This Ain't 8 Mile Fam

moms spaghetti. You may only know the of course some world torn dropping the four tours over the floor boards, getting divorced and divorce at the same time as Harrison Ford and tinking panting, panting, panting, wall panickin. You're using way too many napkins, bapkins flapping flapping around like a bathkin.

You may only know Meme Eminem. But in the art of rap, in the time that he came and even up to now, his track record, his catalog, his ability to just the mastery of the art and skill of rap, he's he's really there's there's not really you can't. He may not be your thing, which is what I'm trying to get out he may not be your thing. Maybe what you like, just like some people don't like sushi. I disagree with those people. They are wrong, but some

people don't like sushi. But it is when you have someone who is a an absolute prodigy, Mastery, Michelin, star, sushi chef, it is what it is. They're objectively Eminem what my argument is, take it from prop Eminem is objectively one of the top five rappers to ever rap.

Just I know, trust me. But in this work eight Mile, which in hindsight's a little funny, you know, growing up in the mean streets of Detroit, which is not funny, and them streets are actually very mean, but their music scene was thriving, like there's no other way around that. Detroit all the way back to Motown. Detroit has given us some of the greatest music in the world. Anyway, their underground scene and I've got to perform at this

place which was super dupe. But St. Andrew's Hall upstairs and then downstairs is the famous scene at the end where he's rapping two overshook ones and loosely based on his life living in a trailer park and he's trying to get a record deal and break it to the industry and has this one major battle. And in this battle, he's just knocking off local rappers left and right, you know,

and the cheddar Bob of the world. And anyway, at the end of it, he wins the battle and he goes home, but he wins over this room full of black people. And as he's taken out crew after crew and rapper after wrapper, he uh then just has to go back to work because underground wrap don't pay. This is pre you are l and grind time before any YouTube channels for rap battles. I'm quoting myself in that you can go back and listen to my work excellent record.

I'm not saying I'm excellent, but there's an album called excellent, and the title track is called excellent. And I say he with low standards, don't get no mics on the stage as I stand on to battle where the stakes where the rights to keep the mic for a couple more bars. No YouTube channels for rap battles of cash prizes, just keeping your cool when heat rises. So anyway, there's

no ten thousand dollar pots. It wasn't until like the end of my time in the battle rap scene where you would win a chance to do a song with Dre. You know what I'm saying. Anyway, Uh, that wasn't the scene. We can that what that scene that y'all know about, where you write the you get to do the acapella right then write the three minute verse. You get three months to prepare. I didn't come from that. You had to come off the head. You don't know who you

was battling, and you got to do anyway. So this scene was supposed to be that any completely wins over the crowd, and it was absolutely incredible and encouraged. White rappers are everywhere to think that they could actually do this. The problem is, this would be the corniest movie ever if Eminem was not the most amazing rapper ever. Like it. I can't stress this enough. How good of a rapper Eminem is that being said, Like I said, I come from the battle rap scene. It don't really be working

like that, Fam. You don't ever really went over the crowd. It just you got your whole crew the air cheer. They listen, this ain't Eminem, Fam, This ain't look it. You have to be the greatest rapper in the world for this to happen. Listen, this ain't a mile. Let's talk about televised debates, y'all. Hood Polo tis welcome, Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome.

In this season of midterms, hopefully you've watched a number of like local debates, um, and maybe you didn't watch them, maybe you uh just saw the clips the next day, and those clips oftentimes tend to go a long way. My man JB out in Au Oklahoma City, shout out j B and okay see and everything he's doing on the East Side project, it's just absolutely incredible. At some point I'm gonna bring him in here just to talk about what he's doing because it is the epitome of

what we want to see and why we do this pod. Anyway, Um, that was a sip of coffee because I keep it real. The Cliffy showed was from their gouvernatory a race where this man that was running was basically trying to make a point about being aspirational, and he was essentially saying, listen, when you run a company and you say you're gonna be the top ten company in the world, it's it's not like a literal thing, it's it's aspirational, like and

