MOCO - SEASON 3 PREMIERE: What is Hip-Hop? Feat. Rhymefest
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz- 429 views
- 22 Feb 2024
On the season 3 premiere of Montgomery & Co., we have the iconic 2x Grammy Award winner Rhymefest, here to talk to us about his newly released album, James & Nikki: A Conversation. Plus, the crew is back together to talk about NBA All Star & more on MoCo Newsroom.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Hip hop is a living, breathing, diasporic culture. You're listening to people trade drums across diasporas. Hip hop is the fastest spreading language in the history of mankind.
Before they get in your business, be in charge of your business. Own it. Cause it's your business. Your business. Handle all.
What's up?
What's up, good peoples? Welcome into Montgomery and company. We back here this thing. All right, so listen, we're back for season three and we're getting it started off right.
We have the rapper songwriter rhyme Fest.
You know what? It doesn't even feel right just saying that. We have the lyricist legend rhyme fest on with us. I'm going to talk to him real.
Quick about a little bit of everything but, man, unreal conversation.
And then, of course, we got the crew pulling up for the Moco newsroom. We're going to talk a little bit of all star.
How do we fix this thing? Is it broken?
What's happening to that WBA all Star? We're going to get all into it coming up next. Let's go. Welcome back, everybody. We back up in this thing, season.
Three, Montgomery and co. And it's been a minute.
Missed you guys. I'm happy to be back.
And we're coming right off the heels of NBA all star. If you follow me on Twitter, I already tweeted about this, but I said, is mercury in retrograde? Because there's little fires everywhere that I'm looking on here. People are at me and stuff, and I'm like, how I get in this.
Like, I'm not even in it.
And it brings me to the idea of one agreeing to disagree. First of all, some people hate this. My wife doesn't even like agreeing to disagree. We'll be in an argument and I'm like, I see your point. Let's agree to disagree. I want you to understand what I'm saying. I don't necessarily want to agree to disagree, so I do understand that side of it. And then there's people like me that it's like, listen, I feel the way I feel, you feel the way you feel. Why can't we both feel the way we feel and go on about our business? Then there's also just the concept of comprehending and breaking down what people say. Sometimes I don't think everything is a fight, but I'm kind of like one of those people that you're going to have to really cuss me out for me to even take it offensive, because I'm just going to take it the right way every time because I don't care enough to take it wrong, but I just see a lot of times where it's almost like people will say something and you have to be able to take it the right way.
Like, even as I'm covering things, please give me grace as I'm talking about any topic, if I make a mistake or if I say something you don't agree with, please give me grace because I come in peace. I say this all the time when I go to road games, when I'm going to the Atlanta Dream girl games, which every game, I think I'm going to try to make it to almost every single away game this season. Obviously I'm going to be in home. I'm at every game at home, but I think I'm going to try to make it to every single road game this season. We're already starting to plan that. And what I tell fans when I pull up and I'm sitting, hey, listen, I come in peace with passion. So I may be loud, I may be cheering, I may be passionate, but I come in peace. So all season with Moko, if you.
Don'T know nothing else, I come in peace with passion.
So whatever I'm talking about, I'm never trying to be spicy or start no stuff. I'm just saying my opinion. And the reason I say that is because sometimes it's tough. I see guys like trying to say their opinion and it might get taken wrong. And even sometimes a compliment to someone is not a disk to someone else. So if I'm ever talking about someone and I'm complimenting them, I'm telling you right now from me, you hearing it straight from my mouth, probably not meaning it in any other type of way than exactly what I said it because I'm just not that. That's just not my vibes. My vibes is Trevor Noah's style. You ain't gonna out compliment me.
You give me a compliment. I'm giving you a compliment, right? Mean what you mean.
I'm killing it.
You're killing it? Have you just seen what you've been doing?
Like, that's my vibe. My vibe is I don't even really want to hear the compliment because I'm going to start getting uncomfortable and cutting you off. And that's my vibes. I just like Hakuna Matata.
Side note, women's basketball popping out here.
I've been saying this. This is the third season of Moko. I've been saying this for three seasons and I think it's kind of been falling on deaf ears because it's like, oh, yeah, you're a former hooper. Oh, yeah, you're a team owner.
Women's basketball. I know you see it when the.
All star game peaked. I know you know what time it peaked at. Told us it was going to start.
At 08:00 JJ Reddick said, be on time. Dame time won the all star mvp.
He also won the three point competition.
Be on Dame time then, because they.
Said the shooting competition was going to start at eight.
Everything started. It was 842.
That's when the game started at 842. The game was supposed to start at eight.
Let's go be on time with east coasters.
It's a struggle, but I digress. Let me just get back focused. But we're coming off of NBA All Star weekend, and I thought it was beautiful. Hennessy did a two v two game. We need that right back every year. People said we could do a little bit better with the production.
So I love that.
Hennessy took a shot and was like, let's see if this works.
It works.
It's a success. Hennessy, bring that bike. Like, would love to see that again. A WNBA two verse, two game. So let's bring that back. And then, I mean, let's activate in the WNBA all star. I've been trying to get active at the WNBA all star for about three seasons now with Moko. Maybe this is the year where we'll get active, but NBA all star is getting active. Hennessy, like, get four NBA players, let.
Them pull up and do a little two v two at our all star.
