Get the Strap

kids and the generations that income. I ain't raising them what I say from my jaws when they can't wait to deploy. Sam has to stay when send My generation of war politicians are all spineless propaganda. Obama drone way more kids than Adam Lanza. Mama told me I'll be the boss. Tony Danza more of a Georgia Stanza. Put you one of my swagger. We're the ones you should be just tipping your hat top And the Constitution is ripped in the shadows. I'm looking at it with the

fund doesn't matter, yo, This is dope night. Were hurry up, yo. As of now, it looks like Joey Joe Joe's is making some progress. But we just got over one hectic ass election night, as I'm sure a lot of you out there did. Then. Yeah, I maybe slept two to four hours a night every night. Yeah, yeah, you've been You've been walking around the house kind of kind of like I didn't. I didn't even know what to describe it. I was like, what because I don't want to say

nervous breakdown. But it's definitely bad. Well, Um, as you guys all know, you know, it was too close to call on the night of, but it really wasn't looking well. Um as we're recording this episode, which is going to come out tomorrow, Um, there was a some shift in in everything that happened, you know when I woke up this morning, So Biden had just Wisconsin had just been called for Biden, Arizona had been called for Biden, but

not by all of the news outlets. Um, it doesn't look good in Pennsylvania right now, but apparently it doesn't matter. From my understanding of the situation, it seems like Joe Biden's going to win electorally eventually. Now that doesn't mean

that the maggots aren't going to cheat. And I think this election being as close as it is is kind of um, it's asty, It's a travesty, and it it totally is a repudiation of the strategy that the Democrats used in trying to Republicans way Republicans fucking four sixty seven million dollars into the pockets of the Lincoln Project.

There are no good Republicans in this instance Republicans, and I'm becoming increasingly doubtful about the goodness of the Democrats well in any event, with everything kind of being tense in the air, and with the selection still being up for grabs, and with Donald Trump making his total and absolute gestopo dictatorship playlist, night is outside of like a polling place. I can't remember what city had said, chanting stop the vote, Yeah, like I meaning stop the vote.

They're being really mask off about it right now. And something that I've been saying for the last four years is that people need to understand and come to grips with the idea that at least half of the country is cool with everything that Donald Trump is. People dead like they got no problem. And the quicker that we recognize this, I think the better off our ilk is going to be. You know, what I'm saying. But anyway,

Ship's shops crazy. You know, people are getting attacked by Trump supporters in the streets, polling stations, like Mariah just said, um, people are having run ins where the other day they chased some girl who had a Black Lives Matter thing on her car and surrounded her. The cops aren't really arresting them, and in some cases seem to be working

with them. So this got us kind of thinking. You know, you feel kind of naked in times like and like exactly you know now as yeah, I hate labels and stuff like that, but just for the sake of what we're doing, as two people who are leftists are on the left. You know, historically in our personal lives, we've at least me, I was speaking for myself, but we've been pretty staunchly anti gun like you know, as far as like going down the checklist of things was the

way that we look at things. And I would say sometime after COVID for me personally, but within the era of post George Floyd, I know Mariah has been kind of feeling this way to where our views on gun ownership have damn near flipped in reverse. And I think it's true for many who consider themselves liberals are on the left. Um just given the precipitous rise and gun sales over the last couple of months. Um I. And but we'll talk about a little bit more in a second.

But yeah, so today we'll talk a little bit about the history of black gun ownership, some of the obtacles that have been placed in our past historically, as well as talk about our roommate and colleagues squally about you know, having grown up with a very different view of guns than us and sort of like the role guns play in the black and hip hop communities. All right, let's

get into it. The ship the be viewed as a civil rights issue for black people since the days and abolition, you know, yeah, the right to bear arms, the right to BC is full citizens and be you know, protected by the Second Amendment right to bear arms. And so we're gonna look today and arguments for the importance of army yourself. What you found their way into the music of artists from w Way, Enemy, Garri Swan and more.

But we also brought on our friend and fellocy entrepreneur, activist and the third roommate of our l Rappo traphouse, Yo, what's up. I'm here. I'm exhausted, but I'm honored to be all you guys this podcast. This is late. All three of us are exhausted, but it's like different levels of exhausted, right, Like y'all are exhausted, like Yo, like actually putting into work, and I'm exhausted, like man, I wrote like three songs today, So I'm like, I'm dead.

Are you? Can I call you a gun inducis definitely definitely yeah, at the very least your gun owner. I'm definitely an owner, definitely gun owner. So Mac and I our views have changed considerably on the topic of guns in recent months, as have many folks on the left, but usually have been as a gun owner. I might say I love gun and so we wanted to bring it in the perspective by somebody that's been gun toting for a minute. I like that for a minute, for

two minutes. So Mac, you and I have both changed our views considerably around the topic of guns in recent months, as that many people on the left, and I want to talk a little bit about where that comes from for me in particular, like, well, I remember, I'll never forget when I was in the mental hospital in two

thousand nineteen, and then an eighteen year old girl. She was a new mother and she's been putting the hospital because she'd expressed suicidal thoughts after her husband, who was a veteran, was drunk one night, went and shout himself to death in their bathroom. And back then I thought a lot about how many people would probably still be with us here today if there were stricted gun control laws in this country. And the first time I ever thought about buying gun was two, that's sixteen. I was

a really enough time. I was like, all right, I'm ending this peace out, maybe this maybe I'm like hit up the gun shop, and like that's why I knew I could never own one up And yeah, I'm said, so yeah, I thought I would never own one. I still know, But you know, i'd been looking out fine, but lots of regarding buying guns, we're gonna talk about

will make the switch for you, So okay. So I realized this summer that the people who have been harassing me and like the rending my life are probably gun owners. And I thought to myself, why would I sit back and remain defenseless and never one never want to take a life. But if they come for me, they come for me. Ought to be ready. And particularly there was a couple of incidences like of protesting where that I

was with leftists who had guns. I was protesting white people who had like r like that, and so like for example, when we went to we counter protesting against these white supremoses and Stone Mountain, there was a ton there was a ton of like Antifa with like guns, and I felt like really calm being around like a supremos.

