The Green Dream or Whatever

like a day is after the Ball. I don't even like that movie. There's nothing but bum He had Dennis Quaid, he and his brother fucking with Trump. This is real m C Ship true us in the deepest only want to see the deal if it be the greed is. Only want to eat a meal if it be the cleanest fucking sweatshop. Make my suits by the seamstress. I'm making me swish. Eat you like a deep dish. Dope knife, smoke too much dope bottle me ship, But I mean this. I love you. Hey, how y'all doing today? My name's

Dope Knife. We are waiting on Reparations. So this is our first fully remote episode. Yeah, my asses in Myrtle Beach pretending to have a good time. I've walked, I've been on the beach one time. You've been to three days that I've been here. There's an actual beach and myrtle actual beach. I'm staying right on it. It's called as I don't know why. I mean, well, you're kind

of taking your little pre Christmas break. I thought it would be nice to have a change of scenery, less reminders of dead cat and oh, you know, beautiful beach walks every day to calm and cleanse my spirit. And instead I just sleep all day and hang out my parents who are watching fucking MSNBC and Ramen like normal.

Hasn't it kind of ended up being a working truit. Yeah, I mean, I have my dissertation proposal presentation tomorrow, so I'm gonna find out tomorrow whether they're gonna let me do the dissertation as I have proposed it and have written that proposal over the last year and a half,

so you're gonna have to defend it and everything. Yeah, and so I've proposed it as a series of hip hop mixtapes, like I'm hoping they will let me do a wrap, which is I mean, it does have some academic merits, Americuman is that I wanted to be accessible for hip hop audiences as well as educators and likes.

So let it stop me throwing on the in the car and listen to And when you listen to it like ten times, you're like, oh, ship of course, analysis, that's the whole that's supposed to be the power, the educational power. Do you absorb it similar to like an Aesop rock record where you slowly unravel it over like ten or twenty lestens as opposed to just like who's gonna sit down and read this thing? No? One? Three people and then it's never going to be looked at again.

So he'p gonna let me do that, and then it's partially for cloud. Let's be really honest. I don't think that woman has ever done that before. Um, there is a man who I hope to have on the show one day who was a professor at I believe the University of Virginia, who got his PhD at Clemson and did like a rap dissertation. But I don't think any ladies have ever done that. So it will be the first so that they get do they get any of that on camera? I mean, you can listen to his album.

Oh word, so this whole album is like the dissertation. Oh shit, Okay, well damn yeah, what's just so? What is uh? What's the plan after those? Are you planning on going back up for like Christmas or to what? Like? Travel wise? I mean, I uh like you because you're you're with your your folks right now with my pops. Yeah, so you're gonna go see you mom Christmas? Are you

see my mom on Christmas? Um? Holiday has been a lot to her, partic really since the passing of her sister two years ago, and up, um, I think I mean a lot to her. So I'm gonna try to do that. You know, it tested everything. Make sure I'm bringing the road of home and you know, bringing the road down the chimney. That's why I'm not going out because my parents, my mom's all the way in Virginia and it's just I don't know, I just don't feel neither of us feel like I should be traveling right now.

Over that time, I took you to North Carolina with me and then we stayed up all night watching Black Summer with my mom. Before we took you to the bus station to get the bus to Virginia. Yeah, and then we watched that alligator movie too. It was that call. I don't know, you know what that's like the that's like, that's an awesome crawl. That was the name Girl with all the Gifts. Yeah, that was a dope night krawl was really dope. That was surprising, isn't it. I don't

you know, I don't remember. I mean, I just remember it was like the big alligator that was eating motherfucker's in the house. But like, doesn't that kind of didn't that a little a little bit have to do with climate change or some what's wasn't like a flood of this week? Yeah, rising sea levels, disruption of ecosystem, pandemics as well, that's you know, displacing animals that then come in your home and big as crocodiles bite your handoff

and then you gotta like call national bar. Ship's fucked up today? Is um? It's kind of part of our Spitting Images series a little kind of in the sense that we are going to be talking to somebody who had had you know, one foot in the well, I should say, both feet firmly in the music industry in the hip hop game, and now they're very heavily involved. Then doesn't have like a con and Jeezy like hitting him up like how do I support your campaign? And yeah,

well the differences who's got the differences? He has them hitting up asking about how do you support my campaign? Not yo, how can I get such and such artists to feature on you know what I'm in. So it's like he's like, well, as he's gonna you know, talk to us about he uses he's still using you know, skills that he got in the music game within politics. But that's that seems to be a theme for our Spinning Images series. But we're gonna be talking to Daniel Blackman.

Why don't you tell the people a little bit about him? Yeah, so Daniel, I've met Daniel Shortley before the pandemic started at a Japanese restaurant in Atlanta. Shortly after in Atlanta for Bernie rally that I was a speaker at. Didn't know Daniel at all. He was introduced to me through a mutual friend um and I learned about, you know, his previous work with Bernie Sanders that he was running for Public Service Commissioner, a little bit about what public

service commissioner is. So he's running for a public service commissioner in District four, which is Northeast Georgia. But these seats they are elected statewide. UM and so in addition to UM, the Senate runoffs in January, on January five, people also have the choice between Daniel Blackman in this their dude Bubba McDonald, which sounds sounds like funitly looks.