I don't know. I can't call it. I'm just saying, let's get active. Let's have some parties. Like Roy in the chat, talking about some Henny. I'll take some Roy.
Okay, send Roy some Henny. He gonna get active. All right.
But I just love what's like. I feel like this has been on its know. I feel like anybody that's been a part of women's basketball, we kind of knew it. It was like, uh oh, it's happening. You start to know just a little catch on here. You start to see a tweet from somebody you ain't even know. Watches women's sports to be like, hold up.
He watching the same game I'm watching. You start to see, I mean, KD.
He watches so much women's sports. Shout to KD. For real. KD really watching games, supporting. He's just a hooper, so he likes hoops.
You could just tell. So shout to KD.
Because he's really about that. And then there's the all star game criticism, right? So as we're growing for the women's game and we hear all the criticism that comes know NFL Pro bowl, they say, is not as exciting as they would like it. NBA All Star is not as exciting as they would like it. Well, wa all star, I'm not going to lie. The games, they get fun. There's a certain level of defense that's played. That's definitely not our problem in a sense of the actual game. That's one of the main criticisms of the men's game, is that it's not competitive and how can you make it competitive. I saw some suggestions about like MLB, the winning side gets home court in the finals. Is that true? I'm not sure, but I think I read a tweet like that. There's going to be a lot of different suggestions. Like, I would be shocked if something new doesn't come about for NBA All Star next year. So while all that's going on in WNBA, we don't necessarily have a problem when it comes to the actual game. But I think we should activate more. I think that there's a lot of people already activating.
So shouts to them. A lot of brands, a lot of companies play a society. They out there already know. I just wanted to shout them out because last year at WMBA All Star, I ran into her and she was like doing her job, shipping out stuff, doing her thug thisle. And I know that it's hard for small businesses, but shouts to players society, they out there. But yeah, let's activate. I love spades. I want to do a spades tournament. So I'm just throwing it out there, right? Like, is there a way to do a spades tournament? I don't know, but WNBA all star, let's start activating more around it. It's popping. We know the audience is there. We see. Come on now. We saw NBA all star and we saw what time peaked. So I just think that during that Stephan Sabrina shooting competition, there were 5.4 million viewers. That was the peak. That was the highest viewers. And what was it? A competition. Steph and Sabrina. So I just think that there's an audience there. People want to see stuff, and shooting games are the creme de la creme of all star games. So, yeah, I just think it's time.
I'm almost kind of not even mad about all the little fires everywhere on the timeline because it's like, dang, everybody really talk about women's hoops I'm almost, like, just loving that the competition is just straight up women's hoops. A lot of women's hoop stuff. It's like, I ain't touching nothing with a ten foot pole. I ain't got a dog in the fight except for the Atlanta dream. You all know where I stand. I'm ten toes down everything. Atlanta dream, everybody. Atlanta dream. That's my squad. I'm ten toes down. It is what it is, and that's where I'm at with it. But I love that everybody's talking about women's sports. Inside note, Beyonce.
Hello.
I need to get me a little cowgirl hat. Hello. It's a hoe down.
Act two. We in here. We're going to have some fun. I have an interview coming up right now.
I'm not going to call it an interview because he told me to choose my words wisely. So I have a conversation coming up with Ron Fest, the legend.
If you don't know, you about to, let's go.
You know you, but I want to make sure people know you started out battle rapping. Have had credits on songs like Jesus walked, helped co write glory with John Legend, common written.
I mean, I want people to understand the singer, the songwriter and rapper that.
We have with us right now. Rhyme Fest.
Welcome to Montgomery and co. Yo, I'm.
Happy to be here. Thank you for having me.
I'm so excited for you to be here. First of all, you was at NBA.
All star weekend in Indianapolis recently. You were doing a panel.
How was it? And how are we going to fix the.
Oh, snap. You know, I didn't know what was wrong with it until I showed up. You know what I'm saying? Because when you see things on tv, it gives another kind of magic. It gives you the curated part. But when you see things in person, you start seeing the spirit that's missing. And so when you talk about, how do we fix anything, it starts with the spirit. What I believe that we have today in everything that we're dealing with is that the machine has been feeding off of spirit and it's been eating negativity. And then it got so big that it ate us. And we believe that that's who we. When we look at things and we look around, we believe that that's what it really is because the machine fed it back to us after we fed it our spirit. And so we need a replenishing of spirit.
Okay, so I like that we got to listen. So that's how you fix all star. Simply put.
Okay.
By rhyme fest.
I love that. But to your point, though, it is different when you go to events live or when you're, know, watching it on tv, but you have a new album coming out. It's titled James and Nikki a conversation. It's inspired and built around a conversation between writers, poets and black thought leaders James Baldwin and Nikki Giovanni. So just take me there. Like, how did you choose those two? A. It's a composition I heard you say before in an interview. Take me through. How did you get here?
Yes. So when we talk about composition, the reason I call it that instead of an album is because we cheapen our art, we cheapen our gift by just putting raindrops in the ocean. I'm going to drop my new single. Well, why are you going to drop it? Why not release it? The words we use have power. Maya Angelou said, words seep into walls. They get into the floor and upholstery, they get into you. Be careful what you let people say around you to you. Be careful what you say. Words are living things, and all of the greatest writers believe that. So when we get to James and Nikki, 52 years ago, a gay black man, a bi black woman, a man who lived in Paris that came through the civil rights movement, a woman that was living in the 70s through the black power movement, one was saying nonviolent, the other was saying fight back. They had a conversation together. The man, James Baldwin, 52 years old. Nikki Giovanni, 25 years old, intergenerational conversation that has been going through our zeitgeist for 53 years now. And you see clips where Nikki is talking to James and she says, you go to work every day.
