What's up? Family? Is your girl to Mika D Mallory is.
Your boy, my son general.
And we are your host of street politicians, the place.
Where the streets and politics.
Means my son Leonard I.
Because of our scheduling today, we have our guests coming on a little earlier than we thought, so we're gonna.
Have to cut some things.
And that's okay with me because I have one thing in my thought of the day that I would like to talk about today on this year show.
Well, are you trying to get straight to the nitty gritty going to.
Make some people upset? I believe in holistic wellness.
I was a kid growing up.
My parents rarely gave us medication because they believe wholeheartedly in holistic wellness. Right now, when we travel to Africa, we learn that in the garden they grow different types of medicines that are currently being used for things that we use in terms of actual medicine, not just holistically today.
Well, the ingredients pretty much the ingredients medicine.
So anesthesia is growing in.
The gardens of Africa, specifically in Ghana. And you know that if you go to get a leg arm amputated, you two quo whatever baby have a not a baby. But certainly if you have termination of pregnancy, if you have any type of search be that requires you to go under, you have to use anesthesia in order to
be able to do that. And the sesia can be very dangerous too, which is why when we were in in the botanical gardens in Ghana, the gentleman said, you can't touch it, play with it tasted nothing right until and I asked the dumb question, well, how do you just have it out here? What if someone puts it in their mouth? And he's like, well, why would anybody.
Be eating trees?
And I was like, oh, okay, see again, those are negative or stereotypes that get into your head about Africans. And it came out of me right there in the park in the garden. But if you're gonna get something serious surgery done, you need your anesthesia so that you can not die from pain. I think there are people in our society that need to take their medicine, or if they don't know that they need a medicine, they
need to get it. And if there is a holistic way to approach their conditions, then they need to go heavy into that as well. And sometimes holistically we might not have the right formulas.
Or whatever, but you need your medicine.
People need their insulin right once they have diabetes that gets to a certain level, they have to be able to take their insulin. Yes, you could clean your body. My mother definitely with her diabetes. Her and my father got on an extreme workout schedule.
Seven miles a day, walking in the morning.
They ate better, They did all the things you could think of, and they were able to change ther trajectory of her diabetic situation very much so. But she still needed her medication to help with some of the other challenges. She was seeing things on her hand, you know, she was feeling like when she was cooking, it was worms and different things because she was having hallucinations because of the diabetes. So I'm saying today that there are people
out here that need to take their medicine. And I'm not talking about will Wile Willie who's running up and down the street, because you know, we often will say, okay, people need to take their medicine, and we assume were associated with somebody who's just you know, out of control. They look like they tripping, and we say they need to take medicine. There are people who are high functioning, depressed, they have anxiety, they are.
Dealing with mental health issues.
They're high functioning, they look wonderful, they look perfect, got it going on, dressed nice and all of that, but they're nasty, nasty attitudes, miserable, negative, damn there, ready to die by suicide, eating disorders. There's a lot of signs that people are dealing with mental health challenges that are not getting addressed. People do not have the right formula, and as a result, we are dealing with a lot
of crazy things. And I of course can't tell the story of right now or at all of what it is that I experience that made me feel this way, but it really is on me that we have to start encouraging people to seek professional help for a variety of issues that you may be dealing with and get the type of help necessary now. At one point, I had a doctor that wanted to put me on riddily when I was really depressed, and.
I chose not to do that.
But we found something else, and I take that medicine and it is very helpful to me to keep me balanced so that my anxiety does not take over to where I'm aggravating you, aggravating everybody, lending everybody around. I got an attitude. I'm snappy, I'm not feeling good. I can't rest. People need to take their medicine.
I mean, I agree, I agree, you know, I also agree that a lot of shit is mind state.
Right. There are a lot of different individuals. There's some individuals that they required that they're not going to be able to fix it theirselves. Right, They're not going to be able a dollar back. Right. There are some people that need to go to or rehab. Right. There are some people that don't need to go to rehab.
Some people say I'm gonna kick this ship by myself and then completely stop doing it. Some people are sick that you they've been diagnosed with sickness and they've been able to holistically change their their trajectory. Other people can't do it. So I think it's it's individual based, right. I think you have to know you. I think you you you have to be able to make proper assessments of yourself like and then and then if you, if you have the right doctor, then they'll be able to
make that assessment. Right, They'll be able to make an assessment and say, wow, you've been doing what I don't.
Maybe you don't need this medication. You know, maybe they'll be those.
Pharmaceutical companies are not inclined.
To tell you nothing. Now I'm not talking what the pharma.
Doctors work for. The pharmaceutical companies.
Depends on the doctor that you have, right if if you if you have somebody that you you believe in that's properly invested in you.
I've I've had doctors that have said, don't take that medication. You know, doctors that have said, oh, they said, give the kids, don't give them that ship. No, we not prescribe, I mean you none of that.
Just let that baby do this and take the baby home and give them this and make sure they eat this way. So there are doctors who are personally invested in your safety over then just selling medication.
So like you know, like you said, there are people who need it.
There are people who are not going to be at a function with all medication because it's the.
Way that they're wired.
I'm myself, I'm a person that's very rarely had medication, Like with the exception of me having a toothache, Like the toothache was probably the only thing that I've ever said to myself, I got to take some painkillers for because the shit was dramatically or allergies, with the exception of me taking xytext because the shit is just my eyes is watering to the point and there's no way, no shit I could do they issue to the point.
With the exception of those two things, there's very rarely a time that medication was something that I was into.