So I've been, uh, you know, as part of my like canvasing initiative that I have been spearheading in Athens, We've been focusing heavily upon support for Daniel in the runoff because people, as we've talked about previously on the show, tend to forget about down bound by like candidates even though they have like such a huge role in things like you know, our local ordinances, our local laws, state state wide legislation like minimum wage, minimum wage hikes, in

marijuana legalization, but the Public Service commission in particular. I mean, like here we are middle of the pandemic. People are getting their fucking power shut off, They're getting their water cut off, or getting their their kids don't have internet to be doing virtual school. Our power Bill, I mean our house gets cultes hail. Yeah, we got one of those, one of those over the windows, so like keep eating and like all this ship because that should be like

a month. We got one of those other houses where it's like the conductor of everything that's going on outside. So when it's when it's hot outside is super high here. When it's cold outside, it gets so cold in the house.

And what we pay, you know, that's determined by effectively by the Public Service Commission in that they negotiate with Georgia Power, they negotiate with various utilities providers for how much of those costs go on the taxpayer and how much you know, shareholder benefit these coming yet for the folks that hold stakes in them. And so um yeah, we're gonna be talking to Daniel today. We're gonna be talk a little bit about climate change, environmental racism, and

things of that sort. Well, okay, so why does climate chain and environmental racism, how does that tie into Daniel Blackman? So, I mean, uh, negotiating for investments in solar and nuclear and other forms of renewable energy that helped bring down the rate that we pay um as rape pairs, Uh like that's a part of their role. UM. And one thing I like about Daniel is that he brings to this work like an activist spirit. So a lot I've

in this work as an elected official. I've met so many politicians who just do what is asked of them and probably not even that half of the time. Well, my job is to get the roads paved and keep the buses running and lay the steward pipes. And that's

like literally all I'm gonna do. And then you've got cats like Daniel that are like, Yo, I'm gonna do whatever I have to do with like the power of my position and in part like the like the bully pulpit of like being an elected official and being a well connected person that help holds the seed of power to like I'm gonna do whatever it takes to like

get what my people deserve. And so keeping to hear this interview, like he is just like like willing to do whatever to like bring like clean energy jobs to Georgia to create like a pipeline for people, um for these clean energy jobs and going to be hopefully developed through his advocacy all the Public Service Commission, fighting for things like weatherization for low income homeowners because I have

people like us. I mean, we don't own our house, but like to him, we had better installation rot and I don't think that's necessarily what the Public Service Commissioner does,

but he's what we need. He's like to fight for that, and so like in a very material way, though, you know, like I'm obviously supporting the SENDI Canada had something like trying to remain as optimistic as possible, like I actually really believe in Daniel, Like I really really believe in him, and so like I really want to see him win because I really think it's gonna make a material impact on the lives of like millions of Georgians that are

struggling to pay their utilities bills. That dude, I get the sense that it's just the first step. I have a feeling he's the sort of person who could go from helping millions of Georgians too, maybe millions of Americans one day, President Blackman, Hey, hey, hey, it's a new

world turner to Daniels Bernie Sanders. So um, like with the last episode when we were talking about marijuana, marijuana legalization, mainly you know, because I smoke a lot of pot, and also it came up because the elections had just gone through and it was on our mind because it played such a huge role. I think what's played equally as important a role in this past election was issues

of the environment and climate change and energy. I think that was definitely a swaying factor in the way a lot of people voted, especially people who are more on the progressive end who weren't necessarily on board with vote for Biden and in Team Blue no matter who, but you know, legitimately weighed the existential threat that is climate change against the backdrop of how Joe Biden will deal with it and how another four years of the Trump

administration would deal with it. Um So, just to give a little rundown of the situation for I'm pretty sure the type you know people listening to the show, these are probably things that you guys have heard before. But one of the biggest reasons why it was important for uh, you know, I guess Joe Biden to get into office is because left unattended the way that it was going under the Trump administration, we're pretty much like teetering on the edge of disaster with the way that the climate

is right now. I mean, like we're talking day after tomorrow type ship like so and in I mean ten years ago that might even have seemed like it might be hyperbole or exaggeration, But I think with this past year of of like strange global pandemics and raging wildfires for weeks and weeks, you know what I mean, and like freak tsunamis and ship so, I mean, in no way is it to suggest that it wasn't until that

the climate started getting out of control. And even with the things that we have experienced over this past year, it's just like, I don't know, I just feel the sense of dread, like people aren't really gonna wake up until until we get to that irreversible point that everybody is worried about. So I guess in the most layman stoner rap dude, the way that I can articulated is

the whole concept of the one point five degrees. Scientists have predicted that if the planet crosses one point five degrees, that that's pretty much gonna be the point of no return increase? Is that correct? Yeah, global timeferature increase. That's like the that's pretty much going to be the point that triggers all of the bad ship. That's the stuff of nightmares. So um per the Climate Reality Project, which is a nonprofit organization that's involved in education and advocacy

related to climate change. The oversimple version is that the more heat added to the Earth's climate system, the more heat added to Earth's climate system, the more out of balanced natural systems get. The more out of balance natural systems get, the more destruction and suffering we see. And it's almost always poor families and people of color who suffer the most. So where does the one point five

degree number for them? Well, at about one point five degrees of global warming, is what about where there's enough heat to push many of the natural systems that SUSTAINA has passed to dangerous turning point. And although countries created the first truly global plan to tackle climate change in the Paris Climate Agreement, the work gets far from over.

