Clout Chasing or KDOT

I said what I said, yakahotep this as much as you want. I said what I said. I love that about k Dot. So no think pieces about k Dot, but I know his name is invoked in this, and I'll tell you why later. I'm not talking about the k Dot of it all. I'm talking the fifty cent of it all. Some dudes are just good at the Internet.

Other people took the opposite approach. I want to talk about a very serious, serious plague among hip hop culture, cloud chasing, who politics, y'all okay, welcome, welcome, welcome, three times welcome. There are a number of vocabulary assumptions I might have realized I might be making as I started to put together this episode, one of which is that you know what cloud means. And I feel like, if I'm reaching my target demographic, I shouldn't have to explain this.

But I found that who I thought I was talking to oftentimes it's not who I'm talking to. It's a whole other group listening to me, which I am very thankful the fact that anybody listens to me. So I'm gonna use a tool I learned when I was teaching, and it is assume nothing and just start as basic and let the crowd tell me if they need this or not. Right, But if they don't need it, no problem. Just tune this part out. You use your one point one, one point five two point thing to skip through the

part if you already know what cloud means. If not, let me explain it to you. So cloud is is. There's okay, you could look it up in an urban dictionary, you can google it, you could do that, but that's not really going to capture the essence of what we mean by cloud, right, because there are good and bad assumptions to it. It's kind of crazy to try to like put words to something. Our definitions of something, which

I know is the premise of the whole show. But to give you a vocabulary, you know, definition of something that we just live and kind of understand, right. I know in Spanish there are certain words like okay, so in I know I'm confusing the thing. But like, for example, in like Cholo culture and like Chicano, Mexican American is a term gatcho. Hey, don't be acting all gatcho. There's no translation to that, but we know what it means, right,

So I'll use an in sence. I don't know if you remember during the last World Cup when Korea was playing and all of Mexico was cheering for Korea because Korea needed to beat a certain team so that Mexico could advance, right, and all the memes running around l A were like, yo, I know we were weird, but like sorry, I was acting all got your earlier. You know, I'm very happy that you won this game, you know.

So it's like you're just not being right, like you're being weird, like you're being a weird oh, uncomfortable, rude, you know, and you know, speaking on things you shouldn't speak on, and abrasive and just combative you acting all got you a you know, Uh, it's there's no actual term, Like, there's no actual term cloud. I think in some ways, even if you were to read the definition, it doesn't

capture what we mean by that. Cloud has to do with power, respect, street, cred uh, credibility, um, earning stripes, I think in a lot of ways. Uh. You know, in the military, when you earn stripes, that or you know, that means you you you've accomplished certain feats, right, certain acts of bravery and valor. Uh, you've completed certain tasks that gives you those stripes on your arms. So earning stripes, I think is is more of a street term. But

that's not necessarily what I mean by cloud. But it's adjacent to cloud, right, Uh. Building your reputation is something cloud now when you enter into the zoomers of it all. Uh, cloud a lot of times has to do with followers, views, like likes on your posts, you know, um, and you in the same way as you earn stripes, you do certain things in hopes to gain followers, views, stripes, credibility, reputation, blah blah blah. But those but those acts are different

than Here's where it gets harry. Those acts that you do to glint to gain cloud don't necessarily translate to certification or respect if it is very clear that you were doing them for the sake of cloud. Are you following me? Cloud has a negative tone to it, although it isn't necessarily negative. You know, like if you were to say, yo, hey to dude in a pen, he got a lot of cloud. You know, a o g

got a lot of cloud. What he's saying is when he steps What we're saying is when he steps in the room and he calls a shot and he says he wants something done, He's got the earned respect to get what he wants done. So in that context, you gotta use context clues, and that context cloud is a good thing because or not a good or bad. It's just a descriptor. It's describing the way for which we view this particular person. Yo, hey, hey, look, don't mess with this food. You know, he got a lot of cloud,

