Episode 841 | “Don’t Look Away Now”

Summary

The Joe Budden Podcast – Episode 841 | “Don’t Look Away Now” Summary

Podcast Information:

• Title: The Joe Budden Podcast
• Host/Author: The Joe Budden Network
• Description: Tune into Joe Budden and his friends. Follow along the crazy adventures of these very random friends.
• Episode: Episode 841 | “Don’t Look Away Now”
• Release Date: July 9, 2025

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1. Opening Remarks and Initial Banter (00:00 - 02:30)

The episode kicks off with a playful disclaimer from Joe Budden emphasizing that the podcast content is entertainment-focused and not to be taken seriously. This sets a lighthearted tone as the hosts begin their conversation.

• Joe Budden (00:00): “We do not encourage you to try this at home. Enjoy the show.”

The hosts engage in casual banter about the challenges of maintaining attention, especially during long stories from friends or significant others.

• Ish (00:29): “That's funny. That was a funny story.”
• Joe Budden (01:20): “If it's too long, I'll be like, yo, what are they talking about?”

2. Gaslighting: Origins and Misuses (02:30 - 04:30)

A significant portion of the early discussion centers around the concept of gaslighting. Mal shares a historical insight, correcting the common misconception that the term originated from the 1941 movie.

• Mal (02:55): “The phrase 'gaslighting' originated from a 1933 play where the man would turn the gas light down to make his wife seem like she's going blind.”

The conversation evolves into how modern usage often misapplies psychological terms, particularly in casual settings like brunch conversations.

• Erickson (04:01): “Every year it's a new one. Narcissists started getting used for everything.”

3. Weekend Activities and Gender Reveal Party (04:30 - 09:00)

The hosts transition into discussing their weekend experiences, including attending a gender reveal party hosted by Ish.

• Ish (08:47): “I had a surprise gender reveal on Sunday at my house. Congrats, Sam.”

They critique the trend of elaborate gender reveals using branded products, questioning the authenticity and originality of such events.

• Joe Budden (09:35): “They’re selling OnlyFans... People use it wrong.”

4. Critique of OnlyFans Authenticity (14:00 - 16:30)

The discussion delves into the legitimacy of content on platforms like OnlyFans. Joe Budden expresses skepticism about the authenticity of interactions and content, suggesting that a significant portion may be driven by bots.

• Joe Budden (14:20): “It's all bots is what I'm talking about.”
• Mal (15:02): “When he asks me, I'm like, yo, I don't know.”

5. Drake’s New Album: “Iceman” (30:00 - 90:00)

A substantial segment of the podcast is dedicated to dissecting Drake's new album, "Iceman."

a. General Reception and Quality:

The hosts share varied opinions, with some appreciating the production quality while others critique Drake's shift from rapping to a more melodic, emo style.

• Joe Budden (40:37): “We’re gonna get a lot of good Drake hate from him. So I’m gonna play the other side.”

b. Song Analysis: "What Did I Miss":

They analyze the track "What Did I Miss," discussing its themes of self-reflection and accountability.

• Mark Lamont Hill (44:51): “We got a lot of people I saw... I feel like this is a bop for the people that with me for something.”

c. Debate on Drake’s Evolution:

The conversation highlights a divide among the hosts regarding Drake's artistic direction, with some longing for his earlier, more rap-centric work.

• Mark Lamont Hill (51:03): “He’s a very good point guard... but he’s no longer the machine.”

d. Conclusion on the Album:

While acknowledging the production strengths, the hosts remain critical of Drake's lyrical depth and emotional vulnerability in "Iceman."

• Joe Budden (65:08): “It's the most powerful part of blended with the music for me. It’s all about...”

6. ESSENCE Fest: Organizational Shortcomings and Cultural Impact (100:00 - 130:00)

The hosts shift focus to ESSENCE Fest, critically examining its recent decline in attendance and organizational issues.

a. Sponsorship and Management:

They discuss the impact of corporate sponsorship, particularly Target, and how it may have alienated local black businesses and attendees.

• Mark Lamont Hill (114:31): “When you have a contract with Target, they have been a long-running sponsor.”
• Joe Budden (118:24): “They missed the Attendance boat, then it's time to talk about other boats.”

b. Decline in Attendance:

Analyzing factors contributing to lower turnout, the hosts consider whether inadequate promotion and changing demographics play roles.

• Mark Lamont Hill (117:18): “They could have gotten the great value version of Wallow...”

c. Cultural Significance:

Emphasizing ESSENCE Fest’s role in sustaining black media, they lament the festival’s struggles as a reflection of broader challenges within black-owned enterprises.

• Mark Lamont Hill (120:22): “ESSENCE is one of the ones that has thrived, but it's because of this festival.”

7. Mental Health in Sports and Other Local Issues (130:00 - 190:00)

The conversation touches upon high-profile mental health issues in sports, including Naomi Osaka’s struggles, and recounts various tragic events like shootings, highlighting the pervasive nature of violence in communities.

• Mark Lamont Hill (158:34): “Azir Harris is a young man who was a victim of gun violence before he was shot and killed at 17.”
• Joe Budden (160:03): “Shout out to the people that survived that horrific incident...”

8. Sports Figures and Violence (190:00 - 210:00)

Further discussions revolve around sports figures like Chris Paul and their impact both on and off the court, including leadership in player unions and community engagement.

• Mark Lamont Hill (185:08): “What I love about Chris Paul is his spirit, his heart...”
• Joe Budden (187:09): “They say I'm hating on Larry.”

9. Megan Thee Stallion Lawsuit and Legal Discussions (190:00 - 210:00)

The hosts discuss Megan Thee Stallion’s ongoing lawsuit against her former cameraman Emilio Garcia, debating the nature of the allegations and the dynamics of accountability versus victimhood.

• Joe Budden (132:18): “I don't care if I'm hating and I didn't agree to that, but if I am, the facts ain't gonna change it.”
• Mark Lamont Hill (137:16): “She was saying... cause you're gay.”

10. Closing Remarks and Final Banter (210:00 - End)

The episode concludes with the hosts reflecting on recent events, offering condolences, and engaging in light-hearted banter about traveling, airport experiences, and sports. They emphasize the importance of community support and mental health awareness.

• Joe Budden (173:42): “Rest in peace to the people that we lost this weekend... Use the phone. Not just text.”
• Mark Lamont Hill (175:42): “We have to think about that.”

Notable Quotes:

• Joe Budden (02:27): “Once the words make it to the hood and what we do with it, Gaslight may be a real thing somewhere that means something.”
• Mal (03:35): “A lot of people use the word gaslighting wrong to me.”
• Mark Lamont Hill (114:51): “Essence is one of the ones that has thrived, but it's because of this festival.”
• Joe Budden (51:03): “He's a very good point guard... but he's no longer the machine.”
• Mark Lamont Hill (137:50): “He’s a good dude... making a fair war.”

Conclusion:

Episode 841 of "The Joe Budden Podcast" offers a multifaceted conversation covering topics from psychological terms misuses and weekend social activities to in-depth critiques of Drake's album and ESSENCE Fest's organizational challenges. The hosts blend serious discussions with humorous banter, providing listeners with a comprehensive and engaging episode that balances entertainment with thoughtful analysis.

Transcript

[Joe Budden]

The thoughts, views, and opinions expressed by this podcast whose bullets its hosts offer entertainment purposes only. I repeat, it is not serious. It is not real. No one is exposing, revealing, indicting, or telling you anything about themselves. Also, we do not encourage you to try this at home. We are trained professionals who do not have your best interests at heart or our own. Enjoy the show.

[Ish]

That's funny. That was a funny story. Yeah.

[Mal]

Yeah, that's fire. You tune out.

[Joe Budden]

It'd be the little things. It'd be the little things that you just don't.

[Ish]

Yeah, I go through that, too.

[Joe Budden]

I don't have the mental capacity to hear a lot of.

[Parks]

Bandwidth.

[Joe Budden]

I don't have the bandwidth to. To. To listen to. Too many words today. Yeah, too many words. It's like somebody I'll be on the phone, somebody be telling me a story that's really important to them about some. That's happening in their life. And in the middle of the story, if it's too long, I'll be like, yo, what the are they talking about? Y. I realize I don't remember one important detail from the story, and I know they about to ask me. They've been talking long enough to where a break is coming, and they going to say, yeah, what would you have done?

[Ish]

It's even worse when it's like your wife.

[Joe Budden]

That's what I'm saying. N, man, long winded they be when you pay attention to them. Yo, your wife or girl or they. They want to talk to you about, oh, my God, I got to give you the tea on Barbara. You like, who the is Barbara? You got a friend. Oh, you. You got a friend group. All right. What Barbara did. Barbara should be long.

[Erickson]

N. You remember when.

[Joe Budden]

I don't, but all right. Yeah, dog, like, you gotta like your wife enough to listen to, like, be in tune with all of that shit. Like, nah. For that ass, like, say a word as a boy, Y' all are lying. Barbara took it there.

[Parks]

Y' all are lying.

[Erickson]

She always did look shady, too. Yeah, you gotta be on her side. That's it.

[Ish]

That's it.

[Joe Budden]

I think in the first three years, I was trying to give good advice about the friend group. Hey, she's a hoe. Stay away from her. That didn't work. Don't. Hey, once they don't listen to the advice, they get closer to the hoe.

[Mal]

Cause the hoe catch on that you onto them. So the hoe do things to make.

[Joe Budden]

And when you told me about everything that your ho friend is going through, it make it tougher for Me to not gaslight you. When you bring me arguments about what we going through. Cause what we going through pale in comparison to that shit that we be kikiing about. Your whole friend, girl, your whole friend is getting ran through these dreams. You can't come to me about certain shit after we. Me and you laughed at that. But whatever. I'm toxic.

[Mal]

I just found out where the phrase gaslight come from. A 1933 play? No, people thought it was from the 1941 movie, but it's not. It's originated from Fact check. A 1933 play where the man. What year?

[Parks]

No, sorry, go ahead.

[Mal]

Where the man would turn the gas light down to make his wife seem like she's going blind. And I just learned that.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I just learned.

[Mal]

Cause a lot of people use the word gaslighting wrong to me. I learned that where gaslighting came from. And I did some research.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah.

[Mal]

You know that.

[Ish]

Thank you for that flip.

[Mal]

I appreciate that. It's one of, you know, flip facts. I gotta present something if I come late.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Flip facts, I love that shit.

[Joe Budden]

Came from bitches going to brunch. That's all it came from. You might you saying the facts.

[Ish]

It came from Twitter.

[Joe Budden]

That shit came from a chick with a bright idea one day. Don't y' all feel like that shit came from chicks on the phone validating each other? Like, don't y' all feel like. Don't y' all feel like. But don't you feel like. Don't you feel like the phrase healthy friends? Huh?

[Mal]

Don't you feel like the phrase get misused? You too much. Don't you feel like people misused gaslighting?

[Ish]

All these therapist terms get misused?

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yep. Every year it's a new one. I remember narcissists started getting used for everything.

[Erickson]

Niggas did the psychology 101 and got them Freudian joints.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Exactly. It was a rap crazy. Now whenever you disagree with somebody's version of a story, you gaslighting them, like. Nah, just.

[Joe Budden]

See, that's the thing. It's just when the words make it to the hood and what we do with it, Gaslight may be a real thing somewhere that means something. Oh, yeah. But when it got to the hood and bitches at brunch started twisting it around like a Rubik's Cube, it meant something totally different. Let it get Marcus Brown. I'm not gaslighting you because I have a different opinion. I'm not invalidating you by saying I have a different opinion. All opinions are valid. All opinions matter.

[Ish]

But Then we're gonna get into. I'm just sharing my truth. And that's not fun either.

[Joe Budden]

I'm just sharing your truth. Your truth, your truth, your truth. And anytime somebody say my truth, it's not the truth, it's yours. Yeah, I'm not looking for yours.

[Erickson]

That's how they get out of it.

[Mal]

I'm just looking for the.

[Joe Budden]

I want the. The. The truth. What part did you play in this? What's up, y'? All?

[Ish]

What's good?

[Joe Budden]

How y' all feeling? Feeling good. Great. Real good. I apologize to y'. All. We should have just took the day off for the fourth lie, man. We should have just took the day off, man. We didn't have the bandwidth. We. We was. We wasn't here.

[Ish]

It was a very outside weekend and.

[Joe Budden]

We shouldn't have been in. It was the outside of my weekend.

[Ish]

Was never ending, bro.

[Erickson]

I don't remember being in the house.

[Joe Budden]

I'm in trouble now.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

You can tell.

[Mal]

When you start wearing mismatch. You in trouble.

[Joe Budden]

You just yelled at. Let me.

[Mal]

Let me put this green on with this.

[Joe Budden]

No, it was outside.

[Mal]

My son clean up when he clean up, it's good. Out of the meeting for about business. You know he going good with his baby when he just throw anything on. Just a Mitch match. I don't give a. He just.

[Joe Budden]

I hear you, nigga. I cut the news on at 5:30am Mike woods, the weatherman, looks stressed. Really? He made me look at to open the weather app on my phone. That nigga was up there saying, all right, y', all, it's gonna be humid and it's gonna storm and it's gonna be 95. Stay in duck Run. Mike woods looked up. I was like, what? I didn't know it was gonna be like this. Look at summer. Summering. Hey, y' all asked for this.

[Ish]

Yeah.

[Mal]

Yeah.

[Joe Budden]

That be y' all all winter. Oh, I can't wait for this. A male in her fucking friend group. When girls get friend groups, I'm telling you. Oh, when it's hot, I can't wait till it's hot out. Look, misery out there. I'm fucking depressed.

[Parks]

We had a good time.

[Joe Budden]

It was bad at the bashment, man.

[Mal]

How was the bashment?

[Mark Lamont Hill]

How was the bashment?

[Parks]

Yeah, I didn't go.

[Joe Budden]

Damn.

[Mal]

Oh, you did the old 52 fake out. You made it seem like you was.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Going to puzzle with some wells you was trying to get up to. You had to leave to get there.

[Parks]

I did. I did. And it wasn't my fault. Why I didn't go.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Of course, I didn't think it was.

[Mal]

So you stayed home that day?

[Parks]

Unfortunately, yeah. Looking cute as fuck.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Mm.

[Joe Budden]

So you do it.

[Mal]

I'm gonna try that move. Just come here, dress in a tux.

[Joe Budden]

Act like I gotta go home.

[Parks]

I did. Plans got canceled. I was disapp. I was ready to turn up.

[Joe Budden]

Okay. You do this. And I always fall for it.

[Erickson]

I'mma fall for it.

[Parks]

What?

[Joe Budden]

So you were here, excited about it?

[Parks]

I was excited.

[Joe Budden]

Your face was lighting up. You looked amazing.

[Parks]

Thank you.

[Joe Budden]

I know you were looking forward to it. You rushed out of here. You damn near didn't say goodbye.

[Parks]

I said goodbye.

[Joe Budden]

It was from the elevator. I heard the echo. It was like you was out of here.

[Parks]

I was. I was ready to go.

[Joe Budden]

Why? Why did they cancel?

[Parks]

No, my friends canceled. Like, I don't know, somebody needed somebody to. I don't.

[Ish]

Why don't you find something else to do?

[Parks]

Because by that.

[Ish]

Can't waste a good fit.

[Parks]

I know, I was really upset about that.

[Joe Budden]

But just. In the crib by the vines, looking good. 27 inch TV by the bookshelf, looking dumb. Looking dumb.

[Mal]

27 inch TV.

[Joe Budden]

Computer monitor in there with the fishnet sevens, just chilling.

[Parks]

Ye. I saw there was a party happening in Brooklyn, but then I was like, yeah, I'm not driving to fucking Brooklyn at like 11 o'.

[Joe Budden]

Clock.

[Parks]

You know, age crept in. I was like, fuck this. Gonna watch Yellowstone again.

[Joe Budden]

Yo, that's the thing. I'm not gonna lie to you. Sleep is the best shit in the world.

[Ish]

Sleep, world.

[Joe Budden]

Oh, it's amazing.

[Parks]

I love naps.

[Joe Budden]

All that happened this weekend. I just realized, yo, I've been in the bed for four days in a row, just rolling around.

[Ish]

I was outside Diagonal. I had a surprise gender reveal on Sunday at my house. Congrats, Sam. And framing.

[Erickson]

Oh, your house.

[Ish]

Yeah. Yeah, we were just having a family barbecue. You know what I mean? And. But gender reveal.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Somebody revealed their gender.

[Ish]

Yeah, but this is after Friday being out all night. Saturday being out all night. I was tired. I'm tired.

[Joe Budden]

Yo, white is fun. Sometimes somebody just Gender reveal At the kitchen. At your crib?

[Ish]

Yeah, at your crib.

[Erickson]

You ain't even know I was coming.

[Ish]

Yeah, it does. It was a celebration. It was fun. Cook for everybody.

[Erickson]

Got a nice little backyard too.

[Ish]

Yeah.

[Parks]

How they reveal the gender like that? They pull like a blue.

[Ish]

The little poppy things.

[Parks]

Okay, okay.

[Joe Budden]

Red or blue? Budweiser. Budweiser. Ice, the Old School Bud.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Ice.

[Joe Budden]

Old school Bud, the one with a can change color.

[Mal]

Remember that?

[Joe Budden]

You got that? Oh, yeah. The ice cores, you know.

[Parks]

Stupid people.

[Joe Budden]

Oh, man, that's so stupid. I remember that. A white gender, Virginia.

[Mal]

Is it red or blue?

[Joe Budden]

Hey, we got DVDs for sale. Soon as you to the back.

[Erickson]

Yo, that so.

[Joe Budden]

What. What do they have in a girl?

[Mal]

Congratulations.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Congratulations.

[Ish]

Congratulations. Me and Freeze and our. Our better halfs went out Saturday, tore up the town.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Oh, I saw the pictures on the social media. Yeah, I look like y was having fun.

[Mal]

You and Freeze new. Not new, but y' all like a dynamic duo, man. No, I'm just saying, I like, you know, when y' all go out together, y' all like, yeah, we have a good time.

[Erickson]

Yeah, we had a blast.

[Mal]

Yeah, you're non judgmental. A like me, I go out with Freeze. I'm watching them every Freeze.

[Joe Budden]

It's just a younger. Dragging them all over the city. Dragging them everywhere. But y' all did look lit. Y' all look lit.

[Erickson]

We were lit.

[Joe Budden]

Look like a great time. I told Parks outside, I'm gonna start fifth Wheeling with y'. All.

[Ish]

The only reason why we didn't text you is the venues that we were at. I was like, he ain't gonna watch.

[Joe Budden]

I'm gonna start fifth wheel. I'm with y'. All. Don't know.

[Mal]

Why is that lying all the time to Joe? I noticed that because I know what he likes. I didn't text you. I didn't invite you here.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

That's.

[Mal]

You got the. You got the illest cleanup. Because it comes out smoothly.

[Ish]

I know what he likes. He don't like certain shit.

[Mal]

When he asks me, I'm like, yo, nigga, I don't know, nigga. Cause but y' all just. That really is friends. Y' all love him.

[Joe Budden]

They know me. And you know me too. You know I wouldn't go nowhere. You. You at.

[Mal]

That's not true.

[Joe Budden]

Outside. Outside of here. Well, you. When I watch where you be at.

[Mal]

You saw I was outside lit. Watch it.

[Joe Budden]

Wait, wait, wait. I never said you wasn't lit. I never said you wasn't lit. I never said you wasn't lit. Don't lie on me.

[Mal]

Let me take that back.

[Ish]

Joe, he need to go to your studio.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah.

[Mal]

You stated that you saw when me and you stepped in starless. The love when I'm outside. I get love the places that I be at.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah.

[Mal]

You may not be, but you will hang out with me. You would hang out with me outside. Don't act like you wouldn't hang out with me outside.

[Joe Budden]

Your boy not where you go, but.

[Mal]

You hate, so I gotta go.

[Erickson]

Where you go.

[Joe Budden]

You couldn't be the determiner of the location. Really? Not at all. No way.

[Mal]

Filming Flip.

[Joe Budden]

And it's true for me. Listen. And listen. I'm filming.

[Ish]

That's a fact.

[Parks]

That's a fact.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah.

[Mal]

Not necessarily, but yeah, true.

[Joe Budden]

See, I'm the weirdo in this because I'm unrealistic. So I'll say hey, I could go outside or stay in my room for the next 23 years and I'll pick that one. You know what? I'm gonna just sit in bed.

[Ish]

Good ac.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah. See what these only fans chicks is up to serve.

[Ish]

Running it up.

[Joe Budden]

I can't even. Can't. Dan. They ruin only fans now too.

[Ish]

Yo, do you see that? They're selling only fans. And right now the rate is gonna be higher than what Paramount so far.

[Joe Budden]

That's crazy. The first. And the first is the last. And the last shall be first part.

[Ish]

Yeah, yeah.

[Joe Budden]

You know what time it is?

[Ish]

Porn killer Prince told us all about.

[Erickson]

A porn business that was about porn. A trillion dollar business.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah, but it's just like his mirroring real sports now where some of the players lack true love for the game.

[Ish]

They're taking better rest days and shit.

[Joe Budden]

Like now that fucking streaming is a thing. And these outfits and these big time companies come in and they buy your page. The bitches don't wanna do it. They sell. So they sell it to the big time company. And at 3am while you got your dick in your hand, you could tell that that's not her. You could tell they talking to you like a company. Yeah, like where's the bitches that got in the game for the love of showing that pussy? Like the chicks that really needed a dollar that was doing it themselves out the mud. Independence was selling that phone camera. Yes. Them dumb parents left when they was three. Just had to survive.

[Erickson]

Figure it out.

[Joe Budden]

Living room a mess. Yeah. Hey, they didn't miss a week of content. Was right there with some. Some new pussy. Yeah. Now it's just companies. It's just companies everywhere.

[Ish]

Yeah.

[Joe Budden]

No players that nobody that loves the game.

[Erickson]

What does that mean though? Box physical person but somebody else talking.

[Joe Budden]

It's a con.

[Mal]

I've never been.

[Ish]

It's a bot.

[Joe Budden]

It's a. It's a bot. It's a bot. Are you a real person?

[Mal]

He always get caught up in bots.

[Joe Budden]

Yo, you gotta look. No, it's all bots is what I'm talking about telling you.

[Erickson]

Yeah, not all.

[Joe Budden]

No, I'm telling you that 98% is.

[Mal]

Bots on only Fans or you talking about.

[Joe Budden]

I'm talking about only fans. It's like the. It's like the big time. It's like Bill Gates companies buying up real estate.

[Ish]

The pictures is real, but, like, the.

[Joe Budden]

Pictures and the people are real. You be texting the people dms. How you uploading the. The captions typing at the same time?

[Mal]

No, he's saying that he like, how.

[Joe Budden]

Many hits do you need?

[Mal]

He like to lead up. Nigga, you. Everybody not like you, Mr. Talkative.

[Ish]

That was you trying to show off.

[Mal]

No, I don't understand that.

[Erickson]

I didn't know that. I've never been on.

[Mal]

No, they DM you. They send you a message. Hey, daddy, I'm here right now waiting for you. What are you doing?

[Joe Budden]

Are you still there? I'm gonna give you a little jerk of it, help you go to bed, right? Like, come on. Stop it. Target. This is not Dre.

[Mal]

Hey, I saw one of the only. I saw one of my only a person I follow. OnlyFans.

[Joe Budden]

I'm kidding, by the way.

[Mal]

I saw their regular page and I was tight. Like, I prefer you on OnlyFans, yo.

[Ish]

Well, duh.

[Mal]

Yeah. Nah, but some of them, nah. Because, look, it's usually the other way around. Like, you can entice me if I go to your Instagram, you lit and I click the link. Whatever, and I go to your OnlyFans. But if I find you on OnlyFans by a suggestion, and I go to your Instagram and you just have bullshit on.

[Ish]

Oh, okay.

[Mal]

Yeah, and turn off my whole mood like I can dig it.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah, you got the same key set on.

[Erickson]

How about my dad follow me on the ground.

[Joe Budden]

Carpet is dirty. Now you propped up on the chair to pop ass, but your feet is dir dirty. Cuz you just twerked all in the kitchen while you was fake baking by the oven like mine. Like, right? Yo, get focused. Get focused. Where are the. That love the game. That's her. Not just in it for a dollar.

[Mal]

N she in it for the dollar.

[Joe Budden]

If you got dirty, they in there selling you old vids. I done bought three vids that I had already. Now I gotta. Now I gotta curse out a bot. Word. Now I gotta curse out a bot.

[Mal]

They be getting us cuz they changed the angle of the picture.

[Joe Budden]

No, they don't. Not even showing you a preview. So they just uploading the old vid with a new caption. Here you go. At 3am Horny as hell. And it's the vid that you had already from fucking April. These motherfuckers And I just finished cursing out a bot. I watched the Uber eats nigga on a bike drop my food off at three other building three buildings away.

[Ish]

Oh, that tech support's the worst.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah, bad, horrible. The worst. All of them. He take a picture, send it right to you with the wrong door.

[Erickson]

That's not me, dog.

[Joe Budden]

Here go your food at the address. This is not yours. That should be looking good. I was starving. That only happened when you starving.

[Erickson]

No, yo, I instacarted. I instacarted some the other day for one of my tenants. Yo, they just threw the on the porch.

[Ish]

You're a hell of a landlord.

[Joe Budden]

No, I'm moving in. Yes. Where?

[Erickson]

Yo, dog, they just threw the shit on the porch.

[Mal]

No, we want to know about why you instacart your tender.

[Erickson]

It was some healthy light bulbs, some pest. Oh, so. Yo, but dog, they just threw the.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

He's a exterminator.

[Erickson]

No, bad.

[Mal]

What hood? What hood? This in D your building. You got your in the hood.

[Erickson]

It's the summertime.

[Joe Budden]

I'm joking, dog. I'm just kidding.

[Erickson]

Should be coming in the summer.

[Joe Budden]

Well, your building's got ants coming in them. Yeah, what else? Rodents, people you talking about. Hey, moolah, right?

[Mal]

How many floors?

[Joe Budden]

Gang neck bought the ant building at the Cheap. Flipped them shits, did that little sheetrock.

[Ish]

Bullshit he be doing, getting rid of them.

[Joe Budden]

That nigga's out of here, man.