You lie to him, you smile at him, smile at me, lie to me. I come home, you come home, I get the worst of it. You giving him the best of it. He said, I can't lie to you. She said, you must lie to me because the lies you tell everybody else is the best of yourself. The truth that you give me is the worst. When I heard that on the Internet, I was like, yo, this needs to be revised and made accessible for today's young people. For today's relationships, let's put beats and rhymes to it. Let's have co authors, other women on these songs that represent the spirit of Nikki. Or if I'm rapping as a guy who raps, women are the hottest thing in hip hop right now, where's the perspective to see my blind spots on whatever it is I'm saying in these rhymes? And how can we get that 52 year old conversation to last for another 100 years, we revise the bible, that is.
Man, I felt like you was flowing right now. Almost was like, wait a minute. Is this a freestyle? I was just like, it's crazy, too.
Because this is your first release project in over a decade. There's been a lot of talk and discussion about how music has changed over time. And questions like, what is hip hop? Has came up. And I was recently watching brown sugar.
I was about to ask you when you fell in love with hip hop, but I'm going to stick on the topic of discussion.
What is hip hop, then, to you? Because you said, women are the hottest thing in hip hop, and I feel you. So what is hip hop?
Hip hop is the fastest language spread throughout the history of mankind. And what I mean by that is, look, renee, when I go to Dubai, when I go to Qatar, when I am in the Middle east, they love poetry. They know 18th century Hoffis or they know roomy poetry. I don't know none of that. But guess what else they know. They know yay. They know Jay Z, they know 50 cent, they know nba young boy. You know what I'm saying? When I go to Cartier, Colombia, and the guys walk up on me with the radio and they freestyling in Spanish. I don't know Spanish, but I know what they saying. I know the spirit of what they saying. When I go to Brazil and I see the graffiti on the wall that reminds you of the Egyptian. What do you call the egyptian writing?
Hieroglyphics.
Hieroglyphics. Graffiti is hieroglyphics of the modern day. When you see dance, when you see fashion, this shirt right here is from the Chicago Black Museum called the Dusabo Museum. But it looks hip hop because they know to have people interested in black history, they got to make it current and present. So when you asking me what is hip hop, to me, it is a global language that we speak through the way we dress, through the way we talk, through the way we interact with one another. And no matter what language you speak, hip hop can be a translator. That's what it is. To me, it's not just a commercial, mechanical entity. Hip hop is a living, breathing, diasporic culture. When you're listening to Afrobeat, you're listening to hip hop. When you listen to reggae tone, you're listening to hip hop. You're listening to people trade drums across diasporas. Hip hop is the fastest spreading language in the history of mankind.
Listen. Drop the mic. We can finish there.
I'm going to keep going but we.
Could have stopped there because you're talking about hip hop and you can see your passion for it and you chose several women rappers for the project to help bring Nikki's voice to life. And so who did you choose? Why did you choose them then?
I don't even just call them rappers, they're co authors, you know what I'm saying? They co authored this project. We got to use words that hold women into high esteem and hold our gifts into the highest esteem. So these co authors, the way that they were chose was I'm looking for not who's the most popular person that's going to bring me the clicks cash and like I'm looking for people who embody the spirit of Nikki Giovanni. They're not even competing with me on the track. Like the first piece that we released called Creator, there's a video out right now. It's about divine forgiveness in a relationship if there's infidelity. Basically my verse is talking about infidelity and things that I've been through with my wife where we've had more great times than bad. But the bad times were heavy. Brittany Carter who's featured on this creator, she heard it and her first rhyme was you're talking about trust. How can you say you love me when you giving in the lust? I said no that's not it sis. She said what you mean that's not it? I said we're not going to argue about this, I need you to love me through it.
And she was like but you cheated on me. See and now we're talking like man and wife, work wife and man. She said but you cheated on me. And we had a conversation. I said yes but do you want to leave me? I'm working past my own traumas and being in the industry and what the industry taught me and what hip hop taught me to a certain extent we talk about women being the hottest rappers today but women are also making the same mistakes the men made in the late ninety s and early 2000s. I'm watching it, I'm watching it happen all over again.
And what mistakes are those clicks, cash.
And prizes, anything whoring ourselves. And I'm not even talking about ourselves in the physical sense, I'm talking about our spirits, I'm talking about what we think everybody want to hear and we just giving everybody what we think they want to hear instead of giving people who we are instead of telling our authentic stories instead of like we have the oppressor's mindset, we think like the enemy. And so it's hard to take that out of ourselves and still see our identity. Oh, that's a rhyme. If you think like the enemy, then what's your identity? Yeah. James Baldwin said on this project, he said, we begin to do it to ourselves. We are the co conspirators of our murderers.
