Land, Bread, Housing: Fred Hampton and the Chicago Black Panthers

gotta take it. Those will need to help the most get low, so we can't wait for ship. The streets gotta make a shift less organized. We can all watch the racist pigs. Hold our supplies, built those box and play kids. Class solidarities right around the way you dig. Try to be passive. Its like Buddhism would do black Besides, so I don't need no judice in my crew. If the man had a chance, they would shoot us in

the room. That's why I'm cooking the feed like every student in the room, teaching every student right on zoom an Franka. We are waiting on reparations. Hurry up, indeed, it is a late night. How are you doing? You have been in that meeting for like five hours this time? Yeah, five and a half five pm until I guess it's like ten five I got out. Um, who what was going on today? UM? So we just had an agenda

setting sessions. We're deciding the topics to vote on at our next meeting, and we voted on a couple of things today. We passed a resolution in support of repeal of stan your Ground laws and had a moment of silence for Traymon Martin, Jordan Davis, and Ahmad are Very as well as other victims of UM stand your Ground laws UM in our state and across the South UM.

And then we also passed UH I think we spoke spoken previously about the Lennontown resolution UM kind of like apologizing and offer offering a form of reparations to folks displaced by urban renewal. And so that was interesting. I mean, we put like a year or so of work into getting that pass, and one of the commissioners, one of my fellow commissioners that previously um Stone Wall did actually apologize for failing to condemn white supremacy previously and for

his role in stalling the legislation getting passed. I was like, okay, I see you send him a little couple clapping emojis. I was like, Hi, bro, what du I mean? He recognized that, like, like this coordinated act of forcible removal from the you know, the homes these black families lived in,

was an active white of terrorism and white supremacy. Like he you know, upon his studying the historical documents and seeing what those people had gone through, the intimidation they suffered, the coercion, the you know, like and in some of the language that like legislators were is saying to talk about people who lived there, you know, like they were white supremacists and he's sort of fiddling with us was white supremacy, which, like, you know, there's an argument to

be made of like, oh, well, you want to bring people to the table to like, you know, do this work together. Do you really want to go around calling people white supremacists. That's not been bridge building. But I mean, ultimately I feel like you got call call it what it is in order to heal. You can't heal. You can't heal cancer, can't cure cancer if you go around calling it appendicitis. Yeah, it's cancer. In order to do

the right treatmentum fix the cancer. And so yeah, if if you're not even diagnosing what the problem is, then are you I'm like, oh yeah, I think he started to stone, like, no, this nig got cancer. Yo, doctor, please put on the chart that this man has cancer. Well damn. So, I mean, so what's the because it seems like that's been kind of something that a little

project that's been going on for a minute now. So what's the I don't know, like when when's when's they actually going to start going into all these votes and stuff. Is it actually starting to go into So yeah, I mean we passed the resolution tonight, and so it's like sets in emotions all this additional work. So at the site where we've already started this, but like to you know,

the resolution like affirmed. We're working on it. Like we're gonna put like a wall of recognition where it's gonna be like historical markers indicating the neighborhood used to be here, and like maybe some kind of like mural of like what the neighborhood used to look like with the kids

running around and cute stuff. You know, actually where the neighborhood used to be UM and then this committee that I'm on with all these people who got you know, kicked out of their homes as children in this place

so that the university could build dormitories. UM. They get to make recommendations to the budget to the county for what we should spend money on in our budget every year on so some of the immediate work to do, Like we approve a budget in like May, so we're probably gonna keep meeting, and so we can't The thing about it was like we couldn't give them the money for like, yo, if you were a house which was worth two thousand dollars in the the nine six were still

there today, it would be worth like four. And we can't give that person that three and eighty thousand dollars back that he's taken from the family. But we said, he said, instead, y'all can tell us what to spend money on at the city, right, And so we'll probably start that work soon. So like this's like stuff to do still like however, but it's like it's the beginning. It's a it's a it's like this thing finally got

you know, born long gestation period. I kind of already know the answer to this question, but like it has to be. Do you get frustrated at the fact that it's like you can do like so much work on the particular thing, but it doesn't It's like there's there's no process for it where it's like, Okay, we put this work in and now it's about to happen. You like you always have to constantly go through the motions

of how things have to work. Does frustrating The most soul crushing thing about being an elected official, having been and identifying still as an activist is like adjusting to the pace of government. It took us a fucking year to like all agree on that what we did was bad. Yeah, and like we owe them some stuff and we didn't even were even giving them the stuff they asked for.

We're giving them some other stuff here, and we didn't even get really what this has been a thing that you've been dealing that you've been talking about since before COVID. Oh yeah, no, yeah, like February of last year. That that was like that Nebery of last year when we first started talking about this resolution was six months or maybe even a year after we started writing the arrange. The resolution. So we've been doing this for two years just to get like a wall saying this neighborhood used

to be there. These people get to give and put on the budget and like a couple other little things. Yeah, and so like in elected life, you sometimes wonder if you're like losing yourself when you come to accept the pace,

But it's like, this is just how it works. I have come to accept that it takes a year to get something so small like that, Like, but should I accept it or should I just like fucking go into these meetings and just punch everybody in the face and be like nah, niggd, like we do with it like that, no more done today, buck your six months, Like we need to get this sh on today, you know. And so it just is a constant struggle, like yeah, I want to I want to be like, well, what can

what can you do to change that? But I don't want you to give away your strategies a lot more good people, Yeah, because when you're trying to get consensus among ten motherfucker's that all believe different ships and care to various different degrees or know what the fund is going on to various degrees, some of whom not at all know what's happening. Like it's like, uh, I don't know,

It's like, um, it's I feel like it's uh. It reminds me of like home alone when they're trying to get an airport and there's like kids trying to get you're trying to count them and like everyone here and then like you know, it's just a clown car just trying to pile people in to get us to this very simple destination. And if not not everybody, and if not everybody's in the car, then they're still drinking PEPSI mad upstairs, like not, Yeah, we're not on the same

page at all. Were watching alone recently, I don't know why. I don't know. Man, all right, well let's let's transition. What I did also of a note recently, is I watched Judice in the Black Messiah this weekend. You know, I haven't watched you. I'll just get some one thing funny that we're doing the episode that we're doing, and I haven't seen the movie yet, but there's gonna be not necessarily a reason, but there's an explanation for it.

So we talked last week about the situation with the rapper No Name, and the request of her to be on the soundtrack for this new movie, Judas in the Black Messiah, which is a I don't want to say it's an autobiography, but it's like a what would you what genre would you describe it as? I mean like it it gives me a memoir like feel like an autobiography, feels comprehensive of like he was born and then he

went to fifth grade. But I mean like snapshot really, but I mean like genre, like would you say it's a thriller? Like okay, So so it's more it's more along the lines of being a biopic. But it's not like a like an informant drama or like a thriller or because that's a heavy element in it. It's like the pension, the informant fields about what he's doing, you know, starting to I don't want to give too much away, you know, he kind of like feels the draws the

black panthers and like, oh, I what I'm doing wrong? Yeah, we didn't do it wrong, everybody. So last Friday, um, this new movie, Judas in the Black Messiah was released to streaming and the film follows FBI informant William O'Neill as he infiltrated the Chicago chapter of the Black Panthers Party and set an event the you know everything that would eventually lead to the assassination of the famed revolutionary Fred Hampton. Now, um, would you say it's a good movie?