[Erickson]

He has to come with honey. Get my money, bro. He's talking about.

[Joe Budden]

Yo, he's so old. He whoammed it too though. He did that mean he ain't. That's facts. Say whatever you want.

[Erickson]

Bumblebees, all that.

[Joe Budden]

I'm good. Stacks on dick, Patrol on ice. You care?

[Mal]

Whatever you like. That was his.

[Joe Budden]

Whatever you like.

[Mal]

His in the club with.

[Joe Budden]

With the orange pes like this. There's certain songs that you know. Light skinned with hazel eyes bop to in the club. Throw it in the bag. The original. Just throw it in the bag. Fancy the dream shorty is a teen miss independent she got her own thing. That's why I love her. Look at this. This was killing the club. He was bodying Polo. There's something about Something about the way she move. I can't wait to talk on the phone. There's something about her.

[Mal]

He try to act like he not looking, give eye contact. And then when a certain part come, he look.

[Parks]

Let's go.

[Mal]

Is you smooth boy.

[Joe Budden]

That was a terror to the with good credit boy.

[Mal]

Yeah, he got a lot of. Yeah, he had a lot of and then how many cards you had? Some Mike name boy. Never.

[Joe Budden]

Come on.

[Mal]

We all did that. Nobody look at.

[Ish]

Look.

[Erickson]

You had a car?

[Mark Lamont Hill]

When I was younger.

[Mal]

When I was younger, yes.

[Erickson]

Never.

[Joe Budden]

Never stop answering us like Dolph Lundgren. Never.

[Mal]

Hold on. Your parents never put nothing.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yep, yep.

[Erickson]

My first car was in my name.

[Mal]

Oh, really?

[Erickson]

Yes.

[Joe Budden]

Like a loser.

[Mal]

That's fire.

[Joe Budden]

That's how you know he was a loser.

[Mal]

Now I feel crazy.

[Joe Budden]

All right.

[Mal]

I mean, y' all parents. His parents had a good day. He had it good. I mean, my mom put.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Man, you said you had everybody put it in some, like some girl name.

[Mal]

Yeah, I was. That's how I started. But then I wanted to go back. I started there with some.

[Joe Budden]

Oh, okay.

[Mal]

Your parents put something in their name for you right when you were younger?

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Not really. They weren't really on there. Y' all grew up.

[Mal]

Y' all grew up rough.

[Parks]

Same.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

They did it for my brother.

[Joe Budden]

You too?

[Parks]

Yeah. Everything was in my name. My first car was in my name. Everything.

[Joe Budden]

That says a lot about this part.

[Parks]

What does it say?

[Joe Budden]

It says that a majority of the members had things put in their name very early.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I agree. We go getters. We're independent.

[Mal]

That's right.

[Parks]

Hyper independent at that, Corey.

[Joe Budden]

I mean that.

[Mal]

You know what that be, Cory.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

These Cory Snake call us broke.

[Joe Budden]

I see what type of day we about to have. Child labor laws.

[Mal]

Them niggas had cars in their name.

[Joe Budden]

Apartment.

[Ish]

Rest in peace, Prodigy.

[Joe Budden]

Rest in peace, Pete. Rest in peace, Pete. Freeze sent me that Clips album, and it made me make the stink face so many times that it brought me back to queens. I'm a bed M2 12.

[Erickson]

Off as.

[Joe Budden]

If I listened to this and reshuffle where I had myself in the top 100. You got to be careful listening to shit for the 90s. Out slinging like 49. Mic check, mic check, mike check, mike check, mike check. Nori. What up, what up, what up? Always for the ladies. Always for the ladies. Shout to the first and last time listeners. Shout to Patronis. What up, what up?

[Ish]

I miss that era rap when you said, huh?

[Joe Budden]

You monkey walk.

[Ish]

Don't say like that no more, yo.

[Joe Budden]

This era had me so lit, though. Hell, yeah, this is my.

[Ish]

Yo.

[Joe Budden]

Nori was the greatest. Feet turn up, though. Let's go. Yummy. I'm from Queens today. That's how I'm on it. I even had some bars and hooks playing last night. Shout out to bars and hooks.

[Mal]

100 grand on a visa took the.

[Erickson]

Stand suddenly caught him in the warehouse tied in the freezer but that's the life of a thug when.

[Joe Budden]

Oh, my God. Stop playing. And that's some real Joe Button to do. Open the pod with Kadafi. This I got, y'. All. We got a great show lined up for y' all today. Shout out to the first and last time listeners. Let's go though.

[Erickson]

Tell them how you rock my jewels, rock my clothes no, I ain't red.

[Mal]

Dot when I spot my phone.

[Joe Budden]

Let'S go. Once again I bring the buck with us that get you Marcus Alle's where the super sports rally beating up the block Leaving these motherfuckers shot I flipped this shit like a combination now that your see me they trying to freeze me But I got in New York coming Kamatissi smoking me when my man came over with Scooby blowing dookie and in the black range oh, Texas. What's going on out there?

[Erickson]

Nothing but the New York to Texas collection.

[Joe Budden]

Nothing but some real what I expected Sometimes came and think I'm a woke. What the is up out there? Yeah, I get mine fast way make money.

[Mal]

Okay.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I thought I really wanted your fish.

[Joe Budden]

Please.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

This is stash house jackpot.

[Joe Budden]

Dig them keys.

[Mal]

My black tea on the hoodie just reek with marijuana.

[Joe Budden]

All right, we got a good show lined up for y'. All. I'm ready to rock. I'm ready to rock.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I'm ready to rock.

[Joe Budden]

Y' all feeling good? Y' all feeling good?

[Mal]

Yes, sir.

[Joe Budden]

Y' all feeling good? Energy up in there. Yes, sir. All the teachers out there. The Uber eats, the lift drivers out there, the postal workers.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I give mine the fast way.

[Joe Budden]

Take money, make money. Money take money. Yo, I love male face during the Be like. Mel just be like gonna start soon.

[Mal]

She be tuning his whole out.

[Parks]

I'm not.

[Joe Budden]

I love the start of the show.

[Parks]

The intro is my favorite part.

[Joe Budden]

I love this.

[Mal]

Get the pistol.

[Joe Budden]

Oh, my God. We go to jail. We go to jail. She just gentrified us. All right, let's go, let's go, let's go. Yeah, man.

[Mal]

Popping Jake. Trust me, son. Will go hard for the. You know about that is you want to slap me behind your head, boy.

[Joe Budden]

Yo love you.

[Erickson]

Yo, why you keep with him, cuz?

[Mal]

He got greasy face. He got a greasy. He put grease on his face in the summer.

[Erickson]

He don't want to put it on his face.

[Joe Budden]

He greets his face.

[Mal]

Love ish.

[Joe Budden]

Flip. Walk right in and go to ISO.

[Erickson]

I'm on that today. What up?

[Mal]

He like them old uncles. You got to bother, son.

[Erickson]

You got to with him.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah. Yes, sir. We there. Who is that? It's Mark Lamar Hill.

[Mal]

Pussy. Don't get shy now. Don't look away now, pussy.

[Joe Budden]

Mic check. Mic check. Mic check, Mic check. You know what time it is. Happy to be here. So happy to be here. Welcome to 8:42.

[Ish]

8:41.

[Joe Budden]

8:41 of the Joe Button Podcast. I'm Joe. Brought to you by a few by Powered by Prize Pigs. Prizes, gang. You to my right. Best cast in the world. You know the vibes. Legend in the game. Big Melissa Ford in the building next to her. Legend. All in the streets. BigQueen flipping the building. Hey, next to him, boom. Mr. Thousand Doors and Up.

[Mal]

Don't get shy now.

[Joe Budden]

Mr. Shy Guy himself, Big Head.

[Mal]

Don't get shy now. Don't get shy now.

[Joe Budden]

Next to him, Mr. Freeze. Mr. Take it further. Big Ice in the building next to him, our good brother Mark, AKA Dark. Lamar Hill in the building next to him. Big Parks, y' all know the vibes. King Elmyra, let's go.

[Erickson]

What's poppin?

[Joe Budden]

Po is here. Cory's here. Erickson is here. Ian is here. Keebler is here. Saon and Ten are here by remote. Last but certainly not least, each and every one of you guys are out there. How's everybody doing? Great. How are we feeling?

[Erickson]

What's up?

[Joe Budden]

What up?

[Mark Lamont Hill]

What up?

[Erickson]

What up? What up, man?

[Joe Budden]

Feeling good energy up? Yeah. How we doing, man?

[Parks]

Fantastic, right?

[Joe Budden]

Good. Cor. Cor. Flip is calling.

[Mal]

Get my man. Give my man a napkin, man. We can't do that. Clean my man up.

[Joe Budden]

Listen, I'm here to work. I'm here to work my.

[Mal]

I need you.

[Joe Budden]

I need you clean like this. Like when I be in the sweat. Come. I'll wipe it. I don't wipe it. I let the sweat drip off. Yeah.

[Mal]

All on the back.

[Joe Budden]

Giving you this. Yeah, I'm giving you this.

[Mal]

Take these fluids.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah, take these fluids. Take these fluids.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Fluids.

[Mal]

Okay.

[Joe Budden]

Sorry. Absolutely. You took it too far.

[Mal]

You know, I get a little hot.

[Joe Budden]

Take these fluids.

[Mal]

Instead of getting a paper towel, Corey went there. Turn the heat down.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah.

[Mal]

What up, man?

[Joe Budden]

The only weirdo jail I ever seen. Put that thing on cool.

[Ish]

Slash heat in the summer.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah, put it on cool. But it doesn't. Not in the cell no more.

[Mal]

Expensive system.

[Joe Budden]

You've been out for like, 29 years. You and wallow. It get cold.

[Mal]

It get real cold.

[Joe Budden]

Thank you, man. All right. How we doing, man?

[Erickson]

We doing good.

[Joe Budden]

What's poppin? What's poppin? What's up, man?

[Mal]

How was your fourth man, man, what's up, man? You stayed in the house, but you went out on the 5th? I know you went out Saturday.

[Parks]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Joe Budden]

Oh, I seen her outside.

[Mal]

Y' all saw each other?

[Joe Budden]

No, no, no.

[Parks]

He did not come over.

[Joe Budden]

I don't walk over there.

[Ish]

You crazy.

[Parks]

Yeah, he did not come over. Cause I didn't know he was there.

[Mal]

Where you was at, man? At the spot.

[Parks]

I was at the spot.

[Mal]

I said last.

[Joe Budden]

I was at the spot.

[Erickson]

I almost went to the spot.

[Joe Budden]

So you should have come to the spot. Should have came to the spot.

[Ish]

Nah, we had more fun.

[Erickson]

Yeah, no disrespect.

[Joe Budden]

No, she's talking about Santa.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Saturday.

[Erickson]

I'm talking about Saturday.

[Joe Budden]

Oh, what you talking about? In daytime?

[Erickson]

Oh, oh, no.

[Joe Budden]

In the daytime, she's talking about, not in the night.

[Parks]

I was like, they had a cookout.

[Joe Budden]

Houdini told me about y'. All.

[Ish]

Houdini.

[Joe Budden]

Don't worry about it.

[Erickson]

I, I, I got it.

[Joe Budden]

Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. Don't worry. You know you gotta be of hip hop. I'm in the hip hop mood today. Oh, I'll teach you. Y, Slap me anyway. Y' all had a blast, right?

[Erickson]

That was cool.

[Joe Budden]

Look, look, it just hit him. It just hit him. Look, it just hit him. He older than enough.

[Mal]

It's what you did. It's what you did on the 4th. 5th.

[Erickson]

The 4th went locally and seen some fireworks in my hood.

[Joe Budden]

5Th.

[Ish]

Just like on the block.

[Erickson]

No, no, no. Like some of the suburban towns, they do the fireworks for the town.

[Joe Budden]

Did you take, did you take the picture? Did you take. Let us get them.

[Mal]

Did you take the picture? Is, you know, like when you watch the movie and you had your daughter hand and your girl got the other side of the hand. Like, y' all just standing there watching.

[Parks]

The fireworks and the pictures from behind. Yeah, I did one of those family pictures.

[Mal]

Oh, you should just sat in the car. Did you get out? Did you sit in the car? Did you sat in the car?

[Erickson]

No, they do it in the park.

[Mal]

Like, oh, so you gotta watch.

[Ish]

Did you have the little folding chairs?

[Joe Budden]

Yeah. Nice.

[Mal]

Oh, nice, nice, nice.

[Parks]

Okay.

[Ish]

I was, I was making fun of people. They had like, a snitch line that they posted on Twitter to call on people letting off fireworks. And I was, I thought that was the funniest thing in the world.

[Mal]

Yeah, people were doing that until I.

[Ish]

Woke up on the fifth and went outside in my backyard, and there was just like a fucking war zone out there, and I didn't see one Firework. I was tight. I was tight.

[Erickson]

No, that should be crazy. And people that be having, like, you got dog. You used to have dogs. The dogs be going crazy.

[Parks]

No animals. And vets.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah, vets.

[Parks]

Like, I was gonna ask you guys, do you guys think that, like, fireworks are, like, over? Like it's kind of, like, outdated? Like, we should. Toronto had like a drone show and it was really beautiful.

[Joe Budden]

Boom, girl, you in.

[Mal]

You in Jersey. Somebody. What you watch online, girl.

[Joe Budden]

Boo. Drones. Dr. What does that mean?

[Parks]

It's drones. And they like, it's designed in the skies and stuff like that. It's a light display.

[Joe Budden]

Just so you know, there are towns in New Jersey that also do a drone show. But in the hood, if you search it, you can find it.

[Erickson]

We blowing shit up, apparently.

[Parks]

Blowing shit your hands all kinds of shit up.

[Joe Budden]

Damn. Fourth of July let me know how old I was. I was in the house all night, just startled every time. Every single time. I didn't know if it was a firework, a gunshot, something. Sometimes both. It was like, wait, what time are they?

[Erickson]

40 right now?

[Joe Budden]

Yeah. Then when it got to midnight, Then when it got to midnight, it kicked up a little bit. I was thinking that it would be bedtime a little bit. It was not. It was not. It was not.

[Erickson]

No. I started getting old. That was waking my daughter up.

[Joe Budden]

I was kind of tired. Like. Oh.

[Erickson]

I'm like.

[Joe Budden]

But then I just sat. Sat in the out and appreciated life. That used to be me. Yeah, that used to be me. I would make sure on 4th of July. Well, in my teenage years, it was the weapons on the roofs. But as an adult, I made sure I had some big ass fireworks to put on the show for the kids.

[Erickson]

Yeah, you used to have the.

[Joe Budden]

The. The big with the mortars. Yeah. But it took on a different, different symbolism when it was kids around. No.

[Erickson]

Yeah, true.

[Joe Budden]

TR. And I didn't want to see it. Yeah, like, imagine that. Like, couldn't afford no fireworks in the 80s when I was four. My parents on crack. What?

[Mal]

What?

[Joe Budden]

And statistics say it wasn't just mine anyway, by the way, y' all could do that. Oh, oh. Be easy, brother. The stat saved that quite a few. Anyways, anywhere y' all want to go, I'm down to go. Anywhere y' all want to go, I'm down to go. Drake. Drake released some music that was Friday night. He told everybody to be on. Be at a certain place at 9pm I don't know where you go.

[Ish]

It was YouTube. It was a stream.

[Joe Budden]

YouTube. They were streaming at 9pm it was him in the truck driving around Toronto cursing out. Get a lot of love from the fans.

[Ish]

Well, first he was in the ice building measuring ice blocks. Yeah, it was a. It was a. Interesting stream.

[Joe Budden]

Well, fold that up right now. Yeah, he was in the icebox making ice. Previewed some unreleased music when he got in the truck, drove around and then the song came that everybody was waiting for, which is what we assume to be his first single off of this Iceman run he's on. And he releasing episodics series.

[Ish]

It seems that way. Yeah.

[Joe Budden]

So I think that was episode one of his Iceman video series that he's doing. Drake gonna always think of some fly. Fly unique for his rollout.

[Ish]

Definitely for him. Definitely.

[Joe Budden]

We know that he loves the. All these streamers and the streamer kids. So I mean, it was a flyway. It was a flyway to release music. It was a flyway to get Everybody Centralized at 9pm on a Friday.

[Erickson]

They said mad people was in there. I'm sure they said it was a.

[Joe Budden]

Lot of people in it. A lot of people in it.

[Ish]

I'm sure the stream itself was fairly boring in my opinion, but I do appreciate the ingenuity and I'm sure he'll get better. It was.

[Mal]

It took too long to get to.

[Ish]

Him being in a truck because it was just quiet. It was not much going on except for like background noise for like 90% of the street.

[Erickson]

Let it build up.

[Ish]

But it was. It looked fly. And like I said, it is innovative. So I applaud that.

[Mal]

What did I miss?

[Erickson]

You said 90% of the street stream.

[Ish]

It was a lot like I was just hitting the fast forward.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

It was pretty boring.

[Ish]

Yeah, Nothing going on. Literally. He was just walking around like measuring ice.

[Parks]

Like he wasn't measuring ice blocks.

[Ish]

That's right. With a tape measure.

[Joe Budden]

That's it.

[Ish]

You said what?

[Erickson]

Retention.

[Ish]

Oh, yeah.

[Joe Budden]

Maybe that's it. And we gotta assume, right, that, you know, he was scheduled to do a stream with Kyle that was postponed or rescheduled or canceled altogether. I don't know. I'm not in the OVO group chat, but we assumed that. I assumed that he was gonna debut this record there. Had a change of plans and said, why don't we just do this?

[Ish]

Yeah, way higher, way flyer. I mean, I think the look for Kai would have been amazing, but I think him taking it in his own hands and doing something creative is dope.

[Joe Budden]

And Kai's had no shortage of amazing looks. And two, honestly, I was getting a little sick of. Of Drake looking For approval from the streamers. Like sending them the record, having them hype it before it's released. And then when it come, maybe it's below expectations or not. What, Whatever these streamer kids said, it was like. Yeah, I like him taking control of the narrative into his hands and his hands only. I do like that.

[Ish]

Agree.

[Erickson]

And he's still. And he's still working with them, so.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah, no, they still cool, but like, he's. Sometimes it's time for the superstar to get away from the crowd.

[Ish]

The superstar should be a superstar.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah, that's cool. Throughout the year, but I'm me and it's time for me to go show you why all y' all are such huge fans.

[Erickson]

No running me instead of me running New York.

[Ish]

And he's got no shortage of talent around him. People that can come up with some creative shit, make it look good, make it sound good. He can afford to do whatever stunt or whatever he wants to do. You don't need the streamers, can you? You can do it.

[Erickson]

He's still using the Today you need.

[Mal]

Yeah, you don't need. But the stream is beneficial.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah.

[Ish]

That's what I'm trying for.

[Joe Budden]

Sure.

[Mal]

Extremely beneficial to utilize them. They have a grass on.

[Erickson]

You know, the younger culture.

[Mal]

Massive. The younger culture. And the retention is becoming longer.

[Joe Budden]

If you are here today to hear Drake Hate from Joe Budden, I don't have it.

[Mal]

Me neither.

[Ish]

Me either.

[Joe Budden]

Me neither. Not today.

[Ish]

This record is tough.

[Joe Budden]

However, with this record, it's part of the reason I hired my good brother, Mark Lamont Hill.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Thank you.

[Joe Budden]

Thank you. Is because he hates Drake.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I don't hate Drake. Yeah, he hates Drake, so I don't hate.

[Joe Budden]

We're gonna get a lot of good Drake hate from him. So I'm gonna play the other side. Yeah, I know this Wolves.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I don't hate Drake. I, I, I like him when he raps.

[Joe Budden]

We're not gonna start with. We always start with love, right? We can't, we can't let you lead. Okay. We start with love. I'm playing. We made it. Because this sound right here, this sound, the Spartan 300 sound, the Dungeon we're going to war sound. I like that sound in beats. But same trophies, too. Yeah, trophies too. Let's pull up trophies. Trophies too. Hey, hold up just a little bit in the headphones. Oh, my God. How could you not like this sound and beats? Yo, when that dropped. Oh, my God. Anyway, how could you not like these sounds right there in your production? Yeah. Hey, records on my demo. That is such A stunt. That is such a stunt. Opening line.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah.

[Joe Budden]

I had hit records on my demo. Let's see here. Let's see here.

[Mal]

I don't give a if you love me I don't give a if you.

[Erickson]

Like me ask me.

[Joe Budden]

Listen to those sounds in the. Turn this off for a minute. Let me let y' all know out there if you've never tried to make a song. When. When these sounds start appearing in the beat. The artist wants to kill a lot of people. Or the artist heard everything that y' all typed. Or there's a. There's. There's. There's just a feeling of Gladiator 2 with them niggas on the ship in the water going through all them of. Of obstacles. It's a fight feeling. I do like him opening up to his people, how he feels post fight.

[Ish]

Yeah. Okay.

[Joe Budden]

I'm just doing this because outside of how I feel about the song, I like the attitude of. Yeah. Everybody else kicked up off this. Off this battle. I am. Yeah. Let me tell you how. Where I stand on it. And. And I like him on these beats. I like him on these beats.

[Mal]

I don't give a fuck if you love me.

[Erickson]

I don't give a fuck if you like me. Asking me how did it feel? Can't say it didn't surprise me.

[Joe Budden]

Hey, who is out there asking Drake how it felt? Who's doing that? For real? Who's doing that to Drake in the streets? I feel bad for him.

[Erickson]

How it feel?

[Mal]

Can't say it didn't surprise me.

[Joe Budden]

That's how I look to my right. You n been standing beside me hopping.

[Mal]

Some people I love hanging around who?

[Joe Budden]

Try me. Let's go.

[Mal]

What did I miss?

[Joe Budden]

What did I miss? What did I miss? What did I miss? Let's go.

[Ish]

I like that shit.

[Joe Budden]

I like it, too. I like it a lot. It's hard. Loved it.

[Parks]

On the mark. You don't like it?

[Joe Budden]

It's hard. We not tossing to Mark yet.

[Parks]

I just saw his expression.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah, but his taste.

[Mal]

Texas.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

We not.

[Joe Budden]

We not tossing it to Mark. Let Mark enjoy his tea. Let him chill. We start with love.

[Parks]

I love it.

[Joe Budden]

We begin with love. And he shouted you out. Showed you a lot of love. Don't just toss to the nigga that.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Hates him in the room.

[Parks]

No. Absolutely not. No. And I love. You know what I'm thinking of when I hear these songs? I'm thinking about the same effect that Queen's music used to have. Like, they did, like, you know, anthems. You know what I mean?

[Joe Budden]

Let Us do this. We on such a role.

[Mal]

Bohemian Raspberry.

[Joe Budden]

We are on such a role.

[Mal]

What is this?

[Joe Budden]

Let us do this real quick.

[Parks]

No, no, no. Hold on. Am I wrong?

[Joe Budden]

No.

[Parks]

Thank you.

[Joe Budden]

You're not wrong. Okay, then you're never wrong. When we ask you to shut up, you be right. Okay?

[Parks]

Okay. That's new.

[Joe Budden]

We'll come to you. Before we go to Mark's hate. I promise to. To hear the Bohemian Rhapsody side of this.

[Ish]

We never compare this to fat bottom girls.

[Joe Budden]

I didn't.

[Parks]

Not fat bottom girls. We are the champions.

[Ish]

Fat bot girls are. Anthony, do that.

[Joe Budden]

No, I know.

[Parks]

I love fat body.

[Joe Budden]

Now look what you. The white.

[Mal]

The white came out.

[Joe Budden]

Now they having a white.

[Mal]

Let's get back to Drake. What did I miss?

[Joe Budden]

Back to Drake. What did I miss? I. I think that he knocked his hook out of here. I love the sounds in this beat. And I love the irony in what did I miss? Miss? I mean, well, like everything. I don't know if there was. I don't know if. If there's ever been somebody that missed more.

[Erickson]

That's what you think he's talking about.

[Joe Budden]

You missed every lyric from every album from you.

[Erickson]

No, I thought he was saying, like, yo, what did I miss when I had these around me that I. I didn't see that they had other.

[Joe Budden]

Thank you. What I'm telling you is that all of his lyrics from day one have been about this.

[Ish]

A lot of them about phony. Yeah.

[Parks]

Yes.

[Joe Budden]

Friends that we not friends. I thought we were friends. Why aren't we friends?

[Mal]

Back to Houdini. Back to Houdini. Like he said.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah. What did I do? What did you do? It's been his whole career, so to say. What did I miss? Have you ever heard a Drake album? Listen to yourself. One, two. I can't tell if what did I miss is accountability or victimhood. This is flying.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah.

[Mal]

That's what makes it flying. That's what makes it fly.

[Joe Budden]

What did I miss? Does that take? Only that puts the onus on you. Clearly, you missed a lot.

[Erickson]

Or I don't get that.

[Joe Budden]

Or it says the opposite. Right.

[Erickson]

I get the victims. I see both. But I listen to the lyrics. I get the victim.

[Joe Budden]

I think that's why it's fly.

[Erickson]

I don't get the account.

[Joe Budden]

That's why it's dope.

[Mal]

The hook is accountable to me.

[Joe Budden]

If you're saying, what did I miss? You. You on yourself.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah.

[Erickson]

You on your hook. I should have saw y' all phoniness. I should have peeped it a long Time ago.

[Mal]

But what if you the nigga that was doing the bullshit and then just. You know what I'm saying?

[Parks]

That would be accountability.

[Joe Budden]

That make it even more flying to say, what did I miss? Nigga, you missed all the shit you did too. I don't think there's ever been a scenario in hip hop where somebody missed more than him in this instance. And I think him talking about that to his fans post battle, away from all you niggas that called me target when Most Def said that, that the. The whole of hip hop maybe is not looking at me the greatest.

[Mal]

I understand.

[Joe Budden]

But I'm a make a bop for the people that with me for something.

[Erickson]

It's like when a comedian do some and then they get y' all back too. They first time on tour, they gotta address all the. When the comedian do their first stand up.

[Joe Budden]

Except like, they usually wait till the.

[Ish]

End of the bit to do that though.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Right?

[Ish]

That's the only thing.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I guess I had a whole album.

[Ish]

That's the only critique I would.

[Mal]

So elephant in the room. That's how they do.