Dang. Yeah. He talking deep. And, you know, it made me think about when you said, we're telling people what they want to hear. You talk about how music has changed over time. And there's artists like Jay Z that said, people want my old music, buy my old album. And then you even had a three k who came out with a flute album, and he was like, I didn't know what to really say. So I know this is oversimplifying it, but why not make music for people your age, like, as you age? Is that oversimplifying it? And why is it such a struggle to make music once you kind of get mature, more mature in life?
Well, I think when we say that, we're also deepening the generational split. There is no music for people your age. There's music. So on this project, like I said, I'm working with Brittany Carter. She's younger than me. James Baldwin, 52 years old, is having a conversation with Nikki Giovanni, 25 years old. We have to have intergenerational bridges so that we can become one consciousness, so that we can have one message as a community, not of black people, but a community of value systems, because value systems go deeper than color. You know what I'm saying? And so I think we keep creating these silos for us to be like this for them, this for that. But that's how the machine separates us and turns us against one another. So I just look at it like, why don't we just teach healing? Why don't we just teach spirit, authenticity? At that point, we'll become telepathic because.
We'Re like minded, so we know what you think.
Like minded. I feel you. I've been dealing with young people. I mentor, teach, love young people, and I noticed the more I learn from young people and apply, the younger I come across. The more they learn from me and apply, the more experience they come across. And so if we continue doing that, we'll be whole again.
I love again. This is called James and Nikki, a conversation. Golden State.
Now, what's the connection here with warriors? Because, you know, I always like to.
Get a little sports in there. What's the connection here with Golden State? And how did that happen?
When you're looking at a basketball franchise, as you know, you're not just looking at sports, you're looking at an entertainment conglomerate. When Steph Curry can hurl a ball from way across court and they hit a three. That was more than a three, bro. That was a nine. You know what I'm saying? And so when you see that they're in entertainment, when you see Tupac and poetic justice with a White Sox hat, now White Sox is selling a billion hats because NWA and Tupac is wearing it. When you see basketball players like Shaq that could go multi platinum and still play basketball, and ball players that want to have labels, but rappers that want to be ball players, like, or, you know, J. Cole playing ball over in Rwanda, you're seeing that coming togetherness. But when you see the franchises get in on it, when you see Golden State saying, we're going to do GSE, Golden State Entertainment, we're going to do documentaries, we're going to push out books, we're going to push out music. Now, as an artist, all I got to worry about is making impact. It's not like, did I get a million clicks?
Not the reach, but the impact. Now the art goes deeper. Now I'm freer to do it without having to sell myself, you know what I'm saying? Or sell my gift or pimp my gift. You asked me about female rappers and what are the mistakes they're making that we made? It's pimping the gift. We got to stop pimping our gifts.
And that's basically being so worried about the rollout that we're almost producing the product for the rollout and not necessarily producing the product for what we would just want to say, that's your business.
Look at you. Oh, my goodness.
We having a conversation, right? We just hit here. Having a conversation.
I'm listening.
You just hit it. We so worried about the rollout. We cheapen the thing and then now we're giving everybody cheap products. And what does that do to everybody? It makes the whole culture cheap. You know what? So, you know, the opportunity with GSE is to bring back impact. The opportunity with GSE is that Golden State Entertainment asked me, what's your definition of success for this project? I've never been asked that.
And what was it?
The first word I came out with was impact. How can we make impact? And reach is great, but how can we make impact? And they already have a built in audience. So now you mean, I see it going further. The bulls in Chicago hired Don C as a community.
Shouts to Don C, that's my guy.
Shouts to Don C. And he's going around giving out community gardens. You know what saying, like, biggolin, come on. So the more that these franchises get in on community, the deeper the impact in community, the more they become the champions of community, not just in the game that's being played, but in the role that they're playing in our communities. And I think GSC Golden State is doing a wonderful job by saying, we don't just want artists that could get clicks. We want artists that can reach people and dig inside and make community impact.
That's so dope. Listen, we're kind of doing some of that on our end. Over with the dream.
I got to get your information because you got to work with the Atlanta dream.
We have a big message of story to tell. I know you already know about our story, and I feel like, where your head's at?
Incredible story. Your story. Just let me say something real quick. I get chilled. What you just said about your story, you just kind of glazed over it because it's you, and then because it's you. You may not see you from the outside in. You only see what you're doing from the inside out. But let me tell you dream why I'm so proud to be here with you. Because what I'm seeing from the outside in is it's alchemy. What you did, it's magic. You're changing the trajectory of culture, of sports. What you guys have done with the dream is like, what I saw when LeBron and them was like, okay, it's Covid. Y'all not shutting down voting and democracy. We're going to open up voting booths in the stadium, and they change american culture right there. You showed that we have power so many times as a people, we feel powerless. We like to complain about what can't be done or what's being done to us. You gave us agency through your example. Your example is the example of agency. Don't nobody got to be your activist. You your own activist, and you showed us how to be our own activist.
Wow, thank you.
You're so beautiful.
Wow.
Thank you for that. Listen, this is the end.
It's a wrap.
This is the end. Have your people really send my info because I feel like you see what I'm saying.
We got to talk.
I feel like we got to talk.
And do something with the dream. We have a lot going on down our. But, man, like, check it out. Listen, it's called James and Nikki a conversation. It's already out.
Check out my guy rhyme fest. I'm so happy.
And we got a link. All right, let's link.