Like if you had to give it a letter grad just just for the movie that you saw on the screen, what would be your I did not feel qualified to give a ratings a person as personal though you're not giving You're not giving like something like I know you. I've talked to you about movies before. You're like, I'll give it up. Be like, I'll give it a ninety two points barely fairly an A grade. I'm slowly asking on the Mariah Park on the on the lingual Franco scale,

you know. So, um, I think it was a good movie. Yeah, I think it's good. You think it was good? All right? So I mean, I mean, like, as a leftist, I think it was a good film for leftism, and that like I heard, you know, because in our conversation about No Name and her qualms with the film last week, you know, she was concerned. I believe that like his politics weren't comprehensively represented in the film. Yeah, she didn't

think it was enough about him. You know, Like I would agree that the left needs to get better at like producing like compelling media to like draw people to our ideas and educate folks. But like the left needs to do that. Hollywood is not the left capitalism institution or like industrial complex, and so all we need them to do is to like introduce them to, like very briefly,

stuff like not sucking up Super Bad. And I felt like from the jump, like and this isn't a spoiler because like it's like like in the verse twenty minus the film, like it's very explicit that like Fred Hampton is this fucking socialist, and like he talks about socialism. They're all talking about socialism, and sure they don't get into it a ton and the rest of the film like they're not going into theory and ship they don't

get in a theory. They're not like talking about well on page seventy six and like now you're not because no one was to watch that because that's not an

entertaining movie. You know, we're trying to people, We're trying to give him a taste and so people who have watching the movie, you're seeing Fred Hampton being a badass and there's like a gunfight, so the and so if that's all it takes, it was enough of a teaser for somebody who doesn't get sure about politics to look it up Fred Hampton afterwards and then go and see like, huh, who is this? Like you know, yeah, and that's that's that's cha whatever, Like yeah, I feel that's that's kind

of what I was. All I want's just to open the door for people who see it and it's not curious about more to go learn more. I don't expect films from Hollywood to teach actually teach people about So the movie. The movie came out and it's been getting you know, good reviews. People seem to like it. Um besides for the slight controversy with the no name thing in the soundtrack and that particular criticism of it, I haven't really seen too many um complaints with the film. Now.

One thing that I have, you know, discoverag because you know, we we talked about it and then a little bit after we're like, hey, let's let's do an episode where we're talking about Fred Hamptons and it's like just from a basic you know, if you do somebody like you just said, if someone wants to look up Fred Hampton after seeing the movie pretty much, you know, just a basic search, you're gonna come into a lot of stuff about how he died, in the circumstances in which he died.

You know what I'm saying, um cointell pro uh rogue, FBI agents, and an informant struggling with what he's doing. Like all that sort of stuff makes for like an intriguing story, whether it's you know, an article or think piece being written about it, or whether it's a movie. So like most of the stuff that you're gonna find about it is going to be, especially now, is going to be about the assassination of Fred Hampton's you know, like what what led to What were the things that

led to him being killed? And there's not too many just flat out hey, this is who Fred Hampton was and this is what he was about, you know what I'm saying, without bringing in the aspects of his death. So I wanted to we wanted to use this episode to talk about Fred Hampton, his politics and what lessons can be learned from his revolution Before he was prematurely, prematurely taken away from Better Pigs. One last thing I want to say on the film itself before we move

on to talk about the man. And I think, like this point comes up and what we're going to day about the man. But just like, if you haven't seen the film yet, go into this, go into it with this in mind. They cast thirty year old niggas to play like like like he's staying field. His character is seventeen years old in the in the real human, real life, and they got this like thirty old nigga player in the seventeen year old child Fred Hampton, what was he

like nineteen? And they got fucking Daniel Kalua. I hope that's not his last name. I think. Okay, hold on, let me look just be like called the nigga Kalua and Kalua pronunciation kaluya close. Okay, Daniel Kalua. He is thirty one years old playing twenty year old child. Well that that could that's a Hollywood thing too, though, I

mean in the Hollywood thing that does happen. But imagine if they had cast actual children to play these actual children, Like I feel like the gravity of what they were insconsin would like actually sort of thinking like you're you're right, but you know what, I think you're both right and wrong because I think you're right on While that would have been a bet from my just putting on my movie nerd Ship, that would have been a better like

better aesthetically and it would have looked better because it would have been more realistic to the you know what they were portraying from a technical aspect, you're doing something like this, you want motherfucker's that know how to act, you know what I'm saying. And this is not shipping, not on a younger actor and stuff like that. But the people who are in this movie are fucking veteran actors who you can if you're a director, and you're right,

they do a great job. If you're director actor, you don't have to be afraid to put a camera on Daniel Kluya for five minutes and have him just look you express some emotion and stuff like that. But I mean, just and this is all you know, again, with all due respect, if you're dealing with a seventeen year old actor, you probably have to search a lot harder to find that that actor who can do that. Who's that young, you know, So I'll give him a break on that.

But I'm like, I'm an older cat, so I've been seeing high school students played by four year old motherfucker's since I was a kid and ship, so it's all it's all good with me. I get why they did that, but um yeah, so we're gonna We're gonna get into that and a little bit more. We're also going to do for the music discussion is we are going to do a quick little mini review of the soundtrack that kind of brought all of this to our attention anyway.

It's a star studied hip hop extravaganzas soundtrack that they made for this uh movie. So we're gonna go into it and listen to some select cuts and kind of give our overall thoughts on how this works a as a rap album, but be also as a soundtrack that is advertising itself as being inspired by the film that you're I see on the screen. So that's where I'm going to be judging with south track from we will

be into all that and more after the jump. Okay, August is the year Fred Hampton was born, and what is now summ at Illinois. His parents were transplants from Louisiana, some of the six million or so rural Southern United States dwellers of African descent that north um to the northeast, Midwest, and West in order to escape for economic conditions and the Hellish racism under Jim Crow States in the South um in between the years of nineteen six and nineteen seventies.

So right there, smack in the middle, Fred Hampton's parents have moved up to Illinois. He gets born, and from a young age it was noticed that Fred was a pretty gifted student and athlete. He even wanted to like pitch for the Yankees one day, or play for the Yankees at least, I don't know what position you've played. But his future activism also shine really early on too, perhaps a precursor to the Black Panthers free breakfast programs

that we're gonna touch on a little bit later. When he was ten years old, he would host weekend breakfasts for the neighborhood kids, and he would go so far as to even cook all of the meals himself. What do you think about that? So cute? I mean, I'm gonna have a lot to say. I think about mutual aid and its role in like shaping communities and like pushing for transformation and communities as a part of this,

because I think it's a huge lesson from the Black panthers. Um. But I think in particular, like it's interesting to me, just like the way the Great Migration shaped, like Black liberation movement stuff is something I just would love to learn more about and delve more into. As some that's like my family didn't really leave the South, didn't go nowhere down here. Someone was making the point that there

should be another Great Migration. You're saying that black people should migrate back to the South of African Americans live in the South South already exactly, So, Um, wouldn't it

be funny? Though? I saw this like stupid fucking meme on Twitter or something that was like, you know, like if we if like all the you know, tech bros working on their MacBooks at a you know, Williamsburg coffee shop moved to Montana or Nebraska or Wyoming or wherever, you know, eight hundred thousand, five hundred thousand people, we could like flip the sentences. I've I've definitely heard a few right wing talking heads like make reference to that

losing their ship. About man, what are these people from California moving to Texas? This is like I don't like this ship, man, what's going on? Yeah yeah, yeah yeah. But like you know, you get a hundred thousand of black people to move to Wyoming to have like a self sustaining I don't know, commune and some ship. And also you know they also elect a new senator, Senator. Uh no, I do not advocate for a great migration of any kind. South built the South. This is Arland.