you know, uh, or you know. A way to describe Prop in the coffee world is yo, prop got a lot of cloud over there. And by evidence of the amount of coffee toys that I have that I did not pay for, you know, and if you listen to the Daily Zeygeys, you heard that me talking about a cupping. And in talking about a cupping, what I was showing you is like I earned all that cloud like I earned my stripes. I paid my dudes. I know what I'm talking about. You know, So all these terms paid dudes,

earned stripes, got my respect. I'm certified, I got that credibility. Right. These are things that take a long time and a lot of effort to actually develop and build. But if we're gonna say this fool's just a cloud chaser, then there's no substance to that person, there's no it's all paper. Then it's all just for show, right, That is cloud chasing. You just want the views. Right. People do stupid stuff,

stupid challenges, you know, put mad hashtags. Somebody that's like in a lot of ways, Like you take the white in launcer that showed up at like a Black Lives Matter rally or march with a full camera crew. This is cloud chasing. You're doing that for the Graham and anyone who's real can spot it. There was a story. Look, this really happened. I was out with my family during the George Florida Frise and we went down to Hollywood

with the local Black Lives Matter chapter. My homeboy, Kendrick Sampson heated light skin dude and uh and insecure, but he's also like my neighbor's best friend and he's just a real dude, such a good dude. Shout out Kendrick a lot, that dude. Anyway, he organized the particular march and we all went out there with the family two uh go support and my daughter drew a sign, my

sixteen year old, she drew a sign. You know, we all we actually had a little thing get together at the career where we all talked about, you know, what we were out for, Like I'm never not a teacher, We're all you know, we were talking about, you know what we're out here for, what we really want? You know what I'm saying, what's the point of this? Why protests? Why come out? Why is this so egregious? Anyway, So

after we did that, we made all these signs. So it was you know, my immediately, my family, my children's godparents and their kids, and we was out there next to the Capitol, you know, next to the Capitol Records Building, about to start marching, and this girl, clearly dressed in a way that shows me that you do not plan to walk for a couple of miles, walks up or Saget's up to my daughter and was like, that's a great sign. Can I see it? My daughter was like sure.

She grabbed a sign, turned to a camera crew, took a picture of it with it, took one as if she was holding it in a protest, and then handed it back to my daughter and said thank you, sweetheart. And we were like we actually it's real. We actually saw it. People come out here just for photos. It was like, you know they do, but like watching it, it's it's it's bizarre watching it, you know. I know that was the most Hollywood story I could have ever told.

But I'm telling you what happened cloud chasing. This is something that happens among rappers all the time. You have to grow buzz, right, Uh, you have to gain cred. Now. I don't want to name any particular names. Uh. I let you figure out again if you plugged in who I'm talking about. What I'm talking about. There are certain artists who are clearly functioning on social media in a way that is for the sole purpose of getting eyeballs

on them. Now, what else would you be on social media for if your artists except for to get eyeballs on you? Are you not trying to sell albums? Is it? No? Press is bad press? Is that the situation? There are some people that like social media wise, are professional trolls, like and in a good way. So that's fifthy. That's what I meant by some people are just good at the Internet. Fifty is just good at trolling the way that he was trolling. Uh, Floyd Mayweather like, he's just

good at it, right. He knows how to stir up stuff, pick a fight, and get the conversation about him. Right, He's just good at it. Now. Is he cloud chasing? I don't know, and I actually don't think so, because he's got enough already. He's got too highly successful television shows. The man owns vitamin water, and his and his history in hip hop is solidified. I mean the man hug hung upside down at the Super Bowl. He is solidified,

full certification. Now from what I understand, who he tutored in how to function in the Internet is Takashi six nine. I'm not gonna speak on that man. I don't know that man. I don't know that man situation. I just know that man knows how to use the Internet. I'm gonna let you'll figure that out. Cloud chasing is something very particular. It's almost like these reckless acts that our paper thin again there obviously just for the views, and

they're very frustrating right now. Then there's another type of cloud chasing that is not as silly but can be very dangerous. I cite to you, and I'm gonna be careful when I say this, because these are real people and it's a real situation. I cite to you the Young Thug situation and the ys L crew. Now I'm gonna let you'all google y s L with Young Slide. But anyway, so they're facing gonna and Young Thug are