Well maybe, and that's okay, suggesting everybody needs medication, and I'm not suggesting that they are not again holistic ways to deal with your issues, because there certainly can be, because I you know, one thing I know for sure is that when dealing with my son typer activity when he was young, the main thing the doctors kept saying to me is, if you don't want to put him
on medication, you have to stop the sugar intake. You can't let him have a bowl of cereal at home or a French toast with syrup and then send him to school, because when he gets to school, he's going to be high and then low, and there's all types of agitation that goes on in between it.
So you gotta do vegetables.
You got to start out with an egg sausage, you know, cup of milk, whatever it is that helps them to feel better and not be you know, feel full, but not be so.
Rouled up.
So I understand that. I'm just saying that there are some people who have not even because you made a powerful point, made an assessment of what's wrong with them. They don't even understand the issue, but they just go out in the world making other people's lives miserable. And I just think, you know, it's just got to be it's just got to be a better way. So I'm
just suggesting that people find out what you mean. Right if you and your family members saying wow, like you're so mean, or you're in the workplace and you feel like people don't really want to deal with you for some reason, or you find yourself feeling like you're always alone, like in your you know, you're always like at odds with the people around you who you should have positive for the most part, relationships with, or you know, you
find yourself constantly hearing from people that you offended them, or you upset them or whatever. You try to find out is there something going on with maybe I'm dealing with depression and therefore it makes me negative. Maybe I think negatively all the time. That's actually an issue. I'm not going to say it's a mental health crisis, but it's an issue. You automatically come from a negative place
when you respond. That's not healthy, right, And a lot of people don't even know because we've never been taught about the signs of mental health challenges. We've never been taught about anxiety. Like white folks know that is a thing. Okay, they get medicated for anxiety, they get therapy for anxiety. Black folks have been dealing with anxiety for eons and we've never been taught that. We never knew what it meant to have hypertension issues as a child.
We never knew.
And we really do need to try to get to the core of some of the issues we have. And if you need medication, take it. And if your medication makes you feel funny, because some people when they take medicine it makes them feel tired or not themselves, they can change it, but you have to be committed to who trying different things and figuring out what is the right formula for me. You can't take one medicine and be like that's.
Why I'm not gonna do that anymore.
And you have to do your research, but you got to be committed to your well being and your men's.
Wealth for real.
I agree.
Well on that note.
Our guest is already here, so let's bring them in and introduce them. Okay, family, So speaking of our friends, you know, you hear us all the time with our inside outside joke that so many of our friends are doing powerful things across this nation, and we bring them on as our guests.
Why not.
It's our show, So we do it how we want, and we invite our friends to come and talk about the work they're doing. And you know, we have an incredible change maker who's joining us today who is a friend to us personally as well as a friend to the community in New Jersey abroad, the entire New Jersey, but of course in Newark. And that's Counselman Do Pray Kelly, who is better known to most of us as Do
It All. So we're gonna get into some special things about what this gentleman has been able to do going from being a platinum selling artist to the first the first person to go from being an artist at that level to being elected to a political office in the city of Newark, New Jersey, and so, as I said, he's making waves across the country, certainly across the state of New Jersey, but specifically focusing on his activism which has turned into his political career in the city of Newark,
New Jersey.
Thank you so much, Counselman for joining us today.
Thank you Samika, Thank you Mice for having me.
I really appreciate all the work that you guys have been doing over the years. You know, it's very special as needed. So I salute you guys as well and say thank you. And before we even begin, man, I just want to say, we just got some bad news here in New York, New Jersey. I just want to say rest in peace to our Lieutenant governor. You know, Oliver passed away today. I'm sure you both of you
probably met, yeah, you know. And I think she you know, she's all about that woman empowerment and having our black sisters do their things.
So I know she was a big fan of yours, speaker.
That's why I just wanted to say rest in peace today to her and her family and condolences to her family.
Wow, that's so sad.
Yeah, go out to her and who whole state in New York City. York, Man, it's.
Crazy New Jersey.
Yeah, definitely, so let's get all into it. I mean, I know that folks are going to want to know about some of the specific work you're doing there in Newark, But I really want to hear first of all as do.
It or I want to hear from Do It All.
I'm about that transition, and it was their transitional. It's just another stage and level in your life. And you still feel extremely connected to the culture, to the music, which I believe that you do. But what it feels like to be the first to go from being a platinum selling artist to now being an elected official. What are the great things about it? And what are some of the areas that you feel are a little difficult and challenging.
You know, first of all, I'm never going to stop being hip hop ever, you know, I tell people that I am with hip hop looks like growing up, you know, I get to govern in the same.
Blocks that I grew up on. I mean, born and raised in these areas.
I get to governose streets where I jumped gates and ran from police and was involved in mischief and also those same blocks where I learned how to galvanize people and you know, pass out community events and get involved in community events.
And it's the same.
Area that myself and Red Men set on my porch and we talked about when we were ten years old.
We talked about the changes we were going to bring to our community.
That's why manifestation and words are powerful because we talked about that. And it's only really powerful to me just because in hindsight of actually living it and doing it now. So it's just an amazing thing that I get to I get to allow of. You know, I've done some things that made my mother have a you know, disgusting a face when I was younger and I was able to see that, I guess the the you know, lack of better word, see that frown turn upside down, you know.
And and through my work in the community, through my work as a hip hop artist. I have to give a lot of props to my first manager, Hot Feast for Reid, who managed Laws of the Underground Muslim brother.