[Joe Budden]

Right?

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Right. Like towards the end sometimes for me. First of all, this song is great. I get why people like it. We've been playing it all weekend. Everywhere you go, you hear it. I ain't got no problem with the song as a song. I'm just Draked out, man. It's like the content of it for me is what you just said. Isis. I hear victim. I hear victim all through it. I'm tired of hearing about the battle. I'm tired of hearing about fake friends. I'm tired of subs to LeBron, LeBron. I'm just tired of it. Drake is too talented to stay in this place. And it's just at some point, it's just corny to me. And when I combine that song to that we had to see on that stream that you've been clipping up and playing.

[Mal]

Don't look away now, don't look away now. Don't get shy now.

[Joe Budden]

We'll fold that up right now. We'll fold that up right now.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

First, can we go to our senior Canadian correspondent, Florida.

[Joe Budden]

What up, man?

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Who the fuck is that? How y' all talk?

[Parks]

I've been here for 25 years.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Did that sound familiar to you?

[Parks]

Yes, it does. It's.

[Joe Budden]

It's Legend from the six row.

[Parks]

Yeah, the Toronto accent. Like that. Is this cross pollination of like West Indian kind of Jamaican kind of flavoring? I guess. I guess with Chess Club, I don't.

[Joe Budden]

Know what the Queen.

[Parks]

Honestly, you know what it sounds like?

[Joe Budden]

It tastes like Freddie Mercury.

[Parks]

No, no, it sounds. To me it sounds like a cross pollination of that. And a Nova Scotian accent. And a Nova. And a Nova Scotian accent sounds like a Minnesota accent. So if you could.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

It's a thug.

[Parks]

It's a super thug.

[Joe Budden]

Who gave it back.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

My fault.

[Joe Budden]

Who did that?

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I'm reclaiming my time.

[Parks]

Don't ask me.

[Joe Budden]

That's what I'm saying.

[Parks]

Okay, well, I mean I told you that's what it is.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Cuz when I heard this, it sounded like somebody trying. I mean the whole trying to sound tough thing from Drake just never works. The whole idea we about to somebody up the we of it all.

[Parks]

But that's what tough guys in Toronto sound like.

[Joe Budden]

We'll fold that up right now. We'll fold that up right now.

[Parks]

Tough guys.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

So he wasn't.

[Erickson]

He wasn't. You got to shoot me.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I thought it was. He's got shoot.

[Erickson]

I thought it was.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

He going to me with that.

[Mal]

Yo, dude.

[Erickson]

No, I'm sorry.

[Joe Budden]

Somebody called him a on the stream.

[Erickson]

No, I thought that it was like. I didn't know they spoke like that. So I looked at that like, what the is you doing? My like sound like almost you making a mockery of the West Indian people.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

But if they speak like that, they speak like.

[Erickson]

I didn't know that so well.

[Joe Budden]

That's the other thing that I realized too after watching the stream. My favorite Drake is American Drake.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah, yeah.

[Erickson]

Yes, I learned that back.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Which American drink? Northern American drink or southern fake Lil Wayne accent drink?

[Erickson]

I like both of them.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Okay, okay.

[Joe Budden]

I like. I like Houston, Atlanta, Vegas. Hey, pick an American city and appropriate them. New York, all of it. Any. Yeah.

[Ish]

Dip sack, Carolinas.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah, I learned.

[Erickson]

I learned that American Rivian Drake ain't bad neither. That's what I knew. A little calypso Drake ain't bad.

[Joe Budden]

I ain't going to hold you. Yeah, but even when he was doing that he got into interviews with his American voice, he was still being American. Now he is gone, he is out. He is Canadian bacon down.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I get it. After that battle, I would be too.

[Joe Budden]

I would go home. Yeah. Enough of America.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah, that's what. That's what the.

[Joe Budden]

Enough of America y' all got drink. No, he dissed America a bunch on that last album too. And American dudes and the did. Oh, you. You like those American guys like he done with America.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

That's what I'm saying.

[Erickson]

No, he not.

[Joe Budden]

I like America drinking Drake. The Drake. That didn't talk like this was fire. And this guy is cool, too. I'm not hating on Drake.

[Ish]

Yeah, he made a couple. I'm not hating on Drake in that tone, dog.

[Joe Budden]

If I'm. He's coming off. No, kid. Say what you want about it. It worked. It did.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Hell, yeah.

[Joe Budden]

Now he's right back with this. This will work. Cause miss him. Yeah.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

It's a great song.

[Joe Budden]

And you like a project being ready if you record it all the way through this. I know people say they're tired of hearing about the battle. We're not gonna. You haven't heard the end of the battle? No.

[Ish]

The album will definitely have some.

[Joe Budden]

It's you being naive if you think you've heard the end of this battle.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

But shouldn't we. Shouldn't we want to all hear the end of this battle? Like, is there anything left?

[Joe Budden]

If I was him, I would say, fuck y' all for that. Because I've been trying to hear the end of this battle for over a year. Y' all dragged it. Y' all forced it. I tried to go to Australia for the Super Bowl. They turned it on in the Australian pizza place. Everywhere I go. The Chinese joint in Toronto. Y' all sold out now. Y' all not like us fried rice. Like, I've been trying to say shut the fuck up about this battle. Y' all have dragged it. So now that it's my time to come back out and be Iceman, I'm frozen to all of this shit that I've been forced to watch. Don't tell me to shut the fuck up on my album. I'm tearing some of you niggas up and. And the rest of you niggas that got dissed when he was supposed to be dissing Kendrick. Boy, y' all are lucky that's what I thought last night, because this is the segment that's supposed to be for y'. All.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah, but that ain't thorough. Like. Like, if you win and you keep talking shit, I mean, you running up the score. I wanted to end, too.

[Joe Budden]

Yo, if he lost, he could have still came back. All of those names that shouldn't have been in.

[Ish]

In the disc in prime time.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The names that shouldn't have been there. Win or lose, after Kendrick, I'm coming to dust y' all off on this. And that just has a whole lot more flavor and it is more exciting hiding. He didn't do it like that. Which is why the result of the battles.

[Erickson]

I think he coming back for them. No. And I think that Based on what y' all saying. Because y' all are more as calculated as y' all say he is. He heard every other person talking. Everybody in the world turned their back on this, B. That was friends, that was fans, whatever the case may be. I heard y'. All. I saw what y'.

[Joe Budden]

All. There's a lot of people I saw.

[Erickson]

Can somebody. Somebody just say, yo, you lost? And that be. That's not turning your back. No, that's not. That's not all people were saying. Don't do that. No, that's not what we're gonna do. Wasn't just saying, yo, he just lost. And that's my opinion. No, Was on that. Said he got mopped up.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Said more than that. It was way more than that.

[Erickson]

I'm tired of him. He. To this boy, to that boy. Were saying way more than, yo, this guy's nice, but he lost the battle. Niggas were saying way more than that. So, look, I read something the other day because I was wondering about this whole. Iceman. Iceman. Chuck Liddell lost the championship fight and then came back for a rematch. It's round two, rematch in 05. And knocked out the person that beat him.

[Joe Budden]

We in conspiracy world.

[Erickson]

Yeah, it was an Iceman. That was a. I'm just saying. A hitman that was murdered. More than killing cancer, it was a bunch of different Icemen.

[Joe Budden]

If it's one dude that Drake ain't about to approach again in the backyard.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

He don't want round two.

[Joe Budden]

I don't know.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

What does that even look, he's going to send subs.

[Joe Budden]

I don't think he's done. I'm suing the wazoo off of these. That's what he do. I'mma show y' all bust off. Hey, the rap part of this is finished. Y' all ain't getting another round.

[Erickson]

I don't think so. I don't think so.

[Joe Budden]

It's lawyer time.

[Erickson]

I don't think so. I don't think so.

[Joe Budden]

Well, now the mother niggas are getting some subs on the Tys, man.

[Erickson]

No, I think Kendrick. I think Kendrick will get subs. I think them other niggas are getting straight shots. I'm not over y' all niggas.

[Joe Budden]

Nah, he done with Kendrick.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

He gotta be done with Kendrick.

[Joe Budden]

He's done with Kendrick.

[Ish]

Nah, it's gonna be subs.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

You can't be suing people in court and sending out new raps.

[Erickson]

Not suing Kendrick.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

You know what I'm saying, though?

[Erickson]

Not suing him.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

He's making A public statement that not like us was defamation.

[Erickson]

Okay. I'm saying he's saying that y' all put money behind the defamation to push it.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

What's the defamation?

[Joe Budden]

That's hip hop, not like us.

[Erickson]

I think y' all misjudged ego. Yeah. I think he thinks that I made some mis. Well, I think he knows I made some miscalculations. I made some mistakes. I underestimated this nigga, and I'm ready next time. Yeah, yeah. I think I'll do this right.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

And here's the other thing. There is no next time for Kendrick.

[Joe Budden]

If you.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Kendrick, do you step. You don't step back in the room with this.

[Erickson]

No.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

We got nothing to gain.

[Erickson]

I wouldn't. Depends on what he say, man. If that come out with three or four boppity bops and he's shooting your head off.

[Ish]

You late. You late to the party. Yeah, party's over.

[Joe Budden]

No, Kendrick. Kendrick done with this.

[Erickson]

Nas ain't reply back after whole drop. Blueprint, too.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah, it was no need.

[Erickson]

There's no need.

[Joe Budden]

It's over.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Or Super Atlanta.

[Joe Budden]

That.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

It was just over.

[Joe Budden]

It's over. Let me get back to this a little bit. I forgot we cut it off. What did I miss? Let's go.

[Erickson]

Let's go. I'm whipping around on like 600.

[Joe Budden]

Let's go.

[Mal]

Let's go.

[Joe Budden]

Let's go.

[Erickson]

You just better not ask for no favor.

[Joe Budden]

Let's go.

[Erickson]

Let's go.

[Joe Budden]

Let's go.

[Erickson]

It's love for my brothers and Deb to a traer.

[Joe Budden]

Let's go.

[Mal]

She might decide to say no to.

[Erickson]

Me now, but say yes to me later.

[Joe Budden]

Let's go. As I. As I listen to it, I. I grew a new appreciation for the let's go. Like, you got the 300 beat on. I. I started looking at it as he hyping himself versus and he's making something versus just doing some call and reply for the audience. Like, this beat is on loop in the studio. And I'm mad at y' all because I seen what y' all said.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

You can do this.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah, that get back out there. That let's go. Is Has a different meaning. What did I miss? But listen to it like that.

[Mal]

What did I miss?

[Joe Budden]

What did I miss? Let's go, let's go.

[Erickson]

I'm whipping around on like 600.

[Mal]

Let's go, let's go, let's go. You just better not ask for no favor.

[Joe Budden]

Let's go, let's go. Let's go. Is almost more powerful than. Than what he's saying she might decide.

[Erickson]

To say no to me now but.

[Joe Budden]

Say yes to me saying nothing Pass is all natty like Florida gator, let's go.

[Erickson]

You switch on the guys that supported a hater.

[Joe Budden]

Let's go.

[Erickson]

What's the give back for?

[Parks]

It's tbd.

[Joe Budden]

I look at this like a BTC.

[Erickson]

Could be down this week and I'm up next week.

[Mal]

I don't give a if you love me I don't give a if you.

[Erickson]

Like me ask me how did you feel? Can't say you didn't surprise me last time I look to my right.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Hold.

[Joe Budden]

Up now Mel Ford if you don't turn the up I'm listening to Mel Ford.

[Mal]

What did I miss?

[Joe Budden]

You didn't shout out Canada day the other day and now you sitting here with the this bop. Canadians have been waiting for this. Canadians have been waiting for this. Your bop. You sitting there looking cute. Let's go, let's go. Shut the fuck up. Let's go, let's go. You a legend for the six yeah. Let's get Makonan on the beat. Let's go, let's go. Let me soft enough to let's go, let's go, let's go Cuz now we talk to the hey. Let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go. Yeah.

[Mal]

Get punched in the face with some.

[Joe Budden]

TLC on the dead guys.

[Erickson]

Some tlc Cause my you gonna need a chili ice FAO Left eye high I'm back in your city tonight Walking.

[Joe Budden]

Around my head high I saw bro and the pop I would damp him and did Ryan gangster's headlong. There you go parks I like when he get makonnen on the beat I ain't gonna lie he's pulling on he's tugging on the equity of that he made hot him and 40 their whole style when the beat switch from hard to that. I like the contrast. Yeah, I'm a fan of contrast. I like the contrast. He ain't said shit this whole record to me but the let's go over this music.

[Ish]

Is this started dissing Lebron so?

[Joe Budden]

Well, no, I felt like I caught a straight.

[Ish]

I miss it. Which one?

[Joe Budden]

I mean, I couldn't think of who else had ice pack on the eye. Ross just got punched in his face.

[Erickson]

Oh, I ain't even peep that.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah, no, he's shady still and I'm kidding. I don't know. I don't know that. But that's why gangster city tonight Walking.

[Erickson]

Around my H, you gonna need A chilling get punched in the face of.

[Joe Budden]

Some TLC on the Dead guys.

[Mal]

Some tlc?

[Joe Budden]

Cause my, you gonna need a chili.

[Ish]

Ice N Go.

[Erickson]

Word play.

[Joe Budden]

It's just word play.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

It wasn't your left eye, was it?

[Erickson]

I was about to say if it.

[Joe Budden]

Was your left eye, a quadruple time.

[Ish]

Commonly the left eye from a right.

[Joe Budden]

You know what I mean?

[Mark Lamont Hill]

That's true.

[Joe Budden]

Let's go, let's go, let's go. Nobody cares until they know that type of timing for too long.

[Erickson]

Iceman, Tiffany, Bluestone right out of two wrong.

[Joe Budden]

That's hard. That's a hard line. I done made plenty right out of two wrongs. Let's go, let's go, let's go.

[Mal]

Yeah, yeah. Let's go.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah. Let's go, let's go. What did I miss? Besides everything? Oh, all right, listen, I'm done. The floor is open to my distinguished cast for anything y' all want to say. I think it's hard.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I like the regular.

[Mal]

I like.

[Joe Budden]

It's hard.

[Ish]

I like it too.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I like it too.

[Erickson]

I think it's a great pop out first.

[Ish]

Good.

[Erickson]

Nokia was, you know, on the party album. This is just. Even though it was just him, I think it's a great.

[Mal]

I. I want to get back to Nokia.

[Joe Budden]

Gonna be Iceman.

[Mal]

I want to get back into enjoying the record, man. I do see a lot of think pieces out there of they breaking down the record. I don't give a about breaking down the record. I care about the record. It's nice. It's a bop. You can go outside. You've been hearing it all weekend. Breaking down the record is just doing yourself a disservice because it doesn't matter. This shit gonna still go. Who gives a fuck?

[Ish]

That's just a hangover from the content creators during the battle looking to steal milk.

[Mal]

I mean, we gonna make money. I'm gonna make money off doing that.

[Joe Budden]

Fuck with y'. All.

[Mal]

Yeah, I'm making money.

[Joe Budden]

We making this money.

[Mal]

They criticizing and saying that. Yo, he's crying. He's not taking accountability. He's being a baby. This record doesn't have the sting because of his complaints on it. I don't agree with that. I feel like the record is fire. He came back in the studio. Studio. He did what we told him to do or we suggested. Yo, just go in the studio and make music. You know what I'm saying? And I with it.

[Erickson]

And I'm not even a fan of the Nokia song. I don't really like that song. But this song right Here, dope.

[Joe Budden]

Have you been outside when it came on?

[Erickson]

Yeah.

[Joe Budden]

With girls at the bingo game?

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah.

[Erickson]

I mean, if the girls did that. Don't make me like, wait.

[Joe Budden]

You was outside. That makes me like, was you outside with girls?

[Mal]

You did as wise.

[Erickson]

Yeah, I was outside with girls.

[Mal]

You did that as wise.

[Parks]

Well, do you mean that you were outside and girls were there or were you actually with.

[Joe Budden]

Oh, gear up, please.

[Ish]

You trying to set him up?

[Joe Budden]

Trying to jam him up.

[Parks]

He was trying to jam him up.

[Joe Budden]

What up? Yo, why you always.

[Mal]

Yo, you the jammy. Hop on. Yo.

[Joe Budden]

Always rap.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Because prosecution ass question speaking to the mic.

[Erickson]

They can put their button right there.

[Joe Budden]

Like stupid.

[Mal]

Let's go, let's go, let's go. I'm happy you like it, though. You like it even though you, you know, I know you have your artistry, critiques of it from an artist's perspective and what you expect from Drake or artists like that, but I can tell that you enjoy the record.

[Joe Budden]

I like Drake music when it's. When it's a bop.

[Mal]

Yeah, but it's two sides of you. It's the party side and there's your artist. You're very critical.

[Joe Budden]

People think I don't like Drake music because he's. He became a bitch over the last however many years. Easy. Look, I'm just saying. Because he presented himself differently in the post. What's that album post? Scorpion. Got it, I think. I'm not looking at albums up. But he's presented differently. I say it all the time. But it's not the time to shit on Drake. Like, I like Drake when the bitches.

[Mal]

So when do we get our artistry? Joe Budden, analyst on the record. Like, the shit that you able to dissect and, you know, when do we get that?

[Joe Budden]

I don't think there's. I don't here.

[Mal]

Cause you keep saying.

[Erickson]

He just said analyst.

[Joe Budden]

I just did it.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

You were just saying. We shouldn't be analyzing.

[Joe Budden]

Hold on.

[Mal]

I feel that way. Yeah, no. Yes, I did say that. But that doesn't mean I don't want to hear from his perspective.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Oh, just. Joe, I got you.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I did say that.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Like.

[Mal]

Cause he started off, yo, I'm showing it love. I like the record. It's cool. So he started off with love. But I do know there's another side where he's able to break down. Like, he's talking about this person. He did this. I think this is a little. That's what I'm talking about.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

But I'm saying I Think the more you do that, the less you gonna like the record.

[Joe Budden]

Gotcha. I don't have that.

[Ish]

Some records ain't for that.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I don't.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah, I don't have that here.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I think that.

[Joe Budden]

Like I said, like I said, I think the let's Go is the most powerful part of blended with the music for me. It's all about.

[Erickson]

And you did your little. And you did your little 300 music deep. They did Breakdown of the Beat.

[Mal]

But he also said he wasn't saying nothing in the record. But which wouldn't be true. So that to me now I wanna.

[Joe Budden]

Know, like why do you not saying.

[Mal]

Not like he's not saying nothing.

[Joe Budden]

It's very vague. It's the formula.

[Mal]

Got it.

[Joe Budden]

It's broad. I'm not being too specific on the first record from Iceman. That's all I'm saying. I'm not trying to.

[Erickson]

I just don't want him to continue.

[Mal]

You this okay got. I want you.

[Joe Budden]

Freeze.

[Erickson]

Leave it here. I don't want the next record. You still addressing the.

[Joe Budden]

That turn.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Oh, see that's what I'm worried about. I think that's just what he.

[Mal]

Oh no.

[Joe Budden]

We might get that. We shooting it.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I think that's going to be the whole album.

[Joe Budden]

What you talking about?

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I think that's going to be the.

[Joe Budden]

Whole album for when Iceman did. Like it won't be the whole album.

[Ish]

Because he's always going to sprinkle the down tempo R and B in there.

[Joe Budden]

Combat.

[Erickson]

You're talking about Spider man. The regular Iceman like this.

[Joe Budden]

Iceman like this. Who the is Ice with his hands.

[Erickson]

He come out his wrist.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

That's Spider.

[Mal]

Spider Man.

[Joe Budden]

When Iceman hit this, he froze. Was about to get frozen.

[Mal]

He froze your whole body.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah.

[Ish]

Or this one at the ground.

[Joe Budden]

Create a slot.

[Mal]

I don't want him to be Iceman from the Arnold Schwarzenegger Iceman. How bad that was? We don't want him to fall in that category because there's a couple that.

[Joe Budden]

Would be a good fit for him.

[Ish]

Because it was kind of emo.

[Joe Budden]

That was Mr. Freeze.

[Ish]

Mr.

[Joe Budden]

Freeze.

[Mal]

I don't want him to fall in.

[Joe Budden]

That one because that movie was horrible. We ain't with it. Mr.

[Ish]

Freeze is a little emo and I.

[Joe Budden]

Like how sassy Iceman is in concept. It's just a sassy. I see what y' all been saying, but I'm cold.

[Mal]

Let me freeze y'. All.

[Erickson]

No love my heart as cold to you.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah, yeah. I think that this villain arc for Drake could be extremely beneficial.

[Mal]

I think so as well.

[Erickson]

He got to kick, like. I think he got to kick ass. Yeah, he got all the way.

[Mal]

You can't.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

You can't.

[Joe Budden]

Well, that's why I think that it will be beneficial ultimately. Even the Drake fans from the loss of the battle. He in the studio mad. They got a target all the way down. No, it's some AC on in there and some hookah.

[Ish]

I mean, all the way down. It's cold.

[Joe Budden]

Okay.

[Erickson]

And some Y means what is leaning.

[Parks]

All the way into the look like.

[Joe Budden]

I don't think no y' all means.

[Erickson]

No y' all means in it. In trouble.

[Joe Budden]

I don't think it's Y' all means in there.

[Erickson]

Good point.

[Joe Budden]

Not. Not. Not today.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Focus.

[Joe Budden]

They gotta. They gotta go. Let's go, let's go.

[Parks]

He's saving his chi.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

What is.

[Parks]

What is leaning into the villain arc look like? Like, fully into it?

[Mark Lamont Hill]

That's the. That's the right question, man. That's what I'm scared of. I'll tell you what.

[Joe Budden]

Wait, what you say what? Saving his cheat. Man, shut your ass up.

[Mal]

Ancient Chinese secret shit.

[Joe Budden]

Man. What the.

[Parks]

I mean, you said he's like, there won't be any Yamins in there because he's nine, right? So he's like. He's saving his chi. Like boxers.

[Mal]

Yes, yes, yes, that's true.

[Erickson]

I think the villain arc for him.

[Joe Budden]

Let's go.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Freeze.

[Erickson]

Means no longer trying to be the.

[Mal]

Favorite, no longer trying to appease to the people. No longer trying to appease anybody.

[Erickson]

Trying to be the golden child to everybody. I was trying to be cool with the lady. I gave y' all all of this, and this is how y' all look at me now. Okay? So now it's fuck y'.

[Joe Budden]

All. And I'm a really.

[Erickson]

I was the biracial Canadian kid that looked up to y' all niggas.

[Parks]

Okay, then. Villain arc.

[Erickson]

You know what I'm saying? And I came down here. Well, fold that up right now. And now fold it.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Fold and See that. Fold that up right now. Shit is what I'm afraid of. To me, the villain arc on him is. I agree with y', all, but it's like, to me, the way it's gonna sound is a whole lot.

[Parks]

Lot of bitching I was gonna say.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

It's still gonna sound like whining and complaining and fake tough guy shit. That's what I don't want from him.

[Mal]

So it makes you a real thing.

[Joe Budden]

I think that that's fire, because when he does it and tries to really sound Like a mob boss is when I think it goes bad for him. Like all of that. I'll cut your finger off and send it to your mom. I'll have your tongue cut out your mouth. All of that shit is when you're trying to like, dog, stop. We've seen. Seen the grassy. But when it sound like this, you're an. We did see Degrassi. Well. And no, we didn't. But.

[Mal]

Why do we. Why do we use that as a. As a exam, as an example. People that did things in the past, Game did in the past. Look how he is like some that could do in there before they got on and still be tough and it'll be real.

[Joe Budden]

What did Game do?

[Mal]

The game show. TV show. It's a lot of things that niggas try to criticize him for being.

[Joe Budden]

I didn't think that that meant that he can't be tough.

[Mal]

People tried to use that. Okay, not you, but people did try to use that.

[Joe Budden]

I started it. I started it. He came back. But that was in the heat of the battle.

[Mal]

Why you tricking me with your words?

[Joe Budden]

I'm saying that was one incident 25 years ago or however long it was. Yeah. Hey, you did a game. You a. Yeah. But today, nah, you could still be very much tough and do a game show. Drake is not looked at. Drake is not looked at like that. From just one or two incidents. It's the whole background. You grew up. If you was acting at 9 and 10 and 11 or however old you were, then it's assumed that your Jewish family did all right. Was breeding you up. Since you weren't. There wasn't a. And even when Game did that, there was the story of what his brother was into.

[Mal]

That's a fact.

[Joe Budden]

What his niggas was into. That's a fact. You're right. So Drake never had that. So we assume it's Degrassi and Okay. Yeah. But then he gets in private school.

[Erickson]

But now you get you some bread and you surround yourself with niggas that do do that, and you really start moving that way, and I really could get your finger off. I really can get you up. Your tongue cut up. And I might have got a couple niggas fucked up, so I know I could do it. And I'm. And I'm extra braggadocious about it. I'm extra confident in what I can do.

[Joe Budden]

Cool. But niggas will still never look at you that way.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

That's all I'm saying.

[Joe Budden]

Even if all of that's true, niggas Are still not looking at you. That's true that way.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

That's why I said earlier that the we of it all is what bothers me. It's that we shit like there's them and there's you and you got influence, but you not that well.

[Mal]

Fold that up right now.

[Erickson]

Don't look away now.

[Joe Budden]

We'll see.

[Mal]

Don't get shot now.

[Joe Budden]

Wait, what?

[Mal]

Don't get shy now.

[Joe Budden]

Oh, boy.

[Erickson]

It's hard to tell a that it's it. Like even in our hoods where we grew up, it was that never had to fight nobody.

[Mal]

True always had that. All they had to do was point the finger.

[Erickson]

But you can't tell them that they not.

[Joe Budden]

But you saw them because they lived in the hood or lived a few.

[Erickson]

Blocks away saying, but they never them never had a fight. They never did nothing. But they had that would always fight for them. Or they had niggas that would put in work for them. You can't tell them niggas that they not super thorough.

[Joe Budden]

Yes.

[Erickson]

You get what I'm saying?

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah, I feel you.

[Joe Budden]

That just wouldn't be relevant to the point we making about Drake. Right.

[Erickson]

Cause he didn't have that wasn't his experience. Yeah, good point.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah.

[Joe Budden]

We with you on all that. And that's to the people that feel like that about him. Right? I'm back to the music.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I feel like that about him.