facing serious prison time because of gun charges and Rico. Rico, if you don't know, is basically how the mob got taken down. You have to prove a connection, you could prove a conspiracy. So en Rico is something that the FBI isn't able to tie mob families together. It was a Rico charge, you know. It was also some of the ways that like gangs got taken out or a lot of people got sent to prison because of their

associations to other people. You use, Rico, I can prove that y'all are connected, right, so Young Ug in the whole young Slide thing that you know, ysl the argument is they are bloods. Y'all might be rapping, but y'all the gang that happened to rap. And I got proof based on these amount of guns you got, right and all these other things that we've been watching you over and Thugger, Young Thug could be like, I don't know what you'all time. I've been on tour this whole time,

You're talking about all this other stuff. What I'm gonna say about these hood niggas? Like what I'm supposed to say about that. I'm out here making this money. I'm a rapper. You see me everywhere I go. Now, No, Rico Ulrico, I could prove that you was a part of it. Now, what's super interesting to me about that is there are clips of clips of Wallow on the Million Dollar Boys podcasts when Thugger was on it trying to put these little dudes on game. Thug was like, Yo,

you did twenty years right. He was like, yeah, I did. I did five in the juvenile system and in twenty in the in the penitentiary. Doug it was like, yo, so you've been due more time. Then you've been a lot. Then more I've been. I've been on this earth. And Doug was like impressed by it, and he was like, so then while it was like, see, that's why when I come to y'all, I'm not coming at y'all like a little square lay mass nick. I'm coming at y'all and like Ni, I did twenty five years. So he

tells this story. He was like, yeah, you know, long dude, come up. You know what I'm saying. He got his you know I'm paraphrasing. He's like, young dude, come up. He can you know, he's got his face all tatted up. You know what I'm saying, little gangster. And he say, hey, man, he see me on the yard. He say, hey, you know Keisha. He's like, yeah, yeah, I know Kesha. He said, that's that's my mama. And him like, man, give me call oh Keisha, that's your mama. I'll tell us, Hey,

can you get real call? So he called. He called Keisha. Tell him like okay, I'm gonna look out for your little man, and he you know, and then a little dude tattoos on his face, little gangster, and he's like, hey, can you look at my papers? He said, man, I look at your papers? And he say, little little nick and say, hey, what time I'm gonna get out? How long you think I'm a beer? He say, we look at his papers. He's say, you're getting out in the

year two thousand seventy three. He said, what, Like yeah, He's like, I'm trying to give y'all reality. He was like. He goes at that point, all the gangster go away. He goes, listen, thug, listen, I'm trying to tell you in the pen, it's lonely. To the motherfucker. He's like, it's lonely because look outside, life going on, your family dying, people moving on, people getting married, people having birthdays, people having kids, people dying, and you just sitting there, you know,

missing out on everything. It's lonely. He's like, I'm not. He was like, listen, man, I'm not the young I'm not scared of you young niggers. I'm not the one that's just gonna put you on a dummy mission to be like Yo, take this pistol. You know what I'm saying, Yo, take this pack. Like, I'm not gonna put you on no dummy mission. He's like, listen, if you if you're in the rap game and you don't want to wrap, you want to be a street nickl, just take it

to the streets. He's like, but don't bring the dumb street shipped into the rap game. He's like, Thug, you making money. You're making money. Niggas will never be able. You're making enough money to change your family forever. You're getting money niggas wish they could get. Don't bring the dumb ship into this game. Trying to prove that you hard trying to prove and you could see thugs face completely change, like oh damn, the O G giving me game,

