As media. All right, y'all, Hood politics with prop So I'm starting a series here that's not gonna be like every you know, it's not gonna be back to back by like a mini series like you know, behind the Police or something, but just something to come back to, and one of which is I just want to walk y'all.
Through the American health scapes.
You know, all these cities that our president is telling us are just unlivable, just horrible places for people to live and work and survive. Like you can't even wear your watches anymore, you know. And my biggest thing about hearing stuff like that is like, I mean, have y'all, like if y'all been to the cities that he's talking about, Like do you know anyone that lives there? Like why would you just believe that? I feel like it's such
a fixable problem, you know. But it's also if you, like I said, like how this show works, Like if you understand the hood, you grew up in the inner cities, you understand politics. People have been saying this about us, whether you're black, you Latino, or you're from the inner city. This is these are the things that we've lived with forever. Where it's just like you have this narrative about it.
Just pull up, like, just come through, act like you got some home training, you know, and you will be treated well.
Right you know.
So anyway, so to kick this off, I wanted to start in Memphis.
How you am I saying it right?
Are you close?
I'm close? It's too much. I got too much, lam me.
Now.
One of my favorite things is when Prop gets into his like Southern dialect bag.
Yeah yeah, because my grass, my granny, because you know, our granny Ranny for the feeling.
Every time, I was like, oh yeah, Grandma, Yeah it's coming out.
I love it. Bro.
Yeah, everybody, everybody la they granty from the South, Like that's we're all like, you know, transplants from there.
Uh.
But anyway, Uh, my man Bartholomew Jones, uh, coffee Black.
We've had him on here before when we were doing the terraform and stuff about making coffee black again and and sort of the specific movements of how he was trying to like uplift you know, uh, bring the blackness back to coffee, you know, reclaim some narratives here and and just what he's doing as a business owner that's you know, not just about business, but about the community and being like, you know, rooted in a place that you exist in and working and it's given so much
to you and you just want to give back. So this one is not so much about the coffee, although that's gonna come up because we are us, but it's this is more about what it.
Means, like I just want him.
I just want him to come in here and just gush about Memphis, like like imagine, imagine, you know, I pop in and I'm like, Okay, I got five days, I got five days in the city. You know what I'm saying, Like, make me fall in love with Memphis. So that's that's really what's happening here. So we're gonna go ahead and start with your personal narrative. Okay, So coffee black generational member of Memphis, give me, give me some history.
Yeah, man, So I've grown up my whole life in Memphis.
My father grew up his whole life in Memphis.
His father moved to Memphis from Arkansas after his father, you know, lost the land they had about ninety acres or so in Arkansas where.
He was actually not a sharecropper.
And that's a big part of my dad and my granddad was said out of time, we are not sharecroppers, you know what I'm saying.
And it was big, it.
Was big thing for us bro They were not able to keep the land that they were working, they kept the soft skills, they kept the social capital and all of that. So, like, business ownership has always been part of my legacy, my family has been, you know, either supporting through. My granddad had like four or five jobs, two or three business ran, plus working with other people.
That's just been a part of history.
Man.
So we you know South specifically, So if you know.
About that, you know about that and no no pause pause, Okay, if you know about that, assume we don't what are we missing? Like in the sense that like what do you not know? Is truly South Memphis? You know what I'm saying. Like you're like, oh, you remember the song that y'all loved that South Memphis?
Right if you think about young Dolph Okay, right, historically.
Very love beloved artists like that's that's South Memphis right there. You know what I'm saying, So pl e that South Memphis. A lot of those artists that are coming out from there. And when you think about the South I remember was actually like the quintessential.
Black neighborhood in Memphis.
Of course there's a history in North Memphis too, but a lot of social history you think about I W well, right, like she had a lot of her initial work was in South Memphis. She actually, like her activist work started out like writing a letter against or a series of letters against a lynching that happened from on grocery store called People's Grocery in South Memphis.
You know what I'm saying. South Memphis has like had a lot of history there.
So even with People's Grocery, that particular store black owned. You had like some of the first black millionaires in South Memphis. There was a thriving history there, and of course that wasn't beloved by some of the folks outside of that community. And so yeah, you have to come into this black owned grocery store. The story goes that two kids were playing outside. One kid was a black kid whose parent was in the store. The kid was a white kid who was outside. They were playing Jack's.
You know what I'm saying, If you remember Jackson Jacks and a black kid wins, the white kid's parent comes out as dad, and you know, start saying that the black kid was cheating and so on this before they're like, nah, that's disrespectful. This is our store, of course, Now your kids just lost. Anyway, long story short, you come back, the store has been burned down. That night, several people got lynched. And this was in the middle of like
a bustling, thriving black on community. And this incident is what kind of instigated id B Wells, which is I think in a lot of ways as indicative of the history of Memphis, because you know, we talk about things being burnt and things being bitter and things being desolate, but these are ruins, you know what I'm saying. And a lot of these are places that have been ransacked
and pillaged. And people's grocery is a perfect example of a place that the only reason why you ransacked or pillage the place is because there's wealth.