you know me being the government. You know, Oklahoma being the top ten state. We're not gonna be that, but it's aspirational. I was like, Fam, you said, what now, so hold up in in a debate to get elected. You just this the people that's supposed to choose you by being like, y'all ain't gonna ever be no top ten you ain't never you ain't never no, but you ain't in nobody's top ten list. We'll never be there. I just want us to work as if we might one day. I was like, Fam, you gotta write this

stuff down before you start talking. Every once in a while when you freestyle, and I'm gonna be real, like again, I come from battle wrap. I come from freestyle. Every once in a while when you get sometimes you black out. There's been moments that I'm like, you come to at the end. It's just I it's like, what when people talk about flow state, like I didn't realize that. We

didn't obviously we didn't know what that was called. But we were accessing flow state every night because there's a there is a moment where you start feeling like a man. Before I recorded this, I should have brought in some of the homies you start feeling like in your head you're three and four lines ahead of what's coming out of your mouth. I'm already connecting the dot. I'm four bars ahead of you of what's coming out of my mouth.

I didn't already connected those dots. I've already thought about the patterns, like when you're good at it, and the extent for which you could be good at it is your mastery of the ability to do that. And then sometimes my homeboy pad side and talks about this sometimes and I've experienced it. You just black out. You couldn't ask me to tell you what I just said. I don't remember it. It's just the moment gets so intense, everything clear, It's like everything fires. The moment slows down.

You feel like you're again. I come from the time where it's there's an instrumental playing and you just I couldn't get off beat if I tried, and what's coming out of my mouth, I'm so in the moment. You're so locked in that it's like I couldn't fall off if I tried. I have another friend where you you

have to cut him off because he won't stop. It's just you you lock in, which is why it's I have a hard time to understand if he rappers who say they came freestyle, because I just didn't come from that, Like that was something that It's like a basketball player that can't dribble. It's just a part of the game. I know things have changed. See I'm old school. Everybody

don't work like me, you know what I'm saying. But that's that's where I came from, right, and the melody in the case into the words and the styles, like it all had to be together. Now when you think about like Southern trap rap or like drill music or stuff like that, like it's all vibe, you know what I'm saying, it's just gotta feel aggressive. And a lot of them dudes do go in there in freestyle songs like rain Drops, jop Talps, Cooking U Feather the crup pot.

That's the girls thought thought like, if that's vibe, like you were just feeling good, it don't have to make sense, you know what I'm saying. It does, but it doesn't have to. It just has to feel right. I didn't come from that. You had to bar out you feel me. But then there are other times when you're in that flow state and something ridiculous comes out of you about and you're like, oh what just wait, what did I

just say? And what was so funny? And not funny but like sad from that time is like hip hop historically has been very homophobic. So unfortunately a lot of the battle phrases were about calling the other person gay to our shame, you know, That's what the scene was like. But when you when you black out and your freestyle

and some of the things that you're saying are rather gay. Yeah, and and it's and at the at the time, unfortunately we would it was it's I'm saying this to our shame at the time, those things will come out of our mouth and you would catch yourself like, you know, bend over, nigger, I turned you to a prostitute. Get putting that grass like it's like word, I mean, that's like, I mean, you're suppressing stuff, you know what I'm saying.

But the point I'm trying to make is sometimes it comes out of your mouth in a way that it wasn't supposed to come out of your mouth. And I feel like that's what happened with a Oh boy, Like maybe you're not as doub with a freestyle as you think you are. You should have thought that through. You should have random bars in front of you. Anyway, the point is all I know about that that debate was

that clip. Okay, some might ask at least some people have asked me this, why do you even televise debates? Especially after the debacle of the two thousand sixteen elections that were just absurd. They were just like these screaming matches. You're not answering the question. And I don't know if you remember in two thousand and sixteen when there was count them eleven people running for the Republican See, it's like,