I was like, oh, forgot unstrap and then like yeah, same thing at the Erwin County Attention Center when we drove down to also the Georgia to like protest Ice, the organizers were like everybody staying in the cars, there's a militia here. And then I was scan the crowd and that solid dude like the A R art again when I was like I'm marching. Yeah, that increasingly, but none of that in these scenarios were like I was put at ease by the fact like we had guns too,

because brought me around the line. I mean, I think it's weird, like I've my views have changed like yours we were talking about the other day, But at the same time, they're kind of the same. It's like a practical way that I look at it, because it's like, all right, so guns literally have no other function than to make it to to allow a human being to kill something in the most efficient way possible with the

least amount of effort. Well, I mean, it's funny. It's like I've almost completely adapted the right wing position on gun ownership and stuff, which is like, I have a I have a legitimate fear of government induced tyranny at this point, so you know, I mean, first and foremost, my biggest gripe with pro gun people who has always been just keep it real about what you're doing and

what you want, you know. So it's of a motherfucker being like, yo, I need this gigantic a R with the scope and extended clip because if I don't have that, then I can't defend my family. It's like, YO, shut the funk up, you know what I'm saying. Instead of just coming out and being like yo, I like collecting these. I like taking pictures of myself with them. I like fred him out on the floor and then looking at them,

you know what I'm saying. I like taking videos where I'm posing that I like going to the shooting range and shooting stuff. I mean, it's still goofy as the funk, but I it's just when motherfucker's is lying and not being real, that's what kisses me off. But again, if in two thousand and twelve or two thousand thirteen, you were worried about, oh man, Obama is gonna come with the female camps and the jack booted thugs are gonna put us in hobbit homes and you know what I mean,

he's gonna declare marsh lah blah blah blah blah. That was the right wing position on why you know, the kids getting shot up in Sandy Hook wasn't enough of a reason for gun reform. So now I'm saying, oh, yeah, well everybody should own a gun because I mean the cops literally, you literally can get abducted off the street by dudes in tactical gear and you don't know if

their cops are not. So the danger that conservatives have historically always been laughing about is now a reality for people like me and Yaw And now as a result, I think every man, woman and child should be armed and trained. Straight up. Now, my view still hold in terms of what the negative effects of that are, you know, mass shooting and the effects that guns have on crime, YadA, YadA. I just feel that the political situation kind of outweighs

those risks. I mean, I'm sure that the science and the number are still hold up. That they're being more guns than people in the country's like not good, Like your niggers know that's bad, right, But as it stands now, you know, there's three hundred million plus guns in the country, and it's definitely not the majority of people who own that. So, just like with everything, you know, if guns are power, then it's being hoarded by those who can afford to

hoard them. And you know, now, I really think we're in a reality where it's like, you gotta wonder why they're hoarding them, and let me get some, let me get let me get a couple of those. Uh. I have mixed views about guns. Um even though your owner, because I like, a gun to me was survival, it was it was survival for me. Um. I grew up in a completely dangerous atmosphere um to where a gun was a necessity even being a kid ten eleven years old. UM, So my perception on a gun would be different from

someone who doesn't share those experiences. Um. But I also feel like a gun in the wrong hands is a problem as well. Um Am. I like so avid on the laws. I never really cared about them, honestly. My first gun, I was ten years old. It was a small twenty two um and my brother gave it to me. But you know, when he gave it to me, he told me this was for survival and you're never You're never using it unless you know you're defending yourself. Other than that, like your gun is in the house put up, Um,

it's for your protection. Um. But then you get those people that have guns and they're just crazy or whatever. So I definitely got some mixed views on it. I just know myself personally, I'm very levelheaded and I'm probably not gonna pull out a gun or anything or do anything crazy or it up at school or anything of that sort. But I do want to feel protected and safe.

So can you think of can you think of a time when you're growing up where like you feel like, looking back now that you're a girl, asks man, or you're like, damn if I hadn't had a piece, Yeah, I might not be here right now, like that that never happened a couple man, like a couple. My um my dad was murdered when I was a child, and if I didn't have a gun to shoot back, I probably would have been killed too. And I and I wasn't shooting back to aim. I was just shooting just

to scare people. Um And to me that I feel like that saved my life. And I know a lot I have a lot of friends that got themselves out of like crazy situations just because they showed a gun. They didn't even have to shoot it, they just showed it and it got them out of certain things. So you know, it's it's good and bad with guns. You just kind of gotta take it for what it is.

I feel like it's just like any other power, you know what I'm saying, Like in in reality, there's like only two things that you can really consider to be like a superpower, having a billion dollars, and if you have a billion dollars, you're a gun. You can change the physical reality around you, you know what I'm saying, Like you can do they don't want to do billion dollars or a gun. It makes me think what if the Native Americans had guns, or what if the Africans

had had guns? If the Africans actually had guns, um, then then where would the course of history have win? All a gun is as a tool, Like my I'm my father was in the military, so like I have like a military upbringing like that to where it's like guns were even when watching movies, it's like it's always like treated technical and like a serious thing. So I'm

gonna be taken serious. That's why as I grew up, not only was it like having that sort of like attitude towards guns where it's like the serious thing that's not to play with. Then on top of that, you know, I'm Liberian. So when the war happened, and then it's like you're actually seeing gun violence, and you're seeing more than actually seeing gun violence, you're seeing the effects of

gun violence. Like every other week, my mom's like learning that somebody that she knows got shot, or this cousin here got shot. At this with my grandma, you know, and it's just like, oh damn. You know when people are like spraying like this and not looking like the bullets go somewhere, and they they do, you know, they really do what if the what of the Africans had guns?