[Joe Budden]

Mark, did you get enough hate off? I feel like. I feel like we got too much love Drake love out there.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

No, I feel good. And again, I like the album. I mean, I like the record. Think it's gonna be a great album. It looks. I saw it was at the top of Spotify. Look like it's gonna land in the top ten.

[Erickson]

One.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

No, no, a Billboard one.

[Ish]

Yeah, I'm sure it will.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I heard it's gonna land number nine on the Billboard Hot 100. Is that not right?

[Erickson]

I just read earlier this morning it's looking to debut at one.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Okay, so I read something different. We'll find out.

[Erickson]

Yeah, we'll find out.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I read it landed right above Luther at number nine.

[Joe Budden]

About it debuting at one.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah, I read it's like number nine right above Luther at ten. But I could. I could could be. I could be wrong.

[Erickson]

But I could be wrong. We'll find out, cuz.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I thought it'd be interesting if it doesn't land at number one on the Billboard and what that might mean. And I saw a lot of chatter about that. Like, you know, if this thing ends up being number nine, number Eight. Does that mean that he's no longer the machine? Does that mean he's no longer an instant? Well, we.

[Mal]

But we already. We already realized that the machine is not really behind him anymore.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Right?

[Mal]

He's suing the machine that was behind him.

[Joe Budden]

No, he's still behind him.

[Erickson]

I mean, they ain't behind him, but they still want to be profitable. Just. He's correct. Yeah, they still want to be profitable.

[Mal]

Yeah, but it's a little.

[Erickson]

And you might want to. And you might want to get in the nigga's good graces with regards to the lawsuit.

[Mal]

No, but what if their ego was bigger than his and said, we want to set an example and show you. Which we've been trying to set. Nigga, if you keep this shit going, we're going to have you debut at number nine. Have the people talk about how you fell off. Like there's trickeries in this thing.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

And that's what it felt like. And I don't want to get into the conspiracy people piece of it, but this feels like a record that would have hit number one and it maybe should have. But Joe was saying a long time ago that when. When the industry decides that your time is up, your time is up, it doesn't mean you're completely out the game. But like, they can influence these.

[Erickson]

Can't be that no more.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah, you can't be that. And that's what this feels like. A little bit of still, like, stay in your place, like. Or we're letting you know what your place is. Yeah, I mean, and it just finished above Luther, which has been on the chart for 33 weeks, is crazy to me.

[Mal]

But yeah, I still. Real quick for me, I still didn't think that they thought that Nokia would.

[Joe Budden]

Do what it did.

[Erickson]

Week two is gonna be important.

[Joe Budden]

You know what I mean?

[Erickson]

That's what I wanna see. I don't care about this. I need to see what week two.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Do, like in terms of drop off.

[Erickson]

If it was up or down and how far that'll tell me how the label's looking at him and how he's being received. Even though I don't. It don't affect how I feel about the music, but the game that's being played. I can't wait to see what we about talk looks like.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

How awkward is it when you're suing Universal? You got. You're putting out this great music that, like you said, everybody wants to make a profit. What's that tension like between artists and label at that point? Like what? What again? Like do you. How hard do you promote it?

[Joe Budden]

Harder.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Do you. Do you hold back? Do you just say, pretend the lawsuit's not happening? Like, how do you. How would you negotiate that?

[Joe Budden]

I can't say because I've never seen anything like this in my adult, adult life. With an artist with this much leverage and power and talent still at this stage of his career, making this move against the lady.

[Erickson]

Does he have the leverage?

[Joe Budden]

Yeah.

[Erickson]

Why?

[Ish]

He has his discography.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah, yeah, but. And even if he don't, even if he don't.

[Erickson]

And I think when I drop, it's.

[Joe Budden]

300 and up and that's on a low ball. I'm lowballing it.

[Erickson]

And I was about to say take away. Kendrick music has been ass.

[Joe Budden]

I'm not gonna say say that because you have to search for music. It is great music out there.

[Erickson]

I know he's talking about mainstream. That's the point. I'm talking about. It's been a quiet outside of Kendrick Lamar for the last 13 months.

[Ish]

Well, this year, this calendar year, it's been bad.

[Erickson]

May we already in July.

[Joe Budden]

Jesus.

[Erickson]

You get what I'm saying? Like, yo, dawg, for the last year and change music, especially hip hop on a hip hoppy mainstream hip hop side. Who shined?

[Joe Budden]

Drake is Kevin Durant's dude. Like I may be 37, 38.

[Erickson]

I'm gonna put 27 points a game in the bucket when I walk in the gym.

[Joe Budden]

I'm a supermax. It's different. And that's. If you can do that, that's leverage.

[Erickson]

It's different because they pushed the button to do that. We saw that. What happened when he put his own music out, bro, that don't mean that. No, because that talent went with the button. Because y' all know more than this to me. But I'm just talking from a logical, rational standpoint. Standpoint. If the button was the button that could do it with anybody, don't you think it would have behooved them to do it with anybody? I'm not saying that we've been still gotta have been a music drought for 14 months. I'm saying when he put 100 gigs out, there was two records on there that I believe had they not been going through this would have shot up the charts. But we going through this, so we not touching them records. And they did absolutely nothing.

[Joe Budden]

But when he talking about no Face and no Face, I can't remember the name.

[Erickson]

I like the songs, but didn't they.

[Joe Budden]

Snatch them off something rhythm, right?

[Mark Lamont Hill]

No, you talking about after you talking about the other two.

[Ish]

Circadian, circadian rhythm, something.

[Erickson]

When he put the, the 100 gigs out, what happened? They were out for a little bit. I, I, I, I don't even know if they still streaming. I have no idea. But that's my.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

You talking about the two, you talking about the other two songs that we listen to.

[Erickson]

When he put the 100 gigs of content out, didn't Universal snatch it? No, they were. Then they went back and put two records. Well they put like three or four records on stream streaming.

[Ish]

They did.

[Erickson]

I don't know. And nothing happened.

[Ish]

They're still there. They're still there.

[Joe Budden]

Oh see. Yeah.

[Erickson]

And there's been no push behind it though. Which says you can be as talented as you want. If we not doing something on the back end promoting your to normal. Why can't you throwing you on this playlist over here. Because everything is streaming now. We're not putting you here. We're not putting you there. We're not putting you there. Your record won't make certain numbers or.

[Joe Budden]

Or, or why I can't say that. Drake didn't want to give that or.

[Erickson]

No, hold up a second.

[Joe Budden]

I want him to answer me like why? Why can't it say hey, I'm playing chess. I'm in the middle of litigation. I have these records that will never see the light of day. Let me just throw some shit out to see something and gain information versus for it to be ahead. Because I'm listening to you. And I agreed with that at some point and I still agree with some parts of it. But Drake got enough money and resources to make a record like no. No Face and Circadian Rhythm do more than what it did.

[Erickson]

True. So I didn't know that.

[Joe Budden]

So I'm gonna assume that.

[Erickson]

But how I know he has all the money in the world but again the labels control.

[Joe Budden]

He got power too. It ain't just money. It ain't just money. Drake name is coming up at the Illuminati meeting.

[Erickson]

I would agree with that. No, listen with a serious face.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah.

[Erickson]

Not just that. I didn't even know those songs were still out. I thought when they snatched 100 gigs those songs disappeared so the masses might not know that those songs around. But that's what I'm saying. You saying that when they push the buttons don't know what's out. Cool. Because the masses go and click playlists. So that means you're purposefully suppressing my. Because if. Let's just take it from any artist. Mark is Drake. So we might Give Mark the Plus 5 promo. ICE is just one of our. Our regular tier acts. We might give him the Plus 3 promo. We didn't even get the Plus 3 for those songs.

[Joe Budden]

And that might. And that's a great point. And that may have been his point in releasing them again. Yo, in the audience, we just throwing. We don't know nothing about nothing but that. What a. What a great point.

[Ish]

I also think that, I mean, even like the album covers are just the default iPhone little wave thing. So clearly it was even from his side. It was not intended to be pushed.

[Erickson]

No effort.

[Ish]

Yeah, these were throw throwouts.

[Joe Budden]

To not even put energy into doing videos yourself.

[Ish]

Artwork yourself.

[Erickson]

That tells you that if he's making.

[Joe Budden]

The argument and he did a video. If he's making a. Oh, no, no. He said.

[Erickson]

He said to not put energy into doing artwork or videos. I'm like, they did a no Face video that he dropped.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah, but slow down, down, because we get lost in words today. These rich artists got the little bum with the camera following them around and is going to edit as they have their charcuterie board. Yeah. And that's gonna be their video versus video a production.

[Ish]

So like the Nokia video.

[Joe Budden]

Yes, that's what I'm saying. So, yes, he had a video, but it wasn't a video.

[Erickson]

And to Joe's point, yo, I throw these two songs out. I might throw his whatever out just to test the water and see if the public is going to receive me in a manner that I thought and they might not have. So let me go on the tuck for another three or four months.

[Joe Budden]

He in the suit saying, hey, I've been suppressed while they boosted Kendrick, so why not put out songs to show that they not performing like my songs normally perform? We don't know.

[Erickson]

No point.

[Joe Budden]

But people with ears think that no face and the circadian rhythm, it's fire. Yeah, a couple of records is fine.

[Erickson]

And another time, those records are number one.

[Joe Budden]

Listen, everybody was up in arms about that shit that was playing in the truck. Supermax, Supermax.

[Ish]

It was hard to hear from me, so I don't want to judge it.

[Mal]

Yeah, I didn't hear it.

[Joe Budden]

Find the bad audio. He was in his. He was in his time stamp bag, which even that kind of has a little formula to it. Like, once he tell me who he was at dinner with or who he was having tea with and what they was talking about is up for you niggas. Who the hell is this calling me? Dub for you. Yeah, once he. I was talking with Taylor and she was telling Me. She had a vision. I was feeling down, but Taylor told me that I'm the biggest thing in Toronto and these niggas could suck my dick. Like, once he does. Me and Erica were talking in the living room. I had the tea, she had the peppermint. Like, what did that happen? It's gonna be on for you niggas. And stupid me, I thought he was talking about. I thought he was talking about Taylor Swift until Taylor Rooks said, hey, it was me. And I was like, oh, now that changes this entirely. You was talking to Taylor Rooks over some tea, nigga, and she told you that you was the man in Toronto.

[Erickson]

All these niggas could suck your dick.

[Joe Budden]

That's the Joe Freak version of that. She didn't really say that, but she said I was talking to Taylor and it was getting deep. She told me I was a national treasure in my hood. We got to find the video. I'm just. I'm just. Don't look at me.

[Mal]

Say it.

[Joe Budden]

He was saying Taylor was in his ear saying some. I don't have Taylor Brooks, girl.

[Erickson]

Somebody can say the weather changed and I wouldn't notice. The company I keep is getting smaller while my other companies are all growing and overflowing. Family only feels like a riddle to affiliates that thought that they would stay because they played the middle. Losing all these friends really got to me. I was talking to Tail Drinks and it was getting me not to handle this pressure. And city of the national treasure.

[Mal]

That's what she said to me.

[Erickson]

Only time put me in a box is with red leather.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah, I heard enough. Me too. You can cut that off.

[Erickson]

I don't know what you talking about.

[Joe Budden]

He said, I've been so busy, you.

[Erickson]

Could tell me the weather change, I wouldn't even notice.

[Joe Budden]

Even notice.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

And you fishing Ass love.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah.

[Erickson]

And all you and you that played the middle and thought that y' all was safe. Y' all ain't safe.

[Joe Budden]

I was talking. You would. Y'. All. Y' all made him go and text Taylor. Taylor just got an Amazon deal. Taylor busy as hell. I don't text Taylor. Y' all mean that. Text Taylor to have a talk about the. The friend scene. Launch. Y' all about to die. You is about to die. Except Kendrick. All of y' all are. Russell. Hey. Hey, what's my man name? Don't like me sometime D1. Hey, hey. Everybody getting it. Shout out to D. Watson. Yo, cuz, you know Taylor didn't say nothing to him that was going to save no battery. Battery. You are the best they are wrong. Yo, when you're talking to a baddie, one on one after 10pm in the car, charged all the way up and you feeling bad. What?

[Erickson]

Over tea?

[Joe Budden]

Y' all niggas are going to die thanks to Taylor Rooks.

[Mal]

That battery is super max.

[Joe Budden]

Battery? What super battery? Y' all hear what the athlete say when Taylor Rooks put the mic in front of him? Oh, man, whatever.

[Ish]

Crazy.

[Joe Budden]

The athletes say they about to win seven championships in the next five years. Best L. She made the Thompson twins smile. You know them athletic freak ass don't smile. Them smiled had a sense of humor. Yeah, you know Taylor. Girl, girl, you know why you look quiet? She get a why you look quiet?

[Parks]

You told me to shut the up double teeth out of me with all my opinions.

[Joe Budden]

Mel. No, that was in the first that's been over, girl. That was just in that Bohemian Rhapsody moment. I always want to hear from you when Debo leave and never want you.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

To be talking again.

[Joe Budden]

Don't ever suppress your voice up here. Your voice is super important and we always need to hear it, okay? And don't you ever forget that. Honestly.

[Mal]

Please don't. You're a national treasure up here.

[Parks]

Thank you. We were just spilling some tea couple seconds ago, but.

[Mal]

Oh yeah, you want to spill tea while we do?

[Parks]

I just questions. No, I have questions.

[Erickson]

Expensive tea.

[Ish]

Yeah, it is.

[Joe Budden]

Who spilled it?

[Parks]

I'll keep that to myself.

[Mal]

What was the question though, man?

[Joe Budden]

Did the audience know who the messy bitch up is? The audience know? It's not even a secret.

[Parks]

Mark, I was going to ask you though. Like what? Which Drake do you like? Like when he raps, what is it that you want to hear from him if it's not.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Well, we just overheard in that truck. I love it. I love that Drake. I love Drake when he's rapping. I, I just like when he's just spitting. I, I, I don't like emo Drake. I don't like singing Drake. I can do a little Drake. I can deal with some emo Drake in the in doses in the bars, but any, anything.

[Joe Budden]

When did you gain this opinion? I need to know the year.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I've, I've always felt like that. But everything after. What's that? I'm gonna have to take care of?

[Parks]

News.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

No, nothing was the same after. Nothing was the same. It just felt like I felt a turn where the music was getting more and more self indulgent and more and more, I hate to use this word, but narcissistic. And it was like there's a sincerity Gaslighty. Yeah, Gaslighty. All that. You know, there is, like, a sincerity in Drake's raps that I used to love. Like, when you listen to, like, a song like look what yout've Done, right, where he's rapping, it's still. I mean, there's emotion, but it feels honest and vulnerable. That feels different to me than the later albums where it's like, I'm my boss and the whole world's against me, and I have all these fake friends.

[Joe Budden]

Have a billion dollars, but my boss wasn't. Nothing was the same.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

It was. But there was some sensation.

[Joe Budden]

This is. Hold up now. Let's not get Crazy is not that inspiring. Oh, whoa. Let's not get crazy. Let's not get crazy for early retirement. Hold up. I know he lost the B battle.

[Erickson]

Mouth.

[Joe Budden]

I am the one you should worry about. Listen, I just want to be clear of what album we talking about. Boy.

[Erickson]

This my number one.

[Joe Budden]

All right? Yeah. Coming off the last record.

[Erickson]

I'm getting 20 million off the record.

[Joe Budden]

Just.

[Erickson]

That's a record.

[Joe Budden]

This ain't Mob Ties Drake yet. Oh, my God. Jesus, Mark. No, you talking about Scorpion. You talking about Scorpion. You might talk about.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

You might be right, Scorpion. Yeah, you might be right.

[Joe Budden]

You talking about score. Because that's when it was mob life. I'll shoot it up. I'll kill y'. All. I'll hog tie you, kidnap you. It was that. And he loses me there, too.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah, yeah.

[Joe Budden]

You might be done with that, but.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

This album, I got it.

[Erickson]

So somewhere between I'm sober and I'm lifted Somewhere between a mistress and commitment.

[Joe Budden]

But I stay down Nothing really changed.

[Mal]

But still they look at me away.

[Erickson]

Now one more time Can I say what more can I say? You might feel like nothing was the.

[Mal]

Same I still been drinking on the love.

[Joe Budden]

Stop playing with that man. Mark, you a had a screw face when this came on. It's not possible. I was outside for this run. I was there for this run. It wasn't too many mad at this boy. When this was out. Kendrick, a lot of up.

[Erickson]

He got it done.

[Joe Budden]

This run, this album, man.

[Erickson]

I know.

[Joe Budden]

And this was still fire.

[Erickson]

Because views.

[Joe Budden]

Came after this, right? Yes. That was only stupid ass Joe Button.

[Erickson]

Yeah, I hated you for that, bro. I still remember the group.

[Ish]

I still don't love that album.

[Erickson]

I love that. That's top.

[Parks]

Wait, so wait, you disagreed with his.

[Joe Budden]

Hell, yeah. Everybody did. Everybody did. It was only me. But no, it wasn't on me on no album.

[Erickson]

And then ran with it because he's him and they follow whatever the he say.

[Joe Budden]

I wasn't with all that Caribbean shit. I ain't have money to flip lie. You ain't have to be with it.

[Parks]

Wait, so now that you're sophisticated, you appreciate it now?

[Joe Budden]

Oh, no. That's one of the greatest albums I've made. One of the greatest albums I made. But he was being too cookie cutter. It was, you know what did it for me? That line, oh, why we got to be a cheesecake arguing all the time? You know, that's my favorite restaurant. It's like, yo, dog. It felt like Chad GPT was writing these. These rhymes. And as a rapper, because I was an active rapper at the time, I hold the bar higher for the best rapper. It's just he wasn't on rapping vibes. He was giving us different vibes. And those vibes were absolutely fire. But I was still looking for fire raps.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

And that's what I'm saying. Sometimes this could be a bop. And I still. I was still looking for fire rap.

[Joe Budden]

But in hindsight. Oh, okay. All right. Those bops.

[Erickson]

The bops. It's fire. Wraps on Views.

[Ish]

I'll have to go try again.

[Joe Budden]

Far and few.

[Ish]

For me, it was all go.

[Erickson]

Just do me a favor.

[Ish]

I remember the Caribbean joints, which I loved.

[Erickson]

And then I remember for a lot.

[Ish]

Of slow R and B, which I.

[Joe Budden]

Do not like, Listen.

[Erickson]

I went and listened to. To Pimple Butterfly again for y'.

[Joe Budden]

All.

[Erickson]

Go listen to Views again.

[Joe Budden]

I will. All right, Let me see what's up. Oh, yeah, and that bum ass intro. Are you kidding me? Hell, no.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Go back and look at views.

[Joe Budden]

Oh, no, that's not the intro. Where is that Views intro?

[Erickson]

The one you didn't. That's what turned a six to a nine. You ain't like that.

[Joe Budden]

No, but the intro, too. This is when he was all family.

[Erickson]

Close.

[Joe Budden]

Close. Yes. Are you nuts, dog? No, no. You gotta be tripping. I thought Drake was suicidal on this run. Says Joe Button, right? Yes.

[Parks]

You know what I'm saying?

[Joe Budden]

The album cover, he sit on top of the thing, reflecting at the fuse. I'm sitting. If you see somebody sitting up here, you should call the police. What are you talking about? If you driving on the bridge and somebody sitting there, you ain't going to say, oh, money reflecting. You call it wallow. You calling wallow. I don't want to hear that. And then the album start like this. Look, no, for real, you're. I wanted to call acs, somebody Dias.

[Mal]

Acs, all of my.

[Joe Budden]

Let's just Be friends.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Come on.

[Joe Budden]

Stop it. Yo. You're bugging.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

You can't sell me.

[Joe Budden]

Don't. No, no. It's hard music. I was worried about him. Guess I should have tried to keep my family close. And the album was called Views. I definitely thought he was about to.

[Parks]

He was catching a view from sitting up there. That's a CN tower. It's a beautiful view.

[Joe Budden]

Why you left? She had why you left.

[Erickson]

Yo, if she would have had that C.N. what? What's the tower C.N.

[Parks]

The C.N. tower.

[Erickson]

Of that I would have been seeing something different. And I'd have been seeing more Canada.

[Parks]

You was calling me Sorry.

[Joe Budden]

Oh, what dance you was doing when this was out?

[Mal]

Turn that up. Watch your mama controller.

[Parks]

I was bogling or something.

[Mal]

Oh, you wasn't. Stop it, man. My just. My life just changed.

[Joe Budden]

You sure know how to get soft control controller.

[Mal]

I still a hear that red though.

[Joe Budden]

Told you.

[Mal]

I still ain't hear his.

[Erickson]

Rant but I already went crazy Adderall Joe.

[Joe Budden]

She sure know how to get mis.

[Mal]

That be like this that like.

[Erickson]

At all won't have my name.

[Mal]

Girl, just go home girl.

[Joe Budden]

Pick these baddies up to talk about. Oh God.

[Mal]

You got.

[Joe Budden]

I told I was all right.

[Mal]

You gotta tell her. Just go home.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

It's good.

[Joe Budden]

I'm good. Close the door behind you.

[Mal]

Matter of fact, don't lock it.

[Joe Budden]

I lock it.

[Mal]

I lock it. My dog will lock it. Hey, you're right. Ruffy.

[Joe Budden]

Take Daisy with you too, gang.

[Erickson]

Flip flops.

[Joe Budden]

Mel, you are the greatest. Yo. Stupid.

[Mal]

You know what time it is, yo?

[Joe Budden]

All right, I guess it's time for my favorite part of the show. Prize pick. Alright. Prizepix is the best place to turn your sports knowledge into real cash money. With millions of members, Prizepix has made daily fantasy sports accessible to all. Really easy and simple to play. All you have to do is pick more or less on at least two players. Look at their projected stat line for your chance to win. Now up to 2,000 times your cash. And though basketball season may be over, the action never stops on prize picks because baseball is just heating up, y'. All. Step up to the plate with prize picks and add your favorite baseball players to your lineup. Whether it's strikeouts, RBIs or first inning runs, make your call with more or less and play for your shot to win up to 2000 times your cash. Only with prize picks now are Joe and Ish picks of the week. We're gonna go with Mike Trout for more than six fantasy score. Give us Austin Wells for more than three Fantasy Score, give us Jose Altuve for more than six. Fantasy Score and give us Caitlin Clark for more than eight and a half assists. Please. If you download the app right this second and use promo code JBP, you get $50 instantly when you play your first $5 lineup. Again, for the people in the back, download prize picks right this second and use promo code JBP and get $50 instantly when you play your first $5 lineup. So good luck to all participants out there and run your game. All right? Speaking of running game. Essence Fest.

[Erickson]

That was a good one.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Wow.

[Joe Budden]

That was a good one.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Wow.

[Joe Budden]

Tossing the mark.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Essence Fest, as you know, is an annual event in our culture, in our community. It's a dope event. I love Essence Fest for what it means, but this year was a little rough.

[Joe Budden]

What happened? Not much.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

It was sparsely attended. I think when I looked in the stands, maybe 60% of the seats were empty.

[Erickson]

Who were the headliners?

[Mark Lamont Hill]

You had Patti LaBelle was there. Jasmine Sullivan was there. Lauren was the head headliner at the end.

[Joe Budden]

Stephanie Mills.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Stephanie Mills was there. And we're gonna talk about her because she just wrote an open letter to ESSENCE Fest about.

[Joe Budden]

And it was bad.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

It was rough.

[Parks]

Gorilla was one of the main performers.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah, Gorilla was there. There was. There was. There was some great acts. It wasn't a lack of acts, but. But it just wasn't there. The vibe in New Orleans was dope, as always, because there's so many people descending down there, especially black women.

[Erickson]

It's the whole weekend, right?

[Mark Lamont Hill]

It's the whole weekend.

[Erickson]

It's not like one day.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

No, it's the whole weekend. You go down there, there's events, there's panels, there's conc. Concerts. It's the whole thing. And ESSENCE Fest is fire. I love Essence Fest. It's just this year, it just wasn't well attended and it wasn't well managed. You know, the headline went out and I gotta correct the Lauryn Hill slander. Cause people, you know, the headlines kept saying, lauryn Hill show doesn't end to three in the morning. Lauryn Hill was playing of 300 people. It was true, but it wasn't her fault. That's why the headline was tricky. It talked about how late she performed, but she didn't arrive late. Lauren was on time. Everything was running for the event.

[Joe Budden]

Ran late.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

The event. Well, I'll say when it was time to start. Laura was there when he was ready for. Ron Eisley was up, like three hours past his bedtime. He didn't hit the stage till like 11 o' clock PM. Everything was 40 when Ron Eisley hit the stage. The act before him was running 45 minutes past the time Ryan Ozzy was supposed to have ended. Like, that's how late it was.

[Erickson]

Why it started so late?

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Just that I can't say. But from what, nigga? Yeah, I guess I can say. Turns out I can't.

[Parks]

There's been a lot of changes.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Sorry, sorry.

[Joe Budden]

Old habits.

[Parks]

There's a lot of. There's been a lot of changes to, like, the infrastructure of, you know, people who were responsible for running the fest. And it's just unfortunately they ran into a lot of inefficiency.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah, a lot. Like Maxwell, for example, who also was another one of the big acts. He was supposed to start his performance at 11:15. He took the stage at basically 1am, 12:55am that's crazy.

[Erickson]

So I was behind schedule.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Exactly. So Lauren didn't hit the stage. Lauren set was supposed to start at like 2. Oh, I mean, Maxwell. Lauren arrived on stage at 231. Like, they took about 20 minutes to get a band together, do the setup. She didn't hit the stage till 231. Nobody was there. Her thing ended at 3:37.

[Ish]

That's horrible. For a concert or a festival that's primarily aimed at an older generation. You know what I mean?

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Like, it's an uncle and auntie joint. It ain't. It's not even a BET Award weekend, which is for, like, the generation.

[Joe Budden]

And it's the event that the uncles and aunties feel like they can get cute for now. You got me here all night in the shoes that hurt my feet.