There's well, right, So like, yeah, there.
Was wealth there, and you know, when we get into it, I'll talk about how there still is.
But that history.
Now we think about South Memphis, we think about drugs and crime and beads and basketball, these narratives that are out there, but like South Memphis was the first flourishing black owned neighborhood filled with millionaires and musicians and grocery stores whatever.
The antithesism desert is, yes.
And because of that jealousy towards that, or envy towards that, or hate towards that, or maybe maority, I'm not sure, because I mean there were still tons of Jim Crow happening.
You know what I'm saying.
White people were not actively being oppressed. They were just thriving in spite of that.
Right, I love.
I love that point. I love I.
I wish I could like this is where I wish I could be like a Cornell West level history teacher, like right, where you could just change that narrative or that that perspective of like it's it's in spite of you know what I'm saying, it's not because like when you say okay, you hear a lot of like now these like new white supremacists, like these new ones is weird, right, but they were They're like listen, uh f no states meaning like ending you know, keeping us segregated is actually good.
And they're like, well, look man, like Japan's flourishing because it's an eth no state.
They're like look you're you're They're like.
Look, man, you look at Finland and Scandinavia, like, yeah, they have it's like a utopia because.
They just don't allow diversity, you know what I'm saying.
So they were so then they look at what you just argued, and they said, no, look, Jim Crow was good for black people, just like they knew Baby Martyr.
You know what I'm saying.
Mister Kirk, you know, was like I think civil rights move was bad. He's like, listen, you guys had black owned businesses. You this, you stay in your community, your money, state in your community. Like I understand what the problem is. Let's go back to segregation. And it's like, no, no, you're it's in spite of segregation.
And I think part of.
The piece that's missing there too is I don't think white people like segregation because like when you think about this of how how how I don't even mean the way you think about it first, But like they were at the store. Nobody I came in shop. You wanted to be in the store.
I don't know if.
You know what I'm saying, But there was the desire to be in the community that God actually created us to be in you know what I'm saying, even though the segregation was forced or people were like, yeah, but I want to go over there. Yeah, but I want to go to Bill Street. Yeah, but I want to be be king. Yeah but yeah I want to hear W. C. Handy like, yes, there is a desire for so for and you even see that now, like so much of the cultural export of Memphis, whether it's the Blues or the.
Grizzlies, it's mafia.
Yeah people, you know what I'm saying, Gotti like or when we talk about you know what I'm saying, flipp it like these these the cultural export, the barbecue, the fried chickens. So much of what I loved about the city, by everyone who is here right comes from these black seeds that for some reason I saw the spot and it's like yo, you you you even in your spirit, you know that this is not how God intended us to live, because you ain't living like yeah, exactly. Segregation
was what people really wanted. There wouldn't be all these these babies on slave plantations.
Come on, now, you know what I'm saying, Come on now here.
Cuisine, you know what I'm saying, German cooking styles if you with like my brother right here islagg and that how you get schnittle style chicken on a plan. You know what I'm saying, Like, yeah, no, yeah, I'm with it. People the desires like mag of cheese, you know what I'm saying. Like here's a black man enslave getting sent out to Paris and bringing the techniques. You know what I'm saying, one of these that's so beautiful. My brother
Steven zennierman here, he's our new assistant manager. They actually just moved to Memphis.
So they just moved.
He's from Georgia, Augusta and they lived in Jersey's a coffee rollser Now they just moved their whole family to Memphis, you know what I'm saying. And one of the things that he's they're bakers and chefs as well as coffee roasters and barises, and they've been baking these golageechee snacks or deserve like uh, like a chewi which has a whole history to that joint.
You know what I'm saying.
Where it's like black folks, where Steve, would you want to talk about that?
So them you're here, you're here, all right, Steve, come to the mic. Yo, my look so with it?
What's going on with you?
Oh?
What's up? Boy? Wait?
Okay, now I.
See who he is? Yeah, yeah, man, just real quick.
Yeah.
And this I don't want to I don't want to say this. This history is the the gospel.
Okay.
Yeah, that's what was told to me.
And I got the recipe from my one of my aunties. Units gave me this recipe of chewis your auntie?
What?
Now? Say it again? My name was Lee Eunice. I love it black as hell?
Okay, go on, yeah, man, my auntie she she gave me this recipe a couple of years back, man, because we always had them when we was kids and were running around the churn, want something to eat? Yeah, and going on over to the table and get one of them chooser there. So we get one of them at one of the family events. And as I got older, went the Coulinary school and everything, uh started learning a little bit, and then a lot of the older people in the family just start dying off.
So you just want to three.
You want to keep the recipes from our parents, you know, grandparents, aunties. And I just asked her one day, Auntie Lee, can I get that recipe from you for the for the for the chewies. And the history goes from what I was told by another family member that back in the day, if it looks like a brownie, if you don't it looks like a brownie, eats like a brownie, the inside is a little bit more chewy.