You know, when you think about Laws of the Underground, we didn't really curse too much in our records. We never really called women the B word.
And you know, which was good when I started the campaign because they didn't have anything negative to reflect on from my hip hop career.
And he really he really kept us on point.
You know, here he has three three black males, three black men who come from single mother homes, who didn't have.
Fathers in the house. He became our dad on the road. And then you know, we got money early.
So you know, especially when you get money, it doesn't come with instructions, especially when you never had any money. So he was that guy that kind of kept us grounded. And he would say stuff like this. You know, if I said something with a B word in a song, he would say, oh, that's dope.
Who are you talking about your mother? Your grandmother? And I would get defensive, like you me and my grandmother.
He said, well, see just the way that you just swoll up when I when I asked, was that about your mother?
People are gonna if.
You disrespect women, that's how they're gonna feel when they hit that word or so he challenged us. But he never told us to change anything, you know, he just challenged us to be better, to think differently, to change the mindset. And one time, you know, in this documented I've been wearing NORK on my power and clothes for you know, since I was nineteen.
I'm fifty two now, you know. So it was just like, uh, I'm sorry, it was you know.
So one day he asked me in the studio, he said, what have you done for nork Lady got defensive again.
I'm like, oh, I wear NOWK on my hast. I got it on my clothes. I always represent on every television show. He was like, no, I didn't ask you about representing. I asked you, what have you done for the city of North Lady.
And I really didn't have an answer, you know, And it hit me like, wow, here it is. I'm bragging about my city and I'm pulling and taking away from my city, but I'm not pouring it back into my city, you know. And I started to take my hip hop money, you know, and try everything right, everything from community you know, the book back drive, the Turkey giveaways, all of the low hanging fruit stuff, which is important, but in the community world, it's really the low hanging fruit stuff.
You know.
And I just started to do that, and by doing that, it started putting me at the doorsteps of the residents and my friends and my family again, and they started to see that I was serious, and they asked me to be the voice. Just asked me to be the voice through hip hop, you know, talk for them and use hip hop to get the message across in the you know, in the community.
And that's what we did, just just through hip hop. Man.
So the neighborhood that I'm from, you know, Rod Diggers from there, Queen Latif was from there, Redman's from there, the artifacts, it's just so many people. So like I say, it's you know, this is what hip hop looks like growing up. It was just a natural transition. And on the other hand, you know, people love you until they don't. You know, everybody wants you to win, and you guys know about it. People when you're doing great things, you assume that, oh, we're doing great things, everybody's.
Going to be happy.
And then when you get into it and the other one, then you start to understand and respectfully, how Malcolm X was killed, Howard Martin was killed, because you would think, like, why would somebody want to hurt somebody that's doing something good? You know, But you know, you have your opposers, and people with your opposition and people with different you know, mindsets and different views and ideas that just don't match up with yours. So I think, you know, for me,
going from hip hop to community, that's cool. That was that's that's easy in the sense I did realize that community has a ceiling to it.
When you're doing community things.
And when it comes to fostering change and then governance, I had to find my footing, you know. To be honest, it's been a little over a year. I had to find my footing and I'm still learning, you know, I'm still learning. But the politics is the part that is I'm not really happy with it. And I know my team always tell me stop saying that you don't like politics in politics now, which is true. But I still don't like the movement of it at times, you know,
because I don't. I don't come from the politics, but the politics is in all of those things. So it's a it's a it's not an easy task, but it's a worthy task.
It's worth it, you know, I tell people all the time.
You know, my partners, my DJ he lives in a beautiful mansion in Miami. My other rap partner, he has a beautiful home in northern California. I live in one of my buildings on right in the hood, right in Central Avenue in Newark, New Jersey, and I'm right in the mix.
How is that? How does that like? How does that feel like? Being amongst the people?
Is that is?
Do you feel like they receive you better? Do you feel like, like, how do you feel living amongst the people?
I love it. You know, I don't have to be here. I have to be here.
And you said it's your own building, so.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm in partnership with you know. I don't even tell everybody some of the things that I'm in partnership with the.
City because we got a lot of haters.
But you know, yes, yes, you know it's our properties, you know what I mean. So we're working, man, it's us being part of our own community. And to answer your question might sound like I love it because I'm right there with the people. And it can be difficult at times because this you're so accessible and you have to be careful, you know, because you can't think that everything is good, because history has showed that your own people would be the ones.
That to get you up out of there.
And I mean, like I said, It goes from all of our people that we love, our advocates, the people who fought for us, down to Nipsey Hustle, you know, who was writing his own neighborhood and you would think, oh, you're safe in your own neighborhood.
So I'm always aware.
And the way that I interact with them is firm, it's fair.
And they know me, but don't.
I don't take anything for granted, you know, because anything is possible. I don't have twenty security guards rolling with me. I don't have one security guard role.
Man.
I got a couple of my dudes who when we go to certain things that make sure that I'm good.
The neighborhood makes sure that I'm good, but I make sure that I'm not in.
Those places unless I have to be in those places as well.
You know, what do you think it's been your biggest challenge, the biggest challenge making that trend? What is your biggest challenge you feel, and then what is the thing that you that you enjoy most.
That's a great question.
My big My biggest challenge is navigating through the politics my sign and Tamika Mallory has a different opinion than me on one thing. That doesn't mean I don't like them or like they're there, what they're doing. We just disagree on maybe one thing.
But if that thing is goes against the team.
Of whatever team I'm associated with, and I take a picture with you guys, it's like, well, why do you want to picture with me?