And I'm like, that's it. I don't know thug. I'm not saying thud cloud chasing because I don't know them, but I am saying there are things that oftentimes rappers do to try to retroactively have the credibility that they did it as cloud chasing. That ain't you. You don't have to be that right, you don't have to flex

on the Graham. Yeah, yeah, y'all remember when y'all remember A fifty cent was in was in financial trouble, like he claimed bankruptcy to avoid a case, and then on his Graham he posted all these stacks and then the courts was like, I thought you was bankrupt, and then fifty says, oh no, that's movie money. It's not real. We just do that for social media. What so you're putting it putting the stack to your ears? Is is that real? No? No, yo, they these people's money is

in banks, they have financial advisors. That's cloud chasing. And you can tell when someone's being authentic and when somebody's cloud chasing, when somebody truly earning stripes or somebody cloud chasing. Now that was twenty minutes of explanation, and it's important because artists one oh one is be visible, be seen. You know what I'm saying, Make noise about your movement, get eyeballs on, you, get them streams up. That's an artist.

You have to go where the people are, right, you know, when it was when we were on the time of like mixtapes and like pounding the ground, you just had to be at everything, you know, at every show, at every open mic, at every you gotta freeze. You gotta be at every at every function, every party. Right, you gotta be at everything and figure out how to make noise, How you gonna stick out in front of the crowd. Right,

you have to make it work. Or this is why I invoked his name, or your k dot or your kindred Lamar, who literally does the opposite of all of this. The man drops his album and disappears, drops his album, goes on tour, disappears. You don't hear from him? Damn was five years ago. We've been asking for the new album for four years. Did he respond to anybody? Nope? He did the tour and then he went home. Granted there was a global pandemic, But did you hear from him?

I didn't. I think there was a public sighting of the boy once and he was fully hoodied up with glasses and his mask on, and he was at a Who's at a protest? That was it? No cameras, he just they just happened to run into him. And we didn't stop talking about him, did he? Did? We? And the man dropped this album with of us a weak notice, and then dropped a single that wasn't even on the record. He did everything you're not supposed to do. Why because

he's certified, Because we already trust him. I've already earned the right to say what I say, and I also believe again I'm saying this. As an artist, you teach people how to interact with you. Drake taught us two accept singles to not really be excited about albums from Drake because Drake's albums are a bunch of singles. We need hotline blings. We need just hold on them going home as we need, you know, God's plans. That's where we get from Drake. We don't get opus is. But

he taught us that. Drake, you taught us how to interact with you. So to Kendrick, what does this have to do with politicians. We'll talk about it after the break of politics. All right, we're back midtterm elections. You guys, now, campaigning is something that's you have to campaign, right. You gotta run commercials, you gotta you gotta get eyeballs on you all the way back to doing you know, political stunts,

uh uh, fireside chats. And then President Obama being what they would call the first like internet president when he logged onto Twitter and he was a politician that learned how to use Twitter. But we all know don't nobody use Twitter better than Donald Trump as a politician. Let's be real. But with anything that desires that needs eyeballs, there is always the possibility of in authenticity. Hence the

cloud chasing. And I think we've all seen it. You've all seen our politicians, especially in our Congress, and then even more when you're watching presidential debates or whatever whatever the race is watching, watching the debates, when these people clearly ain't talking to the people in the room, You clearly not answering the question that's being asked of you. You're aiming for the CNN, the Fox News clip at

the end of the night. You're aiming for the viral, you know, video that's gonna shoot out among the Internet. Either that's going to get a lot of people cheering you on or getting a lot of hate posting where somebody quote tweets your video and then writes state diet tribe. But how dumb they thought it was, or how dangerous you are, or hey, look how funny that is. It's a tried and true practice. It's it's cloud chasing, unless

it's genuine, Unless it's not. And that's what's so beautiful about cloud chasing is y'all almost can't tell it's it's quite a tool. I can't tell if you're being genuine or not. But there are some clues, one of which is the one I already told you earlier when you didn't really answer the question. Or there's a certain amount of you be an extra that becomes like so painfully obvious and awkward. Who's probably the best and worst of this? And you hear me talk about it all the time.