So that's kent.
It's called that. Yeah, But we couldn't.
Afford chocolate, uh or it was a delicacy or is it was a privilege to have. But we still knew how to bake, still knew how to do something with what what what what? The little that we might have and with chew was just flour, brown sugar, eggs, a little bit of sea salt or salt, yeah, some vanilla, and you melt it. It's like the straight though method. Yeah, make melt it down in the pot, spread it in a cookie sheet, bake it twenty five maybe thirty minutes, and cut it and eat it.
And that's that's the true delicacy.
It's a delicacy. And people been doing that for their churn for a long time. And my aunt, my aunts, and my uncles, my grandma, they did it for us when we was was looking.
At thanks for that, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I love you.
You know what I'm saying, they like it's like it's almost like, oh, you have pecan pie, like the feeling of a pekan and pie. Uh huh that plus a plus a blondie. You know what I'm saying, absurd, absurd crazy.
Yeah.
But think what people are reacting to is they're seeing a culture in the history that is so unique and so regional, but at the same time, they're seeing themselves in it and like, this is not black folks who coming like we can't keep these chees and stocks since they've been making them everything, Like.
The chewies in here.
You know what I'm saying, they gone.
I think that's such an example of like this this clear blessing, you know what I'm saying, of people making good things because they are made of a good creator and people kind of like your appetite is telling on you.
I think that there's, uh, there's something to that in the sense that like what I what I remember and loved about Memphis, especially when I tied it to history, which is in a lot of ways, it's something that growing up out West I don't necessarily have, Uh, is the length the length of history and culture to pull from in the sense that you know, with like California was Mexico, Like this was something else, you know what
I mean. But I think that there's like I didn't grow up in a world in the way that you did to be like, well man, you're you know, the grocery store, the you know, the bank, your principal.
You know what I'm saying.
Like they was all they was all black, you know what I'm saying, Like I didn't necessarily see that in a way that a lot of people who grew up in the South, and of course we did because we're part of La was from.
Of course I was black panther. It was plain black people. You know what I'm saying.
It wasn't like that my my third grade teacher, Miss Spears, you know what I'm saying.
But for her, you know, this is a black woman. But we was we were in a.
That she taught it a Latino neighborhood school, you know what I'm saying, because that's where I lived, you know. And but she was like a studio. She was the official background singer for Whitne Houston. You know what I'm saying, Like like she was saying saying, you know what I'm saying, like, but that was just but for us, that's la to where you're just like, look, dude, like everyone everyone's gorgeous,
everyone's talented, we're all howded together. The streets are dangerous, but just act like you got sense it is what it is, right. So so I think that like you having this like longer history of saying, I can look at this building, I know this corner for generations was an example, Like you said, the first black billionaires. I think it's also important with music, you know, whether it's the Motown sound or what was going on in Nashville.
The players were from Memphis, like the people that.
Actually we got to talk about Soulsville in South Memphis.
That's what I'm trying to say, the actual musicians, you know what I'm saying, Like that's also South mephis right, exactly. We're talking about records, Yeah, we're talking about Isaac Hayes. We're talking about the songs song like Green Onions, Yeah, all over the world. We're talking about, Yeah, the Staples singers. So much of what is the soul music sound, Like I say, soul music was created in Memphis.
You know what I'm saying.
It was exported and polished in Detroit. You know what I'm saying.
They really commercialized the sound.
But when you talk about that gritty so much, so many hip hop samples came from Stax Music Records for a reason.
Yeah, I know, it's just gotta swing. Yeah.
And then the way the drums hit like this is again such a huge part of even saying the words soul.
You know what I'm saying. This is a huge part of Memphis culture.
And so when you think about these things, of course, Memphis is not just the crime, it's not just the improvement.
It is the things that.
Were here prior to it that many times were the reasons why someone came and plundered us in the first place, was because there was gold there.
You know what I'm saying.
I love that you got plundered. You got plundered. So unfortunately for you and I, like we are, we were born in that era, the era of you know, the post plundering. We grew up in the ashes of a once beautiful civilization and had to create something out of
out of what we had. Right, So, you know, me being a product of like you know, the crack academic and you know in the in the street sweepers and the you know, militarization of the police and LAPD like you know, you know which gave us you know, gangster rap, which gave us you know what I'm saying.
Uh, the graffiti culture. You know what I'm saying.
And a lot of the things that you know are in galleries now you feel me?
Uh and are you know yeah, yeah yeah and mimicked. Yeah. You know what I'm saying. It all over the world, you know.
So I think you know, whether it's you know, trap music obviously is specifically Atlanta, but like but either way, uh, there was it was, it got it got dark like you know, like I don't let anybody, don't. I do not romanticized gang life. So like, so I was gonna say, tell me about the darkness, you know what I mean?
And I think that this is a thing that is important.
