The Culture

The Return to Office and Gas Project

March 14, 2022 Jeff and Anthony Episode 86
The Culture
The Return to Office and Gas Project
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Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

Jeff and Ant welcome back Mikey-She as he hosts this week's Is That Racist segment. Jeff thinks there is a conspiracy between the return to office and the gas price hike as he explains his anxiety issues with going back to work.  Also, the 25th anniversary of Biggie's death.

Topics Discussed:

  • The Game throws shade at Eminem
  • New music
  • R.I.P Traci Braxton
  • Underground rappers finding success
  • Do white people have a say in whether blacks should or shouldn't use the N word?
  • Butt hole pleasures
  • Jeff's return to office Anxiety
  • Gas prices
  • The Notorious B.I.G.

Featured Song:
Juicy - The Notorious B.I.G.

Special Guest: Mikey-She
Fun. Food. Podcast. | Mikey and Rinne Eat In

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The Game Suggests Eminem Is A Pawn Who Plays By 'Massa's Rules | HipHopDX

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Jeff:

Yo yo yo, yo, yo, thank you for tuning in to another episode of the culture. This is episode 86. I'm your boy Jeff, man and we got Mikey shit in the building today. He's actually going to host this week's Is that racist? He got a little story to share with us first and foremost let me give a shout out to coach a crew. I also want to give a special shout out to some some of our I want to call them fans but some of our listeners was actually reached out on LinkedIn by David Segal shout outs to him he sent me a message and I'll read it if you don't mind. Because last week we spoke about you know, finances and stuff like that and we spoke about the gas prices and and

Anthony:

was you gotta gotta get diversify. Yo, yeah, he

Jeff:

was he was informative. David Siegel. He said Jeff, you're an astute credit analyst knowing gas was on the rise 15 months ago because I did say that she was gonna be over $4 way back to the President.

Mikey:

Is that why you filled up those hot tubs in your backyard with gas it got sacks of gas in your yard

Jeff:

and he said your personal brand well let me finish reading them the gentleman's message he said your personal credit discussion to sign your 13 year old a credit card secondary never close an account and pay to zero is smart advice. Checking out hydro Nick to Thanks for this info. Yes, this episode is sponsored by hydronic by the way, I actually ordered mine, I actually encourage you to check out on Amazon or on the web on their website. I'm going to post that on the show links because I'm trying to get back into my shit now that we're going back into office, which is something I want to talk about in this episode too. I got to get up extra early. I'm trying to start working out again so I'm gonna need some energy so I ordered my hydro Nick hasn't arrived yet, so I'll probably talk about it next week. Once I get to see if this shit works if it gives me some handouts I don't know what that is. It's like this powder packets and you drink that you put the water you know it's supposed to be like keto friendly and healthier and, and hydrating, hydrating and all types of shit. Like coffee. Well, it doesn't. I don't think it has caffeine in it.

Anthony:

What's the fun but

Jeff:

you put it in your whiskey and caffeine is bad for you. No, it's not me.

Mikey:

I'm drinking my coffee right now and it feels

Anthony:

when you drink coffee at the caffeine is a part is good for you is the sugar and other bullshit you put inside of it? That's bad for you, right hydronic hydration has none of that shit. It just keeps you hydrated, like water does work, but they're a sponsor. I'm going to try some myself and I'll give you some feedback

Jeff:

keeps you hydrated and it's unique. Hence hydronium Hi,

Anthony:

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, they have spots I'm not shipping our product man. I'm gonna try it I'm sorry I just like water involving

Mikey:

dude. I feel like more than half of the podcast that I listened to the host just like basically trash all of the advertisers they'll be like that name is stupid or whatever. And it's great and I feel like there's this like nagging version of of advertising stuff on on pods now that it's like

Jeff:

I'm gonna try it and I'll talk about it. Because even if you order now order prime two day shipping and it still takes like two weeks. So I was telling my wife I'm like yo, why are we paying for this Prime shipping? We don't get anything in two days anymore. Oh really? Yeah, I do remember the last time I got something right away from amazon it takes like a week now at least

Mikey:

it's been the opposite here like I ordered something the other day I ordered these slippers you know the fucking puffy like Kanye slippers. These ones and they came in they came in 45 minutes really? Well

Jeff:

they probably had the warehouse like right by your house is some shit I know the dude was

Mikey:

like waiting on the corner just like I got to bed.

Anthony:

Too fast Michael. Michael Why are you buying jail flippers Oh my jails livers of the shit dude don't do flip but those ones that give you when they lock you up like no other slides they

Mikey:

give you like I got my shave ready and my fucking sober my sock I'm ready.

Anthony:

But since it's more for just make this quick point.

Jeff:

Do you gentlemen know what jellies are? Jellies the shit you put in the soul? Right?

Anthony:

None of that the jelly the sandals? Yeah. You

Mikey:

mean like that? Like the kids used to wear in the 80s? You had those clear plastic sandals? Like yeah, I had a pair and that swept through them as a little kid and got blisters everywhere.

Anthony:

How much how much do you think they cost? Approximately?

Mikey:

How much did they cost or how much they cost? Don't make that no, then like,

Anthony:

if you would think back then how much thing your parents pay for them.

Mikey:

15 bucks.

Anthony:

Do you know that Gucci is selling a pair of jellies right now for $490? Awesome. I swear to Jeff, go ahead. I'm gonna pull it up for you just

Jeff:

want to give a shout out to love Lavanya Payne Prescott who was actually my old boss, and she actually loves and she was like yo answer areas. He was like, Yo, he's the reason I listened to the shirt. Oh, yeah, she's married. She's married. Good. Leave her alone. But shout out.

Anthony:

I don't break up happy homes. Calm down. I

Jeff:

love man. He's so funny. He was like, What does he look like? I don't have shoes. Like what does he look like? I'm like, yeah, he's just a big black dude. He likes to wear hats.

Anthony:

I don't shoot. Shoot. He

Jeff:

has a beard. He has a beard. He was like yeah, like, oh yeah, that's exactly what I envisioned him to look like.

Mikey:

Tall, dark and handsome. Yeah. Mmm yum yum.

Anthony:

Oh my god. No, no.

Mikey:

It's going through his hat selection.

Anthony:

No, because I bought new shit like this is one for the New York Eagles All right, what are the Eagles? Negro League team?

Mikey:

Oh cool really team and do the fucking designs on the old Negro League uniforms and hats were so tough I got to the graves joint that's tight as fuck that's the home one I got the other joint like this tight and I got the Harlem Renaissance hat. Oh yeah, that's right. Yeah,

Anthony:

TJ Jeff What Why do all these hats I got mad hat thing I got over 50 Thank you for thinking I'm hilarious show

Mikey:

I also like to you just did a hat showing segment on the podcast

Anthony:

man. I could do audio only podcast yeah on audio only cuz because because it's for your eyes. Oh, man.

Mikey:

All right, people can feel the feel the visuals though. Feel

Anthony:

like feel defeated? Yeah,

Jeff:

before we get into our topic What else happened? Traci Braxton rest in peace she just passed away of cancer on hmm, Toni Braxton's sisters. Okay Be one of a backup singers for her.

Anthony:

And like, I'm like, it's gonna come out hilarious, but I don't really mean to be like, like, men. Just allow your doctor to play with your ass man. Like, there's no reason but like, I don't want to buy a plane on my asshole. Like, the doctor is not trying to bless you. He's searching for cancer. Like don't you want to live like calm the fuck down that everything is gay. Let them do their job. I try to get a sick thing up there and make you cool. You cool try to convey I have a I try to convince a bigger I tried to convince my doctor to give me a colonoscopy that was like, Yo, you're not a vase yet,

Jeff:

bro. It was after 45 I'm 4045. I was like, damn, I got a while ago then. I also just want

Mikey:

to do a PSA for people that aren't doing stuff with their butts yet. If you're not, if you're not having your partner stick the finger up your butt. You're missing out on a whole world of pleasures. Man, you can say gay or not. There's bottle pleasures are a real thing. You got to like not only check it out from a health perspective, but for happiness perspective, like

Anthony:

the term butthole pleasure is never not going to be funny to me.

Mikey:

I think that's from a 40 year old virgin pleasures. Yeah, it's you gotta fuckin try it out. My buddy Jamal fucking 20 years ago was like, you gotta have someone stick the finger up your butt. And I was like, we were all like, no, gotta get to it.

Anthony:

Don't worry. Don't worry. My Jeff's not paying us not one bit of fucking don't play on my asshole. So he's,

Mikey:

he's on Google right now. Locking up the best technique.

Anthony:

Don't put it in Nashville, man go.

Jeff:

Anyway, welcome back. Mikey, what's up? Well, you've been

Mikey:

Hey, thanks for having me. So much. Things are good man. We've got my wife and I we launched our new podcast, Mikey and Rin eat in a couple episodes or a couple weeks ago. So we've had three episodes that are up now. I don't know. I've been traveling a lot just went and saw Brother Ali last night was a concert. It was good, man. It was good. At first was my first show. It was my second show since since COVID. And it's just good to be back in a room with a lot of people. buggin. And, and his you know, he sounded good. Looking good.