Game?
My son? You know what I don't I don't like that, you know what I mean.
Like that's a real thing.
That's a real thing that you're saying.
It's a real thing, you know, And it's just kind of learning how to maneuver through the politics of it all. That's that's that's my biggest task, you know, when people are I never had so many people scream at me or you know, I've had people not like a record. We still giving each other a pound, We keep it moving. They might still buy the record or still come to the show. I have people say, you know, I ain't really feel the record, but when I saw you on stage, man,
it's not that way. In politics, they just you know, I was in office for a month and they were just hating me, you know what I mean, like some people and then you got to realize that those are five people, or those are people who don't even vote, or those are people who don't even do anything themselves. So you got to learn how to quiet out the noise.
And I had to learn, you know, I used to be in council meetings responding everything, well it's that, and then they you know, I had to learn that I'm just fueling them to continue their instead of just not you know, just kind of blocking out the white noise and keeping the receipts for the work that I do and showing up and being present, you know, because you can say you don't like something, but you can't tell me that it's not my truth.
You can't tell me that I'm not president.
You can't tell me that I'm not putting in the work, whether it we you know, produces a great result, a minimum result, a small result. You can't tell me that I'm not doing things to push it forward. And as long as I keep the receipts, you know, I'm cool. And the thing that I do like.
Mice is that.
To see the smile, to see the.
Difference that I make when I do the work.
And I'm talking about from the smallest thing to autism signs to getting the bus stop moved for miss Williams because she's elderly and she has to walk in from three blocks, but getting it moved to the middle of her block just makes it comfort for her to put stop signs on a block where a lady in the motorized wheelchairs is moving along, to actually creating ordnesses that help our residents fight against greedy.
Landlords and things of that nature.
So it's so many different things that on the municipal level that I love. I really think that the local politics actually trickle up, you know, because I think that the things that we do here makes the state react.
The things that we do here makes the county react.
The things that we do here ultimately makes the federal government react.
I think that's one hundred one is well, you can answer that.
Second.
The first question is how how does having a mayor who supports your vision. I'm sure maybe not all the time, but he ultimately has an empowerment agenda and he comes from activism himself.
How does that help you or how does.
That make you feel when you're out trying to do your work that you're not in opposition to the leader of your city. Because there are many council members who are fighting to get things done to change, as you said, the city ordinances, the bus stop, all the things you talked about, which.
Seems perfectly.
Common sense, right, Like, it's just common sense these things should happen.
And then you're up against a mayor.
Who does not have the city's best interests at heart from your perspective.
So tell me one about that, and then I'll ask my second question.
I want to say, man, salute, double salute to the honorable Mayor j Barako. I was out with Raz, fighting.
With him when we were just young lords of the underground. You know.
He would call on me to have social media like that back then, so he would call on me, he would call on red Man, he would call on us to galvanize the people. Yo, I'm shutting down the street. He was just a young activist. I'm shutting down this street. We're gonna be talking about this. I'm making a list of demands. What are some of your demands in your community?
Because we're giving this to the administration, you know, So to see him go from that a list of demands to actually putting the people in place and feeling check doing check check marks, checking off some of those things that were on that those demands is amazing to me. To have an ally and not an OP as they say out here, is beautiful. It's a lot of reasons why I ran, but I knew that I can add value to the administration of who team Baraka is.
You know who they are, and he knows that.
Even when I lost in twenty eighteen, that wasn't before a meeting with him and he was like, dude, I'm you know, politically, my list is already filled up, My team is already filled. But you will make a great council councilman in this city and I will back you. You know, he's always been supportive when he was an activist, He's been supportive when he was a mayor. He was supportive of my nonprofit organization, and when he asked me to be on his team ultimately he was He's supportive.
I just I literally just came out of a meeting with him and him being supportive, me talking to some personnel here in the city hall about things that we need in our community and me having more tension with them or go and not bad at tension, just about the process of getting those things done.
And this guy is fighting for me.
This mayor he's fighting for me, like, no, we need to get this to happen.
And he's one that stood alongside me.
And fought for a rapper to become an elected official. Like he's forward thinking and you're right to me. I might not agree with everything with him, but we have conversations about it too.
You know.
I'll give you an instance, because I think it was blown out of proportion.
There's George Floyd.
There's a George Floyd statue on the steps of our city hall. I am for the George Floyd movement one thousand.
Percent right, and I stand with it and fight with it.
I just had a different ideology about where the statue should be because of the impact. So I said, maybe we should have and maybe I should have did it a little more privately, you know, but like I'm learning, But I said, maybe we should put it on our new police academy, so when all of those new police officers come in there, they see that as a reminder of what not to do and what to be a
part of. And he came back and said, I respect that, dude, but I put it on the steps of our of our city for a reminder of the people who has the power in this city and and and I was just like, wow, okay, I knew what he was talking about, you know, and I was and I respected what he what he said. I didn't agree initially aware the placement, but in reality we both agreed when it comes to George Floyd, you know what I mean, things like that man and.
Crazy because I was I was literally in the off in city city Hall having a meeting with MIDI when you when that happened here sending him text.
He's like, oh my god, what happened with you?
And I'm like, what happens? Yeah.
He's like, oh man, they don't want he don't They say, he don't want George Floyd.
I'm like, no, I don't think. I can't believe. Yeah, and you.
Talked about that.
You also said something else that I think is powerful, and I don't think that we can, you know, sort of blossover that there are also people from the state of New Jersey who have unfortunately experienced abuse, murder at the hands of police and e me placement as well.