Like we live here too, So if anyone knows that it is dangerous, if you want to find the people who can speak the most about it, like you ask somebody who lived there whose business has to go through, Yes, vandalism and the burglaries and and we call them call heads, you know, what I'm saying, but like the con heads coming up and shooting up on the trying to get a couple of dollars off something like.
We lived here, you know what I'm saying.
I stayed in in.
The apartments next to the project, shared the gate.
I remember seeing dead bodies in and sitting on the side of the road. You know what I'm saying. It it just got murder. They was looking for a body for weeks, you know what I'm saying. I remember we had some nice apartments, even the project.
Yeah.
Yeah, Like they're like, oh, y'all got a pool, so gang members coming in and hitting the pool. You know what I'm saying, we gotta go. You know what I'm saying, it's to go. Yeah, it's a wrap like they hitting
the pool, we might as well. And the mythics they call it slicing, so like there's a whole zaire Zaida who was in who did the documentary for the Reset Exchange program, she just did a short film that's won several awards on slicing, which is like a style of diving where Memphian's like, we have music playing, Oh.
Yeah, y'all just do it like this and then they just like crazy dies.
Yeah, it's like a whole thing, right, bro, you know what I'm saying. So was it dark?
Yes?
Bro?
Do I want to see more crime happening?
Want to see more babies being hurt?
Like we can even talk about like the occupation here now currently how like you'll see a lot of black folks being like, hey, I'm low key not mad.
I haven't heard no gunshots in the money, you know what I'm saying.
Like people be like my kids can go outside and you can't take away. Somebody has desired to feel safe and for their for their family. Like that's a real conversation that's happening. It's not simple. It's not just no like easy kind of like oh this is bad, this is good. Like it's like the city is experience complexity. I was a teacher for ten years. You have to shout out to people who were teaching the rappers and then into coffee young all of us.
You know what I'm saying.
But like those are real things where like the school systems need to be improved, like they need funding, Like our arm do not have a lot of high paying jobs, a lot of factory jobs. You know what I'm saying where people will feel like it's mindless, soulless work. There's a lot of foolishness, you know what I'm saying, Like live in neighborhood. We do discipleship here, we do mentorship here. Like I talked mid to school for ten years. I remember talking to a young man and he like, I'm
about to go kill these folks. Brouh.
You know what I'm saying.
This is just like third year and see's great, big dude.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, fourteen years old. Yeah, homie, Like what's going on?
And I taught his sister and he was like, you know, I ran the hip hop clubs, so all the kids would come, you know those, So I got a mix of like honor students and like kids who was heading to the house after they left. But him, like getting to the bottom of it, he was like, bro, I'm hurt. Like this man embarrassed me because he was a big guy and his cousin have been talking down on his weight and he was like disrespected and it's hurt my At the end of the day.
His feelings were hurt.
He hurt feelings, Yeah, And like we don't have language to talk through what to do as a man, specific as a black man, when your feelings are hurt, you have actual feelings and they can be easily hurt. And now you've got to figure out what do you do when that happens, you know what I'm saying, Like we even have a dearth of black men to be in a place to have a conversation with a young black man when he in that process and don't know what
to do. So there's several kinds of poverty, right, not just the financial poverty, not just the poverty of opportunities to get jobs, but even the financial like the poverty of people right to be able to get more information that you don't have access to or like have an opportunity to get taught something or brought something that you needed to put the dark place.
So it's real, like you got to listen.
Listen, listen three six, listen to listen to flip, listen to say listen to music that's coming out of the olymphus.
You can hear, yeah, you can hear. You know what I'm saying.
Okay, here we go. But there's a you know what I'm saying that there's a.
There's a number of things that you brought up in here, there is the the the the civil rights are like the black leadership of the eighties that were like they were the the the like I said, they were the leadership when I was a child, that were actually very much for this police state, you know what I'm saying, Like they had this, and then that's a that's a critique of like a lot of like our our parents and grandparents to be like y'all kind of wanted this because,
like you just pointed out, in the short run and the and the the data proves it. In the short run, in the temporary highly militarized zones do give a moment of peace and calm, right, it is just not sustainable because in the same way that like you're a parent, like if you go in there to your boys and you like stop jumping around, go to bed, or I'm whooping y'all, and you know what I'm saying, the next I'm coming, I'm whooping y'all.
Yeah, they gonna shut up. They're gonna shut up.
You know see what I'm saying.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly when the actually happened.
Yeah, it's quiet, it's gonna be quiet.
Yeah, it's gonna be quiet for a little bit, right, And it's.
Like yes, exactly, And and what that tells them as you as a father, is like you you subconsciously know that okay, you can't self regulate, you don't know your emotions, and you don't actually care about us.
You just want your own comfort.
So the second you look away or the second I realize you're getting older and you actually ain't as strong as I remember you to be, then me gonna fight because that's what you taught me.
You feel me. There is no respect there.