Jeff:

What percentage? What percentage of his audience was black? Oh,

Mikey:

there they got the show last night. Hmm. 20 20% or 20% 20? I'd say like 20% Black and probably 40%, black and brown. But it was definitely a majority white people. Yeah. Right. Well, Portland is also a pretty white spot. So yeah. But it's and I don't you know, this is the thing that hip hop shows in general, I think is like, there's kind of, I don't know, very few Hip Hop shows that I've been to that haven't been a majority white audience. Really? Yeah. Like to kind of anywhere. Depends on the show. Depends on the artist and stuff, but and especially like kind of more indie, like, indie Hip Hop backpack rappers and stuff. Like I feel like it's most usually like, you know, white people not in Alright, well, but it was good show.

Jeff:

That's what's up. Can we talk real quick about the game? You know? I mean, we've mentioned him before because he'd been talking she was talking you know, he was throwing shade at Dre on drink champs last, you know last right? Yeah, he's throwing shade at Eminem Which to me caught me off guard because he's always defends me you know, I'm saying he always be like, yeah, that white boys don't You don't want to mess with the white boy. Yeah, but what happened is Eminem broke like another record. You know, he just keeps breaking records like every month of what sales Yeah, like sales. You know, he has like the most platinum and the most gold albums whatever the fuck it is. But then this guy can't game took to Twitter. He said all this talk I see on the net saying Eminem is better than me because he sold more records is like saying McDonald's is better than TAMMS burgers. It's false. They just put more money in McDonald's and promoted the shit out the Happy Meal dangling toys and kids faces. major labels are known for buying albums and paying off everyone to boost sales of the artists they choose to shine the light on. If you ain't dancing to masses tune you lose your budget and the machine is taken off your project and put to work on another artist who's willing to SD

Mikey:

right I mean, he's not wrong that like record labels are shady and that, you know, the a&r machine and all those things are, but I mean, Eminem is just a better way better rapper. I mean, he's in a totally different Ashkelon in the game.

Jeff:

I don't know, I don't want to keep making all these episodes like, I'm defending. And I just keep having these arguments with people online. And I, you know, and will tell me like, Why are you arguing with people on Twitter? Why are you arguing on Twitter? Because it's not even just as black folks. And I've had this argument with Anthony, we've had it on the show. I don't understand what the hate is. No, black people can't be racist, but okay. I feel like it's reverse racism or its entitlement. I don't know what it is like, at least just like I understand if you can relate to his music if you don't like his music, Mikey Schiess has said on here he's white. He doesn't like m&ms music, that's fine. But to not acknowledge the man skill, or to not at least under recognize that he's in a top at least top 10. He's in my top five and he should be in most people's top five, but not at least have them in your top 10 are acknowledged his greatness is the same argument I make about putting like to me is blasphemy. And I think and people tell me no, it has nothing to do with race. I was arguing with some guy to the day on Twitter. He was like it has nothing to do with race. Jeff, stop making it about race. I just don't like his music. I'm like, No, I think it does have a little bit to do with race. You know what I mean? I think it has a lot to do with race. And people don't like Hopson, because Hopson reminds them of Eminem. And to me Hopson is nice as well. Hmm. I feel like he's that is Hopson. Go look up hops, and he's like a conscious, more underground version of Eminem.

Anthony:

Okay, but he's black. Alright, so you want to get to the game first. You want me to get to Eminem? First I'll let you choose whatever you

Mikey:

want. Choose your path Anthony choose your own adventure.

Anthony:

I'm saying the fact that the game is filling himself I just think that he's making a real tactical error right now because the truth of the matter is that once you get to be at a particular level, no one else controls your talented artists in music except for you. Like understand that Jayco got signed to know Jesus record label but that outgrowth everything Dreamville that's all him. Those his team, his artists, it's all he still at these top tier whatever he does, he's branched out. Same thing with Kendrick and in TDE. Like it's Kendrick, but a school board is as they ever shot. It's a bunch of dudes. Like, you know, it's game and then it's just game. Like, even with 50 it shorts 50 But it was yo yo it was banks it like we had other people on that team. Game was supposed to be this guy. Like, who's the dude underneath him? Like is someone like he's barking at the wind? If you're bitching about Eminem, it's still voice it's still D 12 It's still other guys that went along with it. Like you just a guy like just yelling on the wind. Like, you know, this guy's not better than me because so and so forth. None of them are bringing into a conversation because they don't need to speak about you like J like people are dying for like J and NA to have a versus, but J don't really speak out about who's better than him and not like I am who I am like games to an important life where he feels like he's like I'm in comparison to somebody else. Like they bring up this person. They bring up that person. Like, no one has m&ms money, but from what you've done, it's made you really successful and really rich. So I don't see what the complaint is about. I don't understand why you just didn't enlightened. You're lacking fires that are only going to have a little bit of flicking after that. No one's really going to care cuz that's just how it goes. The thing with Eminem, it's something I'm always gonna say, Eminem is an amazing rapper. And I've said that, and I have a dislike for him. I said, I don't like the Rap God fast, fast, fast that Eminem. I don't like it's just it's not my cup of tea. But it doesn't dismiss, diminish, diminish what he's able to do. But like I said, if you're talking about both of them in the context of Dr. Dre, neither one of them have really been at their peak or Pinnacle since Dre took that light off of them. Emma has succeeded more Yes. But like Dre hasn't produced really much for anybody over the past, I would say 1010 years, 15 years, probably. So it's pretty much you know, you're in your own little buddy. And even even 50 hadn't had the kind of success that he had once he had Dre backing him, right. Like they're all children of him. And they all have variable degrees of success. Some within hip hop culture, some outside of you know, with 50 and a TV shows the vitamins or so and so forth. So for game to make to complain about, you know, other people not doing for him than praising Kanye for doing something for him. When just a verse on an album that if it doesn't come on into the streaming services, I'm never going to fucking hear. I'm trying to figure out what that's done for your career because it's still not reaching the masses. What you want them to hear your shit. Like we had discussion before, Jeff, the reason why we were so excited about that, Lauryn Hill verse is because it was on a NAS album that was on all streaming services that everybody could hear. Yeah, everybody talks about it. No one's really talking about his verse on air because they're not playing it anywhere. It's not on a streaming service. It's not on a fucking CD. It's it's impossible. So how do you think that's someone that no one's gonna really be able to hear unless you buy a $200 disc has done more for your career than a man who helped you, like create a classic album. I'm lost in his logic.

Mikey:

Yeah, it's also just feels kind of desperate. I mean, I don't know, it's I'm just I'm not checking for the game. Like Eminem is like, he's, you know, he like he kind of said he's one of those people like his his level of talent like whether or not he had the supercharged of DRE or, you know, aftermath and different things behind him or whatever, it doesn't really matter. Like he, you know, he would be successful kind of no matter what, because he's an amazing he's an amazing talent. You know, I don't particularly love Eminem, and that's fine. I just don't really like his style of rapping. But I don't know, come on. It's like the game coming for him and saying that, like they're on equal talent playing field and it's just that, that Eminem was getting the juice like, that's, it's just not true.

Jeff:

Well, that's probably his marketing strategy. You know, he probably got a new album coming out soon. So let me get all eyes on me. And then I could drop you know, I mean, yeah, but it's

Mikey:

so stupid. It's just like, it's like negging someone on fucking Twitter and then just, you know, just to keep your name in that in there. You know, in the, in the ether. It's like a reality show bitch move.

Jeff:

Well, speaking of new albums, Davies dropped the new album this week and also gone. Not Conway. Benny the butcher, Benny. Yeah. Donna confused all these Grizelda boys. They all nice

Mikey:

until they get on.

Anthony:

Benny, Westside Conway. Yeah. So

Mikey:

west side, west side. You can't? Yeah. You can't mistake that his voice is.

Jeff:

West Side, though. Is west side. The weak is one of the three thing but I think it's Conway, Westside to me.

Anthony:

None of them are weak. No,

Jeff:

I'm saying like the weakest link of the

Mikey:

I think it's Benny Conway. Westside for me, Westside. I can just only listen to a certain like, after like three songs of him screaming in my ear. Like I bro. I need a moment.

Anthony:

It's like they're all good to varying degrees. It's like what you're, it's a it's almost a woowoo thing. It almost depends on what you're looking for. Yeah, I totally, like in ODB wasn't a great lyricist. But now I'm sorry. That album is a classic. And he was fucking weird and fun. And like I said, and it didn't make any sense. But he made an album. That album was a classic. Yeah, we can argue that shit if you want to, but it's a classic.

Mikey:

I'm checking for Benny more than anybody else because his production is great. I love his fucking lyricism. I don't know I just I like his albums much more.

Jeff:

Yeah, I think I'm gonna give it a couple weeks before we review those but those two albums don't go check out LSI Detroit K got a new album called Zeitgeist. He's dope underground cat from Detroit. He reminds me of Royce. The five nine Why is that funny?