Everyone should everyone come back to the South. Let's really take a ship over. Let's reclaim Atlanta. Okay, So back back to Freddie so so okay, so you know that this is this activist part of him was being noticed at you know, very young age, and this development of organizing in the community and you know, starting these free

breakfast programs where he would cook for neighborhood kids. This development would carry on into his teen years, whereas a high schooler he would lead lockouts to protest blacks being left out of the homecoming runnings, and he fought to get more black teachers and administration hired by the faculty. He ended graduating with honors and varsity letters, as well

as a Junior Achievement Award in nineteen sixty six. Now, the amazing thing about that saying that to me, And it's also like when you consider the movie, so it's like Fred Hampton died in nineteen sixty nine, right, and here I am just telling you that he graduated high school in nineteen sixty six. So this means that all of the not all, but it means a good chunk of the impact and legacy that this dude left on the world was between the fucking three years that he

graduated high school and died. This nigga went from Ayo, why the no mo fucking black homecoming queens getting murdered by the f year three years later? Wild wow? But then the year rolled So after graduating from high school, he had enrolled in Triton Junior Community College or he majored in pre law, started to gather ammunition winklink informa

legal no use as a defense against the police. He would later on go on to use this like when they would do they had like a watch the police program that he set up where they would actually follow the cops and monitor them like as they patrolled the

neighborhoods and stuff like that. So whenever the cops will trying to funk with them, you know, everyone who he would view with would look to him because he would know how to talk to the cops because he has like all that legal knowledge and ship like that, so they couldn't mess with them like that. Um. It was around nineteen sixty six, after he turned eighteen that some

of his political identities started to crystallize. He formed a solidarity with the Third World Socialism movement that was a philosophy that's made up of African, Arab, Latin, Buddhist, Islamic versions of socialism with the worldview that socialism was the answer to establishing a strong and developed nation. Uh. This was all in the as the Vietnam War was really starting to ratchet up in violence and Fred began to read the work of Shakavara Ho Chi Minh maoz A

Dung and other communists revolutionaries. After getting involved with and quickly moving up the ranks into leadership of the in Double A CP, Fred used his natural abilities as a community organizer to activate a youth group five members deep to fight for more and better recreational facilities and improved educational resources in their community. So how's the boy doing so far out of high school? We're doing okay at

high school. Yeah, I mean, I feel like it is rare, at least in my personal experience as an organizer, as well as just like thinking about great figures of contemporary times that are like leading like modern day social movements that synthesize this, this this theoretical found um grounding in like the you know, writings and readings of the writings, readings the fucking words and books of of like the of of revolutionary thinkers with actual action in the community.

I feel like you see, particularly you know now more than ever, like a lot of like folks that like read theory and then like just shot on other people for not knowing about it. I mean that a person that like I don't fucking read theory. I've never read up sh at all um, but like, you know, operate from a from a grounding of just like deep compassion and like just care that the community, and like I think, I think your natural quality and like I believe thing

is going to be better. I don't know, I think your natural interests though in like the subject matter it makes I don't know, it makes it more like somebody like me to get into it would have to read theory.

You know what I'm saying, because I think that like for someone like you, who's like very hands on and like in the ground level of it, that I think you can better form of understanding of what these concepts are because it's like you know how they or how they will to actually apply in real life and stuff

like that. Whereas someone who is more like like you. Remember, we had a discussion early on in the show when I was we were trying to determine whether or not I was a socialist or not, and it was like

that's exactly. It's like it's like I feel like I feel like yeah, but then it's like, man, I don't know enough about it to claim that ship because I don't want you know what I mean, and not not from my perspectives, Like I don't want to like claim some something the have people like, man, you pose it, man, you wait with the ship you believe in that straight up.

That's why I don't read theory and I don't want to become one of those assholes that's like man to baby Broby bro tears streamed down the face into the beard, into the weird. Um. So yeah, I mean and like and here we see that well before he got this like theoretical grounding in you know, tenets, a third world

like internationalist socialist movement. Um, he already feeding people. And that's the thing if you have like a penchant, if you just want to go feed people in your community, and you don't know why, you don't have nobody told like some old dead like communist guy, I didn't tell you to do it. You're just like I think, you know, I should need food weekend breakfast for neighborhood kids. Let's

do that. Like that is more revolutionary to me than like, I don't know, reading a bunch and then not doing ship. So reading a reading a bunch and starting a YouTube show. Yeah, I guess, yeah, I guess. I say that to say that I ultimately, in my own work find that the grounding and community engagement then like inflected with understanding of theory, is like an important orientation to have among our leadership.

So a sense of like, I'm out here doing good and then later I read a book about like the best way to do good, and so I'm going to combine my real world knowledge with like what the old dead guy in the book said, like that is that's that sweet spot that made people that made someone like Fred Hampton so like transformative in their community and in

our history. And the thing that the sense that I couldn't quite get from reading about it, and I wonder if this was you can maybe tell me if this was captured in the movie, is um it was a thing that he was so young? Right? Like I mean, it wasn't. I feel like no, And I feel like in the movie like he was just some who's just

a person that made it seem like he was older. Okay, so I said so, I mean, like so I wonder if like the people around him, because you know, because I would imagine there were a lot of radicalized, activated young people back then, you know what I'm saying, probably more so than now. Would you think of now? Is that? One thing that I'm wondering is we have this conversation it's like what sorts of pipelines to what kind of leadership are we building in like our communities for for

young people today? Like I don't know why, Like sure there's not a there there weren't a ton of Fred Hampton's then either that's why there's one Fred Hampton that stands out to us history. But like we don't have zero, We've got none for what do you got a single one? Like? Like you know, so what are we channeling people with this organic like leadership potential and like desire and drive to help their community, Like what are we funneling them into?

There's a lot of things. Are things working against you though in that sense, because I mean, I just think like all of society, I think American society for like at least the last thirty years has kind of been designed to pacify people, you know what I'm saying, to make it harder for Fred Hampton to to get out there.