It's only fear and a fear, and fear is always looking for a way to rebel against it. So so so yeah, for that short term, it's like yeah, granted, and them right like, man, I mean, I mean we really ain't heard no gun shots, you know what I'm saying. But it's almost like that's the same lesson you should teach to the streets.
It's like, bro, this is this is short term.
You think if you do to day bus we bus, you know what I'm saying, You're gonna get calm out here and you just gonna be able to run your you know, your your pharmaceutical activities. Because it's like, well, no, bro, Like this doesn't mean this don't really make peace?
You feel me.
The craziest thing when I realize like, oh, like our city is really in the militarized zone.
Brouh.
The con heads, like the crack heads, Bro, was lying and the little bikes up next to the door.
They was parking them judging.
Wait you know nah, like normally it's like you know bikes like the kid. Yeah, somebody poors, just a grown man on that joint and like no, they all over the yard, but they like clean the yard up.
They don't get the up.
They don't neatly put them next to the door by making it look like there's really some.
Order in the home. And I remember driving by, like yo, I ain't never seen that before. That really crazy.
I put money out like a stolen espresso machine in the house somewhere.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's that's the other thing. You grow up.
You see the niggas right riding your bike like you like that is absolutely my bike, bro.
And it's like that's the crazy part. Bro. It's like, okay, was it dark? Yes?
Yes?
And does this kind of forced military presence seem like it offers a solution to that? Does it solve some problems. Yeah, and I'm seeing a lot of like, yo, I'm glad about this. The complex piece is and this is what I felt like, man, God put it on my heart to say, is like, I think the Republicans were right in a lot of ways, and the sense that so much of Trump's campaign was critiquing Democrats in the nineties, right, and they were critiquing the crime build.
Right.
I'm saying the reason why y'all are locked up and criminalized in a lot of ways is because of Democrats, many of whom were running against, who were pushing for these super harsh punishments for black folks that now we've had to say, hello, holda hold up. Three to one for crack cocaine. Actually ain't that great? Yeah, yeah, Pools is actually not that great. And so it's been a talking point for a lot of Republicans and for a lot of our community who has wanted to to kind
of pursue conservatism. They're like, hey, like this actually wasn't great, right, we kind of got screwed over in this deal. What they talk about is that a lot of black leadership, to your point, was pro that as well. It wasn't just like people from outside our community saying. We was like I live next to this dude.
Lock him up.
Yah, yeah, get this nigga hat.
Crug bro We got we got.
I remember when we like wanted like one robbery at the shop. We finally were able to get a dude on camera talk to the police.
Bruh, get locked up, brouh.
Two weeks later, I hit you know Mario, oh hit meant from the shop who been working with me since he was ten, hit me like, brother dude in the shop, damn, Like I just talked to the Like I just talked to what you mean in the shop.
They like brou out, Like you know what I'm saying, Like you.
Look at the just out Facebook page man picture of man out on rn R. You know what I'm saying, what Conaisance, I'm like, live it, bro, you know what I'm saying. And you like you start going through to like why would this happen? It feels like a setup for me to have to go do some things that I spent my whole life not doing. You know what I'm saying, Like, this is not the life if I want to live.
There were moments in the UH that we knew that like you know, I think, uh, I remember on drink Champs h Quick and and it was an interview with Quick and Problem and they brought up something that I remember vividly is like the police, you know, during the gang sweep you know, the little street sweepers era, you know, basically if it was two black people, y'all in a gang so like so yeah, so if they would swoop you up, and then the police asked you a couple
of questions, try to get you to station on somebody, and then you.
Know, oh man, what is this crack in your pocket?
You know, all you got to get in the car, right, And what they would do is rather than drive you to the to the to the station and they would just drive you to the other side of town, they would just drop you off in a rival hood, you know what I mean. And then would tell them like, hey, it's niggas from over there, you know, they and your block, you know, to try to like make sure that we like you said, the circular like yeah, so that you
would eradicate ourselves. Eventually we figured it out, like you know, we as in Los Angeles streets, like you know, I was a little too young for some of this stuff, but like they they would figure it out and be like because no one would good sense, would just walk you know what I'm saying, Like you wouldn't just wander into you would know the borders.
You know what I'm saying.
You wouldn't just wander into a rival neighborhood by yourself with no burner, you know what I'm saying, Like, you wouldn't do that. Like, so, so Nigga started just being like, cause you know, we see each other in the holding tank, you know what I'm saying, Like, I know that is we all went to junior high together, you know what I'm saying. So, like dudes would just aboud to be like,
oh you good, hommy. You know what I'm saying, Like, hey, d you know what I'm saying, Like, because we knew that, like there was a a force that was not whether they was Democrat or Republican, that was not interested in our flourishing, right, So yeah, they were interested in our containment, you feel me.