Anthony:

Oh my god, man. I love you are the great Why is

Jeff:

that funny trophy? Well, I was is nice.

Anthony:

Are we thinking the same Elsa from Detroit.

Jeff:

We got a new album that just came out day a day or two ago called Zeitgeist.

Anthony:

And what isn't the same one

Jeff:

he's made. His name is spelled e l Zhi. The album is ZHIGH. He is T. Again, he's underground. So he's not really mainstream, but he has made songs with Royster five, nine before.

Anthony:

And I have heard of him for

Jeff:

kind of sounds like rats. Reminds me of boys from Detroit. You

Anthony:

know, I remember him because

Mikey:

he was in Slum Village. Yeah.

Anthony:

So he's dope. It was fun village. Yeah. Yeah, he's not new addition. I remember him right.

Jeff:

I'm just saying he's underground or he's not like mainstream. Like that

Mikey:

was a Slum Village where they from Detroit? Yes, I forgot that. No,

Anthony:

you know what it is? I think. I think we confuse underground with not being known. Yeah. By the mass. Whoa.

Jeff:

Yeah. I mean, it's one of the same like I can say my favorite underground rapper is Vinnie pas. And, you know, the people that only listen to the radio, they're not gonna know who that is. Jedi mind tricks. You know, I'm saying Snow Goons, and I don't know who those guys are.

Mikey:

I can snow guns.

Anthony:

Like, like, like a little brother. Yeah, you could call them that. But like, I know, hip hop's weird because it's hard to really be underground if you're known. Right? But it's like, like it's it's an interesting on the ground is like mixtapes. And right and shit like that. Like you're an artist who jumped but also but you're not tied to any major but it's

Jeff:

different today to because of like YouTube and different platforms like that. Now you can just get on an app and listen to whatever. And these underground guys you know, Vinnie, pass it in half YouTube back in the day, and then in the nine right now, they could just download all the videos to YouTube, you know, you're not gonna see it on MTV BT but you could just go on YouTube and watch their videos. And

Mikey:

what's interesting is like, when you're at that threshold of like, you know, he talked about Vinnie pas or you talk about like, even like to LIB or most stuff, you know, I mean, there's a lot of people Yeah, I mean, like anybody they were kind of associated with like, you know, his rockets it was sound bombing it was like all the, you know, kind of like things that were like underground credit right. And then common was, I would you know, I would call him an underground rapper first first couple albums and then you know, he paused And it's that threshold that's an interesting place is like, you know, is this like I saw Brother Ali last night like I would consider him an underground hip hop artist. But is that because he just hasn't sold like he hasn't had that crazy Radiohead or something like it's right. But that's an interesting threshold,

Jeff:

a separate like the most deaths in the comments from like the brother Ali's and the immortal techniques because, yeah, I wish I would probably consider most def to lead quality underground, but they had at least one or two hits that we heard on the radio, right, just to get by, or, you know, common, you know, I used to love her. Like, they had music videos, they had songs on the radios, even though most delay were underground. And also some of these guys transitioned into holiday. So we into Hollywood, so we see them in movies or commercials or other things, right. I mean, so we're there recognize,

Mikey:

like, Where does coordinate? Where does like corne fit in that world for you? Like, do you see underground rappers? You know, like, is he just, I think, for me, it's also about style. Like I would almost call Jay Cole. Like Jay Cole is like an underground artist to me, like in the way that he rhymes in the way that he produces his albums. But he's got the big major misete machine behind him, right has its own IO thing to

Jeff:

his hunger is underground, but he's in a big record label. So I don't say I can't call you underground if you're in Rockefeller records. If you got songs with dogs, or dogs, you know.

Mikey:

Yeah. But it's, but it's interesting to me though, because it kind of it speaks like to a stylistic thing like Russ, there's a couple songs that he has that I would like, if I just heard it without knowing who he was, or whatever. Like, oh, this is like, this is like an underground nude. This feels like reminiscent of like a jade like a dilla beat or I don't know, it's just it's an interesting thing to talk about. Like, what does that mean? Like what does even underground mean? Like

Jeff:

I said, you're not a me if you're maybe independent. Or if you're not signed to a wreck. I think a lot of people know who Immortal Technique is. Right? But I think he's underground. He's always been underground. He doesn't have anything. It's,

Mikey:

it's similar to like Jedi mind tricks where like, you know, they are kind of the biggest fish in that pond. Like in the underground pond or like someone like atmosphere or something like that. That's like, you know, they can they can sell out, you know, big venues and stuff like that. But still, they're not like in that in the mainstream Zeitgeist

Anthony:

is a hill thing when they bought earlier, I think in a week or so ago, whenever like, like the top 10 which is rappers or like last year, some other shit like that, like tech, non tech, but tech nine is always there. But really you don't check. I swear to correlate the tech knows, like $25 million.

Mikey:

Wow, really? Really no tech nines music?

Anthony:

And I would say so like, but that's the whole thing. But tech always texts never home tech tours, tours tour.

Mikey:

That's what I was gonna say he's

Anthony:

right mix, like he does it. But to your average fan, he hasn't popped, right. But you can catch a Tech Tour with them anytime, anywhere. And he said he comes through my town eight times a year, whatever. He'll release an album by the tour album tour. He'll do that moment like it differs is a very tricky line that we got to kind of decipher here. I mean, we could break it down. I

Jeff:

just got to find your path. Because then you have a guy like Tom McDonald, who's a millionaire basically just off of YouTube. He's a YouTube rapper. You know what I'm saying? Okay, super independent. Here's

Anthony:

it. Here's a difference. They allow. Hip hop has allowed these motherfuckers to cheat. Yeah. Hip hop, hip hop has given them the answer book, and let them take this test. And it's confidence right out of like said before you like you had to be somebody somewhere, you had to go to certain conferences, you had to know certain DJs certain radio stations, certain connections, and go into certain labels to be under the power of certain ARS to be able to be, there is no more there's no more crafting of a hip hop person. Like, like, you can kind of sorta rhyme a little bit, you can drop in on a streaming service, you could drop it on SoundCloud, YouTube, and you'll gain if you're good enough, you'll gain a particular audience and you could just work at that. There's no craftsmanship. There's no musicianship, there's no there's no accountability, right. There's no a&r You're not trained to be a a guest say a quote unquote rapper. But that's why these guys are easy come easy go. Because you're not going to stick around them unless you get some the six likes it. Uzi started off as SoundCloud kid. Yeah, now it was making all this money. But because he didn't have the machine that revive them to kind of teach him almost like the professional ethics of hip hop. He does dumb things like buys extremely expensive Pink Diamonds and putting them over his forehead to like, the fucking vision.

Mikey:

And then does a stage dive into an art into

Anthony:

everyone knew was coming, right? But there was always craziness in hip hop beliefs. You had someone that will kind of have your back like, they'll talk to the right person trying to get you sorted out, they just let these muffins run wild. That's what I hate about it now like, yeah, you're destroying the artistry of it.

Mikey:

Well, and it's it feels like before it was it was like a meritocracy. Like it was, you know, you you did have to like go through all the you know, all the, you know, bullshit with record labels and getting signed and all those things and, you know, getting records into DJs hands and stuff. But it was at least like if you were dope, then you succeeded right? Are you guys listening to what had happened? Was that podcast? I do? Yeah. So this season's with Dante Ross. And it's just interesting to hear his stories about, like, how he got de la how he got Queen Latifah. Like how he got all those people like into, you know, into the industry from like an a&r perspective. And from like, you know, he was literally in clubs shoving, you know, tapes into records into like, DJ Red Alert bag and stuff like that. And, you know, now it's like, this is the version of it, where, you know, you can just do that through YouTube or whatever, but, you know, I'm just, I don't know if I feel like it's as dire as, as it was kind of making it sound but like, there's a lot of bullshit rappers right now that are making fucking tons of money that have I think are fucking talentless. I mean, I look at migos I look at people like that, and I fucking hate them. They can't rap. But they're making their you know, their little trap beats and they they're good looking or whatever. And it's, I'm like, wait a second, you're worth $100 million. For what? Like garbage mumble rap shit.

Anthony:

It's why I didn't vote for Bernie Sanders. Man, I don't believe in socialism.

Jeff:

So in other words, it's easier to come out and to put out shit now right then

Mikey:

it's more flooded now, though. It's like to be to rise to the surface still take something.