There's still a gap between what countries pledged to do, what scientists say is needed to avert climate catastrophe, and what countries are actually doing because I don't know how many countries have actually accomplished their pledges to the Paris Climate Accord. Yeah, is it? Is it? Like? Is it? A lot more talk? Than actual action on that a lot more talk than action from what I understand about

the issue. But to address this country set five year milestones to take stock of progress and strengthen the commitments. With the first of these opportunities coming up next year, and if we don't deliver more aggressive targets, it will be nearly impossible to limit global warming to one point five degrees celsiast or you know, two point seven for parakneit. Then cracks would start to appear in the foundation of

the Paris Agreements architecture. And that's per Wildlife dot org. Yo. I don't even know how climate denial is even a thing anymore. It looks straight up I would say it. It's untruly. I mean, I feel like I don't know. I haven't seen I haven't seen the data of the numbers on like we are. Public approval of or acceptance of our climate reality is I don't know. No, that's true.

I don't know those numbers either. But I mean, just like, just like what fucking COVID is like at this point, I think if even three motherfucker's don't believe in climate change, that's three people too many. So I don't meet a lot of real people that are climate deniers. Well, that's because we're definitely in our I don't want to say bubble because I mean, especially not you, because you know, you're out there and you're you're you're really like talking

to people. But I mean there's a lot of people who don't take the ship seriously, even if we haven't met them. I mean, just consider that we know how many people don't take COVID seriously, right, And that's like some ship that we know is like an empirical fact that's got bodies on its name, and there's like people who like really just don't give a fuck, and not all of them are like Trump supporters, you know what

I'm saying. About two thirds of American adults, according to Pew Research, say the federal government is doing too little to effect to reduce the effects of climate change. And there's a similar amount that's say the government efforts to protect air and water quality are are not up to par. There's a strong consensus among Democrats of whom I think the government needs to do more to reduce the effects of climate change, even among Republicans and g appele need

in dependence. About sixty of people say the federal government is doing too little to reduce effects of climate change, to bipe on bipartisan lines. Uh, people think the climate change is a BFG no BFG b f D and a big fucking deal. Yo. I don't no Internet. I don't speak Internet. Sometimes it's got to be generational divide, uh speaking generational divides, the millennial generation and Gen zs

aged eight, which you are in. By the way, I know the government is doing too little and that number decreases among Generation X and the baby boomers of Gen X baby boomers who thankfully baby boomers make up like seventy of fucking Congress. So our future is in great hands. I mean, my my generation we were, you know, we were. I'm the generation from when we used to call it global warming like that was the you know I'm saying. So you remember Man Bear Pig. No it's not Oh no, no, no, no,

I don't you know. I was never really the biggest south Park watcher, gonad. This whole thing making fun of didn't convenient truth in Algre and you know, watch out for Man Bear Pig, like how about it? And they later apologized. The South Park creats later apologized to Algre for for um characterizing charactering him like that because they

were like ship this nigga was right. It was not playing a long You know what made me get like aware about the climate when I was a kid, It's because one of the most memorable rap songs from when we were kids. It was at the end of a cartoon or was it at the beginning of charton I don't know what when they played it, but it went like this, right, let me let me bust out some bars for you where the planet tears. You could be one to Saving our planet is the thing to do.

Poluting and polluting it's not the way. So here's what

Captain Planet has to say. The power is yours. But even my head, it's so interesting how that framing it's always been framed was like an issue of individualism and consumer habits, like if only you know, turned down your thermostat and uh, you know, fly less and drive instead take the bus, ride your bike, like we will stop this when it's like, no, niggati, these about in corporations are the ones that are just destroying the planet, and so like the powers in our hands to overthrow them,

and like I don't know, just they're trying to make you use a paper straw. It's like, this is our contribution towards help him, and then they're like polluting by

the megatime somewhere else. So bringing it back to the home front, so more specifically for black folk historically, at least you know, in my experience, the issue of like the importance of climate change isn't necessarily at the top at least again, this is all anecdotal, but it isn't necessarily like the main thing that most African Americans are

talking about. And I feel like that the failure on the left to frame it as an economic justice issue because again Simon's back to the importance of public service commissioner, like achieving clean and renewable energy, it's gonna save people so much money, so much money, uh, energy efficient upgrades on all of these local income houses that we all live in and shipped so much money. Like the economic burden that lifts off of working people to like have

clean and renewable energy. It's just astounding. It's never framed in such a kitchen table way where it's like this, it's not it's about saving the Pelicans and whatever in

the polar ice caps. Well, A lot of that is a lot of that is framing though, because I think I think some of that is I think some of that is Republican propaganda though, you know what I'm saying, Like a lot of the a lot of the people, a lot of the idea of like climate climate change awareness and ship like that is totally framed from like a Republican standpoint to make it sound as distant as

