Civic Cipher 021922 A Defense for the Dr. Dre Super Bowl Halftime Show (Part 1)

It is becoming more and more difficult for me to come across as neutral on a lot of these things we talk about. And I know I've made this a much longer intro than typical. But it's hard to not be angry just from what we have to consume in preparation for our show every week. Folks. It is getting harder, not easier. And the and the and the the less hopeful version of me that you guys maybe used to hear when we first started doing the show. He's creeping.

He's creeping back into the studio. Man, my more hopeful brother Ramses is going to have to be the entirety of our hope here pretty soon because mine is dwindling.

read a bit of a report back from her. Says that she was gifted fifty dollars by the and she ended up speaking to Entertainment tonight about the impact of that moment. She says, the biggest effect is that he gave me an opportunity to really just live as a college student without the financial burden that I had before the scholarship. James, who was a junior at the University of Miami at the time, shared the scholarship went toward

my senior year. He was hands down the best year had in college because I didn't have to worry about trying to work multiple jobs to make sure that I have money, or worrying about my tuition bill and whether or not it was going to be paid. So of all these issues that she had prior to receiving the scholarship, they just went away, she said. When I sent him that I was graduating with my masters this weekend, he

responded immediately, she revealed. Before I could respond to his message, he was already on my picture commenting and driving my page crazy. But he's very genuine. Even though we don't speak on a regular basis. When we do, he's genuine and he's very supportive. He's a big cheerleader. So shout out to Drake and for those of you who donate to the United Negro College Fund or any college fund, you know, it's it's good to hear stories like this

because education matters. Black women are the most educated group in the United States, and to see these outcomes really helps us on our way toward painting it, establishing a different narrative. So shout out to Drake, but also values education.

very strong police response to that. We're also going to talk about something called the African Dodger game, which is the precursor to the dunk you know, I forget the name of it. It's like a dunk game that you play at a carnival where you throw a ball and hit a plate and it dunks a person sitting on a seat. There used to be a game where they would throw baseballs at black people's heads, and that was a precursor of that game. So we're going to talk

about that as well. But first we're going to talk about the Super Bowl halftime show. Now, normally I don't really have too much to say about sports, but I do have something to say about music, just a little bit. You know, I recognize that this show has carried on a lot of music format stations, and rightfully so, because we do need to have those stations carrying programming like this so that we can paint a different side of ourselves. You know, Black people are not just rappers and singers.

We're thinkers, and we do have issues in our communities and as we relate to each other across racial lines, and having a platform like this allows us to say our piece and fortify ourselves and our allies against you know, the forces that exist in this world that would crush us, you know, not the least of which is you know, white supremacist institutions. However, I will talk about the Super Bowl halftime show because there were a lot of unfounded

attacks on that halftime show. Now full disclosure. I am a fan of hip hop music. I'm a DJ use the DJ too, right.

as well. But it was really a big day for West Coast hip hop and I am a West Coaster to the death of me. You know, I got my low Rider bike. You know, I still got a bunch of pairs of Chucks. It is just a part of who I am. So when I speak about what happened here, I need you to know that, just so that if it seems a bit biased, you know, I'm being honest. I'm being forthright.

And normally I wouldn't make a big deal out of people's opinions on the Super Bowl because I, well, everybody's entitled to their opinion. But I just kind of feel like a lot of these people, in order to get views, clicks, engagement, to stir up the rage in their you know, subscriber base, or just to have something to talk about, will formulate these baseless attacks on anything that is liberal, right, or

anything that's not conservative. We'll call it that not traditional Americana, you know, like fifties drive in you know, roller skating rinks, you know, ice cream and apple pie. They want to they would prefer them in America that look like that, and if it doesn't, then they launch attacks. A lot of that. There's a lot of anger that comes off

of that wing of politics. A lot less so that comes from the left wing, And again I normally wouldn't make a big deal out of it, but what I do feel is happening a lot, and this is perhaps the best example of it, is race is increasingly becoming a factor, and people have this very interesting way of talking around race while still speaking about it. It's almost like an act of cowardice. It's almost like them saying, look at those black people doing their black stuff. Oh wait,

I'm not racist. Look there's a black person here with me. Right. So there's this coded language, it's sort of dog whistle language. And these again baseless attacks on what now is very American. It's a very American art form. It's not novel, it's not new, it's not for the kids. You know, everyone that knew all those songs by heart are in their forties, fifties, you know, late thirties. You know, this is America, right, And this art form, hip hop was born in America,

same as R and B. Right. And these attacks that I'm about to go into feel very unfair, and I've seen a few of them, but I haven't seen much in the way of a defense, perhaps because a lot of us know that they're baseless attacks, that these people are just talking to their own little echo chambers, and you know, it's not going to get any further than that. We all saw what happened. We knew what it was

and what it wasn't. It's fine, But because they are journalists I use that term loosely, or because they have journalistic quote unquote outlets, I feel like it's important for us to challenge that narrative or otherwise chronicle our own and defend that halftime performance against what it is that they've said. Now, one such thing that came about very early on was there's a guy who's a conservative talk show hosted name is Charlie Kirk. You might not have

heard of him. I never heard of him, but this guy has over a million one point seven million dollar followers on his Twitter right and says he's a co founder and executive director of the right wing student group Turning Point USA, which I have heard of. And he says that he thinks that the super Bowl halftime performance should have been banned. Huh. It goes on to say that Kirk commented that quote, the NFL is now the league of sexual anarchy. This halftime show should not be

allowed on television. Okay, So what were your thoughts on the Super Bowl performance? Just general thoughts.