Jeff:

But is it harder? Is it harder to sustain? You know, little success? No. Or is it easier? It's

Anthony:

not. They're not looking for sustainability to look for cloud, just like like comedy and make the money to make a rhyme every single day with a different beating to keep putting it out there and putting it to someone listen, open to like, it didn't work. And I'm tired. Let me go back to Walmart or whatever. But you just keep on pushing. Like some of these dudes are not talented. They are not good. They aren't. And it's not a dismissal of them. How do you get your coins how you get your coins, but the whole thing is that you're not creating something that's fully and completely sustainable because all the young ones that want to get in now. Want to get in get out of Hip Hip Hop forever, like the thing that's cool that black dumbass like I don't want to do this shit forever. Like, I know my fucking cares about you anyway, but that's neither here nor there. Like I said, we because we bitch about the fact that you know, there should be more legacy acts that don't think that's the beauty of versus when you see cane when you see Charisse one, like, they were in a constant like I will go see them because I think we don't give them the proper respect that they are do like we're rock and roll stars rose on them, and they are still fucking torn. They are halfway dead. Still tour and sell up shit. Every fucking we're sure but what else is like, Oh, you're too old rap mean to tell me that they're too old to play these instruments and singing songs and their voice is not as strong as they used to be 1520 30 years ago, but you still pay hundreds of 1000s of dollars every time to go see them

Mikey:

perform. Mm hmm. I don't know. Do you think it's a race thing? Or do you think it's like because I mean, hip hop is like a youthful, I mean, so it's rock and roll on some level. But it's like, you know, there was so much criticism about the Super Bowl halftime show about that. People thought that they were all washed up. They're too old. It's like whatever. But I mean, like, look at like The Rolling Stones. They're singing these songs that they've had for 60 years or whatever. And they're all like these heroin soaked bags of bones up there on stage and like they're gonna fucking like cool rock and roll dudes anymore. But

Anthony:

because I think even to this point, they don't see they see hip hop as rap. They don't see him as music. Oh, yeah. Like not like let's say you could try to rap you can do whatever you can. You can play the piano you can do things to produce you can't do it like Dre does. You can't do it like Alchemist. You can't do it like Havoc does. That is a skill that is no, no torn apart and rebuilt and reformed, reconstructed over years for them to formulate this to create this kind of sound. Right now, like I said, you can play a trumpet, but you never be Lujan from you, you can play any kind of instrument, you're not gonna be a jazz great or whatever else like that. But they give these guys credit because they're able to do it. But that is still a form of musicianship, and it's only in hip hop, country, music tours, rock tours, jazz tours, every other form of art in regards to music tours for extended period of time, except for hip hop. Because they don't they don't really see and understand the musicianship behind what's being created.

Mikey:

I also to play devil's advocate, I'm the I'm the biggest hip hop fan of fucking love hip hop, hip hop shows, like live shows, not the best sometimes it's it relies on the showmanship is a huge part of it. And they have the artist has to be someone who's like super engaging because basically all you have to look at is them and then potentially a DJ. And I've been to so many, like, of my favorite artists shows I mean, even last night, that's my brother Ali. Like it was a fun show. And but it was like, you know, there's just more to look at when you go see, like, you know, a band and so it's an interesting thing when it's like, I don't know the liberals like really good friend of mine. Yeah. Which I love. But it does. It just depends if the person's a real MC and like in the truest sense of those words like a master of ceremonies. He's, if they're able to, like, handle the crowd, do good pattern between, you know, songs, it's like it takes more because there's just kind of, I think there's like a laziness to like to like go to a rock and roll show or whatever. And it's like, oh, there's you know, you can look you're watching the drummer, you're watching this person play this instrument, whatever. And it's just an it's an interesting thing. I've I have a lot of friends that like won't go to hip hop shows because they just think that they're boring or like, the sound quality's bad or like, whatever.

Anthony:

Jeff was the best hip hop show you've ever been to.

Jeff:

Like I said, the Lauryn Hill ship. I've I've always said that. You've asked me that before. And actually speaking of diversity, that was a diverse crowd. When I went there was white people to black people. Yeah. You know, I'm saying, you know, everybody went to hell. Yeah. What was what was the venue? It was I forget the name of the place it was in it was in New York. It was in the world packing day. I think it might have been Yeah, okay. No meat packing.

Anthony:

No, no, no, no, I'm not eating meat packing you right. You're You're right. I forget. Oh, I want to do it wasn't like I needed to do something within the next year. And I need to see this. I need to see them perform in person. Do you understand? Where I'm trying to get this point? You need to see the roots before dude. In person.

Mikey:

Ridiculous.

Anthony:

That's it's amazing. Yeah. Because like that's but that's why they've lasted so long. That's why don't fucking Jimmy Fallon show because like I said, their group of musicians, right. Same thing. They're doing the same thing that a someone can do with no two records in the turntable and no production board, but it's doing it live. When a person might have all you got to do it like but

Mikey:

they say let's watch Questlove

Jeff:

that's what they say about us. Right when I'm reading math put put them at home. They say that about KERS. You know, nobody puts on shows like him.

Mikey:

But it's again, like the roots I've been. And when you ask the best show I've ever seen, like in I was in Boston when I was 15 or 16, something like that. And the roots were what did they have out at that point? Maybe they had Ella Duff HalfLife out. But I saw them at like a secret show with 30 people in like this coffee shop in Boston. And I mean, by far the best show I've ever seen. Questlove was like, He's just mesmerizing to watch. And they're, they are truly musicians. I mean, and like with Hubble field gone now, like I'm interested to see how they're going to place him but just Unbeliev and then of course, Triq is just like one of the best lyricist of all time. Hands down.

Anthony:

It was it was cancer for him to write.

Mikey:

I think it was actually I don't I'm pretty sure you guys if you're not watching. Watch the sound on Apple TV. It's Mark Ronson. It's his show about an each episode is about a different musical, like musical techniques. So you know, he's got synthasite one about synthesizers one about autotune but he has the one about drum machines with with Questlove it's fucking ridiculous. And I've had some great stories,

Anthony:

and I probably will, man we're gonna get the TV eventually, man. Yo, yo, seriously, have you got Have you ever started for a biller yet?

Mikey:

I have not I just finished only one episode and but I like it.

Jeff:

I keep hearing. I keep I just finished the Kanye documentary though. Jesus.

Anthony:

I know. I gotta start the fresh print. Nope. They're on Episode Seven. I mean, it's been on for seven weeks. Not really. Yeah. Because they could have had two for the first one didn't have it that good. You will and I guarantee you enjoy. I guarantee you

Jeff:

does it have like a soundtrack? Is there like, you know, do they have like different artists music on there? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I will just take a quick break. When we come back. We're going to do this is that racist? And I also want to get into returning to the office. So we'll get into that

Unknown:

What's everyone's saying about the culture podcast? All the time, man. I love y'all man. Y'all always play the music man. Love man. Listen, my whole family loves it, man. It's the only podcast I listen to. We'll be right back after a quick commercial break.

Jeff:

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Jeff:

Alright, let's get into this. Is that racist? Shoot, you got the floor, man. You got a little story.

Mikey:

So well, and I, I, I may have oversold this story. But anyways, let's just let's just see if it's if you guys think tracing so very close person in my life. Who's in the food world and loves Anthony Bourdain. Right. So this person would told me to watch this new there's this new documentary about Anthony Bourdain. And so I haven't watched it yet. But do you guys do you guys see the Dave Chappelle? I can't remember which standup it was from but where he talks about Anthony Bourdain dying. Yeah. Okay. And so I think that's, it's like one of my favorite Chappelle segments, or, like, just, you know, his his bit about that, I think, is really funny. It's dark. And, and you know, that I'll just for the listeners, the net net of it is, he talks about how Anthony Bourdain had like the greatest job in the world, he got to travel around and eat with people and whatever. And you know, he had this great life, and he killed himself in, you know, a luxury hotel room in France. And then he segment segues into telling the story about this guy he grew up with, who had like all this potential and went to law school and was like, you know, this genius, got married, got divorced during law school, lost half of his money. And then he Dave Chappelle ends up seeing this guy like 10 years later, and the dude is like, you know, working at footlocker and, and the funny part of the thing is, and he's like, just to tell you this, he's like, this guy has never considered killing himself. So that's kind of the punch line, right? And so it's dark. It's funny, whatever. I so I sent this person in my life. I sent them this this Anthony Bourdain, Dave Chappelle bit. And they did not this person did not know who Dave Chappelle was and didn't know his comedy. So just

Jeff:

so hello, love Jesus Christ. How old is the person first of all?

Mikey:

Well, they're they're old. I mean, they're, they're our parents. Hey, this person's like in their 70s. Okay, so that's going to kind of inform this this part of the story right? But this so this person a didn't find it funny thought it was like super offensive and just too soon, and like not something that you should make fun of suicides, not a laughing matter, which I disagree with. I think we can we can make humor out of everything. And it's a way it's also a way of grieving and coping. Whatever Anthony Bourdain and Dave Chappelle, were actually friends. But the biggest thing that this person had a problem with was that Dave Chappelle uses the N word so much. And this person was in as a white person, white seven year old person. And they said that they just don't think that it's something should that should happen that black people shouldn't call each other. The N word N word is the worst word that you can use. And it's ugly, and it's gross, and that it shouldn't happen. And my argument was, well, you don't get to have a say in the argument like this isn't it's not something for you. It's just you don't I don't care if you think that it's just not a thing. And so anyways, I wanted to put it out to you guys. I'm like, cuz I said, I said to them, I was like, this is it's racist for you to say that I feel and they push back real hard. So the question remains,

Jeff:

is that let me go first before and goes because obviously, he's the resident black man in the on the show, but, um, okay, first of all, I don't think is racist that, that they didn't want to hear the N word. That might be anti racist. They don't like that word.