And it made me think the naturnal rebellion and that the muskets and firearms were too difficult for them to collect for their rebellions but draw so much attention to themselves. I think at this time, um, yeah, eight thirties, there's a lot of the books of like guns, like actually go and confiscate if you go into any like black home, even if you're a free man, and like to just take wofully sees waping. So they didn't want to draw attention to themselves, so they use knives, hatchets, access he

killed a woman with a fence post. Sounds like some current day stuff the very course of American history. It's like natural. Why were the Black panthers so dangerous? Logically dangerous, Yeah, but you know they did it in a way to where it was like we're protecting our own we're protecting our people, our streets, we're not killers, were not dangerous, but we're gonna stand up for what we believe in.

So I think that it's based on the owner man, like you could you get those people that shouldn't have a gun at all, like the white boy that's getting bullied. I don't know how, but he has a gun. He shouldn't have a gun. Well, I mean that that's just one.

That's just one like a specific like archetype of what you're talking about though, but like that that thing exists that you're describing, it like exists in all humans, especially men in Texas, that same sort of like mentality that like the same thing that the white kid is going through when he gets bullied. It's like I gotta take

a gun to school. Obviously it's not the same because you know, black people don't really take those shot everybody, but it's like but but that same sort of sense of like, oh, something I was wrong and now I need to exert my will through the power of a gun. Like the same thing that's going on internally with that kid. It's the same thing that happens when somebody's on a ball court and they get embarrassed and they gonna start licking shot or even shooting somebody. You know, it's that

same sort of like feeling. That's how That's one of the things that made me feel like I shouldn't own a gun because was when I was like younger in

my early twenties. I was had like an ill Napoleon complex and was like, Yo, I'm gonna start to fight first because I'm sure it's like I'm gonna be the wildest motherfucker there and then all I would to have my back and ship like that, so I would get in fights, and I know that like when I'm in a fight with a bigger person, just like and drinking, you know what I mean, And I'm a drinker, it's like I don't need to And it's not not just like, oh, I'm gonna like go out with a gun and ship

like that, but it's like I don't need to come home to a gun being in the house back then, you know what I'm saying. As far as the way I was looking at it, then okay, Well, given that I said that, you know, nobody's really, at least nobody I know of, it's really advocating for let's take all the guns away. Squally, What do you feel about the

just restrictions on guns and legislation on guns. Do you think that anybody, everybody should just be able to own any gun, no um and death something that I feel like the Black community, we have guns, but we don't know how to use them or win to use them. UM. I don't think like the average civilians should just be able to go and buy freaking a R fifteen or a K That's ridiculous. Um. Handguns are okay, UM, but

it's all based on the own it really is. UM. I have you know some big guns that I've never even put out unless it's probably like kind of crazy war. Um. But that's me, you know, I'm I'm a logical thinker. I'm not gonna just go and shoot someone and just end up in prison for the rest of my life. UM. Guns are like so easy to get. You can get a gun before you can get a car or a house or it's like it's really insane fanning certain kinds

of firearms. Is that you think you're a turn criminals from doing criminal as considers creating criminals because you're feeding an underground market the same way that like you might as well lines of drugs because at least then you can get you know, he treated in the public health does you get healthy? Got problems all about boards? You can regulate this as they ain't putting vanil in the heroin or whatever. My as wealth may go down little so you can regulate them heavily. It's it's a it's

a slippery shoa. What about back in the day Chris rock had a Was it Chris Rock? I forget it might have been Chris Rocker Davie somebody had a joke or a bit back in the day where they're like, yo, you should make guns super expensive and like make bullets cast of five hundred dollars so that motherfucker's will think twice before they shoot people and ship that's true, and then that could also cause some type of weird situation

when people only rich people can have guns. President for this, so in Illinois singled out poor citizens for a gun band by starting out it is late nine eight, the Chicago House of Authority, the Chicago Police apart a man UM enacted a policy Operation Clean Suite, which applied to all housing units owned and operated by the Chicago Housing Authority, and the purpose was the confiscation of firearms and illegal art products and war of the searches. They're doing war

less searches. Um. They had a visitor exclusive policy, so severely limiting the right of c J C a J tenants to associate with with associated their residences, the family members and other guests and all these restricted policies. But they pretty much said, if you live in public housing, we're gonna come take your guns, and the a c l U, this is the a c l U file the lawsuits UM against it, saying that um, that's technically against your constitutional right for right suits to say pore

people can't have them. We made Oh, let's make both ways, but a little make freends, lay yourself up. It's suscriminatory against poor folks who might have more reason to protect themselves because in the environment the children, that's what they do. They'll put the gun shop close close to the to the poverty crime field places and then charge lower prices for guns. Well, the Second Amendment wasn't meant for black people,