[Parks]

Yeah. It's also the jewel in the crown. It's the one that. It's the thing that funds the magazine.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yes. Stephanie Mills wrote. I'm not gonna read the whole letter, but she wrote an open letter to the ESSENCE organizers. She's been writing to share my feedback. I remain grateful. All the yadda yadda yaddas. But she said the challenges I encountered were multifaceted and in my view, indicative of broader organizational shortcomings. The schedule and time management were severely lacking, creating a chaotic and stressful environment backstage. The disorganization cascaded onto the stage, impacting the flow of the event and ultimately diminishing the quality of the performances. And she said basically, these are not isolated instances beyond the logistics, the technical difficulties, all of that. She was just saying it's an overall issue. I don't love that. She did.

[Joe Budden]

You know Stephanie Mills.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah, fair enough. Yeah. You know. Yeah. I mean, I'm not surprised that she.

[Joe Budden]

Read very Stephanie Mills. Yo, for sure. Every paragraph said the same shit. Yo, these niggas fucked up. They fucked tards below standard. Get it?

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Right, right.

[Joe Budden]

In a very professional way.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I just wonder what that letter would have meant behind, you know, backstage or behind the scenes or whatever.

[Erickson]

But sometimes you gotta do it publicly.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Sometimes. Sometimes. As I said, I'm not sure if I love it. You know what I mean? ESSENCE has a long history of doing it. Right. So I feel like, although this year.

[Erickson]

Was terrible, but she said it's been new people.

[Parks]

Yeah. No, and the new regime is extremely new. Like as late as. Like last year, year before. It was run very efficiently, so.

[Erickson]

Or, you know, our performances might have been lackluster. So we don't want to take the brunt for that. We want to put it out there like, yo, I rushed through my set or I gave you a half ass set because we went on two hours late.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah, I feel that.

[Erickson]

I don't want it to be a reflection on me. It was them.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

The thing is, I will say most. And I. I saw pieces of. Because they didn't do the whole full stream like they used to, which is another thing that I thought was interesting. Everything I saw looked good. Lauren set, which was. Which was the headline set, was a dope set as well. She even took some requests from the crowd, which she could hear because only like 300 people there. So. No, I'm not even being funny.

[Erickson]

No, I heard it was dope. But they showed the seating and it was empty.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Somebody literally shouted out, yo, do you gotta find peace of mind? And she was like, all right, we didn't practice that, but I'll do it. And she did it. She did tell him. And she was at the end of the set, she was like. She was looking to one of the fans, like, I had to look at you for the lyrics. Cause I couldn't remember them. Cause like. But she was trying to engage her audience at 3:30am Very professional.

[Joe Budden]

That's very dope.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

That's what I'm saying.

[Erickson]

And that leaves. Honestly, that makes it a more intimate show. Even if it's a big venue or something. Those fans that was there, they remember that than just the show where they just ran through your normal. It was 3:00' clock in the morning for me. Had basically a one on with Lauryn.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Hill, which is crazy. The other thing I want to add is it's not just essence. I want to talk about the essence in a minute. But it's not just essence, the Jazz festival. A couple of annual jazz festivals have been down in attendance. Like a lot of big black festivals are down now. And what I'm wondering is maybe we should stop trying to have these things every year. Maybe this needs to be every two year thing, every four year thing.

[Parks]

Why? Nobody says the same thing. I mean. I mean, there's got attendance. Being down is one thing, but we gotta think about the reasons as to why.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Talk to me about that.

[Erickson]

Yeah.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

What do you think?

[Erickson]

Niggas is fucked up. Money is down for people, bro. This is every.

[Joe Budden]

It ain't just Jazz festival.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

That's another reason to do it every other year, dog.

[Erickson]

We talked about Summer jam going from MetLife to Arena. You know what I'm saying? Everybody's down.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I see. So then what's it. What do we do here?

[Erickson]

Consolidate.

[Joe Budden]

I don't feel like that's the. I don't. Nah, I feel like. Like that's lazy.

[Erickson]

I heard people.

[Joe Budden]

I feel like that's lazy.

[Erickson]

Some people said the Essence Festival was down because they started to get advertising dollars from Target.

[Parks]

No, see, that's what's incorrect. So the CEO of. So, no. Okay, all right, finish.

[Joe Budden]

Go ahead. No, no, but if you.

[Erickson]

You got it.

[Parks]

No, go ahead.

[Mal]

No, no, that's all right. Yeah, finish.

[Erickson]

What you say?

[Parks]

I was just going to say because I. There was a lot of criticism. Do finish.

[Joe Budden]

No, I'm sorry. I'm laughing at that flip. But go ahead. Go ahead. Somebody, please, Come on, please.

[Parks]

Okay. There was a lot of criticism in regards to Essence magazine, their main sponsor, being Target, because of the boycott. That is still in effect. But the issue with that is Carolyn Wanga is the CEO of Essence, and she used to be head of DEI at Target.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Fifteen years.

[Parks]

Exactly. And so when you have a contract with, you know, with an organization like Target, they have been a long running sponsor. This is pre boycott. This is pre everything. You can't just get out of that contract just because of, you know, political issues or whatever the case is. You know what I'm saying? And then she was also kind of responsible for bringing Target into black communities and pairing, you know, I guess getting more. What?

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I'm not laughing at you. Everything you're saying is 100%. I was just thinking about all the black people I know who support Constance and don't give a damn who the sponsor is. I'm thinking of all the uncles that go to the Newport Jazz Festival. They've been killing us for like 30 years. Tavis Smiley's events Sponsored by Wells Fargo.

[Parks]

I'm just thinking selective outreach.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I'm not sold.

[Joe Budden]

That's how they get in when we boycott.

[Erickson]

But not just that. When you have Tamika Mallory and you have other people come prior to the actual Essence Festival start pointing out that we're not going this year because of these things, that is influence. They are influential people and it could potentially be right and it could potentially turn.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I'm just not sold that that's why black people didn't go.

[Erickson]

I'm saying maybe, maybe not. I'm just giving you an example.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I just ain't never met a person that said I'm not going. Cuz Target is a sponsor. I. I don't know if any black person that would go to that.

[Joe Budden]

That's not the reason why. That ain't the reason why. That's just, that's just an additive. Something that we noticed while we was mad.

[Erickson]

I ain't met a black person that was really boycotting Target.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

That's the other thing.

[Erickson]

No, I'm talking about that I've met. There's a lot I've agreeing with, heard people say it. There's a lot of people and I ran into them people in Target.

[Joe Budden]

What you doing here?

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Just making sure all ain't here.

[Erickson]

That's your man.

[Joe Budden]

I know you know about it.

[Ish]

Free.

[Erickson]

Free on Target yesterday, baby.

[Joe Budden]

But go ahead. I know, listen, I know you was.

[Erickson]

I sure was.

[Mal]

The numbers bought it.

[Erickson]

All their numbers say something different.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I don't doubt the numbers.

[Erickson]

The numbers are saying something drastically different.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

But I'm just wondering if the people who would boycott Target, which is probably a more educated middle class audience, which I guess is Essence or is the Essence Festival. That's a fair point.

[Erickson]

That makes sense. College educated, 40 something year olds going down.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I guess, I just don't know.

[Erickson]

You really want to talk about what the.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

No, no. I just don't know. None of them like you saying that's my demo.

[Erickson]

No.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah, it's cool.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I'm missing it.

[Joe Budden]

Nah, I'll tell you later. Okay. That's great for a part, you know.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

So what's the reason, Joe, break it down for us. I feel like you, you a smooth have the answer.

[Joe Budden]

I don't have the answer, but I feel like whatever answer I'm about to say you familiar. But this is good what you're doing. You are smooth. Mark is some.

[Mal]

He is. But I'm trying, you know me.

[Joe Budden]

Because the conversation is about this Kenyan lady alienating black Americans.

[Mal]

Okay.

[Joe Budden]

And Essence Festival being some Black American since 92 or whenever the. It was.

[Mal]

What?

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yes.

[Erickson]

Who's a Kenyan.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah.

[Parks]

Yes. Yeah. But I think that it's missing.

[Joe Budden]

So she got all of these flags everywhere, all these other things. That's cool. Look at Mark. Look at Mark. So she got all these flags everywhere. You know, I'm bad at geography, so I don't know, but I know the flags. Want to see them? So it's everything except for black Americans. Just a black American. Shit. They say the Texans town, the. The feeling in the town is you've alienated the black businesses, local black businesses that have contributed to the curation of ESSENCE Fest forever. I know when I went in 03 and 04 and around that whole hood, a big part of that was the local businesses. So now you done shut them out the game. All right, cool. Now you got this target shit going on while there's a boycott. You are. Are not organized. Maybe you don't have your pulse on you. Things to really get people out here. I don't think it's. People don't have money. I don't think it's. I don't think it's nothing. But you are. The soul is gone. The soul is gone. Sometimes it's okay to say when you see it. I know it's sensitive, but the soul is gone.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

And I think that's the point. For me, it's less about her heritage.

[Joe Budden]

Oh, yeah. I wasn't putting that on.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I know you're not.

[Joe Budden]

I wasn't doing that.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

But it's. But that is what people are saying. You know, all the. All the life. People online are saying, you know, shit, she's not of Negro lineage, slave lineage, and therefore. But it's not that. I think that's beside the point. I think it's what you're getting at, which is there's fewer black content creators involved, fewer black designers, fewer black artists on the. On the organizational side and the design side. I don't know if that's the reason, but that's definitely true, that there's less of that happening right now, and a lot of people are concerned about that. Again, I don't know if that makes people not show. It could just be money like y' all said. It could just be that people ain't got the money they used to. That, to me, is always the first answer on these kinds of things.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah. But ESSENCE Fest don't seem to have the money that they want to add. But they keep talking about the people.

[Erickson]

The black people or the people that potentially always go to essence. They don't know who's pulling the puppet strings behind closed doors. Yeah, the CEO or whoever the fuck the CEO is, is really not of their concern like that.

[Joe Budden]

No.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

But I think they're saying for the artist, I think they're saying that she's. That part of what made ESSENCE successful was engaging a local business, getting people involved, which helped generate. Generate publicity, marketing and bringing people into the stands. I just.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah, I don't know when that stops happening, then you're going to feel that.

[Erickson]

Maybe locally, but most. A lot of the people coming from essence, they're coming from near and far. You got people coming from California. You got people. My man and them used to go from Jersey, 30 deep down there, you know what I'm saying? They don't necessarily know that the. The CEO is not allocating the marketing dollars accordingly. Know that Mary J. Blige is performing in this person's performing.

[Joe Budden]

They may not. They may not. They may not know offhand or that may not be their focus, but they do know, like weeks before, Weeks before Essence Fest. No. Do all of those people that hopped in trucks, hit the road, bought flights, the dope boys that word hit, hit the hood and it was the talk for a little while. There is zero Essence Fest talk. And it tripled happened.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Honestly, to us, that's not just Essence Fest.

[Erickson]

That's what I'm saying.

[Mal]

Parks can't.

[Erickson]

I don't want to keep going back, but when Summer Jam happened, we sat and was like, that was today.

[Joe Budden]

I don't.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

But I don't.

[Joe Budden]

I think that's festivals. I think. No, no, no, no, no, no. We can't do that. We can't do that.

[Erickson]

I'm listening.

[Joe Budden]

Hot 97 is a private owned radio station. The conversation we are trying to have, right, there's no lack of attendance. Carnival. Like I want to get back to black. I don't want to take it to comparing it to the white.

[Erickson]

I'm just saying the.

[Joe Budden]

That we. There's no lack of understanding about.

[Mal]

I think he's talking about the lack of promotion and the lack.

[Erickson]

The lack of talking about.

[Mal]

Talking about.

[Erickson]

Used to talk about going to.

[Mal]

Yeah, that's what he's talking about.

[Erickson]

ESSENCE Fest was talking about going.

[Joe Budden]

What I'm saying though is it's a bad comp to use Summer Jam in them because we need to use black events. Okay. But because black people know how the word get around.

[Mal]

I got what you said about something.

[Erickson]

Black people Carnival attendance might be low too. We don't know.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

No, I think he said it's not carnival attendance.

[Joe Budden]

And that's not.

[Erickson]

No, I don't know.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I don't know.

[Erickson]

Cuz they might used to get 200,000, maybe they only get 100,000 now. So you can't really gauge it unless you're an active participant There.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

See, I don't know enough to like.

[Erickson]

I don't know enough either.

[Joe Budden]

I feel confident in saying that. It's not.

[Erickson]

Maybe not, I don't know.

[Joe Budden]

And it's not to the point where it makes it back to your block.

[Mal]

But to freeze his point, Joe, what do you think the issue would be if there is lack of promotion?

[Joe Budden]

You didn't even see a streamer, dear. Like, what are y' all talking about? We in 2025.

[Mal]

Got it. So you try. They not. They're not in touch with what's going on now.

[Joe Budden]

They don't know what the fuck is going on because who is in charge?

[Mal]

I got what you say.

[Joe Budden]

We ain't up there.

[Mal]

But you know, some people, when they, when they like to.

[Joe Budden]

You laugh and make a face, but when they call and say what the budget is, it lets me know.

[Erickson]

But you know what, Joe? Even your streamer. Point, point. That ain't for that crowd. Not a demo.

[Mal]

But they know the streamers ain't. But you can make it for that crowd.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

You can make it.

[Mal]

You can.

[Joe Budden]

Anybody that's trying to promo an event should say streamer in their meeting. And in addition, it don't matter who your crowd is. Yeah, you should be saying streamer in your meeting. The NBA crowd, ain't they crowd.

[Erickson]

The NBA count. No, but you also, you also.

[Parks]

You also.

[Erickson]

That's not true.

[Joe Budden]

The NBA crowd is not their crowd. Hey, the NBA crowd is old. Old A.D. i mean, not crowd. The owners are old ass people that in the meeting somebody had to say.

[Erickson]

Streamers because we're trying to attract all the demographic that typically goes to the All Star game. Might be in a 27, 28, I don't know, demo.

[Joe Budden]

What I'm telling y' all is if you're trying to promote an event, you should say the word streamer. I don't know what y' all are arguing.

[Erickson]

I get that. And we don't know that the word come up. What is streaming?

[Joe Budden]

There are Z list stream streamers, right? You don't have to have a Kaiser net. There's other streamers. The effort involved in this, they, they missed the boat all around the board.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Definitely missed the streaming boat. I don't, you know, I don't know about the demographic.

[Joe Budden]

They missed the Attendance boat? Yeah, the streaming. I'm with y'. All. That's not their thing. But if you missing the attendance boat, then it's time to talk about other boats.

[Erickson]

Well, then that changes now. You need the acts that.

[Parks]

Not only that.

[Joe Budden]

Wallow wasn't there. Fuck the streamers. Wallow was gone. Rashad wasn't there. What are we talking about? We black culture. We know what the fuck black culture looks like for the last 10 years.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Stop.

[Joe Budden]

Stop. Because we on the pod. You can say it. We can say it. People are missing the boat on black culture. Why is that? Difficult to say as black people.

[Mal]

You've been on that lately for the past couple.

[Joe Budden]

I'm on that. I'm turning into my dad nigga before your very eyes.

[Mal]

But was there a conversation did you have?

[Joe Budden]

I'm on that. I don't need nobody else to be on it with me.

[Mal]

No, I'm just saying. But for the past couple of months, you've been on that. Since the conversation a couple of pause ago, like, wow.

[Joe Budden]

I've been on it before that.

[Mal]

Listen, but I'm just talking about when I heard it when I first got here. You wasn't really speaking like that. So did something happen? Did you go to North South Carolina?

[Joe Budden]

It's just getting more blatant. Got it. It's just getting more overt. It's just in your. Your face more. The older you get and the more you gain understanding about how America works and functions, you'll see it more than you would like to see it. And I'm not just talking about from white people when I say that.

[Erickson]

Well, the problem with the black culture part is we don't. I mean, as soon as we get up, we sell that.

[Joe Budden]

We're the consumers. Yeah.

[Erickson]

We sell black culture. And when you start talking about Wallow not being there or.

[Joe Budden]

Or.

[Erickson]

Or IW Cyl or somebody not being in and then my. So no disrespect. Disrespect to them nowadays, when get to a certain place, you got to pay me to be there. It ain't about culture no more. Because if it's about culture, I would do it for free. Let me talk, Joe, let me talk. So again, if you want these people to necessarily be there that are influential people that will bring in our demographic, you got to pay me to be there.

[Joe Budden]

I just said that 20 minutes ago.

[Erickson]

So it's not about culture. It's about money.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Well, here's one thing to add to this. ESSENCE does pay people to be there. They just didn't pay Those people or.

[Erickson]

May not have met their number.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Now, that's possible, I don't know, because.

[Erickson]

Some of the people that are typically at essence, they were there, but to.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Joe's point, they didn't even. Well, I don't know. I can't say what they tried, but they could have gotten the, the great value version of Wallow. They could have gotten.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah, y' all doing a whole lot of cap, you know, you know what I'm saying? Other wallows that they could have gotten for a different number, like, stop with this.

[Parks]

I, I think that there's a couple of issues here. One, ESSENCE has relied on the fact of its, you know, of its popularity for many, many years, you know, and so they assume that the same people are going to come and it's going to be well attended, et cetera, et cetera. But their demographic, the people that usually come to essence, they're aging. And so you have to find a way to appeal to the younger people who might not know anything about essence. And you got to, you know, make it intriguing for them to want to come. And, you know, so glowrill is a, is a, is a great start, but there's got to be, and there's got to be ancillary acts there.

[Ish]

Like someone should have reached out to Melissa Ford or Ish or Ice or myself or Flip and said, hey, we'll get you a hotel and tickets and X amount of dollars to come down here.

[Joe Budden]

Anybody that could spread the good word of ESSENCE Fest. And that is a meeting for their brain trust to have. Yeah, but if you skipped Joe or if you skipped the local businesses, then you skipped this talk. That's the point.

[Erickson]

Like they was trying to keep trying.

[Joe Budden]

To as low as little as possible. You missed a lot of points.

[Erickson]

Sound like that's what I think. I try to spend. I want, I want my overhead to be as low as possible.

[Joe Budden]

That means that you, that, that means that you tried to make as much as possible. So you think all that cutting corners?

[Parks]

No, no, no, it's not cutting corners. Hold on. There is a lot of major black festivals like the American Black Film Festival. A lot of their advertisers, when they're black owned, a lot of their advertisers have fucking bailed. When, yes, when bet, like BET has low viewership, but yet they still get money because it's a white owned company. When ESSENCE was bought by Time magazine, they had an influx of advertising dollars. Now there's better back to being black owned.

[Joe Budden]

I don't know that BET gets low viewership I think that BET+ numbers are up. I think BET's numbers are. I don't know about the lower.

[Parks]

Not in comparison to what it was once upon a time, in comparison to then. And the money that they still get for advertising dollars because it's a company that's white owned. I'm just making the distinction between white owned and black owned and how few, how much less advertising dollars these companies get. It's just, it's just a fact.

[Erickson]

I'm in agreement with you. Yeah, I think, I think it's a complicated problem. I don't think it's just a one thing. I don't know necessarily know how much advertise for them to have to take. Well, Target's money or a lot of. A lot of bigger entities pulled out of initiatives, period. You get what I'm saying? So Essence Festival is something that's geared towards, toward us. They might not be supporting that no more. I don't know.

[Joe Budden]

Even the Target money I'm hearing was a buck fifty. A buck fifty to three hundred.

[Erickson]

So what the could you do when you got Maxwell, Lauryn Hill, this person, that person, all of these artists. Because the artists typically are the draw. When my friends used to go down, they used to be like, yo, we going to the Angie Stone joint. We going to this, we going to that. We gotta pay these artists. So we don't necessarily.

[Joe Budden]

So the sales department is fired. Like, what do you have to. I'm firing my sales department. People are getting fired. And I'm bringing in competent people to help in all these areas that y' all are saying the sales department has to go. If I can't get this ad, then where are the ads that I can get? If you only got a buck 50 and 300 from target. See, and that's why I'm saying. But check this pod from four or five years ago to hear how I was talking then, because that's been the point. You niggas will post a McDonald's ad for a thousand dollars dollars. It's McDonald's. Like you telling me about a buck fifty you got from Target. I could point you to drug dealers that'll give you a buck fifty. Stop, please.

[Parks]

I don't know. I don't know what the number was. But what I do know, and what I've heard from a lot of black media, you know, professionals, is that they, because of something like this, they want economic inclusion to be considered like a civil right. Because they. It's just so jarringly racist. So I don't Know, I can't speak to how much Target gave, but what I can speak to is after talking to people, the contract with Target was something that they just. It was a long running contract and you just can't break it.

[Joe Budden]

That's cool. But where's the rest of the contracts?

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Right.

[Joe Budden]

That's cool. And you couldn't do nothing with the contract. With the Target contract. We got that. Black people look over there and give the side out like they did.

[Parks]

Yeah.

[Joe Budden]

Where are the other contracts?

[Parks]

But have we not heard about a lot of companies that, like, once DEI was done away with, they just. They just literally, that means those companies.

[Joe Budden]

Picked a side, which also means there are companies that pick the other side.

[Erickson]

Which may not have a bigger bag to throw you for. Okay, so go get a couple of them.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah, I'm done with this. Well, I'm done with this.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

We'll see what happens next year.

[Joe Budden]

Black people know. What boots on the ground around me.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I think when people realize what's at stake, I think that.

[Mal]

I think that that's what I. I see what you're saying.

[Joe Budden]

Black people know.

[Mal]

I don't think people like to restart. I think they try to maintain some sort of level that they were once at.

[Joe Budden]

Mandy wasn't there.

[Mal]

Sometimes. Sometimes it's okay to restart. Sometimes it's okay to say, yo, we fucked up, or this is fucked up, or whatever's going on. Let's go for a smaller company or let's go for smaller business to scale it down. Let's scale it down. Let's include shit. We don't have to do this extravagant thing because now look where we at now.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

The only thing I would add to this as we move on is just as a community, we gotta know what's at stake here. Essence is a staple.

[Joe Budden]

Got it?

[Mark Lamont Hill]

And this festival is the thing that keeps ESSENCE going. Black magazines, black media in general is dying. And print media in general is dying. I mean, that's why there's no Jet Magazine. That's. That's why black enterprise has struggled. That's why all of them, Jet, ebony, all of them, ESSENCE is one of the ones that has thrived, but it's because of this festival. So when we choose not to support or not to go, we're not just not supporting the festival. We're actually taking a real big strike against one of the real monuments in our culture.

[Joe Budden]

So couldn't. We couldn't agree more.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

We gotta all think about that.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah, I know good people over there. I don't know if they're still There. Well, I used to know good people over there, so I don't wanna come off like that.

[Erickson]

So what do you do? When again, for the people that is with the. I'm boycotting Target. Anything Target.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I mean, it's the right question.

[Erickson]

What do you do.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Again, I'm not convinced that that's why people aren't going. But if that is the case, I don't know. I mean, I think Target has. I think ESSENCE has to make some decisions about. About. About their relationship to Target. Okay. I think. I think that. I wouldn't put that on the boycott.

[Joe Budden]

Er.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I'd put that on essence.

[Joe Budden]

Got it.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah. That's what I would do.

[Joe Budden]

But, yo, when you got in a relationship. Relationship with somebody or a corporation or an influencer or some. And it get hot, you go to them, you say it's hot. Go lay low for a second.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Right.

[Joe Budden]

Maybe this year we don't put the big Target. And they tried to matte it, which looked disgusting. Like it wasn't even the Target logo. So now it seemed like you're trying to be tricky with this matte pink and Target. You know what the. Stop playing with black people. Stop playing the people people's face.

[Mal]

Okay?

[Joe Budden]

Hey, just lay low this year. We're not telling you to go and admonish the whole. But just be cool this year. You don't. You're not rubbing black people the right way. And at some point, that conversation has to be had in C suites. If you care about the interest of black people.

[Mal]

Yeah, got you.

[Joe Budden]

I'm done with this. Yeah, because I'm not going. So, I mean, I'm just running my.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Mouth on a different note.

[Joe Budden]

That's not true. I'll go get it right. If they get it right, I'll be there.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I'm surprised they didn't invite us because.

[Joe Budden]

They'Ve invited me and us for several years. And I turn it down because the coin is not what it's supposed to be and the experience is not what it used to be. So we don't do it. But that's the audience that I want us to perform in front of. Right? Well, the audience that I know to be there, that's who I want to be in front of. But we gotta meet in the middle. And if we're not meeting in the middle, that tells me that you didn't do your job somewhere because you knew I was gonna cause a coin before you came to me.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Right?

[Joe Budden]

You gotta go get it.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Unless they thought you were gonna do.

[Joe Budden]

It just on the mouse Jones Wasn't there. Nobody was there is what I'm saying. So fuck me.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Anyway.

[Mal]

Got you.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Oh, good. I got some good news for y'.

[Joe Budden]

All.

[Parks]

Hey.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Now I know y' all are big travelers. When you travel through the airport now, you ain't gotta take your shoes off anymore.

[Parks]

Tsaelou. After 20 years, I didn't have to do that.

[Ish]

Yeah, I just got my pre check.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Well, you wasted your bread. No, because you still gotta take your laptop out still. Oh, okay, so that makes it still worth it. But after 20 years, TSA decided that you no longer have to take shoes off as it's a very secret memo that kind of got out. You know, I mean, they didn't make a public announcement, but inside they decided that that was the thing. And the truth is, you never. It was always.

[Parks]

It was always stupid.

[Joe Budden]

It wasn't always. No, it wasn't. No, it wasn't always. A few of them snuck through with the sneaker joint. Yeah. So it wasn't always. But as technology has advanced.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

That's fair.

[Joe Budden]

They have other ways to determine if you have the bomber.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah, yeah.

[Joe Budden]

We don't have to take off my like, come on. Walk all over that dirty ass floor.

[Ish]

Yeah.

[Joe Budden]

No sock. Because the no sock train happened a few years ago. Pre pandemic or around there. And we just barefoot in there now on a dirty ass floor when you gotta take your shoot off.

[Ish]

Oh, and everybody's mad slow taking this off and putting it back on.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Holes in my socks.

[Joe Budden]

The airport when you pass TSA is what let me know that many Americans are slow. The. The where? The tray, the conveyor belt.

[Parks]

When the tray.

[Joe Budden]

No, the trays.

[Parks]

Yeah. Or they don't put them back.

[Joe Budden]

No, they don't know what's happening even with the person standing there telling them.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Exactly what to do.