you can't get no word in. There's no way for you, there's no way for you to like get your bars off. You can't get your bars. There's two many people and and we're talking over each other. We're just trying to get singers, and like nobody's convincing anyone. This is why I bring up battle rap. Now. I come from a scene and and please follow me when I say all this. I come from a scene where this is early internet, so Internet didn't rule the world. I am probably a

lot older than a lot of y'all. Um, Well maybe not a lot older. You know what I'm saying. But hip hop, the type of hip hop we existed in it was really a clandestined sort of thing. We were the scene. While like perfect example, when Doggie Style dropped the Snoop Dogs record and single Snooke Dog Dog in the same city in Los Angeles, so did a song called Passing Me By from a group called the Far Side. And I can still wrap that song from top to bottom.

Near my younger days, I used to support a shack. When I went to school. I carried lunch in a bag with an apple for my teacher. That would fill up too much time. But anyway, with my name last on the looking glass and seen her yesterday, but still I had the letter pass Do for Dirt Dirt or Cheekie's Oh Pasting Me By a good film. You can watches the Elements documentary. It's about this, the other scene of l a hip hop. A lot of my friends are in that, and it was about what else was

happening in Los Angeles. So while DJ Quick and Snoop Dogg and dog Pan what's happening so was dialectic people's Far Side ending up in the Bay. People like Soul is a mischief and I need three to infinity gift to gab you know, uh Visionaries, Uh Freestyle Fellowship. You know, this whole other world Ski Low. You know, I wish

I was a little bit taller. I wish I was about he come from that scene, right, So there was this whole other area of Los Angeles that was doing a different type of hip hop, right and out of that was like m where I would show up at weekly open mics and battles and DJs and some some of them were always battles, some of them were just like those are even a spot called Building Box, you know where you just you're we're playing past the mic and uh event called Project Blowed in this area called

the Mert Park and the Crenshaw District, you know, where you would stand outside on the street corner and you just freestyle until the sun came up. It's a great childhood, you know. But then Elements itself, like Elements was like the Playoffs. It was like it was cutthroat in a way that it's like like, think of it like this.

It's a single elimination tournament. You know, you sign up on the list of battle and when you're sometimes your friends would sign you up on it, just be like, oh dang, I wouldn't even try to do it, but anyway, you gotta get up there and do it. And out of that came things like the Blaze Battle that was on HBO, and then I was in a documentary called The Battle for l a about l a battle rap scene.

And then out of that you get stuff like eight Mile, you know, which was a movie that's about the Detroit scene, right, and then later on you get like the King of the Dots in grind Times, where you can build a whole industry around that, where people are like athletes, like battle raps. They're like T threes to me, like those are those are evolved versions of what I came from. I can't do what they do. I've hung my mic up when it comes to the battle rap stuff. Now

off the head. I might serve these foods, but for what they do now, I can't do what they do. This is a long way to say that in that scene, what you find is and we would travel like you would. You would show up like Elements was one night, Blowed was another night. There was a spot called Foundation, which was another night. There was one called Chain reaction, which

was a whole other night. So four and five nights a week, we were all over the town in different places, and each of those places had like their hometown heroes, you know what I'm saying, had their locals uh elements. There was a guy named Dotted Line who is in the documentary. There was a story where he which happened.

He battled five dog from tribe call quest. Just because you have a big name, at least when it comes to l a on me and you get a pass here, you got to prove yourself right, which is the point I'm trying to get at. So in this area, in this scene, you usually if you're on the list, even if it's like planning like I'm a battist foreman, service food, the crowd is the X factor. Follow me. If the crowd just decides they like one guy, if you bring enough of your homies there and they just cheer leading,

there's nothing the other person can say. It don't matter even if this person's there's you know the meme of the guy that like of the guy's going like but I'm not a rapper, and all of his friends are like going crazy, you know, after he drops his boss, but I'm not a rapper. You flow show mo and everybody behind like really, in some ways it was more like that, you're not gonna defeat this dude unless you

was a purist. Most of the time. If he brings, if she brings her whole squad, her whole crew, they whole crew. If they whole crew is there and their whole crew loud enough, the other person can't get their bars off. And sometimes the hope is to get into the other person's head enough to where the crowd has just turned against them and they're still laughing at the lines from the other guy. What you saw an eight mile is something that I gotta tell you it rarely happens.

