

Speaker 4 (32:21):
No, it's great.

Speaker 2 (32:22):
I think yeah, there's a lot.

Speaker 1 (32:24):
Yeah, there's like there's these I think about, like you know,
myself as an example, or just lahoods in general, Like
in most in almost every black or brown neighborhood, there's
a dirt, poor white family that lived across the street,
you know, and know what, ever thinks twice about them, right,

(32:45):
because they're just here, you know. And I think that
there's a shared experience to where you learn norms that
come with a shared experience.

Speaker 2 (32:58):
You know what I'm saying. That to me is my
best attempt at it.

Speaker 1 (33:04):
Like I grew up black and Latino neighborhoods, there was
a lot of Mexican, a lot of Filipinos, but I
for me, it was like, because I had such proximity
with them, I know which parts of these conversations I'm
not a part of, like that like this is this
is actually none of my business.

Speaker 2 (33:24):
Like I feel connected to y'all.

Speaker 1 (33:27):
I feel like I understand what you're saying, but I
also understand that it would be disrespectful for me to
move this way. And it's because I know you well
enough you know what I'm saying. So I think at
that to me is what speaks to the idea of
like to use Drake as an example, like the a

(33:50):
man I don't know, but like a longing for belonging
or acceptance of something that feels like I in a
lot of ways, like I miss out on this, but
it's really what I've always loved, you know, so, but
since you missed out, there's a lot of like I
crave being a part of what I've always wanted to

(34:11):
be a part of, rather than already being there and
then knowing that like hey, some stuff is like it's
not my place, you know what I'm saying, yes, And
that being said, it's like another comparison I think about
it is like, like you said, culture is meant to
be shared. I'm like, if you come to my house,
I am going to open the door with I'm gonna
show you hospitality. I want to show you things that
we've done. This is our food. Here, sit down, have

(34:33):
a meal, let me make you some coffee. But I
also don't expect you to be like that's a dopefrigerator.
I'm gonna buy it off you like what you know,
or hey, let me cook this, you know, and then like,
well you're in my house, man likes, why are your
shoes off with your feet up on my couch? Like
you just my g you just got here, Like you

(34:54):
don't know that you that's not how you act at
somebody's house, you know.

Speaker 2 (34:58):
So I feel like those are.

Speaker 1 (35:00):
The signs, you know, to make me be like these
are those like grayish like kind of edges of like
where it's not like a hard border, but these edges
of nuance that makes me say, like you're right, I can't.
I can't draw a bubble around what we mean by culture.
But there are norms, there are understandings, you know that

(35:22):
makes us say, hey, this, maybe I should keep my
mouth shutting this. You know what I'm saying. I mean,
I might have an opinion, but maybe I should keep
my mouth. Maybe this is not a move that were
I indigenous, I would understand that this move. Wow powerful,
you know what I'm saying, Wow, it's smart because I, like,

(35:44):
I don't think Drake has never made a dumb move,
you know, except for the AI POC thing, but like,
you know, but besides that, I don't think like I
don't think he's never made a dump. It's never been
dumb like this is Actually he does great business. It's
just in out not our rules, but our norms. These
are not moves we make against each other because of

(36:05):
a shared experience.

Speaker 2 (36:06):
You know.

Speaker 5 (36:07):
That's listen. I agree one hundred percent. It is not
hard borders. It's a conversation to be had. Yeah, always
with culture, just to make sure culture is being respected,
just to make sure that people are benefiting equally, right,
And so when someone gets to the level of Drake
where they're that big and also now in the economics

(36:29):
of the music industry kind of like too big to
fail and such a massive out, sort of out of
proportion piece of the whole pie. You got to have
that conversation. Now, to me, the other piece with culture
that you got to talk about that Kendrick highlights and
that a lot of fans in hip hop have highlighted,

(36:51):
is that when you are within hip hop, when we're
talking about the greatest MC's of all time.

Speaker 4 (36:57):
Yes, one of the rightsier.

Speaker 2 (37:00):
Within hip hop talk to me is.

Speaker 3 (37:05):
Do you speak on things?

Speaker 5 (37:07):
Yes, it's a matter of substance that matter to this
ongoing struggle that we're in.

Speaker 2 (37:18):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 3 (37:19):
Do you speak to that?

Speaker 2 (37:21):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (37:22):
Right, Yeah, Hawk is on people's Mount Rushmore because he
obviously wasn't always speaking to that.

Speaker 4 (37:28):
But at moments he didn't speak to Yes.

Speaker 5 (37:31):
Jay wasn't always speaking to that, but at moments he
was speaking to that, right, and so on down the
list of the greatest of all time.

Speaker 1 (37:40):
Right.

Speaker 5 (37:40):
So again, I'm I'm a Toronto resident, I'm a Canadian guy,
you know, so I understand our experience.

Speaker 3 (37:50):
I understand our black experience.

Speaker 5 (37:52):
I think Drake is a great practitioner of art form
and I think they he is a person who genuinely
loves hip hop.

Speaker 4 (38:04):
I do too, yeah, deeply, but.