And you know, as I even though I just said that, like he listened hearing what you just said, it also made me think that a lot of the technologies that are very pacifying in a way that simy like the rise of leadership in like a traditional sense, are also tools by which people, young people particularly are engaging in

like really powerful forms of mass political education. Like I'm not on TikTok, I'm not twenty nine years old, but I like the zoomers are like from what I can tell Hella talking about socialism and ship on the there's definitely a lot of them. I don't know how dominant it is, but there definitely is like a strong political It's like just ecosystem on TikTok for sure, like on the left and the right. What's up? Okay, So trying to Okay, it's the study before I looked it up

again just so I could accurately quote its findings. UM. According to a study from last year, nearly one third of gen z um support Marxism or socialism UM, which is up from six percent in two thousand nineteen. I don't know what this means. I don't know, like you know, what it means that something really bad happened that shocked a lot of people and changing the way that they thought. Yeah, let collapse and racial just almost civil war uprising, and yeah, yeah,

I don't know. So okay. So I guess I'm trying to say is that we also have to think about the way that social movements are shifting, given like the diversified and fragmented media landscape UM and technology landscape they

were not living in. And so one of the things that's like seems like a drawback, but maybe is it benefit to like everyone's on a different social media platform, everyone's watching different YouTubers, are reading different they're listening to different podcasts, and they're not There's not like, oh, you turn on the TV and there's like the one news network that everyone watches and see it's okay on and so everyone thinks MLK is the dude. There's not that

sort of like beautifying culturals like guys anymore. And so it makes it like so that the movement it's harder to kill because like, well, who's the Fred Hampton? You're shooting their bed? Now? Who is it? You can't Oh, you can't figure you there's too many that are operating on smaller scales, and so we don't know which one's worth murdering or I don't know, like Keevin Ferguson, activists turned up dead since the thousand fourteen. Maybe I spoke

pres soon. Um so, so I don't know. We've nda get off on a tantent talking about like why don't we to make Fred Hampton's anymore? And I get the experienswer is we do? But it's different we do, but it's the well, um so, while he was making moves this we're going back to Fred Hampton. Now, sorry, y'all, we're gonna be transitioning in our thoughts and the subject matter.

But okay. So while he was making moves in then double a CP, the Black Panthers began a rise in the national national prominence, and their approach to the struggle is one that Hampton found really appealing. The reason for that attraction well coincides with his readings and the forming of his new political identity. The Panthers, through Huey Newton and Bobby Seals, utilized the ten Point program that combined black self determination with class and economic critiques from Maoism.

It laid out the physical needs and all philosophical principles that Fred wanted to lead it. So what is the ten point program? Mut's break down the points? Point point? What you want? What do we want? Now? I feel like we need to do this and like the it feels like it needs to be some bootcamp militaristic type way we say it. What do we want? We want freedom? We want power to determine the destiny of our Black community. I knowed to be like call and response or something,

but they did want freedom. They wanted power to determine the destiny. They wanted all employment for people, which y'all know I've been harping on fucking guaranteed incommission. It was on that ship. They wanted to end to the robbery by capitalists of the black and oppressed communities. They want a decent housing fit for shelter of human beings. You want an education for people that exposes the true nature

of this decadent American society. We want an education that teaches us a true history and our role in present day society. We want all black men to be exempt from military service. You want an immediate end to police brutality and murder of black people. We want freedom for all black men held in federal, state, county, and city prisons in jails. Want all black people, when brought to trial, to be tried by a jury of their peer group or people from the black communities as identified by the

Constitution of the United States. And in closing, we want bread, housing, education, clothing, injustice and peace. I felt that was an important thing for us to say, because you know, I'm like interested in this ship, and I don't think I had ever like just straight up read the ten Points of the Black Panther Party until doing this, you know what I'm saying.

I mean, a lot of this still resonates with like policies that are much needed today and that have like echoed forward in time through the demands made by various social movements, groups and leaders. The one thing I kind of want to dig into is the idea of black self determination. The very first point. We want freedom, we want power to determine the destiny of our black community.

And when I think about soft of community self determination in the context of like, you know, community like mine that I represent, which is like predominantly and historically black and working class, how black capital of them like is seen as like getting that self determination, like like if we just have enough wealth where we can like buy a home and then flip it if we want to, or just like be an entrepreneur and make money, but then only pay our worker, like then we'll be good.

Like it's interesting to me that like, um, perhaps you know, and you know this is decontextualized since we're just like reading off the list rather than like hearing it within the general like discourse of the time, But like how that particular point could be what I would imagine, like you could say, is misconstrued by like modern day like black neoliberals, like we want to determine the destiny of our black community. I feel that like yeah, and like and gain a sense that like, oh, we are the

spiritual successors of someone like but Fred Hampton. When it's like if you think that like every every black person being a business owner, like that's that's gonna be the fix. When it's like, well, what are they paying the people that work for them? Like what the working conditions of the people that work for them? Like what are their business practices? Are they exploiting the earth? Are they exploiting like other people like Dada Da Da Da? Are all

still fairy fundamental in like and ultimately just society. I don't know to what degree at all, but I mean hip hop definitely has played its role in like this sort of messaging two people that attitude that you know, like you're saying that like black capitalism is the cure for all you know. What I'm saying is as somebody who's grown up for thirty years listening to hip hop and ship, it's like that that's like that's get Richard died trying that association of freedom being with like economic

gain or economic freedom and solely that. And it's not like a judgment of that, because I think it's understandable. Why wouldn't somebody want to look out for them and theirs. It's just the messaging. If that message gets drone, and it gets drone and it becomes there's a reason why when you hear rappers who speak in broader terms of like community and the people and ship like that, it's eyebrow raising. It's like, oh, man, that that motherfucker's cool,

you know, because that's not the norm. And not to downplay at all with any rapper does like community wise off the mic. But I've been stressing since we started this show, and I keep stressing the power of hip hop, I believe is like a real thing, you know. And it's like if you keep droning on a message, you know, it's just it's just not shocking to me that after thirty years of messaging, people are a lot more prone to be like, yo, man, what can I do get

but get money? You know. And obviously there's other factors. I would just imagine that the most dominant aspect of pop culture telling you the same ship over and over again possibly have an effect. And I guess I want to like push back on that slightly with a reference to Vince Staples in North North where he says, hit

the corner, make a dollar, flip it. Let the dollars with my mom and children, and so it being indicative of like there's this ethos of community care where it's like whatever you get, you split with your mama children, like you split with your boys. You make sure your mama got her lights onto their house, like you make

sure your people are good. But it's how you get those gains that everybody is so confused about that would agree hip hop um like this misconception hip hop helps proliferate, but it's also just pervasive in America media or large in Hollywood, in the news, and and so it's not I don't think it's like specifically endemic to hip hop that like this is Oh, I don't. I wouldn't put

the blame solely at the feet of hip hop. I'm just I'm just speaking from what my from from what I feel that you know, from my exposure to hip hop. I'm just saying what I feel that that line and the line came to me because like it also indicates the inverse where it's like, yes, there's this like get rich, do try and step on where you gotta get and make your money, like you know, get mine, you get yours. You know what I mean. That's because because we've got

to look out for people, for our people. So like I think if we could like somehow uplift that ethos, Like I think you could undo this whole ship just like yo, you know how like we all really care

about our people and making sure they're good. What if instead of buying crack for five dollars and selling it for money, you know, Like I don't know, I can't come up with a good metaphor where we grow, we grow the cocaine ourselves and all the riches gained from something that though I don't know, I was going, Um, we films it, like you know, it's just like how you get how you get the gains to then split amongst your people, Like part we gotta like rehash out

as like a subculture. But the ethos are taking care of our people is already there. Yeah, So let's kind of break down a little bit more about what each of these pen points means or like what they were seeking truly with each of these. So okay, so we want full employment for our people. That's pretty self explanatory. Yeah, they said they believe that the federal government is responsible and obligated to give every man employment or guaranteed income.