it possibly can sound, you know what I mean. It's like they're not worried about you and what you have to They're not worried about you in your pocketbook and what's on your table. They're worried about the pelicans. They're worried about They're worried about the elephants. They don't care about you and your kitchen table issues. They're worried you

know what I mean. They don't care about you the jobs that are provided by the oil industry because their tree buggers and ship like that that, you know what I'm saying, Like not have the presidency for eight years, and the Senate and the House realigally a good majority of that not majority, but like a portion of it, during which time we had like pull over the discourse and could have like done something about climate change. And also Bill Paul popular support to have done more about

climate change by talking about it in kitchen Boys. When you're talking about the Republican falking Port points, Really it's these corporative, corporate Democrats that haven't taken this seriously throughout their ten years in Congress and the Senate UH, as well as Republicans that have outright opposed it, like this failure to talk about let mean, among among ideals like seeming ideological allies, a failure to talk about it well. I think the productive way that would build to support

and the popular movement to get it done. Some of these things I think are starting to change just in terms of you know, black people's just just in terms of like where the climate stands on like the list of things that are important to black people. Pulling from the research firm the Lincoln Park Strategy Lincoln Park Strategies, UH and Commission for a second, and I was like,

I'm sucking logging off. I have such a visceral immediate reaction to the Lincoln project that I was like, Lincoln, who oh, I think I thought you were about to say you had a visceral reaction to Lincoln Park. I

was like, Yo, what a Lincoln Park? Do anybody? But I'm pulling from the research firm Lincoln Park Strategies and commissioned by the Environmental Defense Fund, shows that a majority of African Americans are personally affected by disease and extreme weather made and made worse by climate change, and support a transition to clean economy to curb climate pollution. A majority of African Americans are affected by severe heat and extremes worms that are made more dangerous by climate change.

Of Black people think the climate change is getting worse and um, seventy seven percent of African American survey believed that achieving a nationwide economy is a solution to climate change. Maybe not the solution. It's I don't know what what kind of how they pulled people. Uh So that wording is interesting being a linguist solucial, They said a solution

and not the solution. I should just walk into the ocean. Um. But so sevent of black people, I mean that's you know, achieving clean energy economy is like a late well I mean maybe maybe like the you know, the messaging or the awareness that we need that sort of direct sort of like you know, that connection between our like material

benefit and the climate. Maybe we needed that sort of messaging that we've been getting over the last I want to say, it feels like it's been like the last five years that I've heard that kind of being a thing. It's like, hey, black people need to be more aware of like the climate, we need to be more up

on that and ship like that. So maybe it started, Yeah, Katrina happened to and then talking about our like you know black you know, brown brothers and sisters in Puerto Rico, when it happened to we're we're getting wiped off the face of the planet first as the sea levels rise and these storms start turning up in the South Atlantic

and all the ship. Man, damn, I feel like that's the way that ship needs to be explain for real, Like they should just put that last little blurb that you just said in like a P. S A. And that's what people need to hear, speaking of people who you know, explain it to you the way that it needs to be explained. Let's transition this into talking to our guests today. Let's bring Daniel on. So we're here with Public Service Commissioner candidate for district to Daniel Blackman District.

Just okay, let's try it again. So, Public Service Commissioner candidate for district for Daniel Blackman. Daniel, how are you doing today? I'm doing excellent. Look, Look, I mean I'm in such good spirit right now. I feel that we're on our second win. I feel like we have a lot of opportunity. I'm excited to be here and thank you for the privilege of being on this show. Hey, thank you for coming. Yeah, we're huge fans and very

excited to have you. So to get us started. Um, you know a lot of people don't always pay attention to these down ballot races. They may not know what the Public Service Commission does. So if you could explain to our listeners briefly what the Public Service Commission is, how it impacts us, and what some of your goals are for being our next Public Service Commissioner. Yeah, so you know, first and foremost, Georgia has the fifth high electric rates in the United States and the eighth highest

utility rates in the country. UM. On average, in the US, about five percent of a person's pay check goes to their utility bill, and Georgia eight theme percent of our page check goes towards our utility bill, So that should alarm you within itself. And to know that there are individuals, five individuals in this state that make decisions for every single person's light bill. UM, that should be a huge issue,

and I want to change that. I think it's very important for us to understand what we need to do as a community, Why the Commission is important, why lower utilities are better for low and moderl income families so that the energy burdens don't overwhelm folks are just trying to save money to put food on the table. So you know, I'm I'm very privileged to be in the position we're in. Why you know the importance of the