[Joe Budden]

Hey, yo, when this gets empty, come up, put your up, push the tray back. Now the line is mad long. Cause you is slow and stupid these days are open. Yeah, they mad the same script.

[Erickson]

That's when I jump while you're in the line. Before you get to the base. When you turn the corner, the done said the same 17 times. And you get up there and be.

[Joe Budden]

Like, don't say nothing, Becky and them be standing right there. I jump all the way from Starbucks to the empty bucket sloth. Yo, what Becky talking about anyway?

[Mark Lamont Hill]

So they don't put you through the VIP line in the airport.

[Joe Budden]

No, I don't do that. I'm a man of the people, Mark. You should be. I'm in the line.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I'm with the people.

[Joe Budden]

I'm with the people.

[Ish]

You say he rides spirit.

[Joe Budden]

All right, now, I'm not with those.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I do spirit frontier, whatever.

[Joe Budden]

Oh, no, I'm not with those. You win. You win the people. Battle the people off. Hey, again, our topic on the back board, different people. When is it okay to judge a book by its cover? I knew that that new Kenyan lady was going to ruin ESSENCE Fest. I think that on the train is a good time to judge people by their cover. Great time maga hat. And what was me and Mark just talking about?

[Erickson]

Cuz that's why I thought about it.

[Joe Budden]

Oh, and on spirit and front, as I'm walking to my fancy gate and you see I'm judging all. You going to arc Arkansas, yo. And I'm looking at the screen to see where you going too. Oh, I do that. I look at the gates.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I definitely.

[Joe Budden]

Oh, look. Look at the Arkansas wiling. You see a spirit gate?

[Mal]

Yeah, spirit.

[Erickson]

I don't see no spirit gate either.

[Parks]

Yeah, what terminal is that in that.

[Joe Budden]

Where's that when you get your ticket? All of them shits in Newark.

[Erickson]

No, you don't do spirit either?

[Joe Budden]

No, he's saying he don't even see. See it.

[Erickson]

The Holy Spirit. I don't see those. I'm dead ass.

[Joe Budden]

I don't.

[Erickson]

Big yellow.

[Joe Budden]

You don't wear the spirit colors.

[Erickson]

You spirit, Yo. I don't see it on spirit gate. And dork airport.

[Joe Budden]

How often do you fly, though? A lot. Do you fly a lot? I don't even feel like doing this to you.

[Erickson]

Yes, I fly pretty right.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

That's it.

[Joe Budden]

That's all I got, bro.

[Erickson]

Yeah, I don't. Maybe United just got their own down there. And you know, Newark is a hub for United.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I pretty much. I do United and in Newark more just. Cause that's where all the flights at.

[Erickson]

And you don't see a spirit gate.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

There's a spirit gate somewhere though. But I usually take spirit out of Philly, so that's why I think it's.

[Erickson]

B. Oh, see, I wouldn't know. There you go.

[Joe Budden]

I wouldn't know. In Newark, if you look to the left and she's like, oh, thank God my ticket's not over there. It's normally spirit.

[Erickson]

Yeah. It ain't the air tram. It's some cabs.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

It's some cabs. I remember the value jet.

[Erickson]

You got me.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

The ticket was 39.99.

[Joe Budden]

You got me. What's your favorite airport in America?

[Erickson]

O that I've been LaGuardia, not going to lie. I I stand corrected. Me and you had a little laguardia beef. Chase is fire.

[Joe Budden]

I try to tell you that LaGuardia ain't your old school.

[Erickson]

That is.

[Joe Budden]

And I said, neither is Kennedy, but I ain't trying to make it out. New York Airport spent that taxpayer money and them shits is fire. Now they just. Kennedy's bad.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Jfk. JFK is up there for the issues.

[Joe Budden]

When you lift. Live in New York.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

When I lived in New York, I hate getting to.

[Joe Budden]

It's far. But once I got there, it's still one of the best airports.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

You can eat at the Palm.

[Erickson]

Yo.

[Joe Budden]

They got the best steak and eggs in there.

[Erickson]

Laguardia. I. It's all right.

[Joe Budden]

I accept. Your father. No, that is all right.

[Erickson]

Now, that used to be.

[Joe Budden]

Took him 90 years.

[Erickson]

I hated that.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Laguardi's be trash.

[Ish]

I always love Laguardia.

[Joe Budden]

Cu.

[Ish]

It's right by me.

[Erickson]

And that. And that North Terminal A. Terminal A is gorgeous.

[Joe Budden]

Fire.

[Erickson]

That's my favorite.

[Mal]

Is that the one with the diner? What them? She's got a dining room.

[Joe Budden]

They got aliens.

[Erickson]

I hate Atlanta.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

What makes the airport good? That's the. What makes a game.

[Erickson]

Convenience.

[Parks]

Dallas Fort Worth is one of the worst.

[Erickson]

Atlanta.

[Parks]

No, no. Dallas, Fort Worth, though.

[Erickson]

Atlanta.

[Parks]

How it's constructed.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

If I have to take a train to get to my thing like Atlanta, where you got. You get through it and you still got. You hold the T gates because you don't want to have to go all the way to. You gotta ride a subway. Wait five minutes.

[Joe Budden]

Atlanta.

[Erickson]

Atlanta's terrible.

[Joe Budden]

Detroit, even though I like Detroit. But any of those that are that big.

[Ish]

Yeah, it's too big.

[Mal]

And what about Orlando?

[Joe Budden]

You got Dallas. Fort Worth is. It's your fault because you're supposed to use the other one that the government owns.

[Erickson]

The other one.

[Joe Budden]

The one that the government owns that's over here. It's a nice smooth. Smooth and tight.

[Parks]

I don't know which one that is in Dallas.

[Joe Budden]

There's the Bush one.

[Parks]

No, you guys are thinking about Houston.

[Erickson]

That's Houston.

[Joe Budden]

No, no, no, no, no.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Dallas has two.

[Erickson]

Dallas got two.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Dallas has two for sure.

[Joe Budden]

I don't know. I ain't been to Dallas.

[Parks]

Okay. Also, I'll say o'. Hare. I can't stand up.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Chicago.

[Joe Budden]

O'.

[Ish]

Hare. That is big as.

[Parks]

Too big.

[Joe Budden]

What about Orlando?

[Parks]

You're missing your.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I don't go to that one that often enough to have an opinion on it. Go to Wall street, it's fine. But again, you got to take. If I remember correctly, you had to Take a train to get to. Yeah. I don't want nothing where I got to ride a train to get to the next thing. I actually find LAX to be much more manageable.

[Joe Budden]

I like landing in like when it's manageable. I like it. I like landing in Boston. Just cuz it's this big.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yes.

[Ish]

I like the small.

[Joe Budden]

The small joint. Sumter, South Carolina, when I fly over there. I like that one. It's another real small. Oh, Wyoming.

[Ish]

The Vineyard. Martha's Vineyard.

[Joe Budden]

The Wyoming airport. Oh my God, it's fire.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yes. Martha's Vineyard one is you. That little ass play you got to take to get from Boston to the Vineyard. It's terrifying. I hate that love Phil.

[Erickson]

That's one you're talking about. The Dallas one.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yes.

[Joe Budden]

Love Field. Yeah.

[Mal]

How you get there?

[Joe Budden]

Privately owned. That's different. All. All the houd dannies over there. Where you be at for worth. But I don't know. I only been to Dallas a couple times. Anyway, what else? What else we got?

[Mal]

You'll clean it up next time. You'll clean it up by Friday.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Y' all been watching. I've been watching my girl Angel Reese. And we. Social media has been tagging all y'.

[Joe Budden]

All.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I guess they. They saying that y' all were Angel Reese haters. I'm not saying y' all are Angel Reese haters. I'm just saying. But they've been tagging y'.

[Joe Budden]

All.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Cause Angel Reese been lighting up the WNBA right now. Just. She has set a streak. She's got another 15 rebound game. I think it's five in a row. Some shit. Like she's like breaking all the records.

[Joe Budden]

She's doing great.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

She's doing great.

[Joe Budden]

Let me let the audience know that facts don't change hate for me. Like if I'm hating and I didn't agree to that, but if I am, the facts ain't gonna change it. I'm just.

[Erickson]

Just hate might make me double down.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah, I might stand strong. I might stand strong and she start doing good.

[Erickson]

Find something else to ha about. I've been Angel Reese H from day one.

[Joe Budden]

I love her. I'm happy for her.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

She's cooking right now. They lost on. I don't give a. But they, they. They played Minnesota on Sunday. It was a great. A great game. And I went down to the end. Angel actually hit a big shot, but they still lost. But she's. She's just on fire, man. Also, Zion Williamson. What's going on?

[Joe Budden]

Zion Williamson appears to be in a gang now. Pictures have been circulating Online of him wearing purple bandanas and throwing up signs that I don't know. But I did applaud because he did need some protection from that Mariah Mills lady. Like, she was just having her way. So let me go get with fucking.

[Erickson]

Gotta get with gang over here.

[Joe Budden]

I'm calling big. You or somebody? Somebody.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

My street affiliated with people. What's the purple?

[Parks]

Yeah. Thank you. I was purple. What is it?

[Joe Budden]

Oh, y' all want us to get indicted? I don't know.

[Parks]

Okay. All right.

[Joe Budden]

Why would you need to know?

[Parks]

He also asked.

[Joe Budden]

He's a. With a dick.

[Parks]

Okay, well, what the does that have to do with the price of rice in China?

[Joe Budden]

He could join that gang.

[Erickson]

She could too.

[Joe Budden]

I think I could do pop mail inside of. Inside her head. She come over here, talking about some Grape street, some. I like wine. Yeah, she be over there gone. She be in the gang. Actually. She be. She get the whole gang lit. Lit up. Like, she be. Why they become vulnerable. Anyway. It's crazy. Anyway, moving right along. What else? What else? What else?

[Erickson]

What y' all think they. They came out and said that they closed the Epstein investigation. Yeah, because there's no list that was open before.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

That was a load off.

[Erickson]

There was no list, and they put the video out saying that no one entered. He did commit suicide.

[Joe Budden]

So we'll fold that up right now.

[Parks]

Right. So the questions that are now coming up is like, so why is Ghislaine Maxwell in jail for 20 years for sex trafficking if there was nobody to sex traffic and he killed himself because why? He just was having a bad day.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Case of the Blues case.

[Erickson]

So Ghislaine's zillion dollar lawyer is saying, me up out of here. Aki.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Oh, yeah, they gotta be. I would be.

[Erickson]

She probably home.

[Joe Budden]

What you talking about?

[Mark Lamont Hill]

There are certain, like, conspiracies that, like, we all debate and argue. This feels like the least debatable conspiracy in the history of conspiracies. You know what I'm saying? Like, I don't know anybody that doesn't believe that this Epstein thing was a hit job. I don't know anybody that doesn't believe that the government conspired on this. I mean, I don't know anybody. I mean, it's just. It's so obvious to me, Chapst.

[Joe Budden]

I still think they killed Sandra Bland. Don't take much to get me on.

[Erickson]

Yo, you ever been to t. That island?

[Mark Lamont Hill]

No.

[Joe Budden]

Go ahead.

[Erickson]

Over there today.

[Ish]

No, when you go.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Hard pass.

[Erickson]

No, I'm saying when you get close to the island, them come Outside that. Whoa, whoa, whoa y' all doing? Pardon me, playboy.

[Joe Budden]

You got it.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Did you have to like show ID to get in?

[Erickson]

I never been.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

You talking like he was there.

[Joe Budden]

No, you don't date. And I feel like what he's saying is just island rules.

[Erickson]

No, it's not.

[Joe Budden]

Somebody own an island. I want with rifles outside in case people approach.

[Erickson]

When you go to any other island, when you got met with rifles, does.

[Joe Budden]

One person criminal on the island? It's n. When I was in whatever town that was and the driver said, that's Prince island right there. I think I seen a nigga with guns standing outside. Like, you can't just walk up on somebody island. They own it.

[Erickson]

I can't. You got it.

[Joe Budden]

Listen to your point. If strange things with women were happening over there, I'd want security there too. But still to this day, this was just confirmation to me that Trump name was on the list. Oh, yeah.

[Ish]

I like how they tried to pass it off. Like, he didn't have a list. Like, yeah, he probably didn't just have like a piece of paper with all of his clients names right now there. It's in his phone. But the government has a list for sure.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah, yeah, and he had a list.

[Erickson]

They got that manifest from the flights that was taken there, right? All that like, what are we talking about? Yeah, money talks, Aki.

[Joe Budden]

Money. They ran up in that little 97th street, that big ass little museum looking crib on 97th Street. They got all the goods right out the safe. I seen this dock. They got it. It was in. It was in there. They went in there a couple times. That's when they locked everybody up. Hey, that when they did that sweep. They found something. Y' all the is going on.

[Erickson]

Guess where the sweep went? Back right back in the cracks.

[Joe Budden]

Get that right back over there.

[Erickson]

Sweep that right back. Too much, much money.

[Joe Budden]

America ain't ever gonna really give a About girls or facts. They never care in America about girls. No matter how old, no matter what age, no matter what.

[Ish]

They're gonna care less about the morality of billionaires.

[Erickson]

Yeah, there you go.

[Joe Budden]

They knowing good and goddamn well they killed Jeffrey Epstein. Yeah, duh. But why they think we so dumb? Well, because is dumb.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

This one don't even feel like they think we dumb. This is almost just feel like they're saying so.

[Erickson]

They are saying so.

[Joe Budden]

I don't care what you know, sometimes it's not you dumb, sometimes it's nothing you can do.

[Ish]

And now they're releasing the camera. Camera footage, right?

[Erickson]

You lying.

[Ish]

Yeah. Was the cameras went down, so we can't.

[Joe Budden]

I remember what happened.

[Erickson]

Yeah, I remember.

[Ish]

And now they put out the game.

[Parks]

Yeah. In this day and age of AI. Nope.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah. Come on.

[Parks]

Nope.

[Ish]

And also, it's a jail, so it'd be the same all day, every day. You could just pick a different day and change the date. Like.

[Parks]

Yeah.

[Ish]

It's not like, oh, that Tuesday. I was definitely wearing my cop uniform and sitting at the desk outside of the jail cell.

[Erickson]

Like, look at 1209.

[Joe Budden]

Right?

[Erickson]

It was 1209 yesterday, too, right?

[Ish]

They paint the walls or nothing.

[Joe Budden]

We'll fold that up right now.

[Mal]

Don't look away now, pussy.

[Joe Budden]

Don't look away.

[Mal]

Don't look away now, pussy.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Just can't take that seriously.

[Erickson]

Sorry, bro.

[Mal]

We'll fold that up.

[Joe Budden]

Do we? We want to talk about this. Meg the Stallion. Meg the Stallion and Roc Nation. Dragged back into court after a federal judge refused to toss out the lawsuit from her former cameraman Emilio Garcia. Garcia, who says while on a European tour, she forced him to watch her have sex with another woman inside of a moving suv. Fat shamed him, cut his hours in pay, and eventually fired him. He also claims he was blackballed from working anywhere else in the industry. Y' all niggas gotta stop that. That black bullshit, nigga. Nobody knew you wasn't just blowing your phone up after this. Sorry. Claims he was a blackball for in the industry Emilio says Megan only felt comfortable doing. Which I'm not. I'm not doing this with Emilio. I know we in this era where you just supposed to side with the victim. I'm not with him. Sorry.

[Ish]

Yeah.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

He's also saying that because he's gay, if I understand it correctly, that this. That he was being targeted for his sexual identity, that she wouldn't have had this alleged sex with another woman in front of a heterosexual male.

[Joe Budden]

He needs to stop.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I'm like, have you ever met a heterosexual male?

[Joe Budden]

Has to stop.

[Parks]

That is a reverse uno card. So wait. She targeted. She had sex with another woman in front of him because he was gay.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Judge woods alleges that Garcia, who is gay, plausibly pleads that the alleged sexual encounter in the SUV in Ibiza created a hostile work environment based on plaintiff's sexual.

[Joe Budden]

Oh, no.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Orientation.

[Mal]

I gotta watch this.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Plaintiff asks the court to draw the inference that Pete would not. Not have engaged in group sex with other women in front of a heterosexual male. That Pete felt comfortable engaging in group sex with other women in front of plaintiff because of plaintiff's sexuality. Gender.

[Erickson]

I agree with Him.

[Joe Budden]

Stop it. Here you go with some. Go ahead, get your off.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Let me think about that.

[Erickson]

I agree with him.

[Joe Budden]

Y' all are wrong. Then if you agree with him, you're wrong.

[Erickson]

The heterosexual might have been a participant, and that's why she felt comfortable having sex with the girl without.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Because he's not.

[Erickson]

Cause he don't care. Give a.

[Joe Budden]

Well, that means that it starts before that night in question. I. I as in I'm her. I have gay people around me, okay? I hang out with gay people. I'm friends with more gay people than I am heterosexual people because I feel more comfortable around gay people.

[Erickson]

Okay?

[Joe Budden]

That's not just for her. That's for many. That's for many women today.

[Erickson]

It still don't negate what he's saying. He's saying if it would have been a dude.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

He said, you wouldn't.

[Joe Budden]

It wouldn't have been a dude.

[Erickson]

Let me. Let me finish. But I.

[Joe Budden]

But my comprehension is great, so I know what you saying she said. My response to that is, if I'm her, it wouldn't have ever been a straight dude if you. You. I'm not in front of you because you're gay. I'm hanging around you during. I'm. I'm comfortable with having you around for everything. Right. Because you're gay. It's not. I'm doing the. Because you're gay. Cool.

[Erickson]

So both things can be true.

[Joe Budden]

Well, if one is true, then. Then the other can't be true to me. To me.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I get what you're saying to me. What Joe's saying is speak. If. If he were speaking for Megan, Megan would be saying, I'm not. This has nothing to do with your sexuality. It's just that you're my friend. It just so happens that all my.

[Erickson]

You get what he just said?

[Mark Lamont Hill]

That is what I just said. That's what I said.

[Erickson]

He said, yo, I'm hanging around you, cuz.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

You gay, right?

[Joe Budden]

Yes.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Same.

[Parks]

Different piles, right?

[Mark Lamont Hill]

All my friends are gay. The sex that I'm having is not because I. I see your gays because you're my friend and I trust you. It would be like all my friends are black, right? If I was to do something in here right now in front of you, it's not because you're black. It's cause you're my friend. You get what I'm saying? I told you something. I told you a secret this morning, hypothetically, right? I didn't tell you cause you black. I told you cause you're my friend. It just so Happens all my friends are black and I made you my friend because you're black. That's what she said.

[Joe Budden]

And that's totally different from this scamming.

[Erickson]

Ass nigga or why can't it just be, yo, I'm a wild girl, I'm having fun. If it was a nigga here, I'd have popped off. The reason why I'm just having sex with this girl is because you ain't into this.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

And that's what the plaintiff said. I'm not saying who's right. I'm just saying those are two different.

[Joe Budden]

Could have joined us, she'd have been with it. But the person that says that. I'm saying would be wrong for saying that because you are assuming that she would have fucked you if you were straight. And that's not true. So let's stop with the podcast shenanigans.

[Erickson]

That's not what I'm saying.

[Joe Budden]

If we are in where they was at Ibiza. Ibiza, huh?

[Parks]

Abita. Like Ibiza. That's what people call it. It's Ibiza.

[Joe Budden]

But yes, I'm ge.

[Mal]

Ge.

[Joe Budden]

Geographically challenged. So please tell me what it is.

[Parks]

Ibiza. It's in Spain.

[Joe Budden]

Okay, I don't care about.

[Parks]

It's a party island.

[Joe Budden]

That's another you and Ibiza on the highway with a girl in the car that you wouldn't mind. Maybe you before or maybe in this moment, you finding out that you could. Your cameraman is there because we in Ibiza and every artist artist has the cameraman right there. And when we start doing some in here, I am going to tap the person hired to record me and say record now or not. That's weird.

[Parks]

That part I didn't get.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

That's the part I can't rock with.

[Joe Budden]

Oh, wait, hold on. Then you wouldn't be around. Are you fired? See, and that's why I understand her firing. If I asked you to record some. I didn't ask you to take part in this Ain't the Puff. Yeah, I didn't ask you to participate. I asked you to hit record because some shit is happening in the car. Yo, maybe I'm talking to the people that.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I'm not saying it's not.

[Joe Budden]

Maybe I'm talking to the people that have been driving to South Jersey before and the girl just starts sucking your dick unexpected head. You would like the person in the back seat to get a pic.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I'm just saying this. It's illegal. If you didn't work for you.

[Parks]

Wait, hold on a second.

[Erickson]

I want to see how you feel.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

About what homeboy's like, wait a minute.

[Mal]

Note to self.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Don't go to Spain with.

[Joe Budden]

See, no, but that's. That's what happens too much up here. Stop for a minute. Yes. What I'm saying sounds foreign and stupid to people that are just unfamiliar with randomly getting sex in a car with people. But if you've had sex in a car with not just the person that you having sex with, this. Then yes, jokes are flying, phones are out. I sound like I'm saying something foreign, but I ain't.

[Erickson]

It's different though. You're right.

[Joe Budden]

Now, there may be laws against it, but look, there may be a law against it. You're right.

[Erickson]

Jokes will be flying, phones will be out.

[Joe Budden]

Nigga, hold on.

[Erickson]

Telling him to do that as her employee is where it's a problem with the employee part. Like, I really want to hear a male stance.

[Joe Budden]

Cause okay, in the eyes of the law. Well, after I finish arguing with him. In the eyes of the law. Not arguing with y'. All. I'm arguing culture rules versus the law, like I usually do in some of these instances. Okay, in the eyes of the Lord, she's wrong.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Then you got. If you go for the cultural piece, you gotta roll the dice at your employee with it. It's gonna sue you.

[Joe Budden]

Yo, how many, Let me ask you something. How many in depth contracts do you think exist between the little camera guy that follows behind these artists?

[Parks]

Almost zero.

[Joe Budden]

And the artists?

[Parks]

Almost zero? Almost zero.

[Joe Budden]

Wouldn't you assume that there's a lot of gray area the artist is, how they say, great?

[Mark Lamont Hill]

To me, though.

[Joe Budden]

No, it's great because the artist is saying tape everything. All the artist is saying is tape it all.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

That's it.

[Joe Budden]

No matter what. If a fight break out, if start kissing over the air, tape it. Anything that happens, you gotta tape it. And that's our confidential relationship. It's almost like the relationship. Relationship between the artist and a personal. Personal assistant. You are going to be privy to some things in your job that are not conventional. That's what I'm saying. So what it sounds like. And I wasn't there. I don't know. I'm just freestyling. What it sounds like is, we out of town, it's hot and heavy. We start fucking somebody that was there that was supposed to tape the whole night anyway. Don't not tape. Now, I've asked Erickson if he was down to tape some shit with before. Like, it's a conversation that you have is all I'm saying.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Right, but you just like you said, a conversation that sounds different than.

[Joe Budden]

I know that you need to do it.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Take it off the table. Take it off the table. I'm talking about informal rules. It's certain shit. Just like if I was your cameraman and you started doing a line of coke or you started doing heroin. Your implicit rule might be, mark, don't tape that shit. That's off. That's the. I don't want that taped. I would assume that would be the same thing for me. Having sex with somebody. Somebody particularly girl and girl action in a car, in a video.

[Mal]

Unless you're into.

[Joe Budden]

Unless I ask you to. Which we're learning that people are into some other things sexually. This is where I disagree with your point that you just said in this talk that we having. Yes. You would always have that conversation.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah.

[Joe Budden]

In real life. No, you wouldn't. In real life, there's a thing where this is, in the moment, instantaneous, spontaneous. It's almost like you doing a song in the studio. Studio. And I'm an artist and I came to your studio and now we jamming on the track. Yeah. We should have a talk right now about splits and percentages. We're not gonna do that. We're not gonna do that.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Look at that.

[Joe Budden]

There is no chance that that will happen right here unless something else goes down.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I'm with you.

[Joe Budden]

It's the same exact thing with the camera guy that you hired to tape everything. You don't know what he's allergic to. You don't know what is gonna make him call it the police. You don't know. And you maybe not even won't even know all the laws. You might not know that. You can't get the fucking in front of this person.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

That's some terrible. Yeah, I feel you. I disagree. But I hear what you're saying, but. Ish. You were about to ask Mel a question.

[Erickson]

No, I just wanted to see what her stance.

[Joe Budden]

Oh, no, give it to him. Gender Wartime.

[Erickson]

Come on, you know what's up.

[Joe Budden]

No, I need that right now.

[Erickson]

No, I just don't. I just don't see how. I just don't see how. We say discernment should be paramount on the artist and the business owner and all of those things. When it comes to certain stuff, then that same level of discernment. That same level. It's a power dynamic here. Ain't that what we talk about often when it come to certain demos? It's a power.

[Joe Budden]

That's why he's right. That's why the guy's right. I'm on the pod arguing the other side. But ultimately the guy is right. Legally.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah, legally, he's right.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Assuming this even happened. Right.

[Joe Budden]

But if this happened. You can't do that in front of me. I'm uncomfortable at work. I don't want to do this. I don't have the opportunity to tell you that.

[Erickson]

You're forcing me to tape this.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

You forcing me to watch you take this.

[Joe Budden]

Oh, God. I gotta watch Meg. A girl.

[Parks]

That was literally.

[Joe Budden]

That was first O. Oh, God. Oh, the nerve. Alert the authority. Call the fire. Call the fire.

[Erickson]

Homeboy might not have looked at it like we would look at it.

[Joe Budden]

Well, yeah, he's gay.

[Erickson]

Wham.

[Ish]

I think he's.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

It's not cuz he's gay. He just doesn't like taping people.

[Ish]

I think that he might have just got fired for some. Something else. And he's pulling this.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I think that's totally possible, too.

[Joe Budden]

I don't know who's telling the truth here. Oh, I can tell you Parks is wrong. I can tell you that's wrong. Why?

[Ish]

Why?

[Joe Budden]

Because if I asked you to hit record when I'm. And you didn't, you're getting fired.

[Mal]

You didn't capture those moments.

[Joe Budden]

You are fired because of that. Yeah, because of that. Right there. I took you to Ibiza. Wait.

[Mal]

And I took you to some with money into that.