We linking already. And then check out the video creator out right now. Shout out to you, dream. Shout out to golden state entertainment. Thanks for having me.
Coming up after the break, we got the crew.
We're back for season three. We have the usual suspects. Y'all already know the drill.
Snook, Cole, Serena, juju on that beat. And Roy, let's go. So we're going to talk a little all star.
What up, crew, though, by the way, missed you guys.
What's up, everybody?
Good to be back?
Oh, yeah. And happy birthday to my sister, Cole. Today's her birthday. Thank you.
Happy birthday.
Thank you.
Thank you, everyone.
All right, so listen, we're coming off.
Of NBA all star, and it was star studded. Juju was in there. So juju, first of all, how was NBA all star in person? Like, how was it there?
It was pretty fire. You know what it was? I'm one of the people who be blessed. I, my first time in Indianapolis, so I was looking at, it was snowing, it was terrible weather, but I was walking around it like, dang, I'm in Indianapolis. I had a good time the whole time. I think it was fantastic.
Were you starstruck by anybody?
You know what? This is hilarious because I've seen everybody. You see everybody at these places, but I'm such a w fan, you dig? It was like a little hallway, like, just coming in. It was coming from the snow, cold as hell. I first walk in, and the first person right here was like, oh, I like your shoes. And I looked over, and it was e weezy herself, erica Willer. And so me personally, being a w fan at this NNBA event, I'm like, oh, my shoe. But I gave it up to see. I don't know if I'm going to have a chance to see you again, e weezy, but you a legend.
You did.
So salute to e wiesl, man. I had a great time.
I feel that to that point, though, the w showed up at NBA all star. Like, I mean, he talking about Erica.
Wheeler, which shouts to her, she's a former dream player. Ryan Howard was there. Asia Wilson was sitting there courtside. Kelsey plum.
There was a two v two game.
With Hennessy where I heard that joint was turned up.
It was Tasha cloud. Yes. Natasha cloud. Enrique agumba walley, jackie Young. Who was the fourth one, I'm not.
Sure, but it was just so many w play. Like, for a guy like me, it was just so many. I seen Diamond Miller just walking around.
Was that fourth.
But there was love w love everywhere.
I love it. So I'm going to just say right.
Now, I love the infusion of meshing the leagues together during all stars, like WNBA All Stars coming up this summer.
I hope I see a lot of our brothers pull up. Like I said in the monolog, I.
Hope Hennessy get a little two verse.
Two game, have some NBA players playing.
It during our all star. I feel like let's just keep that same energy because it was like you can see that the NBA players was vibing and it was just with the WNBA players and vice versa. So I thought that was lit.
But then there was also another side of it that I want to ask.
You all, put you all creative caps on. A lot of people are trying to figure out how to make all star more enjoyable because the competition, there was 200 points scored this game. Some people might be like, whoa, that's.
A lot of points.
That's amazing.
Some other people might be like, come on, man, you got to play a little bit of defense.
200 points is too much. It had 397 points total. Shout to Gino. Thank you for that.
It was the highest ever.
The highest ever. 211 to 186. And a lot of people thought the west was going to really turn up on the east when you just look at the roster. But the west was really like, I'm.
Just here, so I don't get fine type energy. So the question is, how do we.
Fix all star events?
It's not just the NBA problem people have.
NFL, they said that the Pro bowl ain't all that, either.
How do we fix NBA events?
They had the Pro bowl this year.
Yes, we're.
Seriously, they did.
Nah, I understand that. I understand that because, see, I love my sister. Happy birthday. My sister, first and foremost. That was the week right after Baltimore had their debacle. So my sister wasn't giving a damn about no football.
To be honest with you. Let me tell you something. Vance was so in his feelings.
Yeah.
We didn't even talk about football for.
The whole week because it's understandable that she missed it. Gino said something.
He said, there was the flag football game, and it was kind of awesome. So to that point, now, flag football shout to my best friend, Lisa Lee. Flag football ain't no joke. That's starting to be like a real thing thing. Back to the question, how do we fix NBA all star? Any suggestions that y'all have in y'all's minds that can make it more enjoyable? Snook, it looked like you was nibbling on something.
Well, no, I was just going to comment on the WNBA players being at the game. They needed that spice this year. They needed that. But I think sometimes we lose sight or the focus of what the event was supposed to be. And it's been so much dibbling and dabbling and changing, and I don't know what is an all star. You really don't even know what an all star really is.
To your point, though, it is almost a community event. When you think about all star and you ask the players, like, I was an all star. And so my all star experience, the first thing that comes to mind is exhausting. That was the very first time, because it's like from the moment you wake up to the moment you lay down, you're doing appearances, whether it's for the league or whether it's to get your paper. You're doing meet and greets, you're at community events, you're doing camps, you're doing, you're. Oh, and by the way, you're playing in the like because that's the thing, too. It's like you're doing all these things because when you're a brand, especially now Dame Lillard. Let's take him, for example. He won the three point competition, and he won MVP, but he also is releasing a song, and he also just dropped a new merch. He also had all three of his kids and his family there.
He also fleeted up with.
This. Whoever his wife is, she can't beat.
Me up anyway, so I want him.
Glow, don't do that. Don't put him in that spot.
Glow, don't put us in that spot. That's why I always say you got to be careful. I don't trust nobody. Very aggressive. Because what if his girl would have gotten mad at that? It was playful.