And you know, I don't disagree with that. I think that's also true.
And so perhaps the meeting of the minds is to create some type of memorial outside of the Academy that has the names of local New Jersey residents who have also experienced the same type, maybe not exactly as George Floyd. We know that George Floyd is bigger than George Floyd. I mean, he represents that moment, represents a.
Moment in history where the.
Entire world has had to acknowledge the racial discrimination, the oppression, the abuse, you know, state sanctioned violence, all of those things at once. But there are other people who need their voices lifted as well. And I think that your idea is something that in the next council you should be pushing some type of memorial outside of the Academy that that you know, really looks at some of those other individuals and their stories.
I think the point is that we should.
And one of the things about politics that I think upsets a lot of people, makes them feel that they don't want to participate, is one that compromise is very difficult for people in their regular lives, in their regular And I know that you know, one of the things I was gonna say to you earlier, but you were saying, you know, you were speaking it was so good that
I didn't want to cut you off. But you know, I know that that even though y'all didn't say a lot of Curtis words and whatever, you definitely were not people that need to be played with.
Right. So now when you're trying.
To talk to people and they talking crazy to you, you kind of like, yo, like like I don't know where I'm gonna go with this, Like I'm trying to be the counsel person, but but you're trying to take me to an old thing that I'm trying to get
away from. So that's an issue because in compromise, you know, sometimes it's difficult for people to hear one another, to respect one another, and compromise, and then what happens is the whole system shuts down, and the voters, the frustrated voters of our society see the shutdown and they are like, to hell with it. You shut down, and I'm going
to shut down too. So everybody has a shutdown. So the thing I think about Ross or mayor Baraka that we appreciate is that he is very good at navigating tension.
Yes he is.
He is people moving despite the fact that there may be difference of opinions and a lot of different issues because he's dealing with a lot of people coming from the most radical to the most conservative side of the spectrum, all all of them trying to come together, and he's really good at navigating that.
So I think.
You're in a great city to be your first year as a councilman, you know what I'm saying. I think because there's a lot of other places. If you were here in New York under Mayor Bloomberg, you might have been in jail.
Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah definitely.
And you know, I just want to I just like, once again, I want to thank them because I don't I don't walk like them, I don't talk like them.
You know, I don't even dress like them.
But I can see my inspiration and my influence starting to influence the entire city Hall. And that's just it's not just me, it's the culture that we come from, that hip hop culture.
You know.
I got wearing sneakers with suits with from Russell Simmons go, you know, and I just did it. I didn't make it up, but I tell you this, My mayor now does it. Everybody in this building does it. And that's just to say that the power of who we are as people, who we are in the community, and my my my governance now me as an elected official, I just pray that that not only to the people in city Hall, but to the people who are outside of
city Hall, the people who are in the neighborhoods. Because I think when you change your mindset, you change your viewpoint, you change advantage point of different things. And I just believe like when you can change that into love, When you love something, you treat it differently, right, you know, when you love your city, you can change it. That's what I believe. But a lot of people don't love themselves.
And sometimes when you don't understand something, you push it away, you know, you shun it, like, oh no I don't I don't, I don't eat that, but you never taste it. Oh I don't want to go there, but you've never been there. I don't want to, you know, So it's we push it away. And I think that a lot of people, they really don't understand the process of politics in our city.
So you know, you'll get people coming to the council meetings and they're.
Loud but wrong, you know, But I mean they're very loud, and the people like yeah, and I'm like, yeah, but Google is.
It's not just it's just your city. It's politics, period.
Rights people don't understand politics. They just think we want this to go this way, and it should just be you be able to snap a finger.
We voted you in and you need to just be able to do this right.
And I used to be one of those people, right until I started having friends like yourself, having friends like Jimiani Williams, who is the Public Advocate of New York, Natasha Williams who's also city council in Queens, and just a.
Plethora of other individuals who work in government.
I started to understand that the things that we wanted weren't as simple as we thought they were. You know, it's not just you snap a finger. We vote you and you should be able to do whatever you want. And when you start understanding that reality, you start looking at things different. So I've had those conversations with people, you know, and I've had it and then they be like, nah, you don't and I'm like, no, you don't understand.
Is the process that it goes through.
Yeah, we have to continue to push our elected officials and make sure that they advocate on our side and make sure that they're doing what they said. But it's not I'm always up to them the ship that you think supposed to.
So you can't just put all the blame on them.
But people don't want to hear that when when you're living in the community, whe people are frustrated, people are hungry, they pour it's a lot of things going on me and to me just having this conversation yesterday, that it's a.
Lot going on with people.
People are in so many different it's so many like we get calls, DMS, emails, so many different people that's dealing with so much different trauma and stress, and you know things are not going right and they looking for somebody to blame.
You know what.
A lot of times we get to blame account hold accountability, just want accountability. But there's also some people that just want to blame people too, So there's a there's a balance between both of them. Like we get we get thrown under the bust of shit that we got nothing to do with. Like if I if I advocate for one person because I know their story, and it was like, oh, you're phony because you ain't talk about Jojo who got shot here but you're gonna talk. I'm like, well, I
didn't even know Joe. I didn't even know Jojo got shot. How you hold it me accountable? I don't know nothing that got to do with Jojo. But but this is how people start putting things in their mind. So I've never wanted to do politics based on that because I watch what you actually have to deal with, and I want to be able to say and do what I want when I want.
I hear you.