Mikey:

Yeah. I think and I think also, the fact this person is 72 years old, let's say. And, you know, they've lived at a different time than we have. Right. And so and that that word was really fucking sharp. I mean, it's still supercharged, obviously. But, I mean, and the thing is, is well, I don't know, it feels to me like yes, of course, the word like being against the word probably in their age bracket is like that is that was the way of being anti racist, right? So

Jeff:

I'm not gonna knock him for not knowing who Chappelle is. My parents don't know who Dave Chappelle is, they're in their 70s. You know, unless, you know, they're probably not on Netflix, and they're probably not checking in. I mean, their social media feeds and shit like that. Yeah, I'm not gonna use that again on this person's brand of humor. But I also think you are correct in saying that it is not your place as a white person to dictate what the what the black man can or can't say to them, you know, to their own kind. So yeah, I don't know. I'm curious to hear what you have to say.

Mikey:

And what do you think? Not that you have to be the you have to speak for for everyone black man and women.

Anthony:

Okay, so give me the simple premise of the question that they're asking

Mikey:

that I'm asking or them, but Well, my Well, I guess I mean, the main question is just like, is it racist for a white person to be against black people using the N word as like a term of endearment or just as a word that they want to use and whatever, achieve the Oh, the other thing that I will say is this person said, I don't like it when, when black people say and they use the hard are. They said and with a heart?

Jeff:

I mean, I don't. I don't know. I don't think I've ever heard a black person use the heart or unless it's a joke, unless it's a rocker. Saying joke,

Anthony:

a little bit of a different Yeah, different word. But yeah, not now. Vernacular doesn't really work out that way.

Jeff:

Oh, sorry. Is there any chance that we can get this person on the show, Mike?

Mikey:

No, okay.

Anthony:

Embark on my lab in front of the face, that's not a problem. You can go ahead and do it. The interesting thing when it comes to, I guess, I'm gonna say this, right? The the dynamics of interpersonal relationships, when regarding to race, is that we all say and do things that would be functional, or quite simply understood within that context of the group that we're doing with. If you're a little bit slow, you don't know what I mean, you're going to hear some very harsh words right now. But just try to understand, I have been around Mexican people who have used terms that will be denigrating them, said by someone else in between them. I've heard that Hispanic people have heard that with Asian people, or for Irish people, Italian people, Jewish people. Because it's always like this inside thing. Like if we're going to say something about ourselves. We're going to say it to ourselves, but we're going to put it in a manner where it's understood. And we know that it's a joking manner. Or if not in a joking manner. We're just mad at somebody and you say something that you know, is denigrating their race, even though you're of the same race. I think sometimes people get pissed off and they say things like that don't fully understand that we've taken power of that word. And why should we use it less? Yes. But we understand that it's, it's a pretty versatile noun like it. A lot of people places and things when you really think about it, in regards to us. So I understand from an outsider's view, how that can be difficult, but I don't think someone's saying it makes that person lesser or it, it hurts their spirit. Again, like I said, I've heard people of other cultures say things that are offensive to each other, that they wouldn't accept that from nobody else. Right? For sure. Black people don't either, like, a long time ago, my friend was Irish as famous Irish as fuck, and they hate the word MC. But whenever they got matched, they kept calling each other that, that that that's, that's what they would do to each other when they were pissed. Yeah, and that's how they will react upon it. I wasn't going to say that like now I know. Like we cool. No, but I'm gonna become from around y'all be saying that shit even was super super tight. So like, like I'm very cool with just family. I'm not so busting out some some wild disrespectful Hispanic term just because like oh, we're cool. Fuck that. You got to be able to read the room, y'all cuz it to each other. It's cool. I get it. That's part of the culture, so on so forth. But I gotta say to you, that's your mag. Yeah, when someone else is trying to tell you like what you should do amongst your own people. It's not it's a race. It's kind of stew. It's kind of like ignorant. Like, could you guys do the same thing? So right and try to make this instance any more special than it honestly should be? It's just not.

Mikey:

It's also and also Dave Chappelle. Like, he uses that word. So artfully, like you were saying like, how versatile it is. Like Dave Chappelle feels like he is like the, you know, most popular person most popular artists that is that uses that word. A I think volumetrically like I think he uses it more than almost anybody I've ever heard. But then he also like he'll talk it'll use that word for his talking about a dog or talking about his wife or talking about you know, it's like a it's just a funny way that he uses it right. It's such a part of his vernacular. And it's uh, but yeah, I don't know it just it struck me as just like it's like a you just don't it's just not your place to have an opinion about this. And I'm sorry that you know, offends your ears but that well and I all that I can ever think about when we talk about the N word are people using it or who uses it or whatever. Is that Tribe Called Quest song. Was it sucker ends? But yeah, well, they talk about you know, and he breaks down how, you know, like Q tip talks about how he feels a lot of different ways about using it and about people using it right.

Jeff:

I don't know I asked if is this a gentleman is that person a gentleman or a woman?

Mikey:

Woman Okay, really, I

Jeff:

thought it was a man. So that changes things, but it's a different perspective for

Mikey:

me. Yeah. What? Tell me why women call you the bitch

Jeff:

all the time. But she's a seven year old woman.

Anthony:

Don't try to say, oh, women don't get women go to the beach all the time. But I didn't go and try to do that, because I know how she's gonna go.

Jeff:

I don't know. Because I'm curious. I actually asked if we could bring on the show, because I'm curious to hear her side of the story. You know, I'm saying like her. Obviously, she grew up in an era, she knows where That's where it came from. So sure, you know, why doesn't she want to hear it from black folk, you know, even if it's jokes are a term of endearment. I've

Anthony:

had a conversation. I'm not barking on a 70 year old, you don't have to worry, you can just

Jeff:

have a conversation. Conversation. Like what the fuck?

Mikey:

Yeah. Well, and it's and you know, and this is, and this is like, just for all intents and purposes, like, you know, this is a person who's on like, who has their mind right about things, you know, who's on the, on the right side of things, and is like, for that age range, or whatever is pretty good about most social issues. But you know, this is this is where things start to get creaky. Right, when you know, like, where we're at now with with kind of race and relations and where we're at with culture and where we're at with all those different things. It's different than where that person was when they were our age. And then we're different than the people that are, you know, coming up now that are 15 to 20, or whatever. And so it's, it's just an interesting thing to keep having this conversation about, like, you know, what does it mean? What is it?

Jeff:

I will tell you, I would tell you to send her all of Dave Chappelle shows, Netflix just so she compared but she sounds like a very conservative not gonna have her son. Yeah, she's not gonna like any of his of his stand up shows.

Mikey:

It's just not it's just not a brand, you know? Yeah. So anyways, it's just, I just always think it's an interesting conversation. And you know, you guys and I, like, we've obviously we've talked about, like, the like, well, and then I think it's an interesting thing when you talk about, like, the use of that word, right? So we've talked about, like, has Eminem ever said that word he has? And it's, I he definitely has, and it's, but it's about intention. Right? So like, he hasn't said that word in a, like, we know that he is a person that celebrates black culture. He's also someone who has like he made money off of black culture, like he has black people in his life that he cares about all those different things. The intention behind him saying that word is different than the intention of a confederate flag, right? Waving truck driving dude in Mississippi, like it's a it's a fucking different word.

Jeff:

And the end the end of the people that he runs with the 50 cents the drain, the Royster five, nine. They've all defended him and said that, yeah, if he said it in front of them better care if he says it, like he can say it in front of them, you know, I'm saying because they accept that

Mikey:

I've, right. And I've also I think I've said this on the show in the past, but like you can say even like, like a word black, right? So you can say like, oh, this black guy was at my house the other night for dinner or whatever. Or someone could say this black guy doesn't you know, it's it's all about tone and those pension inflection, right? Yeah, we know what you mean.

Anthony:

And I'm gonna give away a little secret, and it might be my black carbon vote, but we can go ahead and get the shit out the way, like in private, and in private, right? amongst black people. We don't talk about white people at all. We don't care. We honestly just do not care what the fuck y'all do. When we get together we are enjoying might be a true statement amongst our people within our culture. We don't give we don't wait not a syllable on white people. Unless you're talking about the general silliness of we're not having conversation at the conversation about how do we improve white folk, we don't care. We don't care what to do. We don't give a shit. But y'all behind closed doors and talking about us. Like, why like, talk about shit y'all got going on? We honestly don't totally get the fuck y'all do. When we get together. We have fun. Like when I go kick it with Jeff will talk about music or sports and everything else like that or whatever. It's like that. There's not been one conversation. I remember where we sat down and talk about, well, we're white people, the

Jeff:

one that brings up m&m

Anthony:

roundtable discussions is for your table discussion. We just don't have those conversations because we just don't care like we get it. We got to deal with the shit that not necessarily you might but generally, like your boss is generally white the person on the hems generally white the company owned by is generally white people are generally white. Like we're around and do what you want focus all day. We're not going to go home and talk about some more. We're done with this shit. I'm sorry to let you guys in on that. But you're not as important to us as you think you

Mikey:

are. Yeah, you're not sitting at home wondering how if I use the word MC to talk to my fellow Irishman? Absolutely. No, come on and give me some time.