Even if it ain't his girl, his ex girl. Don't put him in that position where he defends somebody he loved or once loved. Like, come on, big glow, just shoot your shot. You ain't got to nobody.
This really happened.
So just in case y'all don't know, the recap is glow. Rilla must have taken a. She took a photo with Dame. He's hold his trophy MVP. She brings it to social media. She said, whose man is this? I want him. This is the actual thing, she said. And then she followed up with a tweet on the thread and said, whoever's man it is, I know she can't beat me up anyway.
If I would have seen that I.
Would have been like, shots fired. Shots fired.
Try.
Damn. Can't even like the tweet.
What would you do if you saw somebody post your man on the Internet like that? I say that you can't beat them up.
I would like challenge. Let's see it. Dm me your location.
Pull up.
Let's roll.
How would you accept the challenge? What's she going to put a sword down?
I said, the way I roll, you just need to be checking over your shoulder the rest of your life.
Are you accepting the challenge or not? She said, what them hands like?
You can't threaten folks on air, Snook. You're going to be recording this for.
The rest of their life. That's why you got to be careful with the older generation. Like Snook already told me a long.
Time, she don't fight up close. She fights long distance.
And I had to think about what that meant. She going straight. This is what I'm trying to say.
But real talk, he is going through a divorce. And side note, this is a side.
Oh, is he okay, right?
That's what I'm saying.
I know, but this is a side note. He talked about how hard it is. But then there's the other side of going through a divorce where I'm sure that as soon as people hear that dame is going through a divorce, they go have glowrilla energy.
This definitely don't help my dog. This don't help my dog at all.
I just don't know if she should have done it like that. I think there was another, more discreet way.
Ask and you shall receive.
Challenge accepted.
Send me your location.
Drop the.
Implicate. Implicate herself more. Let's get back to it.
I think we can fix the NBA game at hand. Anybody else got any other suggestions? Juju, how would you fix it if.
You could fix the NBA all star game?
I think what you said earlier is fine. I don't know if you've given that to Hennessy or not, but I think it could be Renee Montgomery's two on two competition, where a guy from the NBA, a woman from the WNBA team up, and the best two win a trophy. The inaugural, the Black mamba, to call it the Mamba mentality trophy, where $50 million, a good amount of money, goes to your charity. Not this, not the game. Like, over the next couple of years, we're going to donate $10 million for the next couple of years to your charity. And, man, come on, bro. I would love to see Katie Natasha cloud versus you know what I mean, Brittany Grinder, dare I say LeBron or somebody like, you never know. That's interesting. That would be actually, you know what I mean? And with money on the line.
No, I love that because I just think that shooting games and competitions are the creme de la creme, like the three point contest. Nothing needs to change about it. It's perfect. It's good as is. And even they did the one on one with Stefan Sabrina lit. Let's go more into that type of competition style of things. And I'm only just.
Which is the part that people watch the most. Didn't you say that was the peak of the viewership?
5.4 million viewers happened. They catfished. They tried to tell us it was going to start boom juju. They tried to tell us it was going to start at eight. So everybody started tuning in thinking they was going to watch Stefan Sabrina.
And then we had to watch about 5011 events.
And then we got to Stefan Sabrina. But when that Stefan Sabrina shooting competition happened, that was the peak of that day. 5.4 million viewers was tuned in during that ten to 10:15 p.m. Eastern time frame of when that competition was going on. Snook.
Well, I think when you talk about changing that all star game, I think it's been so politicized, it's been made for this person to be challenging that person, for this game to occur here, for this matchup or whatever. And I think because it's been so politicized that even the players don't have value when they're selected as an all star. Like they used to admit something. And so now that meaning has kind of been drawn out of it because of all of these little sideshows and everything.
Do you think it's the side shows.
That make the players less interested or is it the players? Just look at it as a break. He's in his 20th all star game. What about LeBron likes the all star game?
It's just that they've done so much to it. What about looking at the best players like they used to? Sometimes the best players don't even get to go to All Star because I'm just saying it's so arranged anymore.
You don't hear your suggestion to make it better. So what's your suggestion to fix All Star?
I guess she was saying that they need to bring back some of the players that are the top players instead.
Of having.
In the competitions, bring the players back in the competitions because they declined those.
Well, I think something needs to be done about that, because that's taking a lot.
I see what you're saying.
They're taking the juice away from the game, kind of. And that's why you're saying defense or whatever, because there's not a value anymore into really being an all star like it used to be. My game was so good this season, I was selected as an all star. So now your game could be good. The fans, are they still voting? I'm sure they are. It's several different arenas that your votes come from. It's got to be where it can be manipulated, that kind of thing.
Okay.
Roy, did you have anything? Yeah.
I read online that somebody gave the idea of having whoever wins the all star game, whatever conference that is. Whoever wins the conference championship has home court advantage, which is stupid because Major League Baseball, Major League Baseball did the same thing. It was a terrible idea. So they reverted back to that. But my suggestion is you pay the players, not the charity, but you actually pay the players out of a purse. However much money is going to end up being, what, $20 million?
Do you think that will matter?
Because I did see that.
I think Jamel Hill had said that she didn't think that paying the players would matter. It matters in the, in tournament season game because it benefits the last player on the bench who might actually, $500,000 might actually change something for them. But usually the people in All Star, they said, are averaging like $20 million contracts per year.