Yeah, That's That's where I was saying, is like when I say I think the Republicans got it right and that there was a valid critique, a valid concern in the past there's a present valan critique of a past valid concern in our community, and they're saying, Hey, these Democrat leaders, they set y'all up right, that was not
my concern. Is a lot of the flos in our community who have levied that and who kind of echoed that during our current president's campaign are now willing to make that same kind of fostering in exchange.
Yeah, they're doing the same thing.
Yeah, now that you're you're essentially promoting the role on drugs part two in these cities that are being militarized, you're promoting.
The crime Bill Part two or part three.
But this time, instead of it being Hillary cleaning, you're like, well, I'm cool with it if Trump does it, cool if my governor does it. And I'm like, yo, if it is a really actual valid critique that what happened in the nineties, we can all look back and say, yo, I get it, but that wasn't a way to roll with it, then it's definitely not the way to roll with it.
The way.
Yes, that's what we're seeing, Like out of the people making these critiques are saying, well, yeah, that's happening, But it's kind of like collateral damage in order for us to get like safety my own children. So I'm just gonna turn a blind eye and what's happening to my immigrant neighbors, because it's not going to affect me.
Until it starts affecting you.
And you with Joe expired tags that you haven't had time to go downtown and sit off day to get refixed, or your boss hasn't taken the time because they profit super slim and they haven't fixed the tags on the company vehicle. Now you over and getting harassed by fifteen officers from seventeen different Yeah.
Which you know what I'm saying, But you know that you asked for it. Yeah.
I didn't know it's going to hit me too, right, I didn't know. I'm just life skinned. Yeah, I just like you look Dominican, sir. You know what I'm saying.
And even if I was like, damn this, the company, let me do this, Let me do this before we close, because I me and you we're gonna talk forever. But what I want to do is this, Let's just say we have I have twenty four.
Hours, yeah in Memphis.
I land in the morning, and I want you to curate this day money is no object, right, just think that, like, don't worry about traffic, just like you can just make this work. Where we're going, Where were getting coffee? Where we're going to breakfast? What are we gonna do? What museum? What are we gonna visit? Who we're gonna go see? It is the end at a Grizzlies game.
I don't know.
You tell me, yeah, bro say lests. Okay, So you're gonna start the sun up. You've got to go to the coffee club. Coffee black. Of course, we're gonna pull you a double shot of a natural anaerobic Ethiopian Guji from the tomo out there in the tree Waji and Guji's on. We'll hit you with a blessing. May the piece of God be on your house, in this cup and on you.
You know what I'm saying.
Well, then slide over to hit a kitchen laurel for breakfast sushi.
You know what I'm saying.
So breakfast sushi.
Yeah, we're gonna hit the breakfast more.
So this is you know what I'm saying.
I go, uh, I go breakfast sushi plus the black black pepper syrup.
You know what I'm saying.
What is a breakfast sushi, okay?
And then I go and then I go soy sauce, you know what I'm saying on top of it, so you get the umami sweet and sour sweet and salty.
So yeah.
But my man breakfast kitchen laurel over there in Midtown. They're like ten minutes from the shop. They're going crazy right now, bro, So the is it?
Wait? What is a breakfast sushi?
Like?
I don't even know what that is?
They do they take?
They take breakfast sausage, okay. I believe it's some souvi eggs, like the Japanese style eggs.
They chop them up.
I don't know what else goes in there. I think it's cream cheese.
Then they roll it in the sushi rice but it's a roll, and then they dip it in pancake batter.
Shut up, okay.
Then they dip it in pancake batter, deep fry it, and then they give you the black pepper. It almost says like cardival, but he swears just black pepper, the breakfast syrup. Okay, also on top with pickled okrah on the side. You feel me tapping it right down? Crazy, okay, bro?
As in the side because I know we can talk about that, but like this.
Whole uh James Beard arm the table, regional cuisine where people are this is really emulating and celebrating black innovation because once you get down to it, regional cuisine in.
The South and a lot of how different black people made they.
Yes, I'm like, this is your farm. The table is just gentrified.
I'm just like, you mean being poor, you mean eating what you got is that on the.
Outside and my grandma making me go hold the peace.
Get go, get that.
Had calla greens in South Central guard get them Cala Greens.
Yep, exactly.
This whole thing, bro is like, if you're looking for culinary innovation, you gotta look at poor people, you know what I'm saying. And you gotta look at cities like Mephis where so much of this innovation has come on.
It's beautiful. Like, yeah, my man get.
To get the swag. He's putting this thing together.
He's like, Oh, we're gonna take the because it's a black Memphis, Tennessee thing to eat rice for breakfast.
Okay. See, a lot of folks.
Don't know that, but like that's one of the things we want to want to do with the menu once we get everything fully popping in the New HQ, like rice bowls for breakfast, but it's like we've been eating sweet rice and savory rice for breakfast. So breakfast sushi roll is really just Okay, I'm gonna have some sweet bread, We're gonna have rice, it's gonna be a little salty, it's gonna be a little sweet.
Some sausage and eggs.
That was a plate growing up, and my man was like, oh, this is basically sushi.