Where if I heard these things before, Um, we believe that the white if the white American businessman will not give full employment, the means of production should be taken from the businessman in place in the community so that the people of the community can organize and employ all of its people and give a high standard of living.

So these ideas of federal job guarantee, guaranteed employment from the federal government coupled with universal basic income are still ideas that have widely talked about, Uh in the main I mean it's becoming increasingly mainstreamed today. Um, this is what they're talking about even back then. Oh then then then you got the good old season, the means of production cash it. So third, we believe that this racist government has robbed us and now are we are demanding

our overdue debt. Forty acres two mules. Forty acres two mules was promised a hundred years ago as redistribution for slave labor and mass murder of black people. Will accept the payment and currency which will be distributed to our many communities. The Germans are now aiding the Jews in Israel for genocide of the Jewish people. The Germans murdered six million Jews. Is the American racist has taken part

in the slaughter of over fifty million black people. Therefore, we feel this is a modest demand that we make. It doesn't have anything to do with this. I mean it kind of us, but doesn't really. More on the topic of the podcast, generally we are called waiting on

reparations and then talking about reparations. Something is a meeting tonight. Yeah, so another Black commission there's three of us on the commission, and it's one of the other two black commissioners tonight had said, because we're voting on a packager for reparations to the people who have their land taken under urban renewal, and he said that he doesn't want reparations because even if he got them, he could still end up dead

under the knee of a cop like George Floyd. And this is also I feel like worth flrowing in the mix here is also a man that, like the humanly supports the police. So wait, what I just I just like, can we just unpack it for a second. Hold on, let me just see if I can. Okay, So he said, I don't. I don't want reparations because even if I did get them, I could still end up dead under the knee of a So like, does he not want to get paid at work? Like, I just I don't.

I don't understand the correlation of those two things. I don't either. I think it unpacked because you know, we are this is a show that is titled about reparations, and it's like, actually, that's an interesting, kind of interesting point, like weird and dumb, but like like underneath kind of profound that reparations on their own, we wouldn't make it

so that cops would stop killing black people. No, not at all, but but it seems like right, It's it's right in the sense that like, yeah, that's factually right, Like, yeah, if if I got reparations, a cops still could put his knee on his neck. Yeah, And it wasn't what I don't get what I do. But what I don't get is I don't get I don't want reparations because the cop because do you know, do you feel what

I'm saying? Like that just doesn't make sense, Like I don't understand why you but I've heard people structure of like the because of this then this, like the way he said it doesn't make sense. But um, I guess like in short, he's like kind of right, but let's just deconstructed in the level. That's what I would have said to him at the meeting if I had given a ship, but mostly thought he was dumb and didn't want to talk about it. Um, Like, let's think about

George Floyd. It feels like he had a kind of a hard life and we've talked previously on the show about like generations back, had had land stolen from his family, um, which had set him up for precarity in his adulthood, you know, struggles with you know, violence, behavioral issues, argubuse. Like had his family been paid reparations to the land I've been taken for them, maybe would have had a

stabler life. That would have not led him to allegedly use a counterfetween the four dollar bill at that gas station, so he wouldn't have had the run in with the cops that would lead to the end of his life. In a sense, actually reparations what would have proven sure would help ensure that lots of people get killed by the cops because they would put them in fewer precarious situations to necessitate police response, creating the circumstance in which

they are killed. I mean, I'm I'm personally somebody. I feel that somebody can make an argument against reparations that I can disagree with but still be like, Oh, I see the point that you're trying to make. You know what I'm saying, And it's like I hear you, like like it's it's it's it's a complicated issue. I just don't think that this is it, though I should also could have been because I was longs mine. It's blown

my mind. I'm really sitting here trying to wonder, like what point he was trying to make, Like guys, like, it's not the point. Like again, the point that he's making is accurate, but it just doesn't make sense. I don't want reparations. What do you gain? What do you gain? And making this argument right now, you honestly, if you you could replace a cop could still kill me with anything and just ask yourself, even that makes sense, guys, I don't want reparations because I can still die from

high blood pressure. Yeah, like what what you know? Like a it's helf also a matter of systemic racism and the environmentalism contributing. Like so that's not even that's not even a crazier analogies literally, yeah, it's lines. Yeah wow, So thank you for entertaining this. Uh this tangent good on my fine, all right, So back to the ten points.

So we believe that if white landlords will not get decent housing to our black communities, then the housing in the land should be made into cooperative so that our community, with government aid, can build and make a decent housing for his people. Feel that we believe in an educational system that will give our people a knowledge of self. If a man does not have knowledge of himself and his position in society in the world, then he has little chance to relate to anything else. I feel that too.

I mean, there's no lies there and that I mean that looks like a little bit of a little hip hop crossover there with um I think it's kres one. That's the fifth pillar of hip hop is knowledge. Yeah. Oh, no, it's Africa Bombata alright. We believe black people should not be forced to fight in the military service to defend a racist government that does not protect us. We will fight and kill other people of color in the world

who like black people. We will not fight or kill other people of color in the world who, like black people, are being victimized by white, racist government of America. We will protect ourselves from the force of violence and the racist police and the racist military by whatever means necessary.

I mean, I can only imagine how radicalizing it must have been during the Vietnam War to be called by a government that hates you to go kill people that are also brown, who you have a lot more in common with than like the politicians signing off on like

the War Authorization Act or whatever. Well, one of the things that you can't overlook is that one of the things that started, you know, some of these revolutionary movements on the state side, is when you had black soldiers go and fight fascism in World War Two, and then they're fighting, they're seeing like that integrated society is possible. When they're like seeing like how the Europeans are doing it.

Then they come back home and they can't even drink out of the same water fountains and other exact Nazis for goddamn uh. Well, So we believe you can in police brutality in our black community by organizing black self defense rooms that are dedicated to defending our black community from racist police depression and brutality. The Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States gives us the right to bear arms. We therefore believe that all black people

should arm themselves for self defense. I'm sure Ben Shapiro agrees with that. One friend Shapiro loves that. Sure Ben Shapiro. Stephen Crowder definitely agrees with that. I'm sure yeah, in rates all up on him. Yeah, looking forward to that, like like to use tenants of the US Constitution too, like to bolster revolutionary claim like that in themselves or like in their broader ideology challenge the legitimacy of that constitution.

Does that make sense? So like the idea that like white men don't have any right to be saying like, you know why yo, white man won't give us housing. White men you know, be killing us, white men, like taking our labor to build this country and the you know upon which upon you know, who's founding is builds upon this constitution. But because the constitution says we can bear arms, We're gonna like stick that in there because that you guys, you know, because at least you will

give a shoot about the constitution. So like maybe you'll listen to when we like use your own words back at you. I don't know, I don't like. I don't know if it's like it kind of strikes me as sort of um contradictory. Get it, like use their own

arguments for why you should do the thing. This is cool reading This is because have you you know, I, like I said earlier, I haven't seen the Judas in the Black Messiah movie, but I have seen the Black Panthers, the Panther movie that was made in No No, No No in in ve or ninety six. Mario Van People's who directed New Jack City, he directed a Black Panthers movie that was more it was more like about like you know, the Rise and Fall of the Black Panthers.