I mean, tell them if they're going to do it, that could be their spending money while they're on a trip. Because, I mean, who.
Say, who wouldn't.
Like, if you're in Vegas, who wouldn't like to get a kitty full of money just to go and put on the tables? It ain't yours, so it's nice. You know, I don't know. They pay for their own hotels or I don't know how that all works, but give them not so much a big incentive. But, I mean, everybody likes spending money. It don't even have know. That's the point, is that they were in Vegas. I'm sure if all the all star players had walked through the door, checked into the hotel and had their money, say cha ching, they'd be like, oh, I got spending money.
Do you all think that money would change how they played, or do you.
Change it during the season for all star?
What do you all think? Do you all think adding a money incentive would change the all star game and help fix it?
Money makes the world go round.
I think that's the whole problem, I think that's everybody's point in one right there because I feel like what snook is trying to touch on is the players don't. They're not enthused as they used to be because they're making so much money now per year that it just doesn't mean the same thing to certain, and dare I say, a lot of people in the league these days more concerned with fashion, more concerned with day side hustles and stuff like that than actual being. Because like hoopers, I remember the days where dow, bro, you cared about because you was the best point guard in the league.
For real?
For real. So let me show you. I'm a dribble. I'm going to do all the things and they're making so much money now that that sense of entitlement just come along with it. So if you want them to actually move, you're going to have to put big money into the all star game. You're going to have to say, hey, whoever win, get this big pot. Like you get a piece of this big pot, right?
For real.
For real or something. Because if not, it's going to be more the same and making so much money. Who gives a damn?
I mean, to your point, though, I think that that is a point because it's almost like the Olympics. There was something about the Olympics where there was the honor to it, but now when player contracts are so big, it's almost to them, the risk reward is almost not worth it. Sometimes, like a lot of players, as you guys know, people might not know. A lot of men on the NBA side opt out of the Olympics. They don't even try out. They don't want to be on the Olympic team. There's not really an incentive for there to be there because for us or some people on the women's side, I tried every year to be on the Olympic team. I was in the process the whole time trying to make the Olympic team. I went to the Olympic camps. I was trying to be on that twelve roster Olympic team. But in the WNBA, just like in the WNBA, it's the hardest roster to make because the best of our best players try out for our olympics. And on the NBA side, though, you got coaches trying to recruit NBA players and you got Grant Hill and all of know trying to wrangle them politicized.
Let's just say that process as well. I have to say it. I've watched it a number of years. Even prior to you being there, renee, it's still politicized.
What I say is, if that's the case, if that's the case, if they're having a hard time with NBA, I say let these people in the NBA fight for their jobs. Let's get some kids from the G League, get some kids from high school, take them over there, let them beat up on these other the country.
And that's what happened. No, but we are going to lose. That's the step. There's not that separation anymore. The top players in the NBA are foreign players. Joel Embiid, Luka Doncitz, the joker. The top players in the NBA that went mvps these past couple years are foreign players. We don't have the luxury of just sending our c team. We used to do that in the NBA, and then we had to do the redeemed team. Whenever we were thinking that we could just send our feel like. Do you feel like you have anything else you want to add?
What I was just trying to get a point across is that a lot of times, the pure thing that we're trying to do, you have all these little side shows, these little side things that come in that actually change what the purity of the choice of the All Star game has been so twisted and turned and added, and because of this reason and that reason that it's not even really not an all Star game anymore.
Yeah, the creme de la Creme is the other things in the All Star game has now become almost a back burner, honestly. This is a point to where the All Star game being on Sunday at 08:00 p.m. What was even supposed to start at 08:00 p.m. But started at 842, you could almost tell that it's the afterthought, you know what I mean? Because if you was really doing a Sunday event or you really wanted it to be the creme to the crim, wouldn't you put it earlier in the day and make that the main, like, that's usually on Sundays. On weekends, games usually start earlier. That's the day that. But you could tell that the reason that it's 08:00 was probably because they had so many events, like they wanted to be able to get in. And I'm talking NBA. This is not just for the players. This is a very big event for the NBA. They released their new AI tech. They released a lot of new things at All Star. And so to that point, I think Snook saying we need to get back to focusing on the actual All Stars and the All Star game.
But we're going to wrap real quick. We're going to be right back because we're going.
To play a little who said it? And that just means that there was a lot of people that said a lot of different things.
And I want you guys to guess.
Which NBA All Star or person involved or actually just who said it. I'm going to give you four options of each one. I'm going to give you a quote and you guys got to guess who said it. Okay? And listen, you might not have a guess, but somebody might because I'm going.
To read these, but I knew most.
Of them when I saw them because I saw the people say them. The question is, who said it? NBA all Star edition. All right, so the quote is, for me, it's an all star game. So I don't think I will ever look at it as being super competitive. It's always fun. I don't know what they can do to make it more competitive. It's a break. I don't think nobody wants to come here and compete. Who said it? LeBron James. Anthony Edwards or Jalen Brown?
LeBron James.
I'll say LeBron, too.
I'm going to stick with that, too.
LeBron, go ahead.
This is why you don't need to be a follower.
The answer is Anthony Edwards.
Oh, man.
Come on.