Like it wasn't with black people in mind. The Constitution together wouldn't really Like there's some people who think like that ship was pretty much you know the whole like organized militia, well armed organized militia stuff is like yo, that was put there to put down slave rebellions when they would happen, so that there would be a well armed militia to stop that ship from happening. The word

thinking about us when they're right. Yeah, that's true. They decided the Dress Scott decision pretty much a holy slavery. One of the riots that know, blacks were said not to have because we weren't citizens, was the right to come ship. That's I'm saying, that's that's pretty much just

so they can stay in control. It's such a complex situation because it's like another thing of my views that used to change is like I always have like, you know, sort of even though my parents, my dad were for the government, I'd always have like a general, you know,

conspiratorial view towards like the US government. Probably watched too much X files when I was a kid, but you know, for that reason, I used to kind of you know, be swayed back in the day or like I always thought that was a good point that right wingers had about guns, like yo, you don't want these jackbooted thugs to come to your house. But as I got older and thought about it more, I started feeling like, you're

not gonna fucking stop the army. Dude, you know, I'm I don't care who you I don't care how many guns you have, evan your arsenal or whatever. If they're coming for you. You're not going to stop them. Like terrors. Motherfucker's that like got mad bombs and guns in layers and basses where they've been training for this ship since they were eight. The motherfucker's get murked. And you think you're not gonna get murked and fucking Wichita or some ship.

The military is not gonna find you in Wichita. Dude, you're hidden, you're good, you're safe. And then even when ship does go down, that's not who you're gonna have to fight, you know what I'm saying. It's like you're gonna have to fight like other citizens. You know, if the ship were to go down like that, which we don't want it to happen because don't, but just hypothetically, if the ship goes down, it's gonna be good old boys and pickup trucks riding around like the Taliban and

ship that you're gonna have to worry about. And that's not gonna be necessarily the troops or any official troops that are trying to put you down. Scary s, very scary stuff. I just don't like the situation. Man deal. The gun ranges are always in the like white neighborhoods. So like the richer white people get to learn how to shoot guns and they get to do it for leisure, and then in the black neighborhoods the guns are for

like survival and population control. Well, how do you feel when you when you go up to the shooting rangeing, like, have you ever been the one? I mean I've been the yeah before the one. I can promise you you're gonna be the only black person ye know when I went, When I went, yous been like a barrier for me

to like get into it my gun. It's like I'm gonna trying to like I'm not going to applyde armory or they have like trump twine putty four signs outside and I'm not going down to the gun range where they're gonna be. Like, it's even weird being black when you're when you're black and you walk in a gun range, it's like everybody's turning, like because it's a it's a cultural it's a cultural thing, you know what I'm saying.

Like the sort of white people that are giving you that look are like steeped in gun culture that like excludes black people. Yes, and they're in there with their freaking five year old son and five year old daughter and they both got a RS and they know how to shoot, and we don't. We don't know how to shoot. We aim at everything, we don't know. We just don't. We don't have knowledge of guns or anything. We just

get them. I'm I'm I'm seeing Killer Mike in the outline where this is a very loose episode late this job. I'm seeing Killer Mike in the outline. But you're just saying that reminded me of something that Killer Mike was talking about one time where he was talking about like, you're not ready for the revolution if you don't like, you don't know martial art, your kids don't know how to shoot guns. And oh you gotta think, what what

do most black kids grow up wanting to do? Play basketball, football, wrap or wrap, and white kids get put in like workers from ballet mars. This household just that, I'm telling you it's insane. You will go in there and see a six year old white kid with the a are disassembling the magazine. He'll he'll he'll empty the thirty clip and all thirty bullets will be in the center of the freaking target. Like they know how to shoot, their train as kids how to shoot. It's like a common

thing for them. It's insane. That's what I feel like with our people. If we're gonna have guns, we need to know how to utilize guns. But I mean, it's like, and we'll get into it when we talk a little bit about, you know, the guns and rap music and stuff, but the sort of gun culture that exists within like the black community. And I don't want to use that as a blanket term, but it's just like the white people's gunship is like again, it's like that, Yo, this

is a tool I would take. I'm gonna teach my son how to break this down. Blah blah blah blah, you know what I mean. And whereas I feel like with our ship, it's more glorified. Yeah, it's more glorified. It's it's more of a civil social status, you know what I mean. It's like it is not a civil social status a certain kind of person, Yeah it is. But I mean Andrew Clyde running for Congress and the ninth district in Georgia has a fucking like a R

on his campaign signs some people's yards. There's a part of it that's a status symbol to his bubble of people. But then another aspect of it is virtue signaling on

like a set of political beliefs. A politician showing you that he's a proud gun owner lets you know, like se of what his positions are without However, when fucking Chief Keith points there to the a k at the camera with thirty shirtless niggas and they all got the camera, it doesn't have that same poetical behind it, right, what I'm saying, he's right, it's like for us, yeah, for for us, Yeah, like he's right, because for us it's like some sort of like expression. Um, there's no anything

behind it. It's just, oh, I got this, I'm cool. It's so weird, so weird. They're never holding the guns right, nobody. No one's looking through a skulle. It's horrible. What's the skull, what's the sighting, what's the nig It's terrible. And white kids are learning about guns from when they're like three to four. They're gonna give them a baby gun or like a water gun. They're gonna know how to use that, and then they're gonna start huntings and they're gonna how

to use a shotgun. By the time they're like fourteen and fifteen, they're gonna be fully versed in a handgun, in a shotgun, and in a semi automatic. The average black kid will never get that type of experience. And let's let's keep it real though. And it's like, I don't want to say that. I don't think we should try to make it seem like that's like white people. There's there's a there's there's an overwhelming amount of white people that are I don't funk with guns like that.