I don't remember whether that movie was good. I think it was. I think it was just that I know it was one of those movies where like damn near every black actor except Desoe Washington was in it. You know what I'm saying. It was one of those like

huge ensemble movies. But it's just I remember some of the dialogue that you know, the actor who played he P. Newton would say, and it's just like it's like a ripped right out of these these pillars that we're reading right now, like straight up, we believe that all black people should be released from jails and prisons because they have not received a fair and impartial trial. And in I mean nineteen sixty six, I understand why he's saying that.

I'm tally saying that ship now. But but then that that transfers into this ninth one, which is we believe that the courts should follow the United States Constitution so that black people will all receive fair trials. The fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution gives a man the right to be tried by his peers appear is a person from a similar economic, social, religious, geographical, geographical, environmental, historical, and

racial background. To do this, the court will be forced to select a jury from the black community from which the black defendant came. We have been and are being tried by all white juries that have no understanding of the average reasoning, reasoning man of the black community. Again, no lies, no lies, no lies. I think citing what appear it means and like inciting like economic, social, religious, geographical, environmental, historical,

in racial background. But to sort of flattened all of that into like, oh, we should be you know, tried by a jury from the black community and was like, well, there's black people in various geography, is, various religions, various economic situations. To problematize that someone, Yes, there's definitely a documented issue with all juries to this day, like they're diagnosing ills that's continue to plague us um. But it's kind of depressing to hear the like this issue just

never never got better, never got bad. When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature is God entitle them. A decent respect to

the opinions of mankind. Requires that they declare the causes which and tell them the separation, you know, a especially now because there seems to be a little bit of a movement on at least the online left select people who are suggesting that there's some solidarity to be found between leftists working with like the far right and pretty much fascist as if there's like, hey, you know what I mean, we have like a mutual there's there's there's

mutual goals that can be found there and stuff like that. People have been name dropping Fred Hampton in that ship pretty much like not to beat around the bush. There's certain people in the American online left who are suggesting, hey, you know, like progressives should work with the Booglee Boys or like Proud Boys and fine solidarity because we both hate corporations, right, And it's like it's it's not really

that simple. But then they're like, well, I mean keep saying we need sorry, but then but then they'll bring up, hey, but Fred Hampton, uh was like a class reductionist and he knew it was all about class and that he found solidarity by working with racists and stuff too, And it's like no, no, he didn't, like what what do you what are you talking about? Like not, that's not there.

There is no context in which that was like a thing, you know what I'm saying, And we're going to get into that too, because we actually are going to like cover what that actual outreach was. But there's a there's a speech that he made once where he was pretty much talking about like how the whole plan of the establishment is to get poor white people and poor Black people and poor brown people and to get us all in fighting amongst each other so that we don't unite

in coalesced to go against the bigger issue. That's a completely different thing from saying that Fred Hampton was advocating, Hey, we should reach out to the clan, because you know, like that's not what was going on at all. But I think that that last tenant, it's kind of like what he was getting at is kind of that solidarity and uh, just poor people as opposed to on a on racial lines. So in nineteen Hampton would join the

Black Panthers Party. He he would join their h Not Sent Illinois chapter the following year, and he would embark on what would be one of the greatest runs of activist and activists has had, emphasizing that racial conflict only leads to poverty. He successfully brokered a non aggression pack among Chicago's most powerful street gangs. He taught political education

classes every morning at six in the morning. Project UM and started a Project Community Supervision of the Police program where they would monitor police and like follow the cops while they were on duty to make sure that they weren't harassing people and beating people up and ship he

also went. He was also key in the Black Panthers Free Breakfast program, inspired by contemporary research about central roles of breakfast and optimal schooling, and the Panthers would cook and serve food for poor people in inner city youth in the area did they did this like all across

the nation. Perhaps one of the biggest achievements for Hampton and the Panthers at the time was forging a class conscious, multi racial alliance between the Panthers, the Young Patriots, which was a leftist organization made made up mostly of white Southerners, and the Young Lords, a street king turned civil rights UM civil human rights organization that fought on behalf of

Latinos here at Puerto Ricans and commonized people. This you didn't lead to the formation of the Rainbow Coalition, not to be confused with Jesse Jackson's culture the same nay okay Um not only girl and it grew more and more its various radical socialist community groups joined their ranks.

This is roughly the end. In nineteen sixty eight early nine, they like joined Action against poverty, corruption, police brutality, and substandard house and the various groups supporting each other a protests, strikes, and democratic and demonstrations where they had common cause. But this is not to be confused with the Rainbow Coalition.

Alice was co opted over the years by referend Jesse Jackson, not as the point of insult, this as a fact he you know, eventually appropriated the name and for me its own more moderate coalition. So what you think about that? It's fucking dope. What you love to see brout here? Kill them out here, getting the white people and the Latinos and the motherfucking just like everybody together. That's what

people are saying. People are like, yeah, people are like, oh, he he worked with that leftist white Southern group that might have I think they might have adorned the rebel flag maybe, but it's like, that's that's not the boogaloo. Boys. Man, you will you will humor me for just a second. This reminds me of this clip from Vince Staples. Let me talking about him a lot this episode at Coach tell him talking about his coalition. He wants to build

for somebody. He knows it's funny, Digger, but I'll be there seres. But you know now, I'm gonna do something for like the kids I might. I'm trying to get the world to goose their own missions. I'm gonna get all the missions out of North Long Beach, and I'm gonna get all of the fossil fuels out of normal holds on. How are you getting all the missions out a Long Beach? I would love to help with this mission.

That's what we're gonna do. We got a lot of horror fineries, right, the master gist be tripping the masscause the agents got a race ward has been going on to the nineteen twenties. I'm gonna stop the race war right and be like we really gotta be for the world companies growing withth part grenading and suicide bomb and the or refineries boom boom. When we got a big gay population in Long Beach, right, but we only got

one whole foods. One thing I learned from my gay parts is that whole foods and like like orse, the coffee breweries, and seemed like that they like that kind of ship. They like they like that kind of ship. So I'm gonna call my boy Lloyd. Shout out Lloyd, Lloyd gonna help me get the gay community all the way. Right, we got a gay Latino mayor, right, boom, we get killed two buds once. I'm get a system here. We got the gay Latino mayor and then the black um

um and we're gonna get everybody together. We're gonna throw the Asians in there somehow are. We're gonna get the oil frimaries out of there. We're gonna build the Tescla factory on the east side. What does Elon must know about this? You see them rap get out of here. Okay, let's talk about like, Yeah, we're gonna get the Latinos. You don't get the Asians, you don't trot the gays in there. We're gonna get the oil refineries. That a lot of the right attitude. This is like Modernday. But

I don't know if he's kidding. I mean, hey, I hope I hope that he's that kid. I don't know about that Elon musk Tesla ship though, that's that's that's just me. So again back to Fred Hampson with his uh with his leadership skills, and if we can keep it real, the FBI at this point had decimated the Black Panther Party's ranks with assassinations and imprisonments and sabotage.

