You're listening to Comedy Central.
Covering the news is exhilarating. You travel the country, meet interesting people and find real stories. But then one day you realize it's a looking Tuesday in November again.
Well, it's election day again.
Got it?
It's election day again. Because it's sorry, I can't.
It's election Day again, Virginia. As a journalist, I'm honored to be covering this sacred process.
Again.
I feel super chill about it.
I'm good.
It's election day again, and we've got another close race on our hands, so you better start clenching those butt cheeks.
Early voting is already underway in the Virginia gubernatorial race, with the latest polling showing Democratic Governor Terry mccauliffe effectively in a debt heat.
Political If Terry mccauliff doesn't pull out a win, Democrats are privately predicting a collapse on Capitol Hill.
Wait, Virginia could go red. For a state that went blue by four hundred and fifty thousand votes in the last election, this was a story worth keeping down the Vombit. I sat down with Jeffrey Skelly from five point thirty eight to help me make sense of this.
Sorry about the mess elections? Am I right?
Why is this race in particular so close? Isn't Virginia blue?
Yeah?
So Virginia has been Democratic leaning over the last few years, but President Biden is now somewhat unpopular and I think voters are responding to that, and so the electoral environment is better for Republicans. So you've got a close race in Virginia.
Who do you think will actually decide this race?
Young voters are really important because they are basically the most Democratic leaning group. Well, one little interesting thing McCall he's done is run campaign ads attacking Glenn Youngkin because he was a CEO of the Carlisle Group, which was
involved in the purchase of Taylor Swift's Mashur ordings. And so they've been using this to try to get young people to pay attention to the race, because there are a lot of young people out there, you know, eighteen to thirty four year olds who really like Taylor Swift.
Virginia Democrat candidate for governor Terry mcaulloff recruiting Taylor Swift fans, o'culloff reportedly linking his opponent to music executive Scooter Braun, who infamously bought Swift's master recordings.
Back in twenty nineteen.
After I was denied the chance to purchase my music outright, my entire catalog was sold to Scooter Braun's Epica Holdings in a deal that I'm told was funded by the Carlisle Group.
One of the targeted ads reading, did you know that Republican candidate for governor Glenn Youngkin helped by Taylor Swift's masters out from under her?
He be shitting' me. Taylor Swift fans vote.
I think that's what the call Iff campaign is hoping.
If the Swifties are backing mccaulliff, what group of fans are backing Youngkin?
Chet Hanks fans?
Chetheads, Well, we don't have any polling on on different fan groups of musical artists.
Five eight.
Yeah, it's a real it's a real niche Could we be underestimating the Swifties.
I think I'd be careful about giving them too much weight. But there are a lot of young people who like Taylor Swift. We know that's true.
Could Taylor Swift fans be the key to the Virginia race? To find out, I had to dive deep into their fandom, no matter how many of her albums I had to buy on the show's credit card.
Oh sorry, this just happened to me without my approval or consent.
Shame on him.
Whoa, whoa.
Finally, after becoming fluent in all things Taylor, I gathered a group of her fans of Virginia to see how angry they were with Canada. Youngkin, are you all true fans? Are you true Swifties? Did you buy signed Fearless albums?
Taylor version?
I actually do have it and I can pull it up.
I also have every single Taylor record on vinyl right next to me.
I want to go that far.
Yeah.
The two most important dates in November is November two, which is an election day, in November twelfth, which is Red.
Yeah.
I'm taking off work for election, Jay Andy, just in case the lines are too long.
Are you also taking up work for Taylor's release of Red?
Oh one?
I need to get through all the emotions of all the songs on that album. I'm taking off work and my therapist is not getting the day off.
While I respect this generation, it's clear dedication to mental health. Could this new base of voters actually tip the scales in Virginia.
I'm originally from Texas, and the last three years in college I voted in Texas. But I just knew that I couldn't just sit by and watch as Youngkin took Virginia. And so that's when I decided to change my voter registration.
Wow, okay, so you just changed your registration. This is dedication.
I was in the weird college era as well, where I was kind of voting in my home state, but now I am voting Virginia.
Because of this issue.
I couldn't help but pity these young girls. There are so many important issues. All they care about is Taylor Swift's Master recordings.