I maybe can count on one hand, and I'm when I tell you from ages sixteen, two wenty five, maybe something like that. So for maybe even younger than sixt fifteen, maybe maybe fifteen fifteen. So for ten years of my life, that is what we did, whether it was somebody's garage or at the open mics, or traveling across how I ditched school to go to Arrival High School to battle some dude at lunch like this is the this is what we get. I can count on one hand that

what you saw an eight mile happens. You don't win the crowd over unless you are eating this food. You have to be eminem level exceptional. It just there has been times where I know for a fact I'm serving this food, you know what I'm saying, But I'm at his school as it just don't matter, Like I'm out of school. He got his armies, like I can't get these bars off. This fool even looked at me later it was like, I know, you know, we were scared.

I never forget. He was like, now everybody knew you was gonna win, So we just did this to like try to make you so that you wouldn't but of course you want, you know, like and it was part of the game, you know now. Um that being said, and the things like like an elements, you become weeklies, right you you so you become regulars. You know, you're there every week and you're kind of battling the same people. It's the same home he's in. Like sometimes you win,

sometimes you lose. Sometimes you you know, you get taken out. Other times you take them out, you know what I mean. And you just you get on streaks and it was dope, you know what I mean? Uh, but that's because the crowd knows and loves both of us. Does that make it's It's very rare that someone could come into Los Angeles an attempt to battle one of our rappers. Unless they were incredible. You just don't. You don't win over there. Listen,

this ain't eight miles that ship don't happen. You feel me? I feel like this is the same what televised debates back after this? Yeah, all right, we're back. So I

bring all that up to say this. When you turn on your television for clips, whether it's CNN or Fox News or whatever the case may be, of these air town hall meetings, you know, air debates between candidates, whether it's local or um you know, national, you're probably thinking most people are like everybody else, they haven't already decided.

They just want to see if they're do got bars or if you want to see if you're just looking for something to to go oh at, which is just battling, right, and you're hoping the person that you're not feeling just

has whack bars and don't a something. But there you know what, but you know what, they they team gonna do day team gonna find the clips of day person dropping bars and then your team gonna find clips yo person dropping bars, Or you're gonna be one of those like bitter fans that are like, man, this fool ain't even giving bars. You so much better than this. Why do you main't give them the bars? He was out here just lacking. Man, Come on, why you keeping for

this stuff? Man? Not say to say the joints? Say the joint you know. Um, if it's like a three or four person battle, you like dog no, but homie over here was listen. That's when you're like, look, you're not giving no love to my g over here in the corner. That fool giving y'all heat. You're here with this fool said, ain't nobody paying this food no attention? You know? So you're essentially already went in the way that most crowds go in at battles, which has already

got our person. I'm a cheerlead for my dude, like my homie on the list. I got my homie back. Now, if my homie gets served, am I gonna say something to the rest of y'all? No, do I really think they got served? Or I'm gonna try to find a way to be like, I don't know, it's close now. Me, I'm a purist. If the homy got served, they got served, right. But in our politics, do you know any peers. I don't know nobody that would be honest and will be like, nah,

you're tripping dog, that's my dog. But they now, they're bugging out right most of the time. And I'm pretty sure your perception is mine is we already know who your person is. You just trying to get ammo on him, or you just trying to get ammo on why the other person is whack. Now, granted, the ship show that was debates was like I ain't never seen nothing like that.