Fred was well on his way to becoming appointed the party's Central Committee Chief eef of staff, had he not been murdered in the Hill of Chicago pe d bullets and what you know, a scene that was chillingly similar to the Brianna Taylor murder. But you know, at this point, if we were gonna go on and do like a whole the whole you know, life story of Fred Hampton, you know, this would be around the part where we would start talking about cointel pro and j Edgar Hoover

and stuff like that. But again, I feel that this is information that's ample ee out there, and there's a new movie out about it, so you know, you check out the second episode about So if you want to put this situate this in the context of the surveillance and sabotage that the FBI was doing to black liberation in black radical groups at large across country during this time you can get plugged in there and a little

bit more about it that way. So overall thoughts on Freddy, Um, I mean, as I said a little bit earlier, like as a politician, like I regularly get calls from people about things that have to do with like private property issues, or like follow activists in the community who are just like organizing outside the state. Particularly under covid UH, the idea of mutual aid has gained attraction with people that

might have previously organized around the policy advocacy, legislation, elections. Um, but now it's just like, yeah, we just gotta feed our people and make sure people are warm, make sure people have somewhere to live because the state won't provide

for us. And like I feel that, and it's like an interesting thing for me to think about, like bouncing my role as like I do have electoral power, where like I can allocate budgets and pass laws and ship but like, but like I value organizing outside the state and like self determination of communities, like people coming together to like feed their kids and to like you know, make sure the homeless and warm and just doing it

autonomously without getting permission from the government, Like yo, here's ten thousand dollars to do it. Like, Yo, we just did it ourselves. We ain't wait around for y'all to like take a gear to pass the park. We just

want did it. And so, um, just seeing seeing the like mainstreaming for for for what to me seems like the mainstreaming of the idea of mutual aid under COVID, but like remembering its roots in projects like you know, the free breakfast program of the Black Panthers all the way back then and like reclaiming what is revolutionary about just taking care of our communities. And I think it's like something that really resonates with me in revisiting some

of Fred Hampton's work. Um, because we talked about the policy on the show a lot. We talk about laws, we talk about the judicial system, we talk about legislation, but like politics is bigger than that. Politics is also just the way we organized power, and like being fed is power, and having a point to sleep at night is power, and like knowing your neighbors and being able to provide for them that is power as well, and

that's politics as well. And so to sort of like step back from our usual framing of like public policy, like laws, and like politics is is something people enact in the every day. I think it's something that we can take away from the work of Black Panthers and Fred Hampton Um and like not waiting around for people to give us what we want, just taking it or

making it for ourselves in our own communities. Stated perfectly. So, we are going to get into a little mini review of the soundtrack to Judas and the Black Messiah after the jump, all right, So for the music discussion, we are going to be talking about the soundtrack to the new motion picture Judas and the Black Messiah. What can we say about this? I feel like, you know, I've listened to this three times in the last two days, and I feel that this project has to kind of

be judged with two different ears from me. On one hand, you who can judge it as just a compilation rap album, right, and then on the other hand, you can judge it as a conceptual album about this movie. And the reason that I feel that it's fair to judge them for both is because it's actually labeled on the cover that all of the songs on the soundtrack are inspired by the motion picture. I'm just taking them at their word,

taking them literally, you know what I'm saying. So from the context of a rap compilation, this project works really well, Like it's a really dope rap album and there's a lot of really good songs on there. But I feel from the concept of inspired by the motion picture, a lot of misses, you know, like just like real talk, it's it. It doesn't have that consistency that immerses me in the subject matter of what they're talking about in

the movie. It starts off strong. The opening track you have like really cool soul style beats, soul sample, old school he beats that that definitely fit the vibe in the tone of the movie. So like the first two tracks, they're giving you those those like soul, that soul style, and it's definitely it sounds like the images that you see when you see the movie. It's you know what I mean, Like when you watch the trailer, when you see the film, it it sounds like, hey, this is

like inspired by some sixties seventies era stuff. But quickly that kind of falls the wayside. So the opening track, you've got Chairman Fred Hampton Jr. Fred Hampton's son, and he's kind of giving like a rundown of what Fred Hampton was about what the Black Panthers were about, how what we can do moving forward, and it's got a really cool, you know, soul behind it, soul beat and it's awesome. The next track that the transitions to is a track by the artist Her and this is called

a Fight for You and that one's dope too. It fits along the same lines. And then the third song is instantly what takes me out of that mindset, not that it's a bad song. The third song is called E p M D. By Nas. It's a really fucking dope song, but that's it. It's a dope Nas song. You know what I'm saying. He's like name dropping like Amazon and Nike, and you know what I'm saying, It's just it just takes you out of the period aspect

that you were in. And the the album kind of follows that trend as you go on, you know, I mean, like rappers are talking about, hey man, I'm getting a Grammy. I'm making stacks yo. Man, we we we we we I'm a rich nigga. Like there's a song by Asy Rocky called rich Nigga Problems that's just about him, you know, I mean, it's it's like just the Si Rocky song.

You know, there's a little Dirk song on there where he's you know, talking, but like literally the first thing he says is, I wrote this after the Grammys, and it's like, it's just it doesn't make me feel like Judas and the Black mist. I I have a hard time really believing that all of these songs were inspired by the by the movie. Now some of them are, and those are definitely the standout tracks that we're gonna take a little bit snippets from some of them. Definitely

you can hear that. It's like, hey, man, this is whichever artists they watched the film and then they went in the studio or whatever. But then there's a lot of songs on here that that definitely sound like, hey, we we have this extra g Herbo track that's hot, the excuse to use it, Let's put it on the soundtrack. And it's just the regular g Herbo trap drill song,

you know what I'm saying. And also the sonic sonically, I feel that the inconsistency in the beat choices, how at some elements, at some points it's really like period esque and it's really soul sample old jazz samples and then it'll go straight up into something that sounds, you know, like it was made yesterday. You know that that was kind of taking me out of it. I feel like saying that, like I mean, ultimately with the soundtrack, like I think back to like the Black Panther soundtrack as

like a movie soundtrack. I like the uh that like thematically had very little to do with like uh, the plot or characters or you know, anything with the movie, but aesthetically captured the same vibe. I felt like where I was like, yo, like afro a Futurists to three kind of ship and so I feel you though I was. I was about to ask, like, even if it is a soup racking rapping about how we just left the Grammys,

like does it feel no? No? Because what because what I'm saying is like if you took the ASoP rocky song Rich Nigga Problems off of this and put it on his album, it would be fine, you know what