It's not really about the Masters, But I mean, just a couple of days ago, Youngkin came out and said, you know, he loves everyone who When asked if that includes LGBTQ people, he said.
No, Are there other issues that you care about?
Women's choose.
I'm very passionate about gun violence prevention.
Climate change is going to be the biggest issue of our time, so those policies are super important.
I'm an environment engineer, so this is life changing.
What would you say to boomers like my aunt Silo, who say fourteen year old girls should stay out of politics and stop stealing my sleeping pills.
Daisy.
I think that's such a weird stereotype of Taylor so fans because we're not fourteen anymore. We are adults, We pay tectives, and we vote.
Yeah. Do you want to see my thesis paper about congressional legislation because I can show you that. Don't underestimate Swifty's.
All right, take it easy, Molly geez. I don't want any snake comments on my Insta. Yes they are are fans of Taylor Swift, and yes they are in their twenties. Maybe they can make a difference in this upcoming election. No matter what happens, at least now I'll have some great music to cry to, just in time for next election.
Tuesday, we welcome back to the Daily Show.
My guest tonight is a Grammy nominated singer songwriter whose latest album is called Witsit Chapel.
Please welcome, Jolly Roe, My God, thank you.
That's right, they all wishing you happy birthday. You celebrated a ball day on Monday, right, yes, sirs, past Monday, sir, and you celebrated a number one record. Would save me, Yes, sir, Yes, sir, many.
Number one, look at.
Me jail the show God, you know I love saved me?
Man.
You released it what three years ago on YouTube?
Yes, sir, three years ago on YouTube.
And you posted a I know this is a little different from me, but I'm wondering if this should make the album or not?
Y'all let me know below.
Why didn't you believe the song should make the house?
Oh? Man? Insecurity?
That that voice of the negativity that gets in all of our ears, man, that one that we fired every day.
I'm glad I followed enough to put it up.
Absolutely did save me.
Taking off change your perspective on the type of music you do and how you release it because it just three years ago it came out, but it just went number one on the country charts this week.
Yeah.
Absolutely, man, I want to show me that sometimes you gotta let a song find people. You know, music meets us where we are. That's the beauty of a Charlemagne is that music is therapeutic. It's stare to help and heal. It's a constant and a life that doesn't have many constants in it.
So I'm just glad to see the song finally touch people.
I love your story too.
Man.
Fifteen years ago you were in prison and now you're a Grammy nominated musician.
So I guess my question is, man, no finking.
So, so my question is should everybody go to prison? Yeah to find success?
Ye?
Yeah, exactly. They're giving it away free, y'all. Especially, I promise it's really easy to get there. In your take three.
Hots and a cop, baby, you got guaranteed bed, three meals a day.
It's all good. Actually, it's cod Might see a high school.
Friend and I love your song she too, Man, when you address the heroin and fentanyl epidemic.
Yes, why is this song so.
Important to me?
You know?
Man, I think it's important as an artist for us to talk about the things that people are afraid to talk about, and that art sometimes is an expression of what words are even afraid to say. So I think it's a responsibility as a songwriter to write those kind of songs. And the Fennol epidemic is sickening. What's happening in America right now is absolutely sickening. I think it's
fourteen p thank you. I think it's thank y'all. So I think I heard it's statistic that it's fourteen people an hour overdosing dime United States of America every hour on the hour, twenty four hours a day, three hundred and sixty five days a year, three sixty six in a leap here. I'm that country, and I think if you think about those numbers alone, it shows me that you heard people here sharing that it has effected every household.
Every side of the aisle.
Everybody in America has been affected by this somewhere or the other. And I think it's time we stand up to do something about it.
We would you, right, what would you tell people who were struggling with that addiction?
I would tell them that there is hope. That My biggest message as actually had I had my first viral clip Charlem Mane. I don't know if you know it.
Come on, I know you did.
You helped it go viral, and it was I was talking about how it's so important for us to recognize that our windshield is bigger than our rear view mirror for a reason, because what's in front of us is more important than what's behind us.
That who we were is not who we are, right, you know that's right.
You know a lot of people may not know, but I read Juicy Jay's book, so I know you was down with three six of my.
Field, Yes, sir, from day one.
Yeah, they performed just hard out there for a pimp?