I love I love the fact I've actually evolved, right, but I still want to be able to say, look, yeah, but I still want to be able to say, you can't talk to me crazy, I'm gonna take you around the corner and we're gonna have to get fired. I want to be able to do that. That's the reason why I want to go into the phone to go off.
Yeah.
But I think you are an example, though, of why more black men should consider running for office to make the change that they're looking for in their local communities. Right, you think about a Congressman Jamal Bowman in New York. This man is a teacher, principal turned now a congressman, and he's.
Going to go further. I know he is right, and I.
Think and of course there's a side of me that is in that that that has to push back even on what I said, because black women certainly need to run for office more, but the support that's necessary for a black woman to win is very challenging and then for her to stay in position because the system so easily comes up against black women, and you know, just kind of like, oh well, I mean if you think about the list of black women from Kim Fox who's
the state's attorney in Wiskim in Chicago, to Maryland Moseley in marriag Carland, and the list goes on and on, and how they are being ripped to shreds, literally ripped to shreds. It makes other black women run. But I think you, counselmen Kelly, are an example of why people should run. They need to. But you can't just run for your one seat. You got to look at the entire city because now when counsel will at the time,
when do it all helps ros Baraka become mayor. Right, then you run for counsel and you have other friends that run for assembly. You start the corner off your community and be able to make the type of change that you're looking to do. So I think more black men should certainly gather with that thought process in mind.
No, that's an amazing example you just did too to make because that's really what it is. We helped Rise become mayor, and in turn, he helped me become counselmen, you know. And I think that with us going back and grabbing each other, and we have a.
Woman council president and Lamonica mcguyver, and he was her fifth grade teacher when she was in the fifth grade, Ras was her teacher. Now she's the president of the council and part of his team.
I think that people are not really looking at the succession.
And we have to prepare for that too, right. You know, we have nine council.
Members on here in Jersey and some people, you know, in different states, different cities, there's a different body of municipal council. But here in north we have five, one that represents each ward. We have five wards, and then we have.
Four at largest.
So I represent the ward that I grew up in, which is about seventy thousand residents. You know, in some places, seventy thousand residents is the whole entire city.
You know.
So I really have a mini city that I have to govern over.
And one thing I can really say is that Mayor Baraka allows me.
To govern over that city, over those residents and all of us.
So when it comes to talking about bringing people along, we have to set up a farm system.
You know. One of the reasons that I am counseling.
In farm system A farm system.
Farm system, yeah, farm system, you know what I mean. So the reason one.
Of the reasons that I am counseling is because of a conversation that I had with Tupacs your corps back in nineteen ninety two in a motel in Orlando, Florida, while on tour.
You know.
And it's crazy because that conversation.
I'm on POC Laws of the Underground and Tupac was sharing a sixteen passenger van. We wasn't even on tour buses yet, you know, and we was in a motel where you had to go in the room outside not inside, you know what I mean. But just to fast forward the story, Pot came to my room, and you know, we had an altercation before that day. He came to my room first of all, like a man to squash it.
You know what I mean.
So he came to my room and through that conversation. Through that we got into this conversation. He said, dude, we have to turn millions of record biers into millions of voters. And then once we do that, and he started naming all of the rappers that was popular back in ninety two. You know, he would say, Common has to do it in Chicago, you entrench you and red Man need to do it in New it Tresh needs to do it in East starch Ice q to do it in Central Los Angeles.
I'll do it in Baltimore and Oakland.
And he just started naming all of these people and he started to talk like a twenty twenty one year old and I've never heard talk like that before, you know, and saying that we have to be accountable and start youth organizations and youth groups and.
Protect our women and protect our senyers. I mean, he was blowing my mind.
And then he said, you know, we have to do something that we might not want to do because you know, all rappers were against politicians. He said, we we might have to become legislators. Almost didn't know he was talking about it. I was legislators man we rappers. He was like, yeah, but if we don't.
Make the laws for us, or if we're not at the table making laws or nos and colds for us, then they will make it for us, and it won't be for us.
Before us, you know, and talk to you for the rest of the son.
But we could definitely stay and told to you tonight. But I just want I just want to show what hip hop is. It's so big and the culture of it, Like just looking at the connection of you and Ross. People don't know that Ross is so loves hip hop and he actually has a hip hop album that you guys could be that I've watched you know, see what I'm saying and listening to his little You know that
he's so influenced by the culture. And now it's time for the culture that influences this world to dictate and govern this world.
And that's what it is showing. It's showing like and it's not just that it's just government.
When you look at Newer, it is a model for governments all around this world. Like the way that you guys deal with violence and the way that you deal with community is a model for the world to look at. I'm not just saying it shows the culture. When you are culturally competent and you have respect in your community, when you take community leaders in community credible messages and you connect those back to the communities that they're governing,
you will see the change. So that's something that inspires me when I watch you guys. It inspires me to do the work that I do because I know the work that I do. Even if I'm not one of those government officials, I'm inspiring someone.
Who's going to be in the next who's going to.
Be there, They're gonna say, Okay, I've seen what my song does in this community. I want to take that and I want to put it in these political offices, even if it's not what I do.
So I just want to say, what you do.
And where you come from is so motivational, inspirational for a lot of us.
Man. So continue, you know, continue to do what to work you do. We salute you. You know you my brother.
I'm gonna be my brother with you all the time, working with you all the time. I just want you to give us, you know, one last word that you would give us before you leave.