It really is like a weirdo minority. I mean, look, I am telling you all that as of now, my mindset is every man, woman and child should owe the gun. That's true. And also if you own like fifty guns, you're fucking weirdo. You know, I'm sorry, you're weird. It does look cool in like a call of duty sort

of way, but it's fucking weird. I don't have the numbers, but I do think it's some sort of crazy sort of ship where it's like some large percentage of the guns and the country's owned just like with money, it's owned by a small amount of the population, like has all the guns and stuff like that like, it's not. It's not. You can't just be like, hey, I'm just gonna pick a random white person off of our block and I bet you god motherfucker got a dungeon full

of guns. It's just the teachings behind it. I really can't explain. I don't know if it's like the environment is we just black, We don't utilize guns the way we should. There's no teachings. There's now how would squally if Squally ruled the world and you could make that change, what attitude would you instill in like black families and black communities in general about like guns and stuff, protection

um protection only. Do you think that there's something that can be done by people like us culturally to like helps get that message across. I think that our like black veterans and people that are well versed with guns and well skilled with guns, if they got together and created some sort of school or organization to where they would teach the kids on how to use the guns and we're there for and and still those like principles in those children. I think that would be a good idea.

Teach our kids don't know military tactics, Our kids don't know combatives. They don't know if we if we had a civil war today, our kids wouldn't survive it. Man. If the fucking electricity and internet went out for three months, motherfucker's would start eating each other in this country. If you told Americans that their big mac had to have one less patty, these motherfucker's would start tearing each other's. Flash off. This toping m guns today because it need

Since March. So in the twelve days after Trump issued a proclamation declaring national emergency because of COVID firearms, salves jumped over a hundred twenty thousand per day. Oh my god, hundred seventy six thousand on March sixteen, and then a seven hundred thousand additional firearms was sold in March. Uh. Some analysis done by the Brookings Institute suggested almost three million more firearms have been sold from March to July

than ordinary. That increase occurred in June alone. So, I mean, this is a hot but this it's like a hot topic right now. That was excited talk to like anarchists and people like that, and they're like, oh, I was talking about guns, and they're all very pro oh my guns. But it's like if ship really goes down and there's like massivil unrest to the point that like the supply chain started breaking down, there's no food to the grocery store.

We should really get concerned about. Do you know how to grow your own food for sure, you know how to sell your unclothes for sure, you get pressuring water for sure, and so yeah, I mean, like if we're really talking about and it goes downloads down, that's the same. There isn't even the first thing to be And it's crazy. We only needed done because you don't have any of the other necessary supplies to it's gonna be people loving each other because they don't they're down. What did I

ask you when when fucking COVID first hit you? Remember I think Mariah might have been out. I think you might have been to go see your mom. And I was like, yo, little brother hold one of them thinks yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. Because there was this there was this feeling COVID it like in the beginning felt like felt like it was about to be mad. I felt like it's gonna be some crazy stuff. On walking understanding, it's crazy that you mention June because the gun shop

on Lexington Road. I can't remember them. Thornton's, they dropped their gun prices like like a hundreds of two hundred dollars. There was like nine millimeters on sale for eighty dollars. A gun shouldn't cost less than the PlayStation. Man. Yeah, so, I mean during that time they dropped PlayStation controller. Man. Go on, you were talking about the fact that like there's not guns upon the black community. Do you say days if you want, oh, should the PlayStation? Did you

just want only weird people happen? Na, That's not what I'm saying. It's more of a comment about proliferation, which, in the context of guns, I think is kind of universally a bad thing because even your proliferation of guns can even be a way of targeting communities in a way. If in a poor community or a black community, if all of the males have easier access to a gun than a fucking job, that's not you know, that's not a sign that the gun companies are saying, Yo, we

really care about black people. Let's make sure they're all armed so they can stop the fucking proud boys. You know, that's gun proliferation to an at risk community, So that they kill each other. Like I'm poor. If you were to tell me you're mac buy a PlayStation, get a PlayStation five, Okay, I gotta think about it. I gotta

ligne some ship up. I gotta make sure some ship is taken care of, and I have to do all that sort of thinking and planning into like all right, I'm about to make the investment on a PlayStation five because I need that. Whereas if you told me, Yo, Matt, get a gun, I could get a gun by new in tomorrow and it wouldn't put that big of a death in my wallet. I'm not really opposed to people having guns, but have you haven't have you guys ever

tried to buy one. No, there's no psychological evaluation when you purchase the gun. Anyone. If you're eighteen and above and not a felon, you can purchase a gun. It's the same process, like there's no psychic evaluation to determine if a police officer it's racist or not before you put them into the academy. It's the same thing. So it's not the people. It's not that people have guns. Is there's no way to see who's unstable enough for

who shouldn't have one. But it's interesting to me because the gun control active, which is a battle law regulating the firearms industry and firearms owners. Man, it's so that it's unawful for anyone's candida is a mental defective or has been permitted to any mental institution, illegal for them to the firearms. I don't know. Let me tell nobody, nobody's following that. You shop and you got five dollars, you're gonna and not a felon, you're gonna get a gun.

The only thing they'll do is uh submitted background check and if it comes through good, you'll get that gun. You mean, host of the fire US. Oh, that's stick. It depends on the crime allows for returning citizens to purchase firearms. I think if if there was this, if prison was actually a place for rehabilitation, yeah, then I would say wholesale. Yeah. But because it's not, nobody kind of want to know what you did. Yeah, I agree. Prison isn't fixing anybody. These those feelings get out worse

than what they were when they went in. I don't that's a steaky one because I don't feel like feelings deserve a lot of the things that they go through Oh no, for sure for not being able to vote and hard for them to get jobs. And um, I feel like, if you've done your time and all that good stuff, you should have your second chance without the

big if on your forehead. If that means only the gun, sure, Um, but I guess based on the crime, Like if they went through prison for um, laundering money, you know what, like you well see that. I don't know if that should determine that they shouldn't have a gun or not.