US Senate and those are critical races UM. Pocketbook issues like this are very critical to the survival of our most vulnerable communities. And then lastly, you know, let's be honest, man, our kids are at home without wireless broadband in too many cases, and if our kids can't learn, they can't succeed, they can't compete, and they get left behind. And Mariah, I'll say this, I'll view you as a friend like

that's just not gonna happen on my watch. I just just you know, there's a quote by Frederick Douglas says to you know, you either build strong children or repair broken men. And I think we we owe it to our community to build a bit of future for our children. So this isn't your first time running for office. So you live in ForSight County, which didn't integrate until nineteen eighty nine. Is that correct? Well, I mean kind of

sort of. So in nineteen twelve, the population of Reversith County, UM it's African American population was eleven hundred of six thousand of its residents were black. There was a lynching that happened and the the the black residents were forcibly removed. So from nineteen twelve to nine seven, um it's documented that black folks did not live in the county. As a matter of fact, it is documents have been considered

a undowntown in the sixties and seventies. After nineteen eighties seven, while there were numbers of black folks, I mean, if you tell me that out of twenty thirty thousand people, that two hundred are black, then yeah, it might it might not look like that or a hundred. So the numbers have been low. Even today, only five percent of the population for Side County is black. UM. I was the first African American to run for office in the

county in two thousand and sixteen. UM. And you know what, honestly, man, I take it as a as a You know, I don't take that lightly because I understand that we live in a country and in the society that while we look at Confederate monuments in so many other areas, the bottom line is, man, there are a whole lot of counties and areas in Georgia and around the country that haven't caught up to where they should be. UM. So you talk took us back a little bit too, running

for office and forsythe county. You. So, I wanted to go back to the route to ask you about how you got started in organizing. So when I was nineteen, I got active in the civil human rights community and Georgia. UM. By default, I had a friend who I met um at Clark at Lanta University. And when I say friend, this was this gentleman was about thirty four years older

than me. So I rode with old heads and uh, this gentleman, mayor, Reverend Gerald Durley became my mentor, and he introduced me to Reverend James Orange, Reverend ct Vivan, Mayor of Jackson, Reverend Joseph Lowry, Shirley Franklin. I mean like I literally was baptized by fire, you know what I'm saying. Like, I went to Clark Atlanta University, and I think that there's no better place to get a historical education and context than HBCU for a young Black

man growing into maturity into himself. You can go to any university around this country, but when you go to a historically black college, it's something about your culture, and it's something about seeing people at every level of your society. So when when I first got started, I didn't know who ct Vivan was. You know, I didn't grow up um in the South as far as like you know, I I my my dad was in the military. My mother and father from Barbados, So I'm the son of immigrants.

My grandfather served at the United Nations. So you know, my family moved here in the in the sixties and seventies. And the honest to God truth is, you know, I was in a position where, you know, I was so vulnerable and so open as a young kid that you know, I felt that there was a need to be to get this wisdom in this knowledge and this insight. And I mean most people don't know I worked in the music industry. I worked for bad Boy Heirs to Universal.

I mean I worked in the music industry my freshman sophomore year in college and and even into my young adulthood.

And so for me, when I met with them, Maynard was creating something called the American Voters League, and he had introduced me to Jesse Hill, who if you don't know anything about Jesse Hill, besides the fact that he has a street named after him in Atlanta, he's the gentleman, one of the wealthiest black men um that was in Atlanta, Atlanta Life Insurance, he Ashy was integral in Muhammad Ali's

first fight after he got out of jail. So these were the guys I rolled with and met two or three times a week, and I to this day, I don't take that for granted because they're the ones that drove me to Selma. They're the ones that that took me to the King Day Holiday observance. They're the ones that told me about bolting rights. They're the ones that said it's your generation. When we were your age, we

did this, this, and that. So I was groomed by guys that basically marched with Dr King and that really set a precedent in this country of where we are now as it relates to the civil and human rights movement, at least in America. We talk oftentimes about the relationships between you know, hip hop and politics on the podcast. It is what this podcast is about. And I wonder if your experiences within the music industry had any influence

on your early organizing and all A thousand percent. I mean, you know, one of my first gigs was working for a guy named Wayne Brown. Uh he since passed on.

He was the program director at Radio one. And I remember my first job was sitting in the back of this promo van, you know, hot the van with no air condition, um, going around the city, you know, uh, passing out merchandise and literature, and you know, being upset as a young kid, uh thinking that working in the music industry was about, you know, putting out records or you know, just doing things that we all see on TV.

I no one ever taught me about or I never knew the work ethic behind successful music UM and and Wayne introduced me to Cathy Hugh. Wayne put me onto a lot of people, bought me into a lot of room, bomb into DJ meetings, And so when I was in school, I went to school with some guys like you know, uh Don Cannon h DJ Drama, like you know, we

we we all want to school together. When I was when I was working for bad Boy UM, there was a DJ named shot Kim who was but so so deaf, and we were all collaborating and doing parties on campus and you know, I cut my teeth UM and helping to to build this brand UM on our campus and in our city that allowed us to get to the point that I'm at now. So the way it impacted me was the work ethic. You know, when I work in the music industry, there was this model that the

streets don't sleep. And I just remember always hearing Ditty or j D or whoever saying the streets don't sleep. And what they were saying was there's never a time to not promote. There's never a time to not work. There's never a time where there's not something going on where a record shouldn't be played or a flyer shouldn't be passed out or a poster board shouldn't be put up.

So I took that same work ethic into organizing right because the difference between music and politics, honestly is that politics take time off, right like music don't take days off, and it doesn't take days off. People will find money, they don't have to go to the Grammys if it's really that serious. With politics, it's like you get to pick and choose who you want to be around, what you want to do, and when you want to do it.