At was it?
Yes, sir, Bonnaru and I actually had the privilege of them going on tour with me and doing five shows and we did hard out here for a pimp every night.
And y'ah was a group though, right, it was you, a little waited, me.
Little White and our our guy BPsy from Indianapolis who sadly passed away rest in peace BPS of Yes, sir.
What did you learn from your time in three six oh.
Man, everything, Little White and three six Juicy J and Paul The importance of ownership, the importance of independent music, the importance of making the music for your community, and that all that matters representing your people in music, because they didn't care about representing nothing but Memphis. And the fact that the sound went worldwide just shows that how much the problems are common everywhere. So write what you know, don't write what you think you know, Write what you know.
And they taught me a lot through that, but most importantly the independence and ownership.
Yeah, hip hop has more in common with country music than people realize.
Like, they're both great storytellers. They both talk about their vehicles a lot.
Yeah right, yeah, they both talk about bitch.
It is twenty twenty three, say women, But no, I met dogs, Oh may, I brought a bunch of songs about my dog.
Let me get my mind out. That's wrong with out here.
I got my dog with me on the bus right now, the bus dog.
Speaking of that.
Speaking of that, though, you know, it feels to me and I'm only getting this from what I see you post on social The more you blow up, the more it seems like you want to be around your family and your dog and your loved ones.
My reading that correctly, sir, man, I want to anchor myself and family. I think it's the root of everything we do. Plus, I'm gonna be honest. He we're a little we're a little tribe, and they're my best friends. My favorite human on earth is my wife.
You know what I mean here?
Like one hundred.
I love my daughter, I love my relationships. And I was joking, but I love.
My dogs, man, I love my ay.
They're all with us now.
My wife's got one, I got two in the bus right now, I got a basket hound. She's got a bully, and we got a French. We got a French bulldog. Okay, yeah, we're dog people. Then we had a cat. I had a hairless cat, of bald cat, one of them.
Listen. It was so ugly, it was cute, it was awesome. And this cat this.
Needs to say about me when I was younger. Yeah, they kind of still say that. Now.
It's better what they said about me. He's cute, but he's fat.
But all you got to do is lose, wait and unlock that.
Oh yeah, totally. Then i'd be a president. You know what I'm saying. God, That's why God didn't make me skinny. He knew I had to abuse the powers. You know.
My guests to Know is an award winning singer, composer and instrumentalist whose new album is called You're the One.
Please welcome Rhiannon Giddons.
The Gray.
They're gray, right, Thank you for being here, Thanks for having me, thank you for chatting with us.
You're in town to accept the Politzer for this opera called Omar, about an enslaved African Muslim that you took the memoirs and converted into an opera.
Explain this, I mean, we went from banjo to opera.
It's all just Yeah, it's been really interesting because it was the opposite. I went to Oberlin learned opera, and then kind of got burnt out and went down in North Carolina where I'm from and learned.
The banjo, and then full circle came back.
I was asked to write this opera about Omar and Ben Sayid, who was a Senegalese Qoranic scholar at thirty seven sold into slavery. And it's just an incredible story because we're talking about like who gets to represent the American story, you know, and it's to complicate that narrative. It all these different kinds of people who represent the
American story. And he's went and his autobiography was written in Arabic while he was enslaved, and it's the only document of that kind that we know of in existence, and it's just a really special story.
So I just.
Feel amazingly overwhelmed by the fact that I got to make it with Michael Abels, my co composer, and that for the Spiletto Festival, and that it's been honored with a Pulitzer.
It's just like it's a dream come true. That's graz That's awesome. Fassin, this is your latest album. It's great. I love this album cover. This is awesome. This album is a little more playful.
Is that a good word to use totally than your previous albums?
Was that an obvious choice for you?
Yeah?
I mean like, for the last fifteen years, I've been that girl at the party on a Friday night that you back away from it. Man, you don't talk about slavery or the banjo or both, and I'm just like really not into it. I just like I was kind of getting burned out and I just needed to change things up, and I had these songs I've been writing over fourteen years and just wanted to explore the other sides of my artistry on this album, though there is
one really important song. Well, you know, the other thing is that I'm forty six and this is the first original record I've ever liked, all original songs that I've made, and it's like my first sole album was when i was thirty six, and so it's kind of like you do it on the time that it's time to do it, you know, you don't do it on anybody else's you know, you just like you take the opportunities as they come.