Like if somebody if somebody was in jail for like robbing a liquor store and they got out, I'm saying somebody was in jail for like, oh, like when I was a kid, I wasn't being a leader and I was being a follower and I ended up robbing a liquor store and I went to jail and I paid

my price and blah blah. I'd be more comfortable with that person getting out and having like all their gun rights fully restored, then I would a motherfucker who's getting out after being heavily involved in organized crime and ship

you know, I don't know about the money launderer. I didn't want to read this one interesting fact, so California's Mulford Act, which fanned the open carrying load of weapons inventteen sixty seven was and the black gun owners about anti gun journalist Robert Cherroll frankly admitted that the Gun Control Acted NAT from eight shortly following after was passed not in control guns but control black. So it was following when the black member the Black Panthers very arms

marshal the California State Capital. Um. It was interesting about the Gun Control actro nix eight. It was the first gun control law passed by COMMERSCE in thirty years, and Cheryl described it as one of the grand jokes of our times. First of all, he says very in mind that it was not passing one piece, but as a combination with two loss. The original n Act was passed control hand does after Roberd Martin Luther King Junior was

this ass it is with a rifle. It was in repealed and repast to include the control of rifles and shotguns. After it's an assassination of Robert F. Kennedy with a handgun. What so like, it's like this big cosmic joke of like, oh, they killed the leader of our movement with a rifle. Let's bad hand us. Oh they kill the leader of this movement with a handgun. Let's go rifles. So it was like, clearly not even it's fun to act the violence like see is the public comassination at the time,

but like not really doing actually anything anything at all. Okay, So guns and hip hop music the two things go together like p's and a pod, mashed potatoes and gravy. Fucking what am I missing bat Man in the Joker? I don't know? Anyway. For the music discussion today, we're gonna be looking towards some songs where the artists discussed their relationship with firearms or the relationships that firearms after

their communities in some cases. Uh. And we're also doing something special for this one where Squally is going to be joining us for the music discussion today. But before we start, we're gonna take a quick little listen to Squally and some of his rhymes and how he incorporates some of his feelings about guns into his music. Let's hear this, ill keep you going on my weight? So I put up on king that trying to be bright niking, I want to smoke up on Jop. I get in

my bag. I told me, I'm mag I'm putting a hand to scope. Never me. That was squal a song transport. Yo. My roommates are both dope. So the topic is brought up to the point where it's like looking for songs. I could find songs that were completely about guns, like where the subject matters, dedicated towards the topic of a gun. But besides that, the just references are endless rappers of all kind all backgrounds, all sub genres of hip hop, doesn't matter. You can you can find somebody to make

a reference to a gun. For some reason, it's there. It's the most talked about things. So how do you when you're dealing with, um, guns in your music, how do you how much of it is something that you really pay attention to or how much of it is just whatever sound and right, whatever is, whatever is working when you're when you're writing, Like, are you ever self conscious about gun bars? I didn't used to be, but now yeah, I work with kids and then they're coming

in there sometimes like spit my lyrics. Um so now I'm a bit self conscious. But when I write and when I'm talking about guns is coming from expression and me speaking my truth and my experiences, uh not really for kids to go out here and be like, oh Squire said he'll do this, so I'll do this. Um. So the kids that know me understand that, and the ones that you know don't understand that. I try to pull to the side to say, hey, you know, I'm not out here like you should make a song where

you're discussing guns. You were talking to us about how how you think guns should be true, because it's like I think that is it's a common theme that we talked about. I was I definitely thought about that a lot um but it's you know, me being an artist, it's been a part of who I am, um, and you know I started out as a battle rapper and the gun metaphor and it's you couldn't really to get

away from it. Well, it's it's funny how that because it's like before, you know, like when when hip hop started, like the whole ship is about exaggeration of power, you know, just like yo, I'm strong enough to smash through a wall. Then it just transferred it. You know, It's like I remember like it went through a phase to where it was like that sort of ship and it was like Yo, my rhymes are iller than yours. That it like transferred into I beat your ass and it was like, yeah,

I got the biggest gun. I kin there was it. Like I want to say that was late eighties when it started, but you know that, yeah, you know, drug but even then, like crime started rising, and even then it was like the late eighties when it started really affecting the music that I can't even explain it when think it's getting older, do you think it's you're getting older making you look at it? That to um, I used to be in the streets, now I'm not, and

that kind of plays a party in two. UM. So my music used to just be solely just um violence and trapping and all this stuff because that's what I was, you know, engulfed in. And now you know, if you listen to my more recent stuff, it's more about like love and emotions and um struggled to triumph and coming out of valet mhm um consciousness. So I'm I'm growing

out of it steadily. But at the same time, I love guns and uh and if I'm honest, sometimes this ship is just so fun to wrap about it really is. I mean, I mean, there's nothing better than like somebody who's dope might just kicking a real clever gun bar, you know what I'm saying, Like a dope gun metaphor. Like one of my favorite joints was there's Lloyd Banks ryme on this g in its song Thicker than Water. Let's listen to this line real quick packing mittle things.