And we don't have that luxury when you come from a space where where it's a twenty four hour day, seven day and week business. And I think that's the fundamental difference. And I bought that same work ethic to politics when people were telling me, well, hey man, you know, why are you going to four cities in five days? Because I've been to twenty and two days when I worked in music, you know, So it's like that that

know that that that work. I remember one of my closest friends, Um, Mason Bethler, you know, like like Mason, like for for years, Um, I did stuff with Mason where I would have to like literally I would get a call at two o'clock to be in New York at five o'clock right with with like hardly any money in the bank, But I like, get on a plane, meet me, you know, meet me in Buffalo, New York at five thirty like like that, like music removed the excuses that people in politics made. So by the time

I got the political space, I didn't have. I don't have the luxury of excuses. All I know is to get it done. Period. Let's let's pivot to some policy talk. So or you even do that, man, I'm gonna tell you all right now, nobody knows that story. So this is like exclusive eve making hands right now, man, exclusive clue all right. So, um, the pandemic has laid bare the failures of our You know, a lot of the

failures are current order. I think in particular, the way that we've shifted towards online learning has exposed how badly we failed low income families in terms of high speed internet access. So how can the Public Service Commission work to provide internet to all Georgians and counties. That's easy, get off there, but get out their office and drive the investment. Find the money we made too many excuses, man, Like I just like excuses make me itch. I just

I don't. I don't get it, man, I'm being serious. Like to some people that sounds comical. I don't get it. When when banks need to be built out, we find money. Right the real estate market collapse, we find money. Right when the car industry collapse, we find the money. So I don't understand why we can't find money when it comes to pull or people to to to to people

don't have access to broadband. If you tell me right now that that you know since the pandemic, you know a certain percentage of individuals have made over eight hundred and fifty million dollars in seven months, then you can't tell me that we can't find five ten twenty million dollars to invest in the communities that just can't compete Georgia's prison population. Of Georgia's prison population read it a

third grade level. You know why, because somebody made an excuse that they couldn't find the money to invest into those communities, and those kids that couldn't read got left behind, and those kids that couldn't read had to compete with the fluent families that were fighting for the same Hope scholarship that was created for them to go to college and their parents couldn't afford it. So you can't tell

me that we can't drive the investment. So what I'm gonna do when I'm when I'm elected on January five, because I'm gonna remove all the excuses by finding the money. Period. I mean, like I I remember individuals that were making records and they were like, man, we need you know, hundred for this demo, We need fifteen thousand for this tour, and they found the money. You know, people running for office right now finding two three million dollars for commercials

on TV. Those same people that can cut a check for a campaign can cut a check for a good cause. And I'm gonna find it. You know, whether that means we have to find do public and private partnerships, if we got to go to family offices, if we have to go around and raise the money, it doesn't matter the fact that there's Atlanta and the rest of Georgia

is a problem. The fact that Atlanta thrives and that Metro Atlanta has movies and sports and entertainment, and then South Georgia has lack access to wireless broad in and no hospitals. That's the problem, right, So we have to really address the issues and find the money, find the resources, and even if that means I gotta get on a plane of my own time and go to Washington with the Biden Here's administration, which has made an a numerable amount of promises. We're gonna make sure people like me.

That's why it's important to elect me, to vote for me, because I'm the guy that's gonna go up to Washington and beat Look you said, you know, I don't have time to to sit back and and and just enjoy the fact that Trump is not there. Now that he's gone, what are we gonna do? That's what you get when you're getting me somebody that's gonna go find it and hold people accountable that said that they were gonna give it.

You know, climate change and environmental justice are synonymous. We need more black and brown people and board involving the climate fight. I'm in a yeah, go ahead, can I'm sorry, I just wanted to like, let me frame that, let me ask it so m you know, in the hip hop community or black community at that, you know, climate change and climate awareness isn't necessarily like at the top of people's priority lists because everybody has their day to

day things that they have to do. So can you explain to us why the issue of the climate in the environment is important two black people. If you want to know why it's important to black people, ask the lower ninth for water New Orleans. Who has been permanently displaced after Hurricane KATRAINA at post in Houston, Texas when

those floods hit, how their property is now. If we really really want to fundamentally understand the time that we're in, we need to understand that sea level rise will impact the Caribbean. I was invited to the Vatican in twift you know, one of sixty six people in the world to be able to go to the Vatican and meet with people from Africa, from the Caribbean, from South America, from Australia, from Madrid, from all over the world. And I saw the the African countries that we don't talk about,

like when Sudan had their floods. I've seen what happens in the Bahamas. I saw what happened to our brothers and sisters in Puerto Rico. And if we don't start paying attention, we will forget and and not remember that when it comes to climate change, which which is basically a man made impact, the over usage of a dependency on fossil fuels that has really compromised our environment, environment and our climate. What we are now seeing is communities

of color first and foremost being impacted. Why look at the cidification most black folks that most you don't even know what the cidification is. I don't know what. The planet is getting so hot that it's causing the water to get warmer, which is killing off our fisheries. So like our our oysters are, are our shrimp, our fish, A lot of black people are dependent, especially be live on the coast on fish. Right, it's destroying our ecosystems.