That was bizarre, right, But this isn't the nineteen sixties and nineteen fifties where these debates were, at least from my perspective, way here in much more cerebral, much more academic, and like like you had to you had to know what the hell you was talking about. That just doesn't seem like now in this age of two minute one minute clips. You know what I'm saying, You just trying to get your punch lines off. That's why I say this is battle rap. You're trying to get your punch

lines off. You ain't gotta put together no bars. You ain't gotta have to like seven you know, the the octuplet you feel me unless you really into that, unless you are a nerd, like you're a battle rap nerdy. You want to catch the octuplets, you know, wrap like common sense or common uh jay z bar. Truthfully, I want to rhyme like common Sense, but I did five mill.

I ain't been rhyming like Commons since it's a disk on Common because Common was one of those clever, clever rappers who would say stuff like, swell, does my child now a milk? Like sim relax, don't have cinemax because my cables pirated. Bug out with the rhymes. Try to swat, I'll get fly with it. To my comp I'm a ton I get amped like Watson a riot, you know, to my competition, I'm a ton I get amped like

Watts in a riot. The Watts riots anyway. Anyway. Then he's like, you know these four parts word plays, nobody's here for that. They want to like turned your mama into it and veal let's go. The point I'm making is you've already decided who your dog is, who your winner is. So then the question is what are the debates for, if not for most of us at least as we think who we've already decided. Like, listen, ain't no whe in the world, I'm voting Republican or you've

already decided, ain't in the world I'm voting Democrat. Who is this for? What's for the undecided? To what you would say, really, how many people undecided? Even if it's at least or the independent voter. It's like a lot of people, you know, they say they don't like politics. I don't want to get into It's like, no, dude, I'm not political. A lot of people said I'm not political, which is a political statement, but I'm not really political. I don't wanna. What they mean is they're not partisan.

That's what they mean by that. You know they don't want to get into partisan politics, right, but you already know, well, I know I'm never gonna vote Democrat. Or you're like, well, I already know I'm never gonna vote Republican. There's no way in the world I could support this party. Well, then that's partisan. But this news might shock you that half the voters in America if the polls had stand up that like post stand up are undecided And monthly

reports from UH you could look at um. This is called the World Population Review and in the Party Affiliation on the Gallant Pole history, they're all saying this like at least it's how many voters who identify as Democrat, a Republican or independent is actually very surprising. In monthly reports says on an average of more than of voters identify themselves as independent. Now when you say independent, a

lot of times what they mean is undecided. Another investigation I'm reading right here, this this section from World Population Review dot com. It says, in many cases these numbers can be viewed as undecided voters who may often choose independent when in limbo. By contrast, the number of people who claire as Republicans or Democrat typically hovers around yes. That means voters who identify as independent voters outpaced both those who declare themselves as Democrat and Republican. This is

what I'm telling you, They just loud. When I tell you you in that room you're battling, you just got loud cheerleaders. And that's what the Democrat and Republican parties has convinced us is that they more of him. They are, of course the most powerful, but they're not the most numerous. It's really not that many of y'all in this room. You just loud. These numbers aren't an abarition. I mean, this is all the statistics, go back all the way to two thousand four. The thing is, we've let the

cap fool us, and they know it. This ship is not set in stone. These people are out here trying to recruit as many of the undecided as they can. You know why because if you want their team, they already got you. Because most of us have said what we said, which is, I mean, I don't like this nigga, But ain't nowhere in the world I'm voting for no Republicans. You have already said that I don't like this nigga.

Ain't why in the world the important Democrat Because we're like, well, if these are choices, and how many times have you been in a conversation where you tried to critique one side and then they'll go, well, well, well what about these fools? And you're like, I'm not even talking about them fools. I'm not saying they are any better. I'm just critiquing this one thing. Well, it's either this or that. It's like, dude, you know what they know is that it's not we're in a two party system. But what

the numbers say? That blew my mind. So when I look at these debates and I'm like, while y'all acting like this eight man, you ain't gonna win, nobody turns out I was wrong. There's somebody in the back that's like, oh, Danny kind of got a point there. So the question really is that every politician is asking, and why you put on these debates is how do you get your hands on them independent voters? How do you get your hands on him? Undecided? What do I need to tell you?