So this was a really amazing project with producer Jack Splash to just explore and to also say, bleep the categories, bleep the genres. Right, I'm just saving your guys the trouble later, you know, just like forget like what is blues and what is jazz and what is country?
It's all the same thing.
It's all coming from the same American well of cross cultural collaboration. So I was just like, yeah, put it in whatever box you want. It's just fun music.
You know, I'm really inspired. I just had two acts that didn't clap once.
For me, I really inspire by what you just said, because it feels like everything that I've looked at with your work has true integrity. But then we're also mixing in the commercialism of the industry, and as someone who's trying to be a comedic artist, this make money and also stay authentic and make your work have integrity is near impossible. I've sold out, of course, but everyone wants to put you in a box. They want to tell you this. So this is your demo. You sell to
these people, and this is speak to them. How are you navigating that? How would you advise a younger artist to navigate that?
It's really hard because it's antithetical to making art, is the capitalistic system that we forced artists to work with it. So we're all having compromises, We're all having to prad art. Where's our line? And so my line for a long time has been pretty far out, and it's like, I just want to tell these stories. And I've just been really lucky with the opportunities that I've gotten, and I stuck to my guns. I said, I'm doing what I need to do to make the world a slightly better
place or to add to the positive conversation. And I come back around and here I am doing it exactly as I want and being you know, getting the MacArthur and being able to do so. I just I tell young people, you got to tell what is your story that you can tell that nobody else can tell, and get people around you who believe in you and your story and who aren't out for what money you can make them. And so I'm surrounded by an amazing team red Light Management, none such who believed in me, and I,
you know, waiting for this record. They let me do projects that I really felt, you know, I was really felt passionate about. And so it's really a give and a take and you're part of a team and you just have to have people around you who.
Believe in you.
Yeah, and the passion then comes out in that project. Yeah, and then it's way better because you're enthusiastic.
Well, this is it, and this is what people are actually looking for. They might say they're looking for something else, but they're looking for that energy, that brightness, that passion, which you can only get when you're following your arrow, you know, and not trying to be what other people want you to be. And you see that a lot in the industry, and I was just like, you just got to do you.
I love that.
I love that. I love that.
Michelle Obama, Welcome to The Daily Social Distancing Show.
It's my first time being on your show. It's just, you know, I'm sad that it's not in face to face or in person, but I'm glad.
I am I'm sad. I'm sad too, but I don't mind. You're still here. I've gotten used to this being here for me, you know, it's still you listen, you're gonna tell me like your personality changes.
It does not. I'm maybe I'm more silly in person, but I've gotten silly on you know, in zoom too. I can do it both. Now, just playing silly.
Before we get into talking about your projects, let's talk a little a little bit about that. I'd love to know on a personal level, what your life has felt like since you left the White House because I remember, and I mean I was one of the fans, maybe because you know, I've also had had journeys. I remember everyone just being like, wow, Michelle, the afro and the hair's coming, and everyone is just like she's just she's
got got a different swag about her. Was there a weight that's lifted from your shoulders when leaving the White House as first Lady?
Absolutely? I mean, you know, for so many reasons. I mean, you know, being the first Lady and be the president, it's a huge responsibility. And being the first you know, we felt a deep responsibility to do it right and to do it better, to be careful with our words, all the things we thought were important, things like thinking about what you say before you say it, you know, telling the truth, you know, getting your facts right, all
of this we worried for no reason. We could have done it so differently, it could have been easier, but no, no, we were doing the traditional thing. And so you know, it was a big responsibility, a big weight on our shoulders, but it was an honor to serve, and we kept our eye focused on just every day trying to show up right and push the ball forward on the issues that we cared about. But we were also doing it while raising our kids.
All right.
So you know, they were ten and seven when we entered. They lived in the White House longer than they lived in any house they've ever lived in. Wow, So they grew They were growing up right in that spotlight. And so we had that pressure of getting through the adolescent years and the teen years and sending a kid to college. So we were exhausted and stressed because not only are you trying to get it right on the big picture level, but you're trying to get it right as a parent.