So we need to understand that climate change fundamentally impacts everything from excuse me, I'm just going right now, but plastic pollution to looking at you know, asthma cases. I grew up with asthma. Right, No one ever tells us

why we're diagnosed with asthma. But when you see George Floyd say I can't breathe, when you hear Eric Garner say I can't breathe, you gotta also hear the voices of the three times the national average of black and brown children that say I can't breathe every day because they have asthma, and they're missing school because of asthma, and we're missing work because of asthma. So when you ask me about climate change, I want you to understand

it's not just about the weather. It's about our public health. It's about our survival. If you want to know why the life expectancy of black and brown people dropped by nine to ten years when it comes to our white and our Asian and our Latino counterparts, is because of the air we breathe and the water we drink. So what I want people to know in closing is environmental

justice matters, right, Climate change matters. Understanding the science matters because our communities are being destroyed for a lack of knowledge. The fact that our communities don't know what's going on.

We don't know what we're drinking, we don't know what we're breathing, we don't understand how solar energy versus fosil fossil fuel industry can not only lower our bills, but it can also put us in a position where we can breathe better, right, And so we have to understand that we're the front line of defense for our communities.

And this is the only position in the state of Georgia that's a statewide constitutional office that can not only fight on work for lower utility bills, but that can fight climate change, that can expand broadband, that can that can do the things that our faces traditionally have not been at the forefront of. So on January five, vote Daniel Blackman for Public Service commission I will be the first black Public Service Commissioner elected in a hundred and

forty one years. I'll be the only Democrat elected statewide for the next two years, and I'll be the only African American to my knowledge, in the Southeastern United States elected to this high a position that deals directly with energy and the utility regulation. Daniel, how can people help you out if they want to see you elected on January fat where they find all right in felt about how they can get plucked in Man, you need to

just like like replicate yourself. Mariah, because first of all, shout out to Mriah for for for the for the drop, Shout to mcriad for being amazing, Shout out to all of y'all, but no, what we need to do is elevate hip hop culture, right um hip hop. You know, at the height of rock and roll, um, rock and roll and pop had somewhere around I think it was like a fifty two percentile as far as the global acceptance. Hip hop currently from a global acceptance standpoint is at seventy.

In other words, hip hop influences everything. We have outpaced rock, we've outpaced pop, We've outpaced everything. We have to weaponize our strength, right Our cultures are vibranium. Our culture and everything we do is what makes us strong. So we have to leverage hip hop to make sure that the voting and electric electric process um is relevant. You guys have to use this medium and platform to encourage more people to vote. I just gave a flyer up brother,

and I've got to end here. I was on my way to see us off and and former secretary on Julian Castro today and when I pulled up, I saw brother sitting in a truck and I gave him a flyer and I said, brother, you registered the vote. And I said you registered the vote. I'm on the ballot and he said, brother, I f that up a long time ago, and I said, man, you didn't mess it up. I said, you might not be able to vote right now, but let me work with you. Let me help you.

If you can't vote, let me teach you what you can do, and let me teach you how to express, how to spread that in our community. We gotta stop writing people off because they don't understand our agenda right because there's there's something I always say to my team, and I always sell on platforms. If you're not at the table, you're on the menu. So we gotta start building up our community and letting people know that you have a you have a role to play in the

fundamental education and advancement of our communities. Go to Daniel for Georgia dot com. That's d A n I E L f O R Georgia spelled out dot com. Vote for Daniel Black until three, four or five twenty of your friends, tell your family members, and we're gonna change the world on January five. Yes, the Senate majority is important, but to have a black man in an office that fundamentally understands the importance of our interfaith community, of our

loan modern income families, and of our future. Vote for me. A vote for me is a vote vote for progress and just realistically for us to change the narrative. And I thank you all for this platform, and I thank you for pleasure to have you an early morning starts on Monday, so everybody get out. I love it. But all right, thank you so much. Man. I know you gotta run, but this was awesome. My brother, Let's be in touch anytime. So yeah, Daniel for Georgia dot com.

I'll spelled out that you can go there to figure out how you know, volunteer opportunities as well to our Georgia listeners. Early voting for the runoff all action starts on Monday, and so uh, you know, get out and vote early. I usually go the second day ELI voting. The lines are us long because people everybody ever their mom goes votes on the first day like it's Christmas morning to open their ballot and vote for John sucking ASoP so um that was a fiery guy to go Tuesday.

I'm gonna go Tuesday. Go Tuesday, you know, and then h you know, phone banking, tax banking, there's al such opportunities to help out. So on to our music discussion for the day. Well, talking with Daniel, especially that last bit where he was going in about the environment. I wanted to find some environmental rap songs, some songs that

comment on our struggle with the environment. And first up, it's the song that we've mentioned I think once or twice before on the program, mainly on some different issues. But it is the most deaf track, New World Water at just a New World Water and every drop counts

you can laugh. I feel like, no, it's cool. I feel like the sound is prophetic because I've been reading a lot about the commodification of water recently and like poculation around like yeah, be a hot commodity and it's like, oh, that's fucking dystopian and terrify anticipating the scarcity and yeah,

we're ruining my day. Also, thanks most staff for predicting that in Yeah No, Like that ship used to scare the hell, especially the part where he said, um, he sense like it's about to get real wild and last you'll be you'll be buying a v on just to take a bath. Like I don't know why that ship lingered with me back in the day, but that was always a rhyme that I always remembered like I mean, a motherfucker would be in the shower, you know what