That small Pumer shot the Sacramento but she doesn't watch sports. The Sacramental Kings basketball team they had watching for they had a bunch of Forearns. Yeah that yeah, when they had Stoo and they had a bunch of them. That's a bar, yeah yeah. And the feeling, but that feeling is something about it. I don't know why. It's just something I like hearing about. I don't, I don't, you know. Every now and then, usually like it's if I'm telling

like a story rap or something like that. So I don't really necessarily get to really go into like gunbar references and stuff. But I love the ship out of listening to it. Like the Griselda Cats, their ship is filled with gun bars. Um. The battle scene can be kind of battle scene is gun gun guns. It can be kind of weird just because it's like I don't know the some of that aura, the hip hop aura is gone because it's like it's it's more of like

a live field. So it's like it's just something different. And when it's not like a movie music video production, when you're like seeing like two regular guys Joe My like, we're dude, Like I literally just saw you get out of the uber like thirty minutes ago, gunless like a motherfucker. You're talking, And that's what That's another thing I'm telling the kids. I'm like, so, you know, these rappers aren't really out here shooting people, right because if they were,

they're being jail. What they're like, well, you know, we know it just sounds good as long as if they're saying that, that's what I was saying sounds good to them. And there's something about just in human nature. We we love violence and drama and we just love it. I don't know what it is. We don't get bored with positive songs. We'll get bored. We have to hear like some drama and stuff. I don't I don't really get it.

Just like enough. So guns America Online, the firearm retailer and gun blog, made a direct correlation between the sales of the Draco pistol and the guns appearance and rap songs in seventeen from Vince Staples, twenty one, Savage, Gucci Man Yo Gotti, they all referenced the firearms popping up all arrested the poem where in California is considered an assault rifle and not a hand gun like it is in the rest of the states, and so he wasn't

legally last that is the most referenced gun nowadays, the Draco. Well, that that trend happens. Um. I've been a lot long enough to see that happen a couple of times. I remember there was there's this gun called the Calico. It looks like you could you can literally just take it like on the set of Star Wars and give it to somebody without putting anything on it. And it looks

like a Star Wars gun and ship. But when those first started popping up back in the nineties, like every rapper had a cow I got a Calico bar on the Desert Eagle. When the Desert Eagles started popping up, everybody had a Desert mac ten. The dude named himself mac Tent because the backten was such a popular guy. I think, is this is Calco something right? It's just kind of a little something that you're right. And then

there's a forty cow rapper. There's got to be a rapper named every Smith and Western there's Yeah, that's definitely Draco. There's a couple of DraCos. Oh, there's a couple of DraCos. Draco Soldier calls himself Young Drake on that so Detroit rapper quality. Chris to dropped the album last year called Guns, and the whole thing was kind of a little metaphor

or about America's relationship with guns and violence. He's weaving in and out stories throughout the album where he's you know, it goes from first person to third person to direct narratives, and he's playing all sorts of different characters and stuff on it. Um, he said to NPR, because the whole album is all about things that opponized for good or for evil. Religion, race, fear is more powerful than a gun. Everything is a weapon. I even talked to a couple

of people this is him talking. I even talked to a couple of people that thought the first song was talking about me and my history is shooting people up and I'm like, nah, it's just a metaphor. Now, this album is a whole is dealing with you know, guns and gun violence and stuff like that. But we're gonna just take a little listen to a quick snippet from the song Obamacare, like qual a Chris and that Obama definitely something that feels like it requires multiple listens to.

You know, the lyrics are delivered in that sort of way where it's like you're not meant to really soak everything in the first time you hear it. There's an abstract vibe to it. I took that everyone can get it like Obamacare to be you know, a reference. Knowing what he was going in doing with the whole album. I took that as a gun reference. So I'm sure if you listen to the whole thing, I'm sure at all gives you more of that picture. But if you don't understand it, you'll take it as if he's saying

he's gonna apply something to everybody. Yeah, but he's really saying guns are so assistible, you know, speaking of accessibility to something that's a bit less abstract but still really clever in terms of like how it's put together. Is this Tupac song Me and My Girlfriend, not the jay Z Beyonce one they were covering come Back to See You Naked? Wouldn't that be? I ain't gonna lie. I'm just I'm real laughing what he's talking about. I feel like my whole life is just in background. You know,

he just realize. I'm just realizing it. Mine's blown. You don't have to say that like when I was not online, because he goes all the way to twenty two. Oh my, you just missed my whole life and squil Aid is just now discovering that. But that was kind of a thing back in the day. But yeah, I remember that was one of those early things whereas before I was rapping or before I was even thinking about making music. But it was one of those like standout songs where

it's like, hey, you hear that song. It's where he's talking about the gun, but he's talking about it like it's a girl. It's like, yo, oh, you can do this in music, you know what I mean. It is one of those sort of like lightbulb moments for me. I feel I shouldn't wrap no more. Like I'm a diehard Toobot fan and I'm pissed at myself because I took that so literal. Um, Let's listen to something that

has a similar sort of vibe to it. But with this one, it's not the personification of like a girlfriend, but it's more of the There was a toy, the My Buddy toy back in the day that had a commercial that had a jingle, my buddy, my buddy, Wherever I go, he goes so g unit. Back in I think oh four, this was on that first album Back to the Mercy. They made a song called my Buddy where they took that jingle and it's all about guns

and it's sucking awesome. I love it. Holy Ship Steve screaming on niggas, beating um vcs, nig sat Johny just like the tank say a little my little friend. All right, let's talking about let's talking about it. Oh yeah. So that I had the same sort of vibe that that I got from the Tupacs song when I discovered that one. But again that is the difference, right, like we just heard you just heard the tupocket You you put together that metaphor and it was dope and it was like,

oh man, this is crazy. Man Like Tupacs going in. But let's be real, right, that whole Tupac song and that sixteen bars and Lloyd Banks first, like just the way Lloyd did it. We're just because you can't see this. This is like, this is why when people be like squalding your dope, I'm like, no, I'm not yo, because Lloyd Lloyd Banks is probably one of the most slipt on lyricist in the game. Oh man, he missed me

up with that. And the last song for today is the Ludicrous track We Got Them Guns featuring like everybody chingy I twenty all the disturbing the Peace crew on this with Ludicrous. But but what can I say? This is probably my favorite gun song. They're not really making a big broad theme or metaphor like my buddy or me and my girlfriend. It's just straight up, you know, everyone's first they're talking about guns and stuff like that.