dresses nice, she keeps herself in good shape. She's a dancer and a singer, you know, but she wasn't dancing gyrating on anyone. There was nothing overtly sexual about her performance. Mary's is married, she's you know, she's like Auntie, you know, she's not like she doesn't have like Beyonce energy or Rihanna energy. I mean, I guess Rihanna's kind of graduated now, but she's go ahead jump in.

stage and a very unflattering light. And you know between the two people were talking about today, there's two million followers, right, so this is not no one. These aren't They're not talking to no one. It's not like some creep and the backwaters of Twitter that has forty followers and is just talking to his friends and a couple of people that are work with them in bots. You know, these are some substantial voices, at least in their arenas. So you know, to your point fifty cent, you know, doing

his it's a party record. You know, Eric Clapton has a song called Cocaine the Rolling Stones. There's so many groups that have songs about drugs, about sex, about you know, all these sorts of things that existed way before hip hop. And and those people will play the super Bowl, those people will you know, these guys will go to their concert who's this guy, Charlie Charlie Kirk will go to their concerts, I'm sure and you have a good old time, right and won't find fault at all because like doctor

Dre and fifty cent and Snoop Doggs. There is no fault to find. It is okay to make adult music for adults who go to adult nightclubs, right, and that pursue adult activities and then buy adult libations and so forth, right, But for for them to cast it in some sort of uncultured, un American, yeah, it's just it's and then because of the blackness, it's very easy for them to find fault because it's not them. It's not American apple pie.

It's hip hop. And of course everyone wanted to call it gangster rap, which I'll take that label no problem. That's what they would call themselves. And they were some gangsters, you know, so gangster rap. Sure. But once something gets established, once everyone has grown up with it, it's it's not so alarming anymore. Right, It's not like people, you know, it's not like kids are getting into sixth grade, seventh grade and then just finding out about Doctor Dre and

Snoop Dogg. They're not just getting their you know, their chronic album and oh my gosh, let me go hit the streets and game. You know, that's a bygone era and this music is a product of that era. But for them to kind of rehash all of this stuff like it's like it's thirty years ago, like it's twenty

five years ago. Just shows. I believe it shows their intention is to continue to cast black culture, black music, and black people in bad Like there's another person I want to or there's another thing at a point I want to make. Rather this guy, Charlie Kirk and a lot of other people are people that, especially on the right, that fight against cancel culture. They're they're huge critics of cancel culture. They don't love cancel culture. A lot of

people on the right are this way. So for him to say that the halftime show should not be allowed on television and you know, take this sort of stance against this, I think that he's actually being a hypocrite there as well, because now he's a fan of cancel culture all of a sudden, if it serves to cancel

black folks. And I'll say one more thing, he says, this is the sort of guy that calls liberals snowflakes quote unquote, and is one of the people that wants to like ban CRT, you know, and and you know, now he's calling for banning on of hip hop. But he's calling the liberal people snowflakes. He's calling you know this, this this halftime show. So he's calling it like sexual anarchy, you know what I mean. So you see the hypocritical nature in these talking points and in these people. It's

it's such a strange thing to see. Now. I do want to say this, I do want you to jump in, but I want to make sure that I get this in here. There's another woman. Her name is Bridget Gabriel. She has almost three hundred and seventy thousand followers on Twitter. She was born this is her birth name is Hanan Quahwaji. She's born in Lebanon. She goes by Bridget Gabriel. She's a conservative author and anti Islam activist huh and founder

of anti Muslim group ACT or ACT for America. I'm sure that stands for like Americans Countering terrorist them or something crazy like that, but Act for America. And she tweeted, quote, the super Bowl halftime show was basically pornography on television. Hunt absolutely disgusting. Wow, it shouldn't have been permitted for cable television. End quote. And the and here's another thing. Kendrick Lamar has has a line in his song alright,

those know we gonna be all right? He has a line in there that says, and we hate Popo, right, the want to kill us dead in the Street Fall show, that's how the bar goes. And he either took it out or they muted it right, so it never made it to air. Doctor Dre has one line that stayed in it says still not loving police, which is his right as an American. And then Eminem was kneeling beyond that. I could find nothing, but we got ten seconds go ahead.