I'm saying, And I think I don't. I'm not even saying like that's an issue like yo, that's why the song is bad or oh that makes the album bad, But it's just like it just doesn't feel like inspired by the movie, which is a very you know, specific critique, but the thing does say inspired by the motion picture on on the front of it, you know what I'm saying, And it's it's it's because of because the movie is

more serious. It's not like there's the famous soundtrack for like Tim Burton's Batman, which is pretty much just like a Prince album, you know what I'm saying. It has nothing to do with Batman at all, but it's just like it's Batman. So it's not like a weighty sort of thing like that where you're necessarily going in there like, hey, is Prince about to make ten songs where he's singing

about Batman? Whereas with this, yeah, I kind of do expect to listen to songs that are about the movie that I saw, and there's twenty two songs on it that's already way too long. It's like a fucking gets the hour and some change along. I feel like you just if you go and isolate the ten or find songs on here that are actually inspired by the movie, I think you have a much stronger project. Let's get into some of these tracks. Um, if you could get

on the YouTube Machine. So the first one that I wanted to bring up, and this is also going to be a change of pace for me, because I think the songs that best illustrate and keep consistent the vibe that I'm talking about are not rap songs. They're like the it's like the R and B jams, you know what I'm saying, that really get that vibe. So the first one is fight for You by her Blood fil Hair I'm Hellas, mostly because as we listen to it, I frantically try to figure out what the sample was,

and I don't think it is one uman. It sounds almost like it's an interprelation of Curtis Mayfield's but I don't think that's what it is. I think it's just like you know, it's I don't think it's like a direct sample. But again, just using that that that melody that you know, at the very least, it kind of starts off that way, and I think using that metally that melody instantly puts you in the period of the

movie is you know what I'm saying. So it doesn't sound like it's trying to be a retro beat or anything like that, but just musically and sonically, Like, again, I haven't seen the movie, but I feel like I could take that. I could take the trailer, mute the sound, and just play the trailer for Judas in the Black Messiah with that song, and it works perfectly, you know

what I'm saying. Yeah, I mean even even like in the pre course we're talking about freedom from my brothers, because I just freedom from the others, credo from the leaders they're keeping us. I'm gonna keep us strong, like you know, talking about these themes of liberation. And then a little bit later on um where is it? Um punched myself in the eye? Uh Um, will they knock on your door? Will you be ready for war? Kind of like echoing the knock at the door that they

got from the FBI. That's a full night, you know, and like are you you strapped up to defend yourself? So like thematically, it's even got some echoes from like aspects of the film. So I think of the tracks on the album just might do it the film the most,

like Justice Justice. Yeah, because hip hop especially you know when you get into like heavy wrap stuff, it's so direct and it's such a you know, it's such a direct way of expressing an idea, and sometimes, especially when movies are like good, subtlety is is usually the order

of the day, you know what I'm saying. So it's like I feel that, you know, you just using any old rap song for your movie can sometimes kill some of that subtlety, especially if the rap like it can do that even if the rapper is rapping about the subject matter at hand. So when the rapper is not rapping about the subject matter hand, it really can like, you know, kind of break that fourth wall of like getting yourself lost in the ship. And that's what I

like about this song is like obviously she's wrapped. She's singing about you know, freedom for each other, freedom, justice, that sort of thing. But it's just obscure and vague enough, you know what I'm saying that it doesn't like it's not like hammering it. It's not like she's singing yes. And Fred Hampton was a real good man and I loved him, and he had this guy who was spying

on like you know what I mean. It's like it's not just like a retelling of the plot of the movie or something like that, you know what I mean. Some people don't even it. It doesn't get into the it doesn't get into like the corny nous, you know what I mean, doesn't feel like after school special thing. And that kind of brings us to what I thought was the next standout track, which is Plead the by

Smino and Saba. Do you see what I mean though, by the like the way that he's the way that he's rapping, just the style in which he's like approaching the content like it's not it's just it just feels like, I don't know, it just has like again it's maybe I'm not articulating apathetically complimentary. It's like the same way that you see like red and yellow together, like oh, let's go together. Those are different colors, but like I

can see what you're trying to do there. Like I have no idea that if the song was made for the movie, you know, like all that stuff that's saying about how I feel some of them were and some of them weren't. I can't say definitively that this one was, but it could be because it's got that that right amount of subtlety to its approach that you could apply it to whatever. You know what I'm saying. Um and the third and last one that we are going to

check out. It was a rough one, you know. I do want to give a notable mention to Welcome to America by Black Thought, C. S. Armstrong and Angel Hunt. And what else was there? There was I Declare War by Nardo Wick. That was that was cool. It was a bit trappy and from the sound kind of took me out of it. But but I subject matter though it was cool. And then also Revolutionary by g Herbo

and Bumpy j. Those are good tracks too. I feel like those three that I just said, in the first three that we've listened to, or the first two that we've listened to, I feel you put those together, You've got like nine songs that are really like reflective of this movie. But the last one that we're gonna get into something ain't right. Jeddine Rhapsody, did the Sea like

a lips blood dye episodes of Black Men. I think I think this is like a This is a great example of Tod on the line of like impressionistically capturing some of the themes of the film. They talk about, you know, looking for fellowship. Um, we call the coons and the government come correct the correction break the racial construction that you than up in the spirit of liberation, like without being too heavy handed like hered Hampton was Born,

which I possibly do in this episode. It's just like lightly, you know, just like sprinkling in a little bit of historic historicity of just like, yeah, this is like the real ship and this is what is really about. And again, just to to keep the nerd vibes going, I'm stressing that it's just like in the context of the movie, this works better for a movie, you know what I'm saying.

It's I just like like these songs just um. To to make a last point to illustrate what I mean is um, I remember when I went and saw Djengo the first time. Um, a movie that not necessarily my favorite Tarantino movie, but anyway, I remember when I went and saw Djengo the first time, and I normally love how Quentin Tarantino uses music and utilize especially like contemporary music within his movies and stuff like that, and it's like it's very you know, he makes very good choices

with his music. But I remember how everybody thought the scene where the Rick Ross song played in Djengo, and everyone was kind of like, oh, man, that's really cool, And for me, it probably was, like the point where I stopped enjoying the movie is when that song came in because it's like, it's a Rick Ross song, you know what I mean. It's just like a regular ass like Rick Ross song. And that's not that's like nothing

against Rick Ross. But it's like like if I was watching it and then beat It started playing, you know what I'm saying, I would not be able to watch the movie without thinking us beat It in the middle of them in the middle of the movie. For like, I don't know, like how does that work? But again, I feel like you can get into that that line with hip hop a lot. So I just appreciate, you know, the fact that this album has so many songs on it.

I feel that I heard enough songs that were like that that that it has been scratched and satisfied, you know what I'm saying. But if this had just been a ten song album, some of these some of the songs, for real, like some of them are kind of unnecessary for real, it makes it makes this project sound like a really really good DJ Clue mixtape in less like a serious conceptual soundtrack inspired by a serious movie. Well it makes sense speaking of things that have gone on

for far too long. This episode is going to be a monster. It's two o'clock in the morning and I am going to go counter right. Well, just mustard up, muster up, just the reserve bit of strength, because I want to hear some bars for you. We didn't get any last week before before she passes out, Joel, drop

a beat. We're the sole infinitely older than this. Twenty one years Chairman Hampton wasn't running for fear, not with a gun in this here defend the neighbors from the government's gears when they're winding up on your block, and started blooding your peers. With care for his community and having dutifully studied the leader's revolution as his motherless fears, he let him movements so huge that they had to

go shoot him. But not before we spoke the truth of numberless years and say that it's a Bible of the fittest. So they pit us like kids in a different and pigment of the skin, but hand the piggin. But simberland a Mexicans and left the sand the niggers. We get all together to endeavor for bigger vision. We could free all of us siblings from the prison, gets some house that fits to live, and get some breakat

Flippits and get to educate us children. Get the pencil paper stealing all the labor from the millions women's labor. Him before us to killed, before we got the chance to build it. Now it's up to us to fulfill it. Hey, my name's Doe Night, I'm lingal Franca and we are Waiting on Reparations. See you next week. Waiting on Reparations is 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.