It's senator to a Cruz. You're like, he's clearly child cloud chasing. You're clearly trying to make it to a Tucker Crossing thing or a CNN thing where we're we're on CNN. They just gonna drag you. You don't tuck across, and they're gonna tell you amazing whatever it is. You're clearly trying to do that, and you and and what happens is he just looks lame on both channels. That's the funny part to me. He looked dumb to everybody because it's so paper thing. It's like, why are you

so bad at this? Remember in the video about or not in the video in the In the episode with bridget about the art of cap, I mean, he's the kid like he's he's so cap. It's like, bro, what is you doing? First of all, that man lost all credibility when Donald Trump made fun of that man wife, and he's still backed him. I'm like, oh, bro, I don't know how anybody, even in your party could back You're like, y'all supposed to be the party that's rescuing masculinity and you let that man make fun of your

wife and you still backed him. I don't know, homie, like using your own rules us, Like using your own rules of masculinity. Bro, you look like you simping homie. That's the beta. You know what I mean? Bro, you you can talk to Kevin Samuels rest in peace. I guess he had difficult He had difficult character for me too, because I mean it's like, on the one hand, yeah, brother, get your stuff together is kind of trying to teach

young men to get their stuff together. On the other hand, he had some wild takes that I was like, big, homie, what what is you talking about? Either way, I'm no Kevin Samuels. The point I'm trying to make is if you don't know about the Manho sphere, like good you don't want to know about the Manho sphere. The point I'm making is cloud chasing can be a little tricky to catch if you don't know what you're looking for. You know, this is kind of bad at it is.

Nancy Pelosi, she's the like it just never works, like, you know, except for the idea of like we're going to make fun of you. You know, no press is bad press, but it's not cloud. But it's clearly you're chasing it. So it's like this didn't work. You know. Her little uh, her little can take cloth joint was just like man, what Joe saying? No, we're good. You know,

it is kind of good at it. Marger Taylor Green she good at cloud chasing because the stuff she'd be saying sometimes it's like, I don't know how you're saying this with a straight face that no way in the world you actually believe it stuff. It's working though I'm talking about her, you know, Uh, Greg Abbott, he good at it. Uh De Santos down there in Florida, he good at it because some of the stuff he talked about, like, yo,

you're gonna take FAM. You're about to take Disney's like tax exempt zone thing because you don't like what they said about your law, Like who is this for? You understand that when you do that, you don't raise the taxes of all of Orlando. They're gonna have to cover the shortfall. I'm gonna get to that story at some point.

But like, bro, this is an adult, but like this, this ain't a move, Like you didn't raise the taxes for everybody that you you have authority over because you just salty at Disney because they said they don't agree with you, like FAM, you like this not this a strategic my nigga, Like this is you chasing cloud. You're trying to impress somebody that's not in the room, because the people in the room would be like nah, FAM, like na let them do? They like, oh no, I

don't want to cover their costs. So you're clearly not talking to who in the room you're talking to. You're talking to me like that move. I'm like, you're talking to us in California because you ain't talking to Florida. Because that's a dumb move for Florida. You know what I'm saying. Unless you talk about certain parts of Florida that just that you just won't clout with because it's not smart financially, but it's good for your rep y'all follow me, y'all understand it cloud now if you don't

understand the story I just told. Basically with the don't say gay law, you know, which is a character of the law, but once you read through it, it's like, no nigger, that's what you're saying. Basically, this this you law about the teaching of any lgbt Q stuff two kids is banned. And Disney, you know, Disney that little there's like a certain square mile radius. I don't know if you've ever been down to like Disney World down there in Florida, the area that all of their um

theme parks are on. It's got its own like tax exemption. So with that said, they have their own fire department, their own police, their own paramedics, they have their own it's like their own little space. And they pay like a fee to the city and the state to be able to do that right. So they're covering all that costs to be able to do that right. So that means that again the state doesn't have to offer any services to them. You know, it's a it's a great system.