Anthony:

I'm wondering. dinner later. It is like snowing and shit like I don't care. I'm not gonna leave the company. He's like Man, if he's white people can only try a little harder. No

Mikey:

that's gonna be a wish that won't be fulfilled either. So

Anthony:

yeah, get them on either them and pray to white Jesus, like just get it together. No, I'm like help my family the ability to be alive like white people like at night. Right?

Mikey:

Yeah, white people do need to hear that more. I think that we have overstated and over over estimated our level of importance. I think it's, that's a good to be a good thing to internalize.

Anthony:

Yeah, we don't care like we care about you as human beings as a race. No. But yo,

Jeff:

can we get into this return to Office shit? I mean, I know as been in the office, I haven't been in office for two years. No. And

Anthony:

you want to return the office? Shit. Go ahead. Yeah.

Jeff:

Because let me be your past week, my company decided to reopen. Hmm, and invite us back in. So and across the country. I know a lot of other people that started the same week as well. And it just so happened that the gas prices went above $4. Here in the tri state area. In some places you're out in the west, I'm sure you saw like 567 dollar gas pumps. I mean, it's yeah, it's around five crazy the most output was $4.60 A few days ago when that's for regular and that's credit. You know, I mean, if you put like diesel or supreme or plus or whatever the premium, you're looking at close to $5. And that's the highest it's ever been.

Mikey:

I've never been I can't believe that they even still sell the three levels of gas or whatever. Like who the fuck I mean, I have friends who have like, you know, nicer cars, whatever that put in that. The higher octane gas. I'm like, I don't know, dude, it's fucking gas. Are you serious? You're going to spend like 25 cents

Jeff:

more some gas requires some card. I remember when my wife had a BMW and she tried to put regular it would act up it would literally act up.

Anthony:

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, did you ever

Jeff:

had that used black one number few years ago, before she got the jeep.

Anthony:

Once you stopped

Jeff:

and you had to put what do you mean what you had to put the premium shoot? And I would put the I would put the regular and it would like start coughing. It sounded like if it was coughing. Yeah, it would not get what it felt like it was coughing the whole time. And I was weird.

Mikey:

But I mean, what what's the difference? I mean, I don't know what this isn't. Welcome to cars. Anyway, everybody. What What the fuck is in

Jeff:

the backseat of the story? The point is, it's design, octane, whatever. But I think it's I think it's a conspiracy, you fool me that all of a sudden, the government wants us to return to offices this week, when gases are at an all time high. So they want us to spend this money on this oil. Want us to put money back into the economy.

Anthony:

I'm going to mute the federal market, or whatever.

Jeff:

But this is not this is not part of my story. This is just my my theory anyway. So the only reason I want to discuss this is because my anxiety levels, just even even to the day before the night before. Knowing that I had to wake up extra early the next day, start a new routine that I hadn't done in two years of getting dressed, figuring out what to wear, you know, making my breakfast, you know, beating traffic, I was sitting in traffic and the shift sim seemed foreign to me. Like I haven't set in morning traffic at 7am and yours. So I was like shit, like I had to remind, I had to remember all these things like muscle memory. Getting into the office, I had to remember how to punch the pin to get into the building, which I hadn't done in years. I'm like, Okay, what the hell is my pin to, you know, swipe the badge, you have to swipe the badge to get into the like, all this shit was nerve racking, my anxiety levels were through the roof. And I was like, Okay, maybe it's me, I'm crazy. And, you know, come to find out a lot of people, a lot of my co workers felt the same way. So, you know, it was nice to see, you know, unfortunately, but it was nice to see that other people share the same, you know, I mean, anxiety and, and stress that I felt about just simply going back to the office, and just going through the normalcy of, you know, day to day going into work, and driving to and from work and preparing your morning and your breakfast and going into the office and having to see people that you hadn't seen in two years interacting with people again. Yeah, obviously, as the day progressed, you know, things were it was cool. You know, I got better. I got calmer, you know, I'm saying the stress levels went down. But I just I don't know, I just felt like some I wanted to talk about to see, you know, maybe somebody can share their stories or something. Somebody can hear it and be like, Yeah, I was feeling the same way. You know what I mean? Because like I said, other co workers, you know, would speak up even in the zoo means other co workers would speak up and like, Yo, yeah, my anxiety is crazy. I don't really want to go back. I'm nervous. I don't know. And I was like, thanks for sharing that because I feel the same way. You know, I mean, and and I try to have this conversation went on and he's like, motherfucker, I've been in office this whole time. Well, you

Mikey:

I just feel like we need to we need to fit like from a mental health perspective. We fucked ourselves so hard with COVID Just in the sense that like, we we didn't we I don't think that anybody really took like the you know, obviously, the way that we pulled out of like, the way we pulled society apart with everything was so hammer him man, it wasn't ham fisted ham handed whatever that word is. And then but ham, but then going back like the really interesting things. Like a hands on approach, that's another podcast.

Jeff:

Hammer you that to the Mikey?

Mikey:

Part of us like, oh, fuck yeah, we talked a lot about 15. But but it's just like I was with a friend last night and she owns a marketing company and they're going to get rid of their office because like they do really great work apart. And they don't need to be together. I think we need to like nessa thing. Everybody needs to figure that the fuck out do you need to be together? If you don't, what's the point of having everybody out on the road having everybody like driving to work stressing out flipping out. If you don't have to be with each other. I think there's like, I don't know, lean into that remote work.

Jeff:

My wife works with brokers and insurance company. And they eliminate her office, they gave her the option, you had to sign away, you know, the paper, you either want to come in or you want to stay home, she decided to stay home. So she's working personally from the center everything she needs, I sent her a phone, computers, whatever she needs to work from home. And there's no more office, but they still have an office though the office out of New Jersey that she was working in there, they're doing away with, they're keeping a nearby office in New York, and there's some people that drive into that one. And they asked her, you know, whenever we need to maybe have you in for a meeting or something you can drive in, and she hasn't had to come in yet. You know, but that, yeah, I find that you can be more productive from her work. I know, there's going to be exceptions. I know there's gonna be some people that just slack off and they need to be supervised by their, by their bosses or whatever. But there's exceptions. But I feel like I do better work at home. And I work longer hours. You know, I mean, I log in early, I'll log out later, you know, I mean, because there's less distraction.

Mikey:

That's, I would, I would love to see what productivity levels have been like how they've changed during, you know, when people were working more remotely. I mean, obviously, there's some jobs you can't do remotely, but like you have to be face to face. My wife is an acupuncturist, she has to be there to to, you know, work with people, you know, with her hands, but it's, you know, I just think if you're in a I wonder if productivity went up? I mean, I think it I think it would have to we should

Jeff:

have ran on the show when this is you could talk to us about working with her hands. No disrespect to you. Well, I gotta be fisting.

Mikey:

She doesn't do that. Not

Jeff:

Oh, yeah. And I've had people within the company and I've had people within the company tell me like, yeah, that productivity levels are better, you know, when we're working from home. Yeah. But like I said, we just opened up this week, I'm sure they're gonna evaluate it, like after a month, they're gonna look at the numbers and be like, Okay, well, either up or down are the same, you know,

Mikey:

my thing is just like, it's just like the overhead, you know, the cost of maintaining an office and keeping it you know, all the things that you need to have for an office to stay functional. Fuck that. Like, if I'm, if I own a company, like Get away, you know, just release myself from the, from the shackles of the financial constraints of a building of an office. I don't know, dude, I would, I'd want that to happen. Talking but yeah,

Jeff:

this this is the shit that made me realize, you know, about mental health, it opened my eyes about mental because I've, you know, I've come on here before, and I've talked about, you know, athletes and how soft and puts you there are, in fact, their mental health and all this shit. I know. It's real, you know, I'm saying because it is, like, you know, the way I was stressing about just having to simply go into work something that was just normal just two years ago. And now it's foreign to me, just because I've been working from home for two years, but I'll let Dan talk we're gonna talk to you know, he's gonna come on here and say, Hey, man, have you bitch and whatever. Go ahead, man.