Speaker 5 (38:09):
He hasn't done those things within the culture, like speaking
to you know, what's going on. And then again, when
you talk about culture, you also got to talk about
the economics and the benefits and who gets the benefits. Yeah,
and that's just open. That's just these things are just
the open conversation. You got to have that conversation. Look

(38:29):
at it, you know what I'm saying. Yeah, And the
battle brings those things to life.

Speaker 1 (38:34):
Yeah, in a way that like, uh yeah, the idea
that like this battle wasn't just wasn't only I'm doper
than you. It was you need to get help and
you're and you know and and like and the other
one was like the people around you don't trust you.
You're you know, like you know, you like, where's your

(38:56):
entertainment value? Like it's just such a bigger I was like, wow,
you know that I would love to see and to
bring it around the politics, and we're running out of
time because of the show. I would love to see
like this sort of level of reckoning in not just

(39:18):
how we do government or how we do governing, but
how we campaign and discuss politics.

Speaker 2 (39:24):
You know what I'm saying, because.

Speaker 1 (39:28):
The idea of like really dissecting and saying what does
this person stand for? And what we've been seeing here
recently is like everybody's kind of over the like the
TMZ of it all, like the gossip of it all.
Like while I'm over the allegations and stuff like that,
We'll let the fense figure that out. I'm interested in
what type of man are you? What is your strategy,

(39:50):
and how do you want to see our genre, our world,
our culture, our people move forward? Like what is your
desire for that?

Speaker 3 (39:58):
I love that you brought it circle to that.

Speaker 5 (40:00):
One thing I always bring up about battling is the
first battle that I was in, And I've heard Kanye
tell a very similar story. First battle I was in,
I learned more than anything taught me about hip hop,
about being a performer, about being an artist. Because what

(40:21):
I realized that it all came down to, without going
into the whole story, what I really realized it all
came down to is it's not about my opponent. It's
about the audience, and it's about communicating. Who can communicate
and connect with the audience more and What that comes
down to is who can convey something that's going to

(40:46):
connect with them, that's going to make them ultimately support
you more than they support the other person. That might
be that might be giving voice to a level of
aggression that they feel, might be being more charming and
eloquent and funny than you know what I'm saying and

(41:08):
touching them in that way, Or it might be demonstrating
that you are the stronger, more grounded person with more
integrity of all of it. So, but it's all about
striking a chord with the people, right, So I like
that you. I like that you bring it back around
to politics, Like that's.

Speaker 3 (41:29):
What, Yeah, that's who do we believe in?

Speaker 5 (41:36):
And yes, like it feels like battles do that more
quickly and effectively and illuminate the issues, you know what
I'm saying, better than political debates do. Like we have
all these debates and it feels like the truth has
never come into the surface.

Speaker 2 (41:53):
Never ever.

Speaker 1 (41:54):
It's just a whole bunch of yeah, so you, but you,
but you. But when it comes to the surface, we
can really make a decision.

Speaker 5 (42:00):
We can really make a decision, and then battles it's like, nah,
it just comes to the surface right away. Yes, we
believe you, or we don't believe you. Yes, we like
you or we don't like you. It's just facts.

Speaker 3 (42:11):
It's just so yeah.

Speaker 2 (42:15):
Man, man, thank you.

Speaker 1 (42:16):
I know you got a hard out in two minutes,
so I just want to say thank you for doing this.
Our Canadian correspondent following him at shad K Music. Right,
that's right, shad K Music. Please go peep the whole catalog.
Peep Hip Hop Evolution. It's done right, like, no more
of those.

Speaker 3 (42:37):
It's done. It's done. But there's some there's some good
stuff too about battles in that.

Speaker 1 (42:41):
So okay, yeah, oh yeah, yeah there are yeah, So
please go peep that. It's on Netflix. And thank you
so much for your time. And this was probably one
of the most succinct episodes we've ever had.

Speaker 3 (42:54):
Thank you, my man.

Speaker 1 (42:56):
All Right, all right, bro, all right, now, don't you
hit stop on this pod.

Speaker 2 (43:14):
You better listen to these credits. I need you to
finish this thing so I can get the download numbers. Okay,
so don't stop it yet, but listen.

Speaker 1 (43:23):
This was recorded in East Lost Boil Heights by your
boy Propaganda tap in with Me at prop Hip hop
dot com. If you're in the Coldbrew coffee we got
Terraform Coldbrew. You can go there dot com and use
promo code hood get twenty percent off get yourself some coffee.
This was mixed, edited, and mastered by your boy Matt

(43:45):
Alsowski Killing the Beast Softly. Check out his website Matdowsowski
dot com.

Speaker 2 (43:49):
I'm'a spell it for you because I know.

Speaker 1 (43:53):
M A T T O s O W s ki
dot com Matdowsowski. He got more music and stuff like
that on there, so gonna check out The heat Politics
is a member of cool Zone Media, Executive produced by
Sophie Lichterman, part of the iHeartMedia podcast network. Your theme

(44:14):
music and scoring is also by the one and nobly
mattow Sowski. Still killing the beats softly, So listen, don't
let nobody lie to you. If you understand urban living,
you understand politics. These people is not smarter than you.
We'll see y'all next week.
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