How can you be a first year all star and then say it like you've been here for years? I thought it was LeBron because I felt like he had been there for years and it was like, oh, okay, well, we've been doing this every year. It's not. How could it be a break if it's your first one?
Oh, my gosh. Hilarious.
I'm just asking. That's why I didn't get it.
Listen, because he's probably like, he could be speaking for his teammates. You're not going to get the 20 year vet to play hard. We know that. I don't know, but next one. Who said it? NBA all star, weekend edition. The shot making from the east was incredible. It's hard to play defense when somebody is shooting 30 to 40 footers over you. Who said it? Kevin Durant. LeBron James or Damien Lillard?
Damien Lillard.
Damien Lillard.
Kevin Durant.
It has to be a Western Conference player.
Right?
So I'm going with LeBron in this situation.
LeBron James.
Okay, so we're around the horn and.
The answer is Kevin Durant.
I didn't see anybody shooting over Durant.
That's why I went with LeBron.
Listen, it was Damien Lillard that was.
Shooting the 40 footers. He was pulling up from half court.
Oh, he did.
MVP.
Next question.
Who said it? NBA all Star weekend edition. You're going to see a sway toward higher scoring, but I think the cycle of the league, it will reset itself at this point. I don't know how quickly that will happen or what rules will change this summer and the following summer. But I personally like the brand of basketball that's being played because it highlights the amount of talent that we have around the league. Who said that about the NBA all star Paul George, Trey Young or Steph Curry? He thinks it's a good thing. It highlights the amount of talent that they have around the league.
George.
I was about to say Paul George, too.
I will say Steph Curry.
I'm not going to say Steph Curry. He's the one over here making these shots. So I'm going to go with Paul George.
And the answer is Steph Curry said he likes it. Baby, if it don't apply, let it us. Steph Curry said, everybody relax. It just seems like something nice, like, and Steph Curry is a nice guy. Something nice to say.
Last one. Who said it? NBA all Star, Weekend edition. This person said, there's so many people that came at me before this, like, oh, man, you should be mad.
You want to be in the NBA.
You deserve to be in the NBA. And I do believe I do, but I also think this is my human experience. Who said it, imani Bates, Ron Holland or Mac McClung?
Mac McClung.
I'm going to go with Ron.
Oh, my God. I feel so bad because I don't know any of these players.
Mac won the slam dunk contest.
The first one, imani, it was Mac McClung. It was 100% Mac McClung.
Because everybody, it was going around that Mac McClung, he's the two time dunk champion now. Two years in a row, back to back creativity off the charts. And everybody's talking about the fact that, of course, he wants to be in the NBA. He's in the G League right now for the Orlando Magic's G League team.
Osceola Magic.
There you are, just that team. And so a lot of people were.
Pretty much almost saying, like, man, aren't.
You mad that you're doing all this and you're not in the NBA? And he's like, bruh, listen, this is my human experience. I'm living my best life. I'm winning the dunk contest. And honestly, I would love to be in the NBA. But right now I'll take the G League as I'm trying to grow.
That was Mac McClung. I like that attitude. Yeah.
As you can see, though, the NBA players have a very different view of the all star weekend all star game than we, the fans, do. They don't see no problem with it.
They said they come having fun. Exactly.
They said, I'm here for a good time, not a long time. So you know what to be. It's going to be something changed because the NBA definitely pays attention to their audience. So whether they add another fun game the same way they added picking the players freestyle, like at the playground, pickup style, they added that in there to add a little bit of allure. There's going to be something that's added. And Snook's point is, maybe y'all might.
Need to get a little bit back to the basics.
There's a lot that's been added on top of things. On top of things. Maybe get back to how to make the game more interesting. Some people like the style of going to a certain score, and whoever gets to that score first wins. It's kind of like how the big three does, where they play to a certain amount, and when you hit that amount, you win. And it makes it a little bit more competition within the competition. But I can't call it. It's a big money maker. It's an event. It's a convention at this point. There's a lot that happens, and I don't know if it's going to change anytime soon in the sense of the general sense of the thing, but I'll probably be at the next one.
I ain't going to lie. And I'm probably going to watch the next one. I ain't going to lie. So I'll see you all next year.
At the NBA all star weekend. Continuing. Who said it? Oh, there's a tornado in my city.
Oh, listen, Beyonce.
Y'all know I'm from West Virginia, 304 to 404, and Beyonce is coming out with a country album. I feel like that's my intersection. I already have a country playlist. It's called country bumpkin.
Okay, I'm ready for you, Beyonce. This has nothing to do with nothing, but I just felt like I wanted to say that because I see the line dances going all across my timeline. You know what I'm saying? It's diverse line dances. It's got a little flavor in these line dances. This is my intersection. I'm ready for act two. I was a part of club renaissance, and I'm going to be a part of club Renaissance act two, too, okay?
And come back next week. We have Moko.
It's a generational thing, baby. Let's go.
Chatham Parkway. Subaru is committed to giving back and making a positive impact in our communities. That's why we're teaming up with local initiatives like Subaru loves the earth, loves to care, loves learning, loves pets and loves to help helping organize events such as clothing drive, food drives, pet adoptions, blood drives and more. Plus, with your support, a $75 donation is made to this Subaru love promise. Find out how you can show your support@chathamparkwaysubaru.com. A piping enterprise dealership.