Anthony:

No, your whole job, pussy. That's all there is to it. I mean, it's really annoying to talk about it, like, like, I'm being dead serious. I'm gonna try to explain this in the most efficient manner possible. You go to the sensor, he always knows that they have these, you have these very tall, Fuxin tivity. You go to New York City, they have these really big high rises, like everywhere. Sure, because they're so only so much space that they start building flat, you got to basically build on top of things, you get skyscrapers. The thing is that those things cost money. They want people inside of those buildings to pay said rent for those spaces. The space where you work, it has no direct effect upon your work. It's just that they're required. Because we sound you sign this 30 year lease with them to pay X amount in rent. So therefore, it doesn't make sense for us to have this space. No one's going to be inside it. You can work effectively. As a matter of fact, probably more effectively, at home Dean do at work. Like I said, there's no commute. There's no stress, there's no, like I understand, I think one of the points that you said that, you know, they got some workers that need to be in the office for them to be looked over, then they probably shouldn't be working there. If you can't be sufficient, and can't be efficient at what you're doing. You probably shouldn't be employed here. You could still have metrics and so on and so forth for what you're supposed to be doing or not doing. And if you meet those marks, and that's what it should be. I think pushing the doors open immediately. And like I said, the people there's a very clear schism between the people and the people above them or the government entities above them, collects it. The Mayor Eric Adams is desperately trying to open up new york, like it's better for the people is better for business and so forth. And that is a point there because like I said, the the thing that people are not going back to offices does hurt or like the businesses that are in those areas, but leave them in those areas, because they knew that their office buildings would be filled with people totally now, now that it's no longer there. It doesn't seem as great as an idea. Like I remember when I was working at Tiffany Company, it was like a bunch of restaurants like in like a half mile radius. But they're but they're not in the office or people like that work in those office parks. If they're not in those buildings. Those businesses suffer too. And those are people that are just like you so I understand the Radisson Do I think that you should work home permanently? No, because I think there's certain things that are outside of control just that this might go wrong. Like if you're in your office, and internet goes down, a sorry. And then I could do but if you're a home, they're not trying to hear that excuse from you. But like, well, that well you said you want to work from home, you have all the stuff going on. Like if you don't get it done that's on you, I advise you go to a coffee shop, someone should get it done. Like the I think the easiest thing and the most effective thing that all these officers should do is just a hybrid model X amount of days in X amount of days out. It makes life easy for everybody. It keeps everybody properly spaced everyone so does their job. Take a laptop home, you do the shit there. Once you're done with home, you bring it back to the office, everybody rotates. You get to spend time at home and do that. But it's gonna force you back into a situation that nobody wants to go back into. And it's uncomfortable for all you and I understand I've been there I have had the conversation my co workers, like months as I came back in I said I still come into the office and I'm paranoid everyday that I'm going to I'm going to get COVID again and this time God's like am I fuck that you got to die this time. And I and even now you know things are cleared up I still carry around a fear of me even though they're saying they're going to remove the mess mandate and everything else like that. I'm I'm always going to keep this around my neck no matter where I go even as hot as fuck outside, it doesn't matter because I don't have enough trust and people to think that you're gonna do the right thing. So I understand your fear of going back to that office because it is scary. Because because you're working under a very, like a handshake agreement. Like, over these past few years. Have you been ahead doing the right thing? And I know just for human nature. Not all y'all have some people yet, but not all y'all. You have cuz I know you try to avoid in it. Like say you try to avoid that shit more than anybody I know. And oh, you

Jeff:

still got it?

Mikey:

Still? Does that mean that Jeff? Or is that? Is that where your anxiety is? Is up about? Is it? Is it getting COVID? Or going back with you know, de COVID still exists? Or is it just the idea that you're having to get back into the routine a

Jeff:

number of things a word routine is having to reprogram my mind and my body to do something that I used to do, but I haven't done in years. The COVID thing I had COVID I don't want to get an unnatural kid but I don't want to get COVID again, like the shoes suck. And like I said I mean they you are required to be vaccinated at my job. But they said they were only they said I think 97% of the people are and the other 330 I'm not saying the other 3% got pardoned either for religious reasons or for medical reasons. But again, you don't know you haven't seen these people in years. You don't know how people are going to be and when when I got in some people you know we're taking a real serious I had my mask when I was walking around some people didn't. Most people didn't wear masks. Some people didn't want to get near people. Like some people were fishing humping other people were like, hey, just err, just say hi to me from afar. So it was just a mix of different personalities like some people did. So I saw people hugging some people that didn't care about hugging, some didn't want to be

Mikey:

touched dude. And it's like, it's, it's also squirrely, like the show that I went to last night, you know, they they require proof of vaccination. And like, you know, my vaccination card is from a year and a half ago, I got boosted and all that stuff, but it's like, the I don't give a fuck about if someone's gotten VAT, you know, vaccinated, it's more about like, you know, I think doing a negative COVID test would be a better way to go. Or at least just like, you know, like and said, You don't know what these fucking people have been doing. And I just I think at some point, we just have to understand that like, we can't trust everybody, you wear your mask, if you want to wear your mask, you got to take care of yourself, but it's just I just, I'm gonna keep wearing my mask in some situations, because I just I don't trust people and I don't want to breathe your fucking gross breath anyway,

Jeff:

and they are doing about the math, they are doing a hybrid, they're gonna do hybrid with us, by the way, so it's gonna be like three days a week. Anyway, go ahead.

Anthony:

Right, but I don't think they should make that hybrid thing, just until the numbers are at a point where there's not any palpable fear this just make that hybrid permanent. Yeah, it's just better for everyone's mental health to allow me to just be able to get up, grab a cup of coffee and I can still do my job. I don't have to worry about traffic or lunch or talking anybody or being I don't have to do any of that. You just need me to be free from this point to that point to focus on the right I can absolutely do it. But

Mikey:

you think you think even if it's a situation where the where that business could be done from home, you think it's why Why is it important to have the hybrid model? Like you think it's just from the perspective of having people together as a team in one place, like the value of that for certain businesses or just that

Anthony:

because because, like I said, when I don't believe in socialism to the most important thing, it's like I said, the reason why the hybrid model works because it each one teach one. I don't want to have empty buildings, what's going to have empty restaurants and things around them? Because there's no one there? Yeah. Like I like, just because of my own well being I'm hurting someone else.

Mikey:

Right. But I mean, don't you think that that's a way of like, but it's, it's just, it's business speaking to what's needed. Like, for instance, like, malls are empty now, because nobody goes to fucking malls anymore. Like, maybe if we don't have offices anymore, then the those restaurants can go somewhere else, those guys trucks can go to the place where people need them. Like, if we don't need, I mean, dude, New York City, there's so many empty buildings there that are fucking shell corporations, for Chinese and Russian companies. Like, you know, it's to me, it's like, Fuck the buildings, like, I want people to be able to work in a situation that they can be more mental, you know, mentally healthy. And then also, like, more productive. And if that happens from home, great.

Anthony:

I just think that the conversation is just so much more nuanced. And like, I don't, we just don't have enough time to really discuss it. Because like, yeah, it's certain things about, like, you know, what businesses, how many can be in a particular area like that? Like, you can't, like you could put a hotel there, but you can't put homes there like, huh, like if like, right, if you had all these people working from home, we had all these empty buildings, you have so much housing where people can actually go into and possibly like a floor and like it's a housing crunch as it is now. But they're not going to do that like we're not going to have people like living in apartment rooms right next to our banking situation or our our financial like it the way they have things set up in a way it is it's not really acceptable for those for those that really profit from it. Like I said, we went through a whole pandemic. And the the companies that were at the top of the chain didn't suffer at all as a matter of fact, they gained they didn't hurt at all that everyone else who was hurting hurt. That's why I said for me the hybrid just makes more sense because I don't want to hurt the businesses around me like Yeah, especially like that. It's like like, it's kind of like you might have like a like a monitor the mom and pop thing but like a local like bagel shop. Yeah, if you've been to for years, you know the people they like they might know your order off the RIP shit like that. Sure, you know, like, but once that disappears, it's like I gotta go somewhere else. I got to start all like those relationships that the community has amongst each other that symbiotic relationship. You come here you Purcell goods. But if you come here enough, you see enough of your face spent enough time with you, we there's a transactional relationship, but it is what it is the thing about you take it all away and like No, everybody's gonna work permits from home. Like I said, there's certain things that come into effect of that. And like I said, I partner, you

Mikey:

don't you don't think you would still, you don't think you'd still frequent though those businesses, even if you're working from home, I would argue to say that I would be more likely to go to those places more frequently. I mean, I know that it's different when it's like you're if you're talking about you live in, let's say New Jersey, but you work in New York City, like it's different, because you're only there for work. But it's like for me like during COVID. I mean, when things start open back up, all I did was support local businesses. When I was working from home, because it's like, and I would think like, if you're, I don't know, it's a different thing. I mean, it's i I'm here in Portland and like, you know, our downtown, just after everything that happened and in the way that things have gone. Like it's it's suffering, and it's like, it's quieter than it used to be and not as vibrant. And you know, and part of me is that sad, but also part of it feels kind of a natural evolution. On some level, like it's it happened. And so now like the you know, the priorities have just gone to other places now. And I don't know, it's a complex argument for sure. Oh, yeah.

Jeff:

I felt like a kid on the first day of school. But anyway, shout out to all my co workers that listen to this. I actually wanted to get the former CEO of the company on the show, but he, I guess he had no interest because I had a lot of questions.

Mikey:

As you say, no interest.

Jeff:

No, he didn't even respond. Oh, don't say yeah, I'm too important for this ship. If you would have came on, he probably would have had a list of questions that I wasn't allowed to ask. You know, I mean, and I'm not about to be censored. Like, no, motherfucker. I got a lot of questions that I need you to answer.