Before I leave, I just want to add on to what you're saying. I know you guys gotta go. But just talking about Nork being a model and having a leader like rash Jay Baraka in the seat who does things that really push our city forward. Today, we just in our pre counsul tomorrow we'll vote on it. But he bought the Temple of Hip Hop to North New Jersey and gave it a home. Hart One is now opening the school of the Temple of hip Hop. And I've seen him try to open this in Harlem. I
seen him try to open it in the Bronx. Rasbarakas gave this guy a building. The Temple of hip Hop is now located in North New Jersey southward.
That amazing to me. We got the teacher here.
That's gonna be running programming out of our city. That's an international hub now in New Jersey. That's like, that's just for me. That's just like bringing Prudential or Mars or you go to the building one of those corporations. He just bought a solidified value to our city and the teacher with Karas One in the Temple of hip Hop that are gonna do.
Many great things.
So man, Noork is definitely becoming a model for a certain man, you know. And one last thing too, mice, when you talk about our men in our communities. I just started this thing called Men Talk Sundays, where we go into the parks and I grab all of the men, all of those and I guess that's why I still have certain relationships with them. I go to these communities and I tell them, I need you to come talk.
I need you to what. It was inspired by one of the big gang banger.
Here who I have a relationship, was mad at me because I wasn't returning his phone calls.
But he don't understand. I'm just really busy. So anytime somebody has an issue, I go right to him. So I went right to him. What's up? What's the problem with Nah, dude, I don't want you to get no big head but being no, it's not that.
But look, I want you to come with me for the day now. I want you to work with me. I want you to build with me and see what I do. And he came with me. We went to lunch, yet we had an amazing conversation. But with that conversation showed me was that we need each other. I learned something through that conversation by him point into me. I'm pouring into him, and it inspired me to grab all of the dudes from the neighborhood put.
Them in the park. I have Red Man as my.
Keynote speaker talking about facing your fears. And when I said this man did amazing people like you have Red Man as your keynote speaker. Yes, yes, he has experiences about facing fears. Anybody you know can't tell another man about his experiences.
So I put Man when I tell you he inspired these brothers.
Man, and I say that because August twenty seventh is our next men talk Sundays in the Park and a mice.
I would love you.
To be my keynote speaker for that day. If you available, Man, August twenty seven and we can talk definite.
We're gonna try.
I'm gonna try because August August, either August twenty sixth or twenty seventh.
I do my annual day in my in.
The Bronx, so it's Merriam day I usually do my annual days.
I had to push it back.
To either the twenty six or the twenty seventh, so I'm gonna decide if I do it on the twenty six.
What happened and I ain't available that day?
She looked right, say a thing.
I just, I just.
It might not work.
So I don't even get one day if that don't go.
Definitely, definitely, because I'm actually doing the men's Talk inside in September. I'm gonna do it a big I want to hold about five hundred men where I'm sitting down with five hundred minute We're.
Gonna we're gonna iron out.
And we're gonna decide how we're gonna govern our communities, how we're gonna take back our communities, how we're gonna.
Love on our young kings, how we're gonna raise that.
How we're gonna show them with real right to passages, what manhood manhood really is. So it is a line. You know, the work we do is definitely in a line. So we're gonna figure it out. We'll figure it out, definitely.
Man, Thank you so.
Much for being with us today. You know we just need to go. We got to go to Nework and sit down and talk.
As we have in the past, do.
It again because there's so much to be said, and I think, you know, I'm having prophecy moments here I think you really do need to be doing videos and things encouraging people to run for office and telling them your story, right like short clips of videos. This is what I did first, second, third, this is how I did it. This is what you need to be involved with in your community prior to running. Because there are people who ask me all the time I want, but I just don't know what to do and how to
do it. And I think coming from you, because you know, people are attracted to success, So coming from you, who is successful at selling music, I think you will also be successful as selling getting our people nationally to be more involved in.
And before you go, I have been doing that.
So I started my election tour last week and I started in Charleston, West Virginia.
An election tour.
Talks about how arts and entertainment can foster change in community through policy and politics, you know.
And I started in Charleston.
I have Tampa, Orlando, Milwaukee, Winston, Salem, and Charlotte coming up next.
We're doing that's what we need and we want to help you promote it.
We got to go because we've got to end this show.
We would never end if we let you continue to stay.
Gyms. Thank you counselmaning Man Real.
I'm definitely a supporter.
Thank you, Counselman. Do pray Kelly who is better known as do it.
All all right and Mike As we're gonna be all we're gonna talk about it.
Yeah, definitely we can get you all right all right, kn't peace Man.
Shout out to my brother duprey do it oh. Kelly Man one of the realist dudes. Man one of my favorite hip hop artists. If you don't know Lords of the Undergrounds, a lot of y'all young dudes probably don't know, but go look it up.
You know, they got some of the dopest music.
He's one of the dopest artists man, And just watching his evolution is inspirational to me, you know, with the work he's doing, you know, not only just the work he's doing, the way he's doing the work. He's doing it in his authentic self. And a lot of people don't understand that. A lot of people think that you have to look a certain way, sound a certain way, you know, you have to capitulate to a certain narrative in order to do the work.
And he's not.
He's not that individual like he says, he walks in there with suits and sneakers.
He got his newer cat on.
He comes, he brings the culture of hip hop with him into you know, the Councilman's So he's motivational to me because I always want to be authentic in myself. I always want to bring the streets of the New York City and the Bronx and and bring the real voices of my community into any space. And I don't want people to think that you have to sound or look a certain way. So he's motivational to me. So shout out to him for the work he's doing. You know,
we we we had a good interview. So I don't really I don't really have a I don't Maybe you don't.