What do you need to see bad about the other side, about the other person? How can I convince you there's no third choice? How can I convince you that my bars are greater than yours? So what I'm gonna do is I'm just gonna throw as many bars as I can at you in these small bites and small clips, and at least when you see us head to head, you could be like, dangle, Yeah, he got a point there. Dang he got a point there. That's why you air these things. You air him for the news tomorrow, right,

So what does that mean to us? Here's what it means to us. And this is what like I cannot stress enough. It's that these people running for office are more aware of the power you have than you are. Let that sink in day, more aware of the power that you have than you are. I used to battle rap. I know what kind I know. I can spit. Listen, I pound mix. I do a lot of like conscious and uplifting and positive music. But if you need me to just get my bars off. You don't want to

see propaganda. Your boy got bars. But I'll tell you what. You sent me to battle down in New Orleans, I'm gonna lose because the crowd matters. You sent me to battle down in Texas. I'm probably gonna lose. You know why, because the crowd old matters. Yeah, these politicians know that. So what I want you to know is, listen, I don't believe our liberation is in the hands of any of these political parties. I think a two party system

is our demise. It's and and it's because they're really good at convincing us that there is only two parties. You feel me. Oh look, look they talk about take the streets. You talk about crips and bloods. I was like, I grow with atos. There's a third option over here. You understand what I'm saying. So the point I'm trying to make is they would convince you that we are the keys to your liberation. My answer is neither one

of y'all. All the keys to the liberation. The keys to our liberation is realizing the power that we collectively have as a community. They need what we got and they know that more than we know that. You better make these people sweat for your vote, make them earn it. This let's let's let's make it a mile. Okay, get up there and show me your bars. You're following me. Listen. Our relationship with with the government. Listen, we're not friends. There's something you want me stand up there and act

like we're friends. Nig We're not friends. This ship is transactional. Like you understand what I'm saying, Like like it's a T shirt on my website. I don't hate America. I just the man she keeps your promises. You haven't made promises to me. I need you to uphold your side. Our relationship is transactional. Nigga, were not friends. So when you get on this camera you want me to choose you for your job, I need you to spit that heat. And if you're gonna spit that heat, I need to

be able to see if you false flagging? Nigga, Is you really about that? Is you're about I'm gonna run your license? You really about that these streets? You're really doing this ship you say you're doing. You understand what I'm saying. Nigg Listen, I came in here at first, change my mind. I may look like I'm on one side, just like you make just like you can stand on that crowd. Listen. There has been those other times in

my battle rap career too. You walk into the city, you walk into this room, and then niggas just love hip hop. So they may believe already because they ain't heard me rap yet. You know that they boyfriends served me and I'm listening they boy getting their bars off. But there's a moment, probably any other athletes understand when you realize in the middle of this game, oh You're gonna win this. They can't. It's over. These fools can't guard me? Are we were about to win this game? Like,

there is a moment. I remember those moments in battle Rap where I was just like, after this dude did his first round, I was like, oh, I'm a moth, this fool. Oh it's going down, and watch me win this crowd over watch. I've won crowds over It's not impossible, it's just rare. You have to be listening. I had to earn it. So my request to all of us listening to this is, Okay, this ain't aight mile, but maybe you can make it a mile. Make these fools

earn it. Did you know that on average? And do your googles, maybe on average of registered voters actually vote. You're hearing me? So who gets? Who get their choice? Or the loud ones? They're not the most of us. They just allowed it. Make these fools earn it. Little politics, Yeah, this is here. Thing was recorded by me Propaganda and East Low Spoil Heights, Los Angeles, California. This smug was mixed, edited, mastered, and scored by Matt Ososki. I can totally say his name, guys,

it was it was a stick. He's won by Matt now again because he got to some legal situations with the name headlights. Y'all know, comment used to be called common sense. You know, tip t I was tipped sometimes it happened. Executive produced by the one and only Sophie Lichtman or 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 you'll next week. Partner start to starting post