You know what I'm saying. Brilliant.
So we're gonna hit that joint for the breakfast first, Okay, I'm saying, then we're gonna slide over the Hard Times Deli. So these are some of the homies who is also I think he on that James Beers, Jecktory, but these are on white homies. You know, I'm saying, they're gonna praz They doing this amazing, like just bruh. They're doing the chop cheese, they doing the bro this joint. The more to Della sandwich, I think they call it s money, but it's basically a fried baloney sandwich.
But there's real bushes for lunch.
Yeah, okay, Yeah, We're gonna hit that joint for lunch, then for post lunch.
You know what I'm saying, Why are we just eating?
Like, what else are we gonna do?
You said money was no object.
Yeah, No, that's a lot of food. I just ate, like, are we gonna go visit?
Kay?
Yeah, yeah, I got you, I got you.
But post lunch okay ghost lu Yeah our house cafe next to the real Yeah that John bro crazy if you get a day where they're doing the smoke wings and the macazees and the broccoli and cheese corn bread like okay, okay, So while we're in South Memphis at that point, we're definitely gonna hit up the Stax Museum.
You know what I'm saying.
We go into the deep history and I'm partially going my daddy from South Memphers, you know what I'm saying, But like into the history of soul music, and so much of the stuff that we love is coming from cities like Memphis, bro, and in places we're moving here and so like, check out the music, check out the culture. Then we'll start over. The Unapologetic Records do an amazing work. If you and me were going to the studio. You know what I'm saying.
Okay, of course, yeah, hit a.
Quick site for real quick drob. Some bars tapping with the homies are doing there. I think historically it's important to hit the Lorraine, you know what I'm saying, not just you gotta process that pain because as I said, like these things really did happen, you know what I'm saying, and so like for listeners.
For listeners, the Lorraine Hotel has been turned into an art exhibit museum. It's where doctor King was assassinated in you. I remember the first time I pulled up there, the way that the parking lot is when you turn the corner, it's like it's the exact like sort of framing of the famous picture when they're all pointing off the balcony, and I remember my heart.
Skipped a beat.
I was just like it was like a movie scene where like the like the the the spike lee like moving sidewalk when you just have like a moment that's like pulling in and zooming out like whoa. When I saw that moment, I was like, oh my god, it's a real place because for me, again on my West, I've never seen it in person. So seeing it in person, I was like, shook it anyway. Yeah, so you got to go there and process that, yeah, bro, And it's it's a real thing.
Man.
I think like even when we.
Had the Briefs Exchange program taking folks there for them to see this history, it was such a visceral thing because so much of what's happened in Memphis has touched the world, whether it's.
Bill Street, which I think after the Bill Street, Yeah, Bill Street.
Grab some food there, hit the FedEx Form to see the Grizzlies do they thing.
You know what I'm saying.
John Moran shot the right for the Creek and then leaving their bride. But I want to make sure we grab some barbecue, you know what I mean. So like I would definitely hit in the city, Like Cozy Corner is the spot bang barbecue. They more Texas style, but they spot Q Guard is doing some crazy things in the city.
And like at that.
Time, Bro, I think like what people just say, like it's like, yo, the food is so good, Like there's so much love here. I would I was still here, you know, I would take you by our house, you know what I'm saying, Yeah, sit down and she could.
Talk with you, pray with you.
That's doube.
We had a show once when I was on tour Andy that we just popped up on one of the days that the there was like a bill Street just so it seemed like it was like a street fair. First, they had a car show and it was just a gang of aunties and uncles up there, you know what I mean, Like, and I was it was just so gloriously black that I was like, this is the I don't want to perform it, I just want to be here, right.
So I spent most of the day there, and then after that we did our show and the venue, I forget what the name of it is, but the back exit, like if you exit from backstage, it just goes right onto Beal Street.
And it was like we just walked into a carnival. Homie.
I was like, and it was And I remember because it was Andy's birthday and I kind of got him drunk.
A little bit. Also, like it's also a lightweight like Andy.
That's why he doesn't really drink a lot because he just he just doesn't have a tolerance for it, right.
But I was like, bro, you gotta get I was like, bro, get you like a slushy Man.
I'm just like, it's no Bros.
Dangerous Bro.
I know because it's yes, because you think it's a Slushynah.
Bro, that's dangerous bro.
Anyway, yeah, Bro, But I think that's just a beautiful way if we want to go more culinary and our stoma sit endless.
I would also say hit the Million Jeans.
Okay, they're super elevated food, really great people.
They carry the coffee too, but they do this like on the weekends they do this burger that's made from like the steak shavings. Yeah, and that is insane, bro. But there's so many things you can hit in Memphis, Bro. Like it's it's it's like there's there. And I think that's the surprising part. Like we had the folks from PBS out here for they mentioned YouTube you know what I'm.
Saying, Yeah, I'm in the I'm in the opening credits.