I'm saying. When you're reaching like that fifteen the minute, it's like, oh wait, I'm wasting water right now, am I? Most stuff would be frowning abby? Let me turn this off. It out looking at heaven like you waste the water. That's not what most test sounds like? What? But like I imagined, I was like, imagine, like most stuff is like Jesus figure, I don't know, I don't know what happens. Like you know, you know how you have people the

devil and the angel Conscience ship. It's like you got like the most stuff on the side of you, Like Yo's because of you, the future generations are gonna be buying a ViOn just to take a fucking back like that. All right? So um, next up in Mariah the linguists. You are going to have to help me with this name. Yeah you heads cattle, Yo? Do you test cattle? Yeah? Do you test cattle? Gus test cattle? That sounds really dope.

I feel like that's right. I'm not sure if that's right, but it sounds right and coming from you, I trust that that's how you pronounce it. Do You Test Cattle is an environmental activists and hip hop artist um youth director of Earth Guardians, a worldwide conservation organization, and one of twenty one plaintiffs involved in the Giuliana versus United States lawsuit filed against the West government for failing to

act on climate change. The lawsuit was found in two thousand fifteen in the Federal court rejected the government's moved to dismiss the case. In November two thousand and sixteen. Martinez Do Testcatom. It's also one of seven plaintiffs in Martinez First Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. Like the case, it's like a state level lawsuits, similar to Julianna versus

United States. So these things you're calling people accountable, they're playing no games, taking them story to the Supreme Court being like, yo, you're literally selling my future to x on mobile law And here is his track magic. So the campus takes the poison from tip with the really blows ways what people suffware while we killed the planet? Yeah, No,

that was dope I've seen. And he touches upon yeah, intersecting existential crises of just like the impacts of what sounded to me like living under capitalism which has driven you know, anthropogenic climate disaster. Oh he's talking about like turned into a bottle of pills, Like it's all interconducted and you can feel that in his lyricism. I do believe he's indigenous too. Yeah, that's dope. Yeah, that is dope.

Indigenous brothers and sisters. We do have an episode on indigenous hip hop that we we it's in the works because this is a podcast, but we're both looking at each other like it's in the works. It's in the works. We still we still have we still have stuff to do on it, but it's going. But um no, that

was dope. I've seen some of his speaking in poetry before, Um, like a lot of that is a lot more because the clips that I've seen of that was at actual environmental list like events and things like that, so it's a lot more directly addressing the issue in in you know, unambiguous terms and stuff like that. But I did want to kind of see what his music was like in the scene, how he was appropriate. Imagine it's powerful speaker,

isn't as he is an m um. The next track is my surprise for you, So just think back to what we were talking about earlier in terms of the Obama administration and not doing enough on the issue of climate change in the eight years that they had. Well, this song is a two thousand nine gem that I found by the rapper Marquis. It's called the Dream Reborn Now. The description of the song describes it as a song extolling the virtues of green living and investment in green

jobs for disadvantaged community living. I'm going to stop there and I don't gonna do anything. Particularly heard you was about being before like house in the suburbs and like driving, but like whatever, like to date. To date, the song is the most to date, the song is the most powerful voice coming from impacted communities to address the problems of poverty, environmental degradation, and the opportunity presented by an

inclusive green economy. Properly promoted and leverage, this project can reach a broad demographic of current and future green advocates and practitioners. So let's hear let's hear fire from Marquees the Dream Reboard. Probably to have a conversation about conservation of nation. Conversation. Your look, that was hot, That was hot. I have to say that's probably the take he said the in the hybrid on Rims. You know, for real,

that was I gotta give it up, man. That was like probably the coolest after school special rap that I've ever heard, like for real, because the bars were on point, every single aspect of it, just from the technical end of like a from the rapper m It was like, Okay, this is he's like a legit like legit rapper, you know what I'm saying. So then I could just enjoy the content of what he was saying, which is like ship that I agree with, Like you said, he was

saying real ship. So yeah, and again tying it back to the economy, it's like with me trying to get you know, trying to save the earth that we're trying to give that money. You know, I thought you would, uh word. Okay, that is it for us this week. Y'all once again follow us on all of the things. I heart reparations on Instagram, dope, knife, Lingua franca. You guys know where to find us. We're gonna close this one off with a piece that Mariah wrote about our

guests today. So Joe, can we gotta beat Uh? We're waiting on reparations Hey, we're waiting on reparations. Hey hey, hey, everybody's buzzing us off and were knocked. We mentioned the public service Commissions in the runoff from Benny to the City of Columbus and McDonough. We need everyone that you need to tell your friends and tell your loves and

your cousins. Uncle's mom has to go out on book for someone who will make it cheaper to draw your covers and eat you up until brick access to the Internet to all the least among us, and sustainability to geward this energy production. Daniel Blackman is the homie with the vision and the comption to be public Service commission that you want him to govern. Get your adds to the polls January sifth but public Service commissioned at Daniel Berry. Let yeah a, I'm dope Knife Lingua Franken and we

are waiting on reparations. See you next week. I think 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.