[Joe Budden]

You are getting sued if I take one of y' all to Ibiza and I start in front of y'. All hit the record without me having ass. Ass. How about that? Nobody get sued. I ain't have to say nothing. You just knew what time it was.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Where's your. If I'm in Ibiza, yo, the last thing I want one of y' all.

[Mal]

To do is pull out the camera.

[Ish]

Am I good?

[Mal]

My backstroke hitting single.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

It's different and it's hypothetical. If. Hypothetically, if I'm single and we on the island, I'm. I don't. I don't want you to just hit.

[Erickson]

The camera without conversation.

[Joe Budden]

Here y' all go with.

[Erickson]

I'm over there getting my own hypothetical.

[Joe Budden]

One of y' all start your wife in front of me. Hey, the. Are y' all talking about? Here come the prudes. Oh, if I'm single and you. And you lick me too far. All right. Keep your dick in your pants.

[Mal]

What's that?

[Joe Budden]

That's what you better do.

[Ish]

Go in the bedroom like an adult.

[Erickson]

And he'll be.

[Mal]

Don't listen. By the door neither.

[Joe Budden]

Did Ice come with us to Costa Rica?

[Erickson]

No, I'M not trying to record none of you.

[Joe Budden]

Next trip. Next trip for you. I'm not trying to either. But if we out and one of y' all begin around me.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

You recording?

[Joe Budden]

I. I'm taping it for the archives. Why?

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yo, cuz, why would you put that.

[Joe Budden]

In front of me?

[Mark Lamont Hill]

That's your man.

[Erickson]

That's your man.

[Joe Budden]

You.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

You know what I mean? He got footage of you that you don't know about.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah. No, he don't.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yes, he do.

[Joe Budden]

Yes, he do. I ain't got no footage of him. He ain't. He don't front of. This dick ain't like that. You don't want me. This dick ain't like that. Hey, Big Mark, Yo. Hey, Big Mark. That nigga.

[Erickson]

Hey, yo. Hey, yo.

[Joe Budden]

On the street.

[Erickson]

Mark jump off that nigga be in.

[Joe Budden]

The corner like, look, now you want to reverse my joke? Look, now you want to reverse my joke? You don't even want. Now you want to reverse my joke? That walk off to the other room. Me hear me one night, too. Yo, you ain't got money for another room? No, no, I don't.

[Mal]

Look, we both.

[Joe Budden]

Here come the lies. This all right. Do they got a double bag? No, you. No, you ass like that. Wait for us. What he want? He just.

[Erickson]

Yo, stop looking.

[Joe Budden]

Yo, stop. Y' all dead ass. Stop.

[Erickson]

Yo, don't look over here. Yo, my four of them.

[Joe Budden]

Know what I do when it grow. Know what I do when it grow. Once it grow, it's time. Uhoh. This. Hold him. Uhoh. Shit. Year.

[Mal]

Got three more to pick. Pick out of the three. No, you pick out of three that.

[Erickson]

Be in a corner. All of them tongue kissing with one.

[Joe Budden]

Well, one. Yeah, yeah. Huh.

[Ish]

That's what he do.

[Joe Budden]

Sure. He talks them next 20 years. Shut up.

[Erickson]

So you could, too.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Look.

[Joe Budden]

So you could, too. I don't want to talk to them out of here.

[Ish]

I know.

[Joe Budden]

Anyways, man. Mag. Mag. I'm with. I empathize with you. I don't with you at all, but I'm on your side of this. I know how to be objective when it come to people. I don't. With Meg, this is. And Emilio could go. You should have been fired. That. See, that need to be a thing, too. Even though they killed Rick Ross for his Breakfast Club interview, where he was like, I'm not hiring no girls because I'm going to y'. All. They killed him. Like, oh, my God. Why you. Why you objectified? Why you can't just hire.

[Parks]

That's honest.

[Joe Budden]

Why? I kept it a buck hey. Nope. See, I'm with having different rules to. To. To the workplace. Not here, cuz. Don't try it. But I'm just saying, if I was stealing music, I ain't hiring no cameraman. That is. That is allergic to some. Some spontaneous happening is all I'm saying. That's it. But peace to Meg. Peace to me.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Emilio, these two weapon.

[Joe Budden]

Meg was in there? Yeah. Meg is a little fast. That bitch.

[Erickson]

Will be a time.

[Joe Budden]

No easy.

[Erickson]

Should be in the air out there.

[Mal]

That'd be a little nice.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

It's okay.

[Joe Budden]

That girl right there. Boy, that's my girl. Anyway, not even little hot self.

[Erickson]

They got different hookah over there.

[Joe Budden]

What else. What else needs our attention? Do we need to give therapy to Naomi Osborne? Soccer.

[Ish]

What happened?

[Parks]

She. She did a press conference, and she.

[Joe Budden]

Lost at Wimbledon sooner than we're used to her losing.

[Ish]

Oh, okay.

[Joe Budden]

And in that press conference. I'll find it. She said, no, I ain't going front when I'm breaking a story. I want you to sit with Ericson. Like, I don't like it. I don't. You be jumping on my. And I'm not over that straw review. I'm not over it. I'm just trying to be honest.

[Parks]

Play it. Go ahead. Negative human being today.

[Joe Budden]

I'm so sorry.

[Parks]

Like, I'm just gonna be a negative human being today.

[Joe Budden]

I'm so sorry.

[Parks]

Like, I have nothing positive to say about myself, which is something I'm working on, I think. Yeah. I mean, it was my daughter's birthday, so I was happy about that this week. But other than that, it's just today, I'm just constantly, definitely replaying the match. No, I'm just gonna be a neg.

[Joe Budden]

That is the clip.

[Erickson]

Is she saying, I have nothing positive to say, like, about my performance.

[Joe Budden]

She said about herself. No, no. About herself and her existence.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Not.

[Joe Budden]

No, no, no.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

So, yeah, yeah, she definitely said about herself. And then the clip went around, and then she went on threads. I was trying to find the threads. She went on threads, and basically a couple days later was like, bro, why is that Everybody, like, why they keep clipping this up whenever I have a bad moment? Why are they trying to paint a narrative of me as always being sad?

[Parks]

Well, I mean, she. A lot of people were very sympathetic about after they watched this. And also because she stepped away from the game very publicly and stated the reason was her mental health was affected. So when you come back and this loss seems to be so dramatic that you say, I have nothing good to say about myself. Not even Just your performance yourself.

[Joe Budden]

That's alarming people.

[Parks]

Exactly. People were really alarmed.

[Erickson]

But was it. Wasn't it right after the match?

[Joe Budden]

Yeah, but I mean, like, I'm taking.

[Erickson]

It like she means performance. That's what I mean. Only because she said, I keep replaying the match. I keep replaying the match in my head. That's what I'm thinking about.

[Parks]

I think that if. When you take both things at the same time, when you think about the time that she stepped away from the game, speaking about her mental health and. And these are the choice of words, people were very, very concerned about her. That's just.

[Joe Budden]

This is an alarming choice of words. Whether she was talking about the match or not. You don't hear people immediately after a game say, I have nothing positive to say about myself as a whole. Which is how this is interpreted.

[Erickson]

Yeah, I didn't take it like I thought she was talking about the match. And if you interview, like a great competitor, let's say Kobe. And Kobe played like shit and he lost. I don't got nothing good to say. I can hear Kobe saying, yo, it's no brainer. The right spots. And I don't have nothing positive to say.

[Joe Budden]

Like, okay, well, that's a false parallel because they're bringing. Where they're bringing this conversation to is young female athletes who start families or have children in the prime, in the height of their prime, in the prime of their career, maybe who weren't ready and were. And I can't speak for Cordae, I would never use a friend of the show, but what the combination conversation is becoming is women being convinced to have these. These start these families while their career is popping. So I would say that is the difference between the Kobe.

[Erickson]

It could be.

[Joe Budden]

And I don't know. I think this is too sensitive for me.

[Erickson]

Yeah.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I just want to add one other piece to her comment. Just. I'm gonna read it exactly because she. She is sort of saying that she was only sad about the match because what she said is. She said, bro, why is it every time I do a press conference after a loss, the ESPN's and blogs gotta clip it up and put it up. She said, w. Wtf? Why don't they clip my press conferences after I win? Like, why pushing out of them always says what she's trying to say? Basically shoots the inner feelings about a loss.

[Erickson]

And again, some of the great competitors, they don't be wanting to talk. Yeah, they're not in a good mood, dog. They make them talk. Yeah, you know what? I'm Saying, like, I don't want to come up here and be kikiing or.

[Joe Budden]

Or.

[Erickson]

Or I don't want to talk to you, period. We just got swept. Don't ask me how I feel.

[Joe Budden]

Well, then she should learn how to talk in interviews. Post lost, then.

[Erickson]

And also because you can't.

[Joe Budden]

Can't guilt people for caring about you. But again, like, the context matters.

[Erickson]

You leave because of mental health. People are going to put you under a different microscope now.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Exactly. And that's why I think, to your point, like, she should say, like, hey, when I feel like this after. When I lose like this, I don't have anything positive to say. I don't have anything good to say after getting my ass kicked or whatever.

[Joe Budden]

Then no one's.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

This isn't even a story. But when you take out the. The competitive part of you, just say, like, yo, I just feel so bad about my cause. I agree with y'.

[Joe Budden]

All.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I mean, lots of athletes, especially male athletes, feel exactly like this, but they haven't been. We haven't thought about them as suicidal.

[Joe Budden]

Right.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

You know what I mean? Or we haven't thought about them as having mental health issues when she's already, like you said, led with that.

[Joe Budden]

Well, we haven't thought about. I'm pregnant. Yeah. Right.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

So there's a lot of other factors here, but I'm just glad she's okay. And I hope that this is just about the loss.

[Erickson]

And I hope that, as she said, yo, fam, I like loss.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah.

[Erickson]

Why are y' all bringing this up?

[Joe Budden]

Like, we hope she's not lying.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah. That's what I'm saying. I'm hoping that this isn't a cover for how she. Yeah. I hope she. That really is just about the loss, because I love a good competitor. I. I love somebody who takes losses that.

[Mal]

I have a question for you guys about that. I do. See, like, a lot of people criticize post interviews and tell people that they should speak a certain way. Who. What was a football player that used to not want to speak? Like, is that a thing that's in their contract? Are you contractually obligated to speak. Speak.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yes.

[Mal]

Okay.

[Joe Budden]

I think his quote used to be.

[Erickson]

Yo, I'm just here so I don't get fine because.

[Mal]

So you get fine, so. So you cannot sit there and not talk.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah. And you can't not show up.

[Joe Budden]

Like, literally, he went there.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

He went to one of the press.

[Erickson]

Conferences, and that's all he said to every question. More than one. He used to say, yo, I'm just Here. So I don't get.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

And that's part of being.

[Mal]

You think that should still be in the contract for you guys? Do you think that people should. If they take a loss, they shouldn't just go home and sit within themselves?

[Erickson]

I think they should.

[Mal]

You bring the world into your feelings.

[Erickson]

Yo, you asking for somebody to control a lot of emotions in the moment because then you around and say the wrong thing in that press conference, they're gonna chew your ass up. So you asking for right in the moment. It ain't like this is tomorrow and I had some time to cool off. I just lost by a bullshit call by a ref. Or some. Some happened. They should have called this. We lost, we out the playoffs. Now I gotta come and sit to y' all and ask me, hey, what.

[Joe Budden]

Would you have done different in.

[Erickson]

In for third quarter, bro.

[Joe Budden]

Get the.

[Erickson]

Out my face.

[Ish]

Same way we talk about this. Some of this comes with the gig up here in terms of people being on your ass and social media and so forth.

[Joe Budden]

That's how they able to Pay.

[Ish]

You're making 40, 30, $50 million a year.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah.

[Ish]

You're going to ask answers. How do you feel about the loss?

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Because.

[Joe Budden]

Because work through that.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Part of why you make the money is because of the TV deal. And part of the TV deal is the impost press conferences. Part of it is engaging the fans. The fans want to know how you feel after the loss, not just after you win.

[Erickson]

I get. I get it.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I get that it sucks, but I'm.

[Joe Budden]

Talking about just right after.

[Erickson]

That's all I'm saying.

[Joe Budden]

Yes.

[Erickson]

Do a press conference tomorrow morning if you want it.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Excuse me. Who's watching the game tonight? I mean, after the game.

[Erickson]

I want to know Monday morning.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Ain't no. When you watch the NBA finals of the super bowl, you don't want. I don't want to hear what. Monday morning, y', all.

[Joe Budden]

I promise y', all, we don't have to debate. We want to hear the speech. When we hear the speech. We don't want to wait till the morning.

[Ish]

Sports content is as important as the sport itself. Damn near.

[Joe Budden]

And.

[Erickson]

And we see that now based on the money that they getting.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. In the morning. I want to hear what we think about what we.

[Erickson]

What Stephen A. Smith thinks.

[Joe Budden]

No, what we. I, him, we, us, these other. I want to hear us. Ain't big enough. Nobody else anyway. And not Stephen A. Smith, but you know what I'm saying. And shout out to Max Kellerman. Back for the boxing match. Yeah, back for the boxing Match. I've been asking, where's Max? They found him. Go, Max.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yo, I love when he talks about boxing.

[Erickson]

Nah, that's his thing.

[Joe Budden]

I love Max.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

That's his real, real bad. I love him, period. But, yeah, boxing, he gets. He knows. I love watching. It's like watching Joe Rogan do, like, ufc. I love watching Max Kellerman do boxing. You know, they just. Watching experts talk about expert shit is just dope.

[Joe Budden]

I agree. Yeah, I agree.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

We've been talking about the Weeknd earlier and sort of what we did, but one of the things that stuck with me was the shooting and Philadelphia.

[Joe Budden]

Yikes.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I don't know if y' all heard about it, but I'm so tired.

[Erickson]

I saw it, heard about it.

[Mal]

Is that the one on the ring camera?

[Joe Budden]

Yes.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Gray's Ferry mass shooting. Three people ended up dead. One of the people. And obviously, condolences to the families of all the victims. But I was really struck by this one story of. Azir Harris is a young man who was a victim of gun violence before he was shot and became wheelchair bow at 17. He bounced back, you know, got his life, you know, seemed to have gotten his life together, became an advocate for gun violence. Became an advocate. Right. You know, trying to fight gun violence, trying to, you know, bring community together. And here he is, you know, he gets shot again and is killed.

[Erickson]

His baby mom got shot, too.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah. I mean, this is.

[Joe Budden]

That's awful.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I can't even imagine as his father. His father's been talking to the media a little bit. You know, I came to Matt. Imagine the pain he's going through or any. All of his family's going through. Yeah, but it's just one of those stories. It's so absurd. I mean, idea that that could happen to somebody twice and, you know, ideas. If you don't do nothing, you ain't got nothing to worry about. If you. If you're not committing crimes, you got. Anyway, it's not true at all.

[Joe Budden]

That's not how life works today in our communities. Listen, Mona was up here talking about how crime in Philly and the shootouts is, like, up.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah.

[Joe Budden]

Recently, that has been a topic of conversation.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah.

[Joe Budden]

I'm not familiar enough to. To. To chime in on it, but they've been wiling out there.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

It's getting bad. It's one of the reasons I left.

[Erickson]

I watched that video, bro. I watched it.

[Joe Budden]

The. The.

[Erickson]

The. The.

[Joe Budden]

Y' all never get sick of that.

[Erickson]

Yeah.

[Joe Budden]

And I want to hear from y'. All.

[Erickson]

I don't really watch that show.

[Joe Budden]

That is terrifying.

[Erickson]

I can't usually. I don't even. That just kept. I kept seeing it. So I just watched it, but I. I immediately regretted watching that. Yeah, I. I saw it. I didn't know what I was about to watch. Like, I saw it. The reckless nature in which they were shooting and the careless nature, like, yo, I don't care if I get. They was just standing up. It looked like you was watching some shit on John Wick. The gun just switches. The gun was just going like this, yo, in the dude's hand. Like, the shit was shooting so rapidly he couldn't even really control it. Then the people was just shooting over their head. You know how in, like, cop movies, they'll just shoot.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah.

[Erickson]

And just shoot up in the air to get. Bro, that's how he was just shooting. You know what I'm saying? So if you was down that end of the street, it was 50, 50 or less than the probability. I watch Pile on top of each other to try to just get some type of COVID Yo, it was bad, bro. It was real bad.

[Joe Budden]

But. And then the person that was shooting back from the balcony that couldn't control the switch looked like he was about to shoot people that were.

[Erickson]

That was right there. Right there. Like, one dude starts shooting and this man jumped up to start shooting, too. He ain't even really lay down yet.

[Joe Budden]

I was like, yeah, no, that could have been really, really, really bad. Shout out to the people that survived that horrific incident and definitely shout out to the family, friends and loved ones of the people that lost their life over this Fourth of July weekend. I know I saw another video where a young nigga in another town. I don't remember the town just started shooting at police. They ended him immediately. Deadly. I saw some other. Oh, New Jersey.

[Erickson]

I had a little fight.

[Joe Budden]

I think this is the first time in New York that they reported no shooting. No shootings and no murders on the 4th of July. Right.

[Erickson]

So that's.

[Joe Budden]

That's.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

And it's crazy we gotta brag about that.

[Mal]

Yeah, Right?

[Erickson]

That is.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah. Brag. No, but make mention of yes and at least acknowledge yes.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah, yeah.

[Joe Budden]

That's important. Listen, I hate to be that guy, but. Because fireworks are great. Fourth of July, America's birthday, yada, yada, yada. But this entire strip this year, when the fireworks are on the east side versus when the fireworks are on this side, it was a lot more peaceful over here.

[Parks]

Yes.

[Joe Budden]

I hate to be that guy.

[Parks]

It was.

[Joe Budden]

But without the traffic, without the tourists, without the.

[Erickson]

You about to be A Republican. Yo, I hate to be that guy.

[Joe Budden]

But leave them n over there. You about to be him. I'm not saying niggas. I'm just saying traffic don't pay me to be that guy.

[Erickson]

Yeah, it was. It was peaceful.

[Joe Budden]

It was.

[Parks]

It was.

[Joe Budden]

I like peace.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Me too. By the way, I want to shout out, Baltimore and Chicago both have black mayors.

[Parks]

Yes.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Homicide's down significantly. Significantly in both cities. I think 33% Chicago, maybe 50 in Baltimore. I don't remember the Baltimore number, but it's really high. So we are. We are seeing some things work. Whatever's working to get that piece.

[Erickson]

You're talking about the Baltimore mayor, he implemented mad social programs for the kids. Like he spent a shit ton of money to implement all these things to kind of keep them busy and to distract them to what positive things. And it's paying off in the numbers.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

That's what's frustrating to me. We know what works. It ain't like we don't know what.

[Mal]

Man, you don't do this one again.

[Joe Budden]

I'm sorry. That was a ill time laugh. I'm watching something on Max that's like American Psychos or American Crazy. And in the most recent episode.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Crazy.

[Joe Budden]

In the most recent episode, in the 80s, Baltimore got a black sheriff. And it was a big deal. Cuz was really corrupt at the time. He might have been the first black sheriff in a long time. Anyway, he got in there and got as crooked as when I tell you you this was going crazy. So he get in office and starts a private security firm. Long story. Less long. He starts a private security firm, which maybe you can do as the sheriff, but he was sending policemen to go do these private contracts and not paying them. He was just sending policemen to go do they.

[Erickson]

You on company time, nigga. Don't get that.

[Parks]

Get that overtime.

[Joe Budden]

Hey, get that ot. So he was getting all this money and then he started abusing and sexually abusing the women that worked with him. So then, then it got hot. So then a young black cop ran against him. Oh, he's trying to run for mayor or some. So a young black cop, a deputy ran against him? 1 and no, he killed him right after his party. He through for winning. It's deep.

[Erickson]

That's crazy.

[Ish]

I wrote an article.

[Erickson]

You want to see that.

[Joe Budden]

Mel can't with me. You're my son.

[Erickson]

Oh, man.

[Joe Budden]

You got it. I'mma send it to you. I'll take a picture and send it to you in case I'm jacking the name up.

[Parks]

Okay. And right now I'm watching like unknown serial killers, so you probably haven't even started that talk. But I wanted to shout out the names of those mayors. Baltimore Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott. He invested in 42 summer youth camps, 29 literacy programs, extended the rec center hours to 11pm planned block parties, opened the pools for safe fun, and opened several schools up for summer classes. Crime is down 62%.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

62, that's even better.

[Parks]

Yeah, 62. And in Chicago it's Governor Westmore. Yeah, it's amazing.

[Ish]

An article the other day said prison files populations are way down and we'll be down like half more than like 60 in the next few years, which I thought was pretty interesting, especially with your stances on prison.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah, it's the, the peak of 2.5 million was about 10, 12 years ago now, maybe a little bit more. And it's been going down.

[Erickson]

That was the peak.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah, 2.5 million was the peak. Yeah.

[Ish]

It's cited here at 1.6, but yeah, now it's 1.2.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

And they in the state.

[Joe Budden]

No, no, the, was.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

The national prison was, the peak was 2.5.

[Erickson]

I read the article Parks, right. It said 16, but this was in the Atlantic.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

But, but if it's down to 1.6 now or whatever, I mean that's amazing.

[Erickson]

I think it's at 1, 2 now.

[Ish]

Yeah, it's at 1.2.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

That's amazing.

[Erickson]

Yeah, so they said that based on all those old. What I took from it was the crack era and a lot of people getting long ass sentences in the crack era. A lot of them are coming home and because we didn't have the crack era again, again, that though, that, that significant amount of crime didn't repeat itself necessarily.

[Parks]

Okay, so then what happens with the whole prison industrial complex?

[Joe Budden]

What happens?

[Ish]

Arresting immigrants.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah, I was about to say they.

[Parks]

I mean, I thought they were deporting them.

[Erickson]

They going to start locking up again. Cuz they need, they need them for the work.

[Joe Budden]

They're coming for you. Yeah. Did you, are you natural yet?

[Parks]

I'm, I'm working on it.

[Joe Budden]

Not yet. Right?

[Parks]

Working on it. I just sent in all my paperwork.

[Joe Budden]

You hear that? Freezer or ice or whatever was it. Y' all hear that? It ain't done yet. You can get us. Yeah, at the hookah spot.

[Parks]

I'm, I'm, I'm working on it. Okay.

[Erickson]

You ain't study yet?

[Parks]

No, I don't think.

[Erickson]

No, I'm just. No, I'm asking you, cuz I remember. What, A couple of my peoples did it. Yo.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Them.

[Erickson]

Them. We won't. We won't pass that test.

[Parks]

Well, guess what? When I do the test, you guys can quiz me. Okay.

[Erickson]

Them be flashcard like is the secretary.

[Joe Budden]

Of defense of the.

[Parks]

I might actually.

[Erickson]

It be like that. Like that is hard. I ain't going to hold you.

[Joe Budden]

Well, if you a ice agent in blue on the Hudson on the weekend. Please, please show nice.

[Parks]

You won't find me there.

[Joe Budden]

If you're ice agent right across from.

[Mal]

The chart house, you fly somebody else.

[Joe Budden]

Right next to drift. Hello. That's bad. Yeah. Yes, that's bad. Hello. If you ice agent, they got ballet over there too. If you ballet and just run in, you can spot her. She's sitting outside being cute.

[Mal]

She not going to run.

[Parks]

I won't.

[Joe Budden]

I won't be fast.

[Parks]

I won't be at blue. You got a new place.

[Joe Budden]

And don't tell them what the it is.

[Parks]

Don't tell them what is big man. Also because this platform is so big.

[Joe Budden]

Tonight'S the night we will share. Turn off the lights Come close to me Tell me right now you're all I need if you tell me Keith Washington is in on what? You know Keith was.

[Parks]

No, I don't know him. That's like just one of my favorite songs.

[Mal]

On what?

[Joe Budden]

Huh?

[Erickson]

What you was gonna say it's on what?

[Mal]

On ice. On the.

[Joe Budden]

My love lasts all night long.

[Mal]

Actually. What, man?

[Parks]

Tell me what does it look like right now?

[Joe Budden]

Keith Washington.

[Parks]

Yeah.

[Mal]

Look him up.

[Joe Budden]

Oh, girl, if you'll fuck it, I'll be sure today you'll Keith Washington.

[Mal]

Who said she'll do that?

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I said if.

[Joe Budden]

I didn't say she would.

[Erickson]

I said if.

[Joe Budden]

If, if, if. I'm not putting that on.

[Mal]

If. If was.

[Joe Budden]

But I'm saying if you think. Cause that was your. Your bag. The Al B. Sure. The Keith Washington. The Christopher Williams.

[Parks]

Yeah. That was Raheem from Juice. That was the time.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah. All at the same N. That was the time.

[Parks]

Yeah. I was like 1415. That was the time.

[Joe Budden]

And then look what your mind was at 14:15. We can't highlight it because you were.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

In the black guys at 14:15 was what? You were in the black eyes. Were you always in the black eyes?

[Joe Budden]

Yeah. J.

[Parks]

Yes.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

No, I don't know.

[Parks]

Oh, yes, yes, yes.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I didn't know in Canada. I didn't know if it was, you know, if it changed.

[Parks]

No. We have a massive black population in Canada. West Indian, African. Yes.

[Mal]

Too nice to fold that up right now.

[Parks]

There we go.

[Mal]

We'll fold that up right now. Now it's getting folded.

[Parks]

Anywho, the other mayor was in Birmingham.

[Erickson]

I think it was Chicago.

[Parks]

I thought it was Birmingham.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Chicago was down, too.

[Joe Budden]

Really?

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah, I think it's 33%.

[Erickson]

The one I heard was Alabama.

[Parks]

Yeah. Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin has led an aggressive, community driven approach that's paid off. The city's homicide rate is falling by 52% compared to last year. Definitely wanted to give them a shout out.

[Erickson]

Amazing, Amazing.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Double check that.

[Joe Budden]

Maybe I'm wrong.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I thought Chicago was down too. Maybe. Maybe I'm wrong. No. Chicago has a historic drop in violent crime, too, in the first half of 2025. So there's another black mayor dope. Even though Brandon Johnson, Brandon Scott and Westmore.

[Parks]

Is that their governor?

[Erickson]

That's in Maryland.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Westmore is the governor of Massachusetts.

[Erickson]

Of Maryland.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Maryland.