And now we're on the other end of that, literally on the other end of all all of that, and our kids are about to be twenty three and twenty our oldest is graduating from college. They are alive so all of that. You know, being at the end of that part of the journey, you know it. You know, I am in a different place. I feel freer, i feel more at peace. I'm also older, so I'm more comfortable. I'm even more comfortable in my own skin. So so yeah, yeah,
it was you know. I mean, living in the White House is like living in a nice, older hotel where you can't get out unless you call twenty people.
It almost feels like you were living a sort of quarantine life before all of us times.
This is what I tell people, This is why we're fine. Barack and I are like, well, you can't go out just when you want to. You know, You're like this, We've been doing that for eight years. You've got security with you at all times. You can't make a move, and you have to think about how your movements impact the rest of the world. Every time we went out, we had to think about it. It's like, who's gonna have to shut down what gate? How is this going
to disrupt this whole community? Because the presidential motorcide is coming through, we have to worry about agents and not doing something that will put them in harm's way. We're good in quarantine. We're like, welcome to our world. Everyone.
We've've been somebody who has been not just an icon, but but somebody that people have followed so passionately from the beginning. And what I loved about reading your book and talking to your husband is that, you know, is getting into the familial side of things, the personal side
of things. I've always wanted to know from your perspective because a lot of people may not think of it like this because of president, but you're the cool one in the relationship, right, And so like was like this, like you know this, like like who's like you say in your book, who's this Barack? Who's this dude? Like you know what I mean? And yes, he's mister president, don't get me wrong, but I mean to you, he's
still baroque. Is there a part of you that like, when it was done, you were like, all right, finally the power balance can go back to what it was.
Well, he's still pretty cool, you know.
Oh definitely, But I mean you yeah, I mean, let's be ho, it's like a game of chess.
You don't want to use the queen, you.
Know, that's I'm gonna use that at dinner tonight.
But what's fun to see is how it feels like you are each other's biggest fans, the way you show your love towards each other. You've never been afraid to do that. But at the same time, there's also a
healthy competitive spirits. I mean, whether you're selling books, whether you're releasing your your work on Netflix and creating documentaries, is there a little bit of that where you look at your numbers and then you go, I mean, you know, you go like Barry, you're doing well, but you know, you know, is there a little bit of that?
Uh yeah, yeah, yeah, he's brockets super competitive, so you know, and true let me, I am too, So yeah, there's a little there's a little bit of that. I mean, but you know, you can do that when you know your partner holds their own It's it's a nice funny joke, you know. I mean if he if he wrote his book and nobody bought it, we wouldn't be joking about it, right, We would be like, honey, you're doing a great job.
Oh yeah, it's a great book. Great book. We love it, And tell your dad how much you like his book. But you know, I mean, he's written like a thousand books. You know, he's like, yeah, I've done this before.
You're the newbie.
You know, he was. He fed us on his book books for a very long time. So, you know, it's a funny joke when it's you know, when it's when it's not fully true. The kids are actually joking. They're talking about how, you know, my mom's doing a lot of work out. Their dad, you're at home looking kind of cute. You know, They're like, you're now the cute one.
That's hilarious. You are the cute one.
President, Mister President.
Mariah Carey, Welcome to the Daily Social Distancing Show.
Thank you.
I'm glad to be here.
When we think of Mariah Carey, I don't think I would be remiss if I said, or I don't think i'd be incorrect if I said that black people have claimed you from the beginning. But something I took for granted is that so many people have always just gone like, oh, Mariah makes music that black people enjoy, everyone enjoys, but she's not black. And you lived this, and you talk about this in the book, where people who you wanted to belong to sometimes didn't even know that you were
part of the tribe. What I would love to know from you as a human being is when you were searching for your identity, how hard was it to infuse that within your music? Because that's something I think everyone will enjoy in the book is reading how the record labels, for instance, like Sony at the time, kept on pushing you to push all of the hip hop out of your music, like Mariah, this is too black, Mariah, this is too black. Mind you're going this is me, this
is what I love. Tell me a little bit about that journey of trying to connect with something that you felt was a part of who you are and really made who you are well.