So everybody else is in Florida date taxes are super low because this is big old swap that they don't have to take care of. Disney didn't like this like law that the Santos said, and they didn't start no protest. They were just like, ah, we don't. We're not with it. We think that that's a it's a silly law. He's we don't agree. Santos was like, well, then let's remove their tax exemption. In like word, so if you remove their tax exemption, then now the state does have to

pay for their paramedics, their police, their fire department. So who's gonna foot foot that bill? The rest of the taxpayers in Florida. This was a Cloud move because it's not financially smart. You just felt disrespected. You ain't once seeing like no hunk to the people you're trying to impress, even though it's gonna hurt them very people you're trying to impress day taxes gonna go up, but it's cool because you got Cloud. Oh yeah, yeah, no, No, Disney

need to know I got Cloud. You can't just be talking about me cloud chasing good at it though, you know. And finally, probably my favorite part of this new cloud game is seeing these people on TikTok You thought it was cringey to see politicians on Twitter. Boy, wait you see them on TikTok yo. Airs was crazy. For some of them, it's working. Some of them are getting actual engagement with people. There's a amazing story in New York Times by uh let me see and uh, come Humpetty,

come Hampety, come Humpetty. That's I think I said. Uh, I want to respect her name. But she wrote this article about back in March, about foods on TikTok right. And it's super interesting piece of theater here because, like we said, some of it's kind of genuine, some of it's catchy, some of it is just proof that you got really good uh interns. Uh that boy Uh Tim Ryan, he had one that went viral. He said his teenage daughter Bella got him on, got him on TikTok doing

dances with him. So he's like, oh, I just thought it was fun. Right then he started doing montages of himself, uh, grand standing on the on the on the Senate floor, right. But I think that's something to watch. I think I want to ask, y'all. I want to do, y'all, ask y'all momwork go find politicians on TikTok and do me a favor you. But you gotta look through a lot

of them though. Okay, all of it, of course is cloud chasing in some ways because it's I don't just don't know how authentic it is for a sixty or seventy year old to be on TikTok. Like it's just not authentic, you know what I'm saying. Uh, But at the same time, you gotta go where the people are, you know, you gotta you gotta tap into the next generation. You've gotta make noise for yourself. You know, you gotta go where the people are. If that's where the people are,

you should go there. So no shade there. But yeah, y'all, y'all go sharpen y'all antennas who cloud chasing? Who's having authentic engagement? Who do you think actually runs the accounts? Do you think any of them like actually run their account who's the lawmaker, who's the who's the politician? That's more like Kendrew. They just go do their job, you know, and then come out with and come out with heat.

And I know it's like it's not a one to one ratio, but there's an authentic there's an authenticity there that when you see them, they're putting in work. And I know in the world that we live in that don't always equal numbers. You can't just like put your head down and do the work. You know, maybe putting your head down and doing the work is what we all hope is the ideal, But how do you how do you get people to find out you're doing the work. I'll give this to a c That's what she did.

She pound the ground, she put her head down and did the work. And she the youngest senator we ever had. You know what it was that, I'd say, Stacy Abrams put her head down and did the work. I'm pretty sure there's people on the right that are doing that too. I just don't know him. I ain't really tapped in like that with chalk, But I ask you in this next midttern hey who earned stripes and cloud chasing? Or

maybe they're the same person, maybe they're different persons. Maybe everybody can be a little bit of all of it. All I'm saying is use your antennas, because when somebody talking to you and it's clear they're not talking to you, they're talking to people that ain't in the room, call um on it. You don't need that type of cloud chasing. I need you to keep real with me so I know what I'm dealing with. Little politics, y'allah. Yeah, that's here.

Thing was recorded by Me Propaganda and East Lows, boil Heights, Los Angeles. Call bornya. This mug was mixed, edited, mastered, and scored by Matt Osowski. I can totally say his name, guys, it was it was a stick. He's going by Matt now again because he got to some legal situations with the name Headlights. You know, comment used to be called common sense. You know, tip t I tips sometimes it happened.

Executive produced by the one and only Sophie Lichtman for a Cool Zone Media and the theme music by the one and only Gold Tips Gold Tips d J Shawn p. So y'all just remember listen every time you check in. If you understand city living, you understand politics. We'll see how next week. W