Mikey:

He comes on with his lawyer in the room with them.

Anthony:

Don't ask about my divorce, like your wife accuse you of having sex with seven other people.

Mikey:

All seven of my co workers.

Anthony:

Like black like I know Jen from processing often she's pregnant, driving a new car. I

Mikey:

know talking about Jen,

Jeff:

but yo before we go celebrate the 25th anniversary of Biggie Smalls death, aka Christopher Wallace. Okay, Frank White. I can't believe it's been 25 years already.

Mikey:

I that's it's wild to me. But we were just talking about Off mic but like that it's 25 years and he was 25 When he died, which 25 years is wild, and then the fact that he was so young, it just I don't know, that blows, but

Jeff:

it puts our life it puts your life in perspective, right? The things that Biggie and Tupac and Alia were, were able to accomplish and they died in their mid to early 20s They were so accomplished, I didn't come home and I did you have your life together? 2425 Because I did it. yet. I still don't have my life together.

Mikey:

No, that's definitely I mean, obviously not to that level.

Jeff:

So that's what I'm saying like Tupac was what 25 And he had, like, you know, 10 albums, and he had all kinds of movies. And he was this bigger than life personality.

Mikey:

I mean, it's a pretty amazing thing, when you look in general at creators and, you know, artists and stuff, like how much, you know, you know, especially if it's a musician that starts you know, producing music when they're young, like how much a lot of people did in that kind of like, in that space of their life, like how much of like a famous musicians, you know, music was made in that period of time, and they're like, holy shit, they just like living off that for the rest of their life or like that was their major creative output was in the early 20s. I don't I don't know if I had anything to say when I was that and Biggie

Jeff:

died and what 97 I was in junior high school. That's I was like, in seventh grade then. Just crazy to think.

Mikey:

I remember I was in high school. Where are we that different? Nada.

Jeff:

God,

Mikey:

how do you? Okay, yes, we're three years apart. Yeah. I mean, it's i Those are those flashbulb moments when I remember when Biggie died. I remember Columbine happened. Like all those things, I remember exactly where I was when those things happen. And biggie for sure. And youth

Anthony:

is, it's like, what, like you were saying, like, do it to park and we're big and Alia, so forth. That I mean, I don't really do a cross comparison in regards my own life, because I've come to realize a very long time ago that those were anomalies. Hmm, sure. Right. Right. Like, good point, but and that's why you had outliers had another layer, right? Yeah. Yeah, we had another layer. He had another Tupac, you haven't had another big mix. I mean, the game pitch about what the game pitch about, like isn't a game like in his 40s? Yeah, I think so. I think he might be in his

Mikey:

40s. And not as talented as any of those people on any level

Anthony:

from wrong. I apologize. If not, fuck you. Like say, like 50s in his late 40s. And like I said, he lived he got shot. He survived that he's, no, he has very popular TV shows right now. and things of that nature.

Jeff:

The game is 40 to

Anthony:

40 show. So I think the thing is, like, as much as those people might inspire us, and as much is excited to like, be this comics for going across the sky. You're they have a story. But the sad part about is that you're never going to know the ending of it, you know, you know how they died. But you're always left with what if like, they could have been so much more, if he just had a little more time. But no one knows that little bit more time with us, because we just don't know how the clock stops. The thing that I was at the reason I brought a thing about big and they've been 25 years. And both of y'all can chime in on this since his death. Like Again, that's 25 years ago. Has there been anyone who was as good a storyteller as he's been? Since his death from now?

Jeff:

I mean, I would argue NAS Yeah, I was I was gonna say no, that's about it.

Anthony:

In 25 years, one person. Yeah. It's like, you've got to cut like, a lot of dudes thinking they actually want to be to pop but didn't really want to be to politics want to try to say well shit and try to be to pot but they're not. Yeah. Well, let's say 25 from 25 years, like say, that is a quarter of a quarter of a decade. Mm hmm. One person,

Mikey:

I mean, and you know,

Anthony:

I think last came out before him, right.

Mikey:

I mean, there's certain people that I like, you know, that I love listen to their music, like, I think like a jay Cole or, or like a core day, I mean, but it's big. He was just his, like, he was such a different entity, right? I mean, he was the way that he, like, his impact on hip hop I think has just been, it's, well it's like you can see the direct impact of like someone like Tupac and like in the way that people have emulated them like people have emulated his style people have tried to kind of I think copy and bite some of like to box elements you know, Biggie I don't think anybody was able to I don't know there's not there's not many people that have that have done that with Biggie and I think it's partially because it's just a key was his own thing. The thing the thing that I like to think about with Biggie is like if he was around now, because you know, everybody is like, like Rick Ross lost a bunch of weight, like Fat Joe lost a bunch of weight would we be would we be looking at the notorious SLI M? No, he would he be on a keto diet or something now like doing sit ups on IG and often

Anthony:

it is weird that Fat Joe called for Fat Joe like You're not fat anymore. Joe RB Singapour Has your name you can't call yourself Joe.

Mikey:

Dinah that's true.

Anthony:

Big Man today's agenda got suitcase a Business Central 112 Tama Blanca Santiago if no money changes let's see. Like I said he can the thing about big is this when he rapped and pretty much almost every song it was visual. Yeah, like if you if you listen to the words and close your eyes like he would leave the thing about describing clothes situations places so on so forth, and it's cinematic it's a movie in your mind every time it did not. Pop was like He did learn some shit or you need to read the works of Marcus Garvey and huh no no a few words in the dictionary with big like, every rap is cinematic.

Mikey:

Yeah, what's the what's the one that we talked about all the times where he's fucking the the next player? Wife? I got to Florida. Yeah, it's such I mean, that's I just think about that song all the time. Like in house like I feel like I've seen that movie. You know, a million times.

Anthony:

Grab the product. Hit The Floor, grab the keys for the five combinators on the cell bring somebody they got a story to tell. Like it basically breaks them like I'm having sex with this chick, man cousin house he's playing next. But like something I always thought something was off but I saw like, who just keeps like money? Like in the floor? See? Like, like, like, like, I was like, if I was rich, I would never keep any money in my house. Like ever. Like honestly I wouldn't have a safe like you would have to like sort of like try to come up here and kill me but like, where's the one like it's not here? We haven't I swear to God it's not here.

Mikey:

I would just have all my money count like constantly flying around in a private jet or like on a hot air balloon. It's just like oh, it's in the stratosphere. It's just floating around

Anthony:

like a room with like a little suitcase in the middle of it and like eight pitbulls is walking around right

Mikey:

over there to get it. I dare you.

Anthony:

Like get out of here like oh, you don't listen to me. One thing Mike

Jeff:

is Chief was stopping by man.

Mikey:

Thanks for having me.

Jeff:

I have a quote. That was actually sent to me by one of our VIP patrons shout out to D block. It was originally known unknown quote but I find that it's from Barry the Baptist. Whoever that is.

Mikey:

Benny the butcher's cousin.

Jeff:

Yeah, his religion his religious cousin

Anthony:

his religious cousin Yeah. With cousins buried the fact that he doesn't

Jeff:

agree with anyone by the way

Anthony:

fine I don't I don't agree with your decision you'll need to tell I don't

Mikey:

I just like the idea that everybody in his family has its their their name is like Oh My name is my action. My name is Benjamin the bed salesman or whatever. It's just all BMB fun. My name is Sharon the barber. The barber could do a whole show about being bees. Think about that.

Jeff:

Anyway, when you dance with the devil you need to shut the fuck out. Let me say the quote man when you dance with the devil, you need to wait to the song stops playing. Anyway go check out the hydro Niek hydration go check out the audible link in the show notes mango take advantage of that free trial. Thanks for tuning in to the cocoa let's

Mikey:

go listen to my show. Mikey and Ren eat in a super fun show about don't eat out yeah eat in you know at 20 Hi,

Jeff:

any last words?

Anthony:

Yeah, check out my Airbnb.

Jeff:

So we have a link for that. Don't promote nine that I can't

Anthony:

really put a link to I'm going to shoot you to dress in my house like you'll come up with $25 cheap as Airbnb sleeping over in a corner. Go sleep right in that couch or within a corner you got any amenities to mind them roaches. Flush twice

Mikey:

the bedbugs catch bugs. If we met

Anthony:

a couple bucks, man, it's an awkward pace. It's a cheap air b&b for $25.

rap music playing: [Verse 2:

The Notorious B.I.G - Juicy] Now honeys play me close like butter play toast, From the Mississippi down to the East Coast Condos in Queens, indo for weeks Sold out seats to hear Biggie Smalls speak Living life without fear Puttin' five karats in my baby girl ear Lunches, brunches, interviews by the pool Considered a fool'cause I dropped out of high school Stereotypes of a black male misunderstood And it's still all good And if you don't know, now you know

Butt-hole PSA
The Game throws shade at Shady
Underground rappers
Bel-Air
Is That Racist
Can white people dictate who says the N word?
Jeff's return to office anxiety
25th anniversary of B.I.G.'s death