Where yeah yeah, and they were like, Yo, Mphis is amazing, Like this is not what we expected. And we came willingly and we wanted to feature you guys, but they were like, we're low key more concerned to be in la than we already be out here with y'all, like everybody's been so inviting. So again, it's not that you know, there isn't any crime here, but I think that we're choosing to address the crime in a way that that erases our beauty and our humanity, you know what I'm saying.
And like nobody's saying, don't address the crime. But we're like bro and dressed like you killing the notes, my g.
Like it's different.
Profile anymore, Like are like we're enhancing what's beautiful here versus like erasing the folks who wanted the crime.
Yeah, most my when I when I was teaching out in with this like to your point. When I was teaching, there was this, uh, this kid I've said the story on the show before with this kid that used to show up like about team minutes late every time. He's a little chrollo dude, right, but on his bike. He'd walk in and he'd be like, what did I miss? And I'm like, well, you missed the first fifteen minutes
class every day, like you know. And then finally I asked him, you know at that point, you tardy three times you taught. That's a truancy, you know what I'm saying three truancies. I got to call it the truancy officer. Now you're getting excited, So now you have a record, right, So rather than doing that, I just asked him, like, why are you late every day? He's like, well, I have to drop my little brother off at school first.
So he's a freshman.
So but his dad was like kind of like a drinker, so he learned how to drive, so he would drive his brother to school, drive the car back home, and then take the bike to school, take the bike to school for him. And I'm like because he had to leave the car for his mom. So I'm like, okay, So here's how I make you not a criminal for doing the right thing? Is I just I just don't mark you as absent?
Yeah?
So I was like, so this is what I'll do for you, because I'm here and I understand what you're saying. Also for you, I'm like, as long as you come in here every day with your work done, I'm never gonna market you know what I'm saying. And guess what, you know that boy came in here every day with his work done. You know what I'm saying, because he's clearly a responsible adult.
You know what I'm saying.
You just explain to me, Just explain to me you're not a criminal, that you're a responsible adult. So rather than treating you as such because eight point fifteen is arbitrary, you are here taking care of it.
No, No, you know what I'm saying.
You gotta do it outside selling them, you know, selling bootlegs like okay.
Is he trespassing?
Yes?
But hey, homie, how much you need to make today? I gotta make three hundred dollars. Then you get hold on real quick. Let me just go here, three hundred dollars, give me the movies.
You know what I'm saying. Like that done? Yeah, you're sitting on saying skin Why it's because I'm from here, you know what I'm saying. Anyway, thank you so much. Coffee Black.
Please tell them where they can find and order coffee and support what you're doing.
Yeah, for sure, ce X F F E E Black. No, oh, it's an X like Malcolm. You know what I'm saying. Dot com and we'd love to get you hooked up. We're actually about to drop like our first course ebook scenario. So if you're into like how to make your coffee not booble. You know what I'm saying, you got you will sat you up and yeah, man, just continue to support these beautiful things.
Bro.
So what I love about coffee is like every community in every farm and every seed has just like it's like an adventure, you know what I'm saying, Like you get a chance if you do the work on your side to dial in right, Like there's this really dope experience and they are different.
So that's what I love about coffee. Check us out.
But I think, like, man, just check your community out. Like I think there's a lot of things where people are like, y'all, I didn't know this was here because just moving what we the narratives we receive, and I think that's beautiful.
For us on the other side of this.
So, okay, give me give me a gimme one Memphis phrase right now that like I would have no idea what you were saying unless from there, Dad.
Okay, my wife is right here. Show you got a very mephis phrase out. I feel you might have it.
I know a lot of music, so I might know, but.
Like, yeah, yeah you say greening them up.
You know what I'm saying.
There you go and then flodging. Yeah that ma fliging bro.
Man fliging greening the yeah, the.
Greening them up flaging me like you don't tell us, don't tell us. I'm gonna make them look it up. All right, there it is. It's respect prospect, yeah, respect, All right, Now, don't you hit stop on this pod. You better listen to these credits. I need you to finish this thing so I can get.
The download numbers. Okay, so don't stop it yet, but listen.
This was recorded in East Lost Boyle Heights by your boy Propaganda. Tap in with me at prop hip hop dot com. If you're in the Coldbrew coffee we got Terraform Coldbrew. You can go there dot com and use promo code hood get twenty percent off get yourself some coffee. This was mixed, edited, and mastered by your boy Matt Alsowski killing the beat Softly. Check out his website Matdowsowski dot com.
I'm a speller for you because I know M A T.
T O S O W s ki dot com Matthowsowski dot com.
He got more music and.
Stuff like that on there, so gonna check out The heat Politics is a member of Cool Zone Media. Executive produced by Sophie Lichterman, part of the iHeartMedia podcast network. Your theme music and scoring is also by the one and Overly Mattowsowski.
Still killing the beat softly, so listen. Don't let nobody lie to you.
If you understand urban living, you understand politics.
These people is not smarter than you. We'll see y'all next week
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