It was a very difficult journey. But the interesting thing about it to me when I look back on, particularly like the Vision of Love era, my first single, that song went number one on the R and B charts which were then called the black charts first before it went number one on the pop charts, because it really isn't a pop record, and especially at that time, it wasn't what other R and B singers pop singers, It wasn't what most people were doing. It's a different style,
you know. The record is like a six ' eight vibe and it's got all these backgrounds and all these layered vocals and stuff. So it was geared for an R and B audience and from that's where I wrote it. From that place, But after that, it was like, we need another pop ballad. I know how to do that too, Like I know how to write a middle down the middle, Like I get it. So when you're asked and you're a nineteen year old girl, you know, well, we need
another pop ballad. Rather than have them impose a songwriter's idea of what that is on me, I just said, okay, they want a simplistic ballad. I wrote Love Takes Time, which I now like and enjoy, but at the time I was like, okay, it took me an hour.
We're done.
You know it's it's cute and it'll it'll do what it needs to do. But I think the journey that you were referring to in terms of hip hop that was, you know, a long I don't want to say struggle, but I secretly snuck in like loops, like from like on Dream Lover, there's like the eight and a half step two and people like I remember Q Tip was like, we're listening to another song and he was like, you realize you're the catalyst for all this, right, you realize,
like and he knew this before Fantasy. He knew it just from listening to dream Lover, which is very it was slightly whitewashed, you know, rather than you know, when we put the organ solo and all that, it's it's nostalgic. But I know that that's there because I wanted a rapper to be on that part, but they nobody was
ready for that. Yeah, So you know, when I finally was able to work on Fantasy with ODB, and in the audiobook, that's one of my favorite parts because we hear his voice and you know, rest in peace, ODB. But that story and especially when some people were like
I could do that. You know, I don't know if you know what I'm talking about, but there was there was a moment that was pretty freaking hilarious because there was no understanding of like, oh, this collaboration with a member of the Wu Tang clan Oldertie Bastard.
No less, this is.
A huge moment.
It's a huge moment. But I had to fight for it so hard because nobody understood it. But had they heard his album or even seen the front cover of his solo album, I'm sure it would have gotten squashed. I snuck that one in.
There are so many rappers who who would attest to that, you know, rappers who are included in the book, Rappers who who were featured on your songs, Rappers who would a test to the fact that Mariah Carey gave me my big break in the mainstream because you were adamant. You're like, I'm gonna make a remix. They might let me make the original like this, but there's always going to be a remix. And hip hop seems like it
was such a huge part of your life. Why do you think you had such a connection with hip hop or what was it about hip hop that connected with Mariah carry where you were like, this has to be in my music.
Well, I think it's that element has always been there because ever since I first heard you know, the biggest hip hop records as a child, be it anywhere from obviously, every little kid has always heard sugar Hill the sugar Hill Gang, like the one of the first songs you ever hear all the way through like Eric B and rock Him, Slick Rick, all different rapper and I ended up working with Slick Rick last year, which was amazing, and just knowing him because I was such a fan
of his when I was in high school, but.
And still am.
But you know, I could continue to name all the different hip hop artists and people that inspired me. But I think when you ask the question that you asked was what was it about it the music itself, you know, the freedom and the music, the artistry in the music. And I think that was where a big disconnect happened with the label because the executives did not grow up listening to hip hop, so they didn't understand it, and they thought it was a fad rather than an element
that I wanted to integrate more into my music. So I continued to do it. Like you said, I did remixes. You know, I love a lot of the remix remixes that I did, particularly with Jermaine Dupree, and we were able to use you know, some people may not even know those remixes, but you know, they'll know, like, oh, we Belong Together. That's a big record they wrote that.
But that's also inspired by in its own way. It has its own own hip hop influences, just within the cadence of the way that I'm singing certain parts, some parts were more Jermaine's idea. I'm like yes, because he always Jermaine always makes a joke. He's like, she's the rapper, I'm the diva because I'm always like, can you make it more grimy?
Can you do that?
And he's like, I just wanted her to do it the other But we end up getting to a good place together, so that's one of their positive things.
Explore more shows from the Daily Show podcast universe by searching The Daily Show wherever you get your podcasts.
Watch The Daily Show week nights at eleven.
Ten Central on Comedy Central, and stream full episodes anytime on Fairmount Plus.
This has been a Comedy Central podcast now