[Parks]

Okay, gotcha.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah, it's Brandon Scott and Brandon Johnson are the mayors.

[Joe Budden]

All right, that's peace.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Anyway.

[Joe Budden]

All right, y'. All, Shout to all the Brandon's out there, B. Diddy, Baron Davis, everybody. Everybody. What else is in point?

[Mal]

It's a good pod.

[Joe Budden]

It's a real good pod, y'. All.

[Ish]

Oh, we do have to say rest in peace to young Noble.

[Erickson]

Young noble of the Outlaws.

[Ish]

Big jersey for sure.

[Joe Budden]

Jersey.

[Erickson]

Rest in peace.

[Joe Budden]

Rest in peace. Yeah.

[Ish]

47 years.

[Joe Budden]

Young, big Jersey. Shout out to the Outlaws. I love y'. All.

[Ish]

This Texas situation is also pretty crazy.

[Erickson]

Yo, we was talking about the. The thing with the switches in the shooting. I had to turn off the tv. My girl was showing me something yesterday. And it was a family. It was a mother, the father, the kids, and they were just standing in the flood and the water was coming. I had to cut it off because it literally showed, you know, the whole thing. I had to cut it off. They was in the middle of just the water. That shit was crazy. Now, in the phone era, because you could be standing in safety filming somebody else going through some real crazy. I was like, no, I can't. So they said the. The water out there rose 26ft, yo.

[Parks]

Four months worth of rain inside of.

[Erickson]

Like 26ft in 45 minutes. They said, like, what?

[Mark Lamont Hill]

That's crazy.

[Erickson]

You can't even really prepare for that.

[Joe Budden]

You know what I'm saying?

[Erickson]

Like, what can you do?

[Parks]

People's houses, advanced notice. Like, you know what would have happened if he hadn't got that federal agency?

[Mark Lamont Hill]

So.

[Parks]

And they would have gotten evacuation notices. There still would have been loss of life, but there would have been more warning than they had.

[Joe Budden]

That's real.

[Ish]

Possibly.

[Joe Budden]

You go on it, boy. Just Look Canadian.

[Parks]

No, no, no, no. That's an indictment on the Trump administration. That is what. That is where I'm directing that to.

[Erickson]

They killed the famous.

[Ish]

Rest in peace to the people that lost their lives and to the people that are still looking for their love. Loved ones.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah. All that.

[Joe Budden]

I ain't over that Joe Osteen over the church. Yeah. He a nobody in lock the mega church door. We'll kill you in it.

[Ish]

What a little bit of outstanding after. Oh, all the sad that we just.

[Erickson]

Had to this our church now touch upon.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah. Cuz they showed a clip of a lady who. Who was clearly sick in a hospital bed in what I think was her home or a home with the water just coming up to the bed. It was. It was horrible. It was horrible. I'm like h a cameraman tape. Put this down. Help.

[Erickson]

Yeah.

[Joe Budden]

But yeah. Rest in peace. These stories. Some of these stories this summer are horrible for y'. All people that be rushing to summer come to rushing the summer to come. Summer is when the worst news hits. Yeah. You people don't be watching news. I can tell.

[Erickson]

I don't. I don't know how you do it.

[Ish]

I read the news.

[Joe Budden]

Rest in peace to the people that we lost this weekend. Shout out to anybody out there fighting a private battle. We love y'. All. You are not forgotten. Check up on your strong friend, your weak friends as well. Just get to get to checking up on people. Use the phone. Not. Not text. Not just text. D call. Put a voice to that friend. It talk to him.

[Mal]

Don't look away now.

[Joe Budden]

Yes, sir. Shout out to all the kids listening out there. Shout out to my little brothers. They ain't at college now. Hey.

[Erickson]

Same school. They want to go to the same school.

[Joe Budden]

They at the same school. Yeah. They got to go do their orientation or three weeks, whatever the they are downs for a little while.

[Erickson]

That's dope.

[Joe Budden]

Shout out to them. Shout out to them, hey, keep your head in the game.

[Erickson]

It's a lot of games. It's all different.

[Joe Budden]

God don't make mistakes. I shouldn't have went to college as much as I hear Mark and be like, damn cool. But nah.

[Parks]

What do you think college would have been like for you?

[Erickson]

You'd have liked it. They would have changed you too for the better. Cuz when you was young, you was on some. College is kind of fly, yo.

[Ish]

College was lit.

[Erickson]

College is kind of fly. Especially like if you live on campus or something. That is kind of fly.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah.

[Ish]

Your. Your interpretation of college is that it's the school system. And it's not. It's different.

[Joe Budden]

It's different.

[Erickson]

It's a lot of social. It's more social.

[Joe Budden]

College is not a school system.

[Ish]

It is a school system, but it's not like the public school system that you went to.

[Erickson]

Nowhere near. Like.

[Ish]

Like you could study what you want to study from people that you want to study.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah.

[Erickson]

Yo, you don't come to class.

[Joe Budden]

I want to have this talk without my college system beliefs.

[Ish]

Yeah, it's expensive a lot of times.

[Erickson]

No, but I'm just saying, like, socially is where the. In my opinion, most of the growth happens.

[Joe Budden]

We had this talk before, I think in Barks House, but they're saying that the colleges are doing a lot of incentivizing to keep people coming to the college because they're projecting that by the year 2040, it's business. They having some hard. They're having trouble. They say that they having some trouble. That's all I got. I'm just trying to get my dad on my phone again.

[Erickson]

Shout out, dog. High schools. Shout out to one of the prominent high schools around here, Montclair. Immaculate. It was like a real popular Catholic school. Like, a lot of the blacks went there, like, from the hood. They just shut it down. They can't. Like the revenue is not coming in. They can't afford to keep some of these schools. So same thing is going on with a lot of cool psychologist.

[Joe Budden]

They.

[Erickson]

They. They. They don't have enough revenue coming in.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Male attendance is really down.

[Erickson]

Shutting them down. Male.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Male. Yeah.

[Erickson]

Really?

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah. I mean, Some of these HBCUs is like four to one. Five to one. Damn, it's tough. Even ones that have had better attendance, like Howard, are still down with male attendance.

[Ish]

That sounds like a perfectly great reason to go to college.

[Erickson]

Who you going pick?

[Ish]

Yeah, sounds like a threesome every night.

[Erickson]

Cameraman.

[Joe Budden]

What? So y' all think I would have enjoyed it even though I don't like condoms? Yeah.

[Parks]

Yeah.

[Joe Budden]

What?

[Erickson]

They didn't like them neither.

[Ish]

And they got the clinic right there.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Oh, yeah. You didn't have to leave campus.

[Joe Budden]

I would have just seen a guidance counselor.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

One stop Shop.

[Erickson]

No guidance counselor, dog.

[Joe Budden]

What. What was your SAT scores?

[Ish]

I got an 1170, but I didn't know how to take the SATs. And I answered every single question. Well, you Got High School 2001.

[Erickson]

You.

[Ish]

I don't remember, but I didn't do PSA 2.

[Joe Budden]

Can I get my question answered first?

[Erickson]

No, I said 1170. 11.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I don't remember. I have a.

[Joe Budden]

Look, they changed it.

[Erickson]

I took act you had.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Did you take it?

[Joe Budden]

Oh, you wouldn't take it?

[Parks]

We don't have sat.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Did you take it?

[Joe Budden]

No. No, not at all.

[Erickson]

Yeah, it was different.

[Joe Budden]

I ain't take the sat. The pre sat.

[Ish]

I wish I would have spent more time learning how to. How to take it. I was like, I don't want to take that. I'm gonna take it.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

That and then it's 1170. Cold was good in our day.

[Erickson]

No, in our day.

[Joe Budden]

It's not bad.

[Erickson]

It wasn't bad. 70 was. You was.

[Ish]

I think I would have got higher if I would have known how to take the test.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

It's interesting. You two got the exact same score.

[Joe Budden]

That is interesting. The highest score is a 1600 or 15. 16. 1600.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

16.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah. When I went to my little brother's graduation, the saladatorian got like a 1350 on that. Like, ooh, fancy.

[Ish]

Yeah, I did graduate with a 387 though. From college.

[Erickson]

From college.

[Joe Budden]

I woke up so excited to take the pre sat.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Man.

[Joe Budden]

The disappointment is set in when they told me I didn't qualify to take it because I hadn't been in school.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Why were you excited to take it at all?

[Erickson]

Yeah, I didn't know you could do that.

[Joe Budden]

I didn't know that because I used to. When I was young and pure and all of this jaded bullshit didn't come into play. I used to be excited about. About tests. I used to be real bright.

[Erickson]

So you tested well.

[Joe Budden]

I want to test to see how I'm crushing everybody.

[Ish]

You seem like you'd be good at testing.

[Joe Budden]

You had to go to school to test.

[Ish]

How do you know that the PSATs or SATs were dependent on.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I never heard that before.

[Joe Budden]

At Lincoln High School in Jersey City, it was for sure. I couldn't take it. It.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

It makes sense. A lot of schools use. Use test. Like they assume the kids who don't come to school are going to do lower. And if they want to keep their. Collect their overall scores higher, they stop you from. They stop you from taking the test so that they can look. That makes sense.

[Joe Budden]

And at that point, I think my attendance kept me from even being able to attend school. So let me not. Let me shout out Lincoln. So I couldn't take the test if you can't even. You're not supposed to be here.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Got you.

[Erickson]

I never took the pre SAT either. I took the SAT in 10th grade.

[Parks]

What was the difference between the ACT and SAT?

[Erickson]

It was a different, different test for the slow kid. It wasn't.

[Mal]

It wasn't.

[Joe Budden]

A lot of Canadians. That was for the kids. That was a couple of screws short. What else? What else is important or unimportant? Let me look at my list. Zion and the Gang. Meg sued for Epstein. We did that. Oh, homeboy that lost his hand, right? That was important. Freeze. He came in with that one. Let me hear Freeze.

[Erickson]

Nah, I just saw it going around like, we knew I was waiting for somebody to do it.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah, for extra. Well, we called it on the last pod. We said, shout out to y'.

[Parks]

All.

[Joe Budden]

It's y' all last day with these hands. Y' all gonna blow your hand off.

[Erickson]

That was it. It was just him with some, like, bootleg M80s and was posted a video saying he gonna blow somebody. I'm gonna blow somebody the fuck up today.

[Joe Budden]

Now, who's this person again? What's his name, for example? True. And we. Why do we know him?

[Erickson]

Why we know any.

[Joe Budden]

Why is he famous? Why is he popular?

[Erickson]

They said he a rapper from out west.

[Joe Budden]

Exactly.

[Erickson]

Why do we know any of them?

[Mal]

And the guy that was knocking people out, they said.

[Joe Budden]

God, yeah. Just.

[Parks]

Just walking up to them and not.

[Mal]

No, not. Not walking up to them. But his. He. He will shoot you. The fair one. And he. His knockout rate was good at it.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah.

[Mal]

So people showed him love and he.

[Joe Budden]

Just came home with some shit, right?

[Mal]

I think so, yes.

[Joe Budden]

Mad reasons I just heard. Mad reasons to want more people to know your name. That's funny. It's odd. Like, even in that little speech y' all just did, let me know who he is. I just heard, like, a lot of reasons for somebody to want their name known to, like, more people.

[Erickson]

I mean, listen, I don't put it past nothing today, but still, in all just coming off a four for just lie. I was waiting for a story of somebody blowing their hand the off, and it just happened.

[Joe Budden]

And it didn't happen whether it was real or not. Well, I was waiting for that story, too. Very disappointed that it wasn't somebody's hand. I give a about. Sorry, sorry. Four Extra. That's one, two. I don't believe anything about four Extras hand. Not for one second. Nor do I believe anything to come out of Adam 22 mouth. The no jumper Camp. Anybody that want to be a rapper that I never heard of rapping before, I don't believe one word of it. He did the video with the M80s dumb M80s look like some other shit. But, oh, he did a video. I'm about to blow something up. Oh, look at these. Look at these. Look at These. Then the word comes out. He blew his hand up. Then the picture comes out of him sitting on the curb with his whole hand off with blood here. And every person in the background just put. Looking like nothing's happened. I believe that to be A.I. y' all want to roll with it? Cool. Then his sister started to go fund me. Allegedly the sister, cuz I don't know nobody's family. Allegedly, his sister started to go fund me, saying, yo, homeboy blew his hand up. I need some. I did not donate. I closed my laptop. I shut it down. And my iPad, all the electronics, I gathered them up. And then he put out an X ray of his broken hand. And with all that proof, I don't believe none of it. Sorry. Sorry.

[Erickson]

So he didn't blow his hand off?

[Joe Budden]

Yeah.

[Parks]

So it's just broken.

[Joe Budden]

He blew his hand off. And then Adam said, no, he only blew off a couple of fingers. But nobody's seen his hand. Nobody's seen him.

[Mal]

And Oz, they had pictures of his finger on the floor.

[Joe Budden]

It's tough. I'm just saying. I don't believe it.

[Mal]

I got you.

[Joe Budden]

I don't. Sorry.

[Erickson]

Listen, like, like, like. Like we said today, you got to have that stance, though.

[Ish]

Sorry that happened to you if it did and if you didn't.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah, it's too perfect of an alley for the kids on the Internet to say. It looks like you're going to need four extra fingers. Kids, kids. Kill the. These little Internet kids. They say, yo, for extra. Blew his hand off. Here they go. Lucky he going to have extra. Oh, my God. Oh, yo. Jesus, man.

[Mal]

Disgusting.

[Joe Budden]

Hey, JPP did it and signed contracts after that. Got busy, too, and won a ring.

[Erickson]

And got some money.

[Joe Budden]

Forex. Could be cool. Adam can't lose nobody else, man. I don't care if I'm more immature than y'. All. Y' all can leave. Obviously, they make Adam jokes. What else? What else we got? What else we got? Let me see. Let me check my list. Let me see. Chris Paul has announced next season will be his retirement. Oh, no. Season part. Now, Mark, you don't know. Parks is and has been a long time. Chris hater. Chris. Chris Paul hater.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I gathered that from your own note.

[Joe Budden]

Why? Yeah, he hates him.

[Ish]

I don't know. I forgot. Now I. I'll say what it was. I watched him get cooked in the playoffs every year. And everybody's like, he's one of the top three point guards of all time for years. And he's not.

[Erickson]

So the fans made you hit.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Chris Paul is An elite point guard.

[Erickson]

But Chris Paul is the elite.

[Ish]

He's a very good point guard.

[Joe Budden]

Wow.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I'll just say this. His as of five years ago, I don't know now because I haven't really. There was a point as late as 5 years ago where his PER was the best ever among point guards. I know that's not everything. I mean, I'll take Magic over him. I'll take Isaiah over him. I take maybe Jason Kidd, I don't know. But he's dope. But what I love about Chris Paul is his spirit, his heart, and the fact that, you know, as the head of the players union, he stood up and spoke out and obviously during all the uprisings, you know, he's one of the leaders taking a stand. So Chris Paul, and he's just a good dude and I love that he's getting a fair war. I love when the greats get a year where they can go to every arena, get a standing ovation, get the highlight tape and get the love that they deserve. And he's been doing this for what, 20 years now? Damn near.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah.

[Erickson]

Probably almost.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah. I can't remember when he was. Because LeBron was drafted 03. He was after LeBron. Right.

[Erickson]

So.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

But oh, no, but that's 22 years ago. Yeah, he's probably 20 years. Yeah, I think it'll be 20 years. He deserves all of it. So. For sure.

[Ish]

Yeah. Let me not let the Internet jokes of my Christmas ball hatred. He was a very good point guard.

[Joe Budden]

And elite.

[Ish]

Yeah, for sure.

[Erickson]

Top 10.

[Ish]

Top 10.

[Joe Budden]

Maybe.

[Ish]

Yeah, I'm gonna give you that.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah, maybe. Okay. We're top 10. What?

[Erickson]

Point guard?

[Joe Budden]

Stop it.

[Erickson]

He's top 10.

[Joe Budden]

He's higher than top 10.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah.

[Erickson]

Oh, I was just saying top 10, like wherever you want to place him.

[Joe Budden]

He's high. Top 10 is a disrespectful one. Mark Price is top 10, man. You talking about Mark first? Of course, man. The top 10 point guards all time.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Then top 10 point guards. Magic is a non negotiable. Isaiah is a non negotiable. Steph Curry is a non negotiable.

[Joe Budden]

John Stockton.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Steph Curry, John Stockton. That's four.

[Ish]

Jason Kid.

[Joe Budden]

Steve Nash.

[Erickson]

Jason K. Oscar Robinson.

[Joe Budden]

Oscar Robinson. Still got to do it.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

That's seven.

[Joe Budden]

Jerry west is a two.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Right? He's a two. He's like a one, two. But I say it's a two for next.

[Joe Budden]

Pistol Pete. Yap might not make him without Pistol Pete. I mean, if you got a father, talk to him about Pistol Pete.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Pistol Pete was the ship. It's Pistol Pete above Gary Payton. It's Pistol Pete above. Okay, I'm asking.

[Erickson]

They had GP And Raon Rondo rounded off that list. That was the 10 that they just put out recently.

[Joe Budden]

You made me. You almost made me want to call my dad and ask him what you just said. It's Pistol Peter Ball, Gary Payton.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I think Pistol Peter is above Gary Peyton, but I didn't watch enough of him play. I mean, his three point, his shooting numbers are like amazing. But again, there was no three pointer.

[Joe Budden]

And his scoring is what it was.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

When they did a thing of where he was shooting from, they did the advanced stats where he was shooting from there. Basically like his three point percentage would be. Oh, yeah, he was outta here. Yeah, Pistol Pete didn't miss.

[Joe Budden]

Arguably invented all of that. Jason Williams, Showtime. Behind the back, under the leg shit. In the 40s and 50s. What are we talking about?

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Y' all don't have Westbrook in the top 10, I noticed.

[Erickson]

I just asked just for the of it. Just for the of it.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah.

[Erickson]

Magic, this is in order. Top 10. Magic. Steph Curry, Oscar Robinson, Isaiah Thomas, John Stockton, Chris Paul, Jason Kidd, Steve Nash, Gary Payton, Walt Clyde Frazier.

[Joe Budden]

Oh, and they got gp.

[Erickson]

Clyde was the one. And then honorable, honorable mentions. Tony Parker, Kyrie Irving, Derrick Rose, Russell West Brook Dame Lillard.

[Joe Budden]

Okay, that list has never seen Pistol Pete. I take it back. Some of them names don't belong in front of Pistol Pete.

[Erickson]

Yeah, once you got to the honor.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Pistol Pete's a tough one, you know.

[Joe Budden]

Cuz nobody ever saw him.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah, and.

[Joe Budden]

And his number research today.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah, and his numbers.

[Joe Budden]

See, that's the part I don't know about. That's the part I don't know about.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

But anyway, but Chris Paul's up there. I. I think Chris Paul's top five parts, maybe top seven.

[Erickson]

And that was based on. I think he's top overall impact stats, accolades. Plays an influence on the game.

[Joe Budden]

Yo, I kind of agree off of this for a second. I know you and I like to stay tuned to the New York Mayor. Mayor candidacy.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yes.

[Erickson]

They still wilding.

[Joe Budden]

You see, Cuomo and Eric Adams is fighting there.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah, yeah, I love it, love it.

[Joe Budden]

Just like you told me they would. Yeah, but it happened faster than his fans just told me that. And now they beefing, beefing, beefing. And Eric Adams is making sense. They fighting over who should sit down. I don't even see where Cuomo has an argument in this. Eric Adams, like, yo, dog, you just lost by 12 12%. And I'm the sitting mayor.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Right?

[Joe Budden]

I'm the mayor right now.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Right.

[Joe Budden]

You gotta go. Sorry. Right? That is heating up, though.

[Erickson]

Y' all gonna make me watch this. You crazy. It's a bag of dope. If you think that's Cuomo has a.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Good counter argument, though.

[Joe Budden]

What is the counter argument?

[Parks]

People hate.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Republicans will vote for me.

[Joe Budden]

Adams couldn't hear that.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Republicans will vote now in the general election. Republicans don't have a. Republicans can't win with a Republican ticket, so they have to pick somebody. And these rich, white New Yorkers are more likely to vote for Cuomo than they are to vote for Adams. So he's like, as an independent, I'll get Democrat votes, and I get the xenophobic vote, and I'll get the Republican votes.

[Joe Budden]

That is a fair point. But you just got demolished, okay? You just got demolished. Homeboy. Actually, he got 540,000 votes, which is the most that any candidate has gotten since like, 78 or some like that.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah.

[Joe Budden]

So he's on a tear.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah.

[Joe Budden]

Like the new. The. The younger people that want showing up, it don't matter who they get.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah.

[Joe Budden]

Don't really matter who they get. Homeboy got it.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I think when Danny wins it either.

[Mal]

Way, what's next, right? So them two have to.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I mean, they both could run, but then they're. They're just. They cannibalize each other.

[Joe Budden]

Homeboy is winning. It's over. Breaking records. Sorry. But it is fun to watch them fight about just like the Larry Bird shit.

[Erickson]

Yo, which one of y' all gonna be number two?

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Who gonna be the runner up, right?

[Joe Budden]

Cause this is over. Yeah.

[Erickson]

Yo, this is in the back. You know how much shit you gotta just. Just talk. You talking up all Stars. Yo, which one of y' all fighting for number two, right? Cause I'm going home with this trophy.

[Joe Budden]

My.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

That's why I love Larry.

[Erickson]

Ain't take the warm up off, right?

[Ish]

What?

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Just j their heads off, yo.

[Erickson]

Didn't take.

[Ish]

Yo, that was crazy, man.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Larry Bird will always be my favorite.

[Erickson]

F. Larry Bird told them. Yo, I'm not using my right hand on no. White guys. Don't just get 40 with the. And really go out and do what you say.

[Joe Budden]

Come on, dog.

[Erickson]

Stop playing with good old Larry. No, Joe don't like Larry.

[Joe Budden]

Corey. Ne. No, I respect Larry. It's just the longevity portion, but I respect Larry.

[Ish]

Yeah, I think he came around on the.

[Erickson]

Yo, you watch a DOC or something?

[Joe Budden]

No.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Oh, you Larry before.

[Joe Budden]

Yeah. He wasn't giving Larry his props. No, no, no, no. It's fun to on Larry for me.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Okay.

[Joe Budden]

It's fun to on Larry because they do Michael, Magic Bird, and I think that's what white people did for Star Trek and Star Wars. Again, I don't think that bird belongs in the same sentence.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Is Michael and Magic.

[Joe Budden]

I don't what.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Tell me why.

[Joe Budden]

Because he white.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

If that's the reason, I got no counter argument. Okay.

[Mal]

Said he was good, though.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

It ain't about skill.

[Parks]

A little bit more than good.

[Joe Budden]

It ain't about skill for me.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

I respect that.

[Joe Budden]

I'm down.

[Mal]

Gave him people G. Wasn't good, bro.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

He was flip. He said her.

[Joe Budden]

Larry Bird was good, though.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Baby mamas bringing drama to the deep covers salute. Buff, you down like a Lucy Jose Potty Lane with a go Uzi. Come to Italy, Africa and Sicily.

[Joe Budden]

Y Hopefully y' all enjoyed this broadcast as much as we enjoy delivering it to you. Keep us in your prayers. Lord knows we need to be there. Until the next time we bid you a due farewell. Adios, arriba, dirchi. Hasta la vista, au revoir or so long goodbye or a simple head nod will suffice. Remember, life is a series of moments. And moments pass. So let's make this one last as if it's all we had. Ass. Till next time. Y' all, hold it down. What's anybody doing this week? Anybody doing anything interesting, fun or anything I can exploit for the purpose of entertainment? Goof.

[Erickson]

Sit down.

[Ish]

After last week, I'm cool.

[Joe Budden]

I need to sit down. Might not go out till August. I might be out. I'm sitting down, too. I love you, baby. I love you. When you get out the dog house.

[Ish]

We'Ll go to the strip club. Man, we got to make it up to you.

[Joe Budden]

N. I'm chilling. Yeah, he got in trouble. I love you, girl. It's me and you for life. These some old school.

[Ish]

Know nothing about that.

[Joe Budden]

Listen, man, I got a DJ a night soon somewhere. I don't get enough queen sets. I need more queens, 90s sets. I ain't going to hold you. Y' all hold it down. Mel, get your head n right on this. It's important to queens.

[Erickson]

Let's go feel a slight breeze. Stay a little while till they feel.

[Joe Budden]

Man, I ain't got going on this week. I'll be in the gym. Want some healthy.

[Ish]

There you go.

[Joe Budden]

I'll be in the gym on some workout. Yo, the fridge be calling my name late at night, but it takes a lot of strength and discipline.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

You fighting it. You winning.

[Joe Budden]

I'm fighting it. I'M fighting it. I lost, brother. I lost this weekend, cuz it's a holiday weekend. True. So lot more potato salad, lot more glizzies in my mouth. It wasn't just me neither. I seen mad eating glizzies this weekend.

[Mal]

That's why running down on us.

[Joe Budden]

That's only Bronx young that make us not want to eat glizzies. Yo, stop eating them.

[Mal]

Stop dog whistling, bro.

[Joe Budden]

Hot dogs.

[Mal]

Yeah, like that. They gonna come out the woodworks.

[Joe Budden]

Stop trying to take him shopping again.

[Mal]

Ran down to meet the pup. Trot about him. Yo, tell Joe I'm like, what?

[Joe Budden]

Hey, hey, hey, hey. Watch yourself, Ice. I can buy my own, but it feels so much better spending there?

[Erickson]

Just want to smoke with usually my hood? Find me in your city?

[Joe Budden]

Till next time? Y' all hold it down out to myself?

[Erickson]

Sometimes I get ahead of myself Smoking weed? When intention front like I got to prescribe so high?

[Mal]

I must be out of my mind? We'll fold that up right now? Don't look away now? Don't look away now? Don't get shy now? Don't get shy now?

[Erickson]

You gotta shoot me?

[Mal]

Don't look away now?

[Erickson]

You have to?

[Joe Budden]

We'll fold that up right now your way?

[Erickson]

Nah, I don't even think it's real.

[Mark Lamont Hill]

Yeah, ain't no rock?

[Mal]

Good job.