I have plenty of I don't get it, but we can save one.
I mean I do have a I don't get.
I just don't get how they had a fight that was heralded as the biggest fight in the century.
One of the boxes looked like he was an amateur.
And there's no no disrespect because I'm an aerospence fan and I think he's a dope boxer. But I'm just trying to say I don't know, I do not get what happened. Like there's been a lot of things I said. If you look at my Instagram page, I said, I think he was.
High because he looked high.
I was heard what you was talking about, you know, my challenges.
Yeah, I was just like, man, he just looked high to me.
And then somebody, one of my friends who's also an aerospince fan, sent me something that said that, you know, he was hit by he was thrown.
Out of a moving car at one hundred miles an.
Hour, so he was he was he had he was in serious injury, and he boy, he came back to fight, and you know he's and he's had a few fights since.
But they're saying that he's.
Dealing with neurological you know, injury, and they can tell based off that. So this was what some quote unquote neurologists were saying on the incident. I don't know, but I just don't get. Like I've been watching boxing my whole life. My father used to have me sitting in front of the TV watching boxing matches my whole life, and I've never seen someone who was that top tier
of a fighter lose that bad. I just never and and it's not taking nothing away from Budd Crawt, because I have already said that I felt Bud was the better fighter. I thought Budd was gonna win the fight. But the way that Erospence fought or didn't fight, to me was just mind boggley.
So I don't get it. Maybe people can whatever it is, he's either high, he was either dealing with some neurological or he really just needs to retire. But a lot of people talking about, oh a rematch.
I do not want to see that Erospence that walk into that that ring fight again ever, So.
I'm not interested in seeing that.
I want that man to because if he goes in there with that level of fighting again, he might really really because he was his face was really he was really beat up bad. If he goes in there and fighting like that again, he can really tell with some real brain damage or something. So I don't even want to see him fight like that again. I don't want to diminish his legacy with him.
That's powerful just to say I don't because I thought you were gonna say you don't want to diminish the value of boxing.
No, his legacy. He's too good a boxer he's too good. I've watched some box and I've seen him. He's one of the most aggressive, punishing, like the way he fights to fight like that, it diminished because people was mad at me because I put my top fight five boxers right now and I didn't put him in people's like and I was like, because the way that he fought, it took him completely right until he does something else, like if I never seen him happen, you know, I'm saying,
that's what happens, Like you lose. That fight was the worst fight I ever seen any top tier fighter ever have. Like I've seen top tier fighters lose that wasn't supposed to lose, that got upset. I've seen Mike lose. I've seen you know what I'm saying, Wilder lose. I've seen it.
But they was all in the fight, like even when they were lost, they was fighting.
Like you could tell some of them got a little slower, they got older, but they didn't.
Get beat beat beat feet like that.
I've never seen something like that where the man probably landed maybe three punches of significance, like nah, not an eight round.
How many rounds did they fight?
They fore eight rounds?
He got knocked down three times and then in they four nine rounds, they four nine rounds, he got knocked down three times and then the knife round they stopped the fight.
It's pretty sad. I mean, you know, I didn't watch it, but I saw it. Sure the it was a lot of chatter about it on the internet. But I do appreciate that you said, you want the man's legacy to good. He's and some of our leaders. There's a similar conversation that happens as you see. You know, look at now what has happened with Reverend Jesse Jackson, who's now passed the baton to uh the to reverend doctor Freddie Haynes, who is my dear other, our friend and Freddie, and
let me say that said that again. Now, you know, we talk about making sure you preserve your legacy. You see, even in this moment where Reverend Jesse Jackson has passed the baton leadership of Rainbow Push Coalition, which is his organization, to our friend and brother, doctor Freddie Haynes, the third out of Dallas, Texas. And we know it's very clear that Reverend Jackson is dealing with severe illness. He's not the same as he was when he was younger, or
even just five years ago. He's changed, you know, because
of his condition. And I think it was important because he's talked about passing the baton in the past, and we all have that, we all, every single one of us who has ever led something, whether it be a company, even your toy that you had when you were young, a shirt that you love, you hold it so dear, but you look crazy now the you've grown to a big woman's size and you still trying to wear this same shirt that used to do it for you at the club when you was young, and now you outside
with your stomach hanging over and people looking at you, and you're embarrassing yourself. So you have to learn how to pass things on to the next person that's gonna take care of it and love it and treat it the same way that you had to preserve your own legacy, even more so than theirs. But it's to make sure that you don't have yourself out here looking crazy because you still trying to keep up with the old you,
and the old you is not the new you. And I think, listen to what you said, I know nothing about the boxer you spoke of but I think that what's most important is your health. You know what I'm saying. I think we have started putting our health first and not taking opportunity first, and then trying to figure out how to back into the health. And I know I'm speaking as a person who doesn't always listen to that, but I think this is an example of that type of situation pretty much.
And with that said, thank you for coming out.
We love you brings us to the end of another episode. Thank y'all for being with us. We love you brings us to the end of another powerful episode. The Street Politician shout out to do pray do it all, Kelly Counselman, do pray do it all, Kelly my guy for coming here, dropping some gems, giving us a lot to just ponder on. Man, it was a dope episode. Hit us up at Street Politicians Pod. Let us know what you like, let us know what you don't like, tell us you love us.
Continue to make us the number one podcast in the world. Because I'm not gonna always be right, Tamika d Married is not gonna always be wrong, but we will both always and I mean always, always, always be authentic.
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