But because it's a CRUI song, everyone's trying to outdo each other with either how funny or how ridiculous the metaphor for their guns can be. So it just keeps escalating with each verse. Let's listen to this, caliber is not looking so good. Tomorrow is not on your calendar aware out. Yeah, they everybody killed that song. I can't

believe that. I like the way he float on it. Well, there's there's something about I don't know, I don't want to say it specifically guns, but you know, I think money is definitely like money, and stunting is one of

those topics. Sex is another one of those topics. But there's certain topics and hip hop where it's just like when a rapper gets into it, they can just snap and snap and probably will do like the best some of the best rapping that they'll do, like rapping about those topics specifically, because it's just I don't know, if it's just there's a so many things that rhyme with gun stuff. Then it's like, I don't know, it's it's

how they explain. It's just it just happens. Because there's there's rappers that I that I like or that I love who are gun rappers. And you know, every bar is about my gun is like this and I'm shooting up this and I don't relate to that ship at all, like as a person, but when I get out of it is the same thing that I get from like a cool action scene in the movie or like a

suspenseful scene and in a in a thriller movie. You know what I'm saying, There's there's something that's just purely entertainment based about it that I've never found an issue with. But you know what, we are out of time. That is going to be it for us this week, everybody. I hope, I hope that this episode has provided you with the proper amount of copium. It is Wednesday morning as we record this, like we said earlier, so you know, as of now, there's been no new developments in the election,

so who knows what's going to happen. But um, if you've never thought about arming yourself, you know, guns are obviously not for everybody. They're definitely not for me. But we have to adapt to the realities that we live in, and I think we live in a reality where we might want to consider or reconsider things like that. UM all made your platforms I Tunes, Spotify, YouTube, found Cloud, Google Play, Amazon, um Pandora anywhere you can find music.

You can find my music all platforms, and you know following Instagram, Yeah, my name and as I always tell you, your favorite host dope Knife and Lingua franc are both on Spotify and our music can also be found all over the place. Yoada, YadA YadA. Follow us on I Heart Reparations on Instagram. We love you guys. Wish that this could have been more of a celebratory episode, but hey, the fight continues. Stay safe out there, See you next week. Squally,

You're gonna rat with us on this one. Somebody got me your motherfucking beat. Yeah, Yo, it's your boys, Squally, Bars, Bars Bars. I'll be running my old hood, but I'm on new ship. Ain't old attitude. I'm rocking new kicks. All these droppers wanting beef, but I an't got no tupicks.

My pops told me stumping nigga silly if the shoot fit on another planet where we be on and all my niggas we all coded in for free on rolling the chick Nay Diamond shot from see every Lee on me and her be shining like I swagged, made it knee on Yeah, and you're in Hey, then later be gone. All about that paper you could get taper for while I'm from so every where that I'm at, I keep a couple of willies that be willing to split your high hat. You don't want to try that. I'm running

all that may back. Be careful you can't see me. You don't like it, niggas say that, be careful where you breathing. Once my niggas get the green light, we'll be coming where you're sleeping, you behind, We'll be seeking when you're trying to get defeated. So you better make like Mike jack boy. I'm talking to beat this where you out your mind. If you're thinking that we even never shall I be out here completely and tell me why I swear the rookie I'm already major league and yeah,

well I'm talking Devin Geta. You don't want me to find your family? Guy that quick? Acting like Peter My flow so stupid, man. I love the game. No Cupid in this game on so elusive. If you watch, I'm like exclusive squal A be running things. I'm gonna beast off the change. Say it's everything. I'd be so high like every plane. Yeah high, like every plane. Some makers marking a weapon take apart your protection just the start of a lesson. I think you are second guessing. I

drink in front of the reverence. That's why I have no adversary. Can't compare me to these charities with the bab vocabulary. You want to limit what I say. I remember that nickel snap. That's whether you're straight over a Democrat, you're faking your demo's whack. Wait to like, get a crack ever tracks in the back and replace it with better crack. And by the way, what constitutes is cussing? I am too discussed it when coming through percussion like

an abusive husband. I'm gonna do when bussing. You want to hear Rahms and I'm the dude you're loving. I'm the future cousin. You hardly could rhyme. Marty McFly couldn't even see a part of my time. I was dope when all of y'all was watching Party of Five. Not a ladies man, but I bet your daughter with grind it's so master see it hurts up. I don't know

if part of my anatomy is a curse. Word lyrics, got so many of them, calories my worst love the assaulting battery just versa like you need some batteries to work up gravity inertia out of father laws of physics, all upended. Your turtles get left when not across the finish. Your hardest rittence wasn't even worth the cost to get us. Don't bet against me, send your money with that talk and listen often walking blizzards and spilling all your nits.

You blowing whistles of officials like I lost my pivot. I'm using imagery because use my enemy. Take your best friends in term to a human centipee, don't and thousand nineteen O to have no gun to the live stream of the top team shooting in Canope shot. We choked up like I'm on because of my boats. So now I ain't here a lot and talking about the glorified.

But I've been looking lovingly at all the case and forty five feeling water the line in November fifth we got water fights here to getting gunned down after us all the shortest die bars, y'o this dope knife well, Franca and we are waiting on reparations for see you next week. Waiting on reparations as a production of I Heart Radio. Listen to Waiting on Reparations on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.