B (10:11)

The cannons couldn't get them. So the thing was about competition. White people fought to get a piece of Africa because having a piece of Africa meant the source of their. Well, Europe had been the poorest continent that the world had ever seen before because Rome was not considered part of Europe like that, and neither was Greece. They were Mediterranean. So the Europeans were the poorest people in the world until they came in contact with Africa and they came down here. And every European nation wanted the peace of Africa. So you have the English here in Armenia, you had the Dutch and the elders. Wayland you had the Germans. You had in this small spot here. So every European nation needed a piece of Africa to get rich, just like Africans now trying to get to America. Africans will go anywhere in the world but Africa because they want money. They don't need no more sunshine. They don't need no more richer earth. They want money. So because of money, they would travel anywhere. Well, 500 years ago, white people were coming from all over Europe trying to get to Africa to. To get money. And now the whole thing has shifted around. And because we don't know ourselves, white people, Chinese people, they come here with no money, and they leave here rich. And Africans are trying to leave here to get money because they changed our whole government around. They changed our whole education around. They changed our whole church around. So our mind is not correct how we even see ourselves. So Nkrumah was the first one to come back and try to open that up, because Nkrumah spent 10 years with us in America. When Nkrumah went to America, his name was Francis. When he came back here, he was Kwame, because he came and got Africanized with us, even though he was born in Africa. So George Patmore, W.E.B. du Bois, all them, he sat under all their feet. John Hendrick Clark, they came back and said, no, I'm gonna light this fire in Africa. That's why a lot of. Of people in his hometown didn't even understand him because he came back different, talking with fire with his hands and and talking excited. They didn't know he was possessed or what because he's been over to the US and got that fire and said, I'm coming back to Africa and free my people. But because we don't have our own schools, we don't even teach that here. We don't even teach that. The black star come from Marcus Garvey. And Ghana's flag, the black star come from. We think it's a football team, we think it's an airline. When that is the liberation star of liberating the black mind. The colors are Ethiopian colors because Ethiopia is the only African nation never colonized. So Kwame Nkrumah said, I don't need the thing of no color. We got colors already, the colors of Ethiopia. We only put the black star in it. So now they destroyed Haile Selassie, they destroyed the royal line of Judah and Ethiopia. They've destroyed the our minds. We still aren't getting taught that the next generation will know these things. In spite of the horrible conditions. They could have honorably chose suicide. They could have honorably taken, put their life in line for danger, just not to go through another day of this horror. But there was some that chose to live and not die. And that's why we are. We only exist because of their choice of that. And I always say it's because of that choice that we have to make a covenant amongst ourselves, that our greatest contribution to our ancestors is to live our life to its full potential and never accept mediocrity or failure as an option. You can't just survive and be mediocre people and say that our ancestors suffered for that. For us to act a fool, we owe it to continue to struggle until we're totally victorious because they chose to live and not die. So that we can be a new.

C (13:50)

Year doesn't mean erasing who you were. It means honoring what you've survived and choosing how you want to grow. It means giving ourselves permission to feel what we've been holding and knowing that it's okay to ask for help. I'm Mike De la Rocha, host of Sacred Lessons. This podcast is a space for men to talk openly about mental health, grief, relationships, and the patterns we inherit but don't have to repeat here. We slow down, we listen, we learn how vulnerability becomes strength and how healing happens in community, not in isolation. If you're ready to let go of what no longer serves you and step into the air with clarity, compassion and purpose, Sacred Lessons is your computer companion on your healing journey. Listen to Sacred Lessons with Mike Delar on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Follow Sacred Lessons with Mike De La Rocha and start listening on the free iHeartRadio app today.

A (14:51)

Now I will say being in Ghana and being able to experience and learn and, you know, meet the people there and just really be like, it was another, like, it was a grown up spark of. Yeah, I mentioned going to hbcu, but I always tell people that going to a HBCU made me realize like, why the world needed me and why being black in the world was like my, like freaking. That was my superpower, right? And going to Africa as an adult who has been navigating throughout the world and, and figuring out things for myself and figuring out like, who I am and why I am this way and like, what imprint I wanna leave on the world and who I wanna show up as every single day in the world and with the people that I love and people, I don't know, strangers, like, all that stuff, right? All the things that you think about, I think especially as a black person in America, I don't know about, you know, anybody else listening that's black or watching that's black. But for me, I'm always like, I, I feel like I stress myself out thinking about what am I doing today that is going to make it easier for my children, for my niece. And I think that that's a common thought that any person, yellow, green, white, black has. But for me, I've always felt like the pressure was like, really, really immense and the stress was really, really immense because, you know, my mom and my grandmother have done really well in the fact of, like, God forbid anything happens to them. I'm not starting at zero, right? But I'm also not starting at a lot of what other people that I know. My, my, you know, I have friends whose parents and, and black people too, whose parents have done very, very well for themselves. And you know, and we've always had a conversation about like, you know, reparations and what that would have looked like if black people had been able to actually acquire that in the way that they should have and how that would have trickled down to generations and that in comparison to other races in the, in America. So for me, I'm always like, really, really like, acting every single day. There's not a day that I don't think about is what I'm doing today going to put my niece and my children in a position where if they are uncomfortable, if they feel like they have to belittle themselves if you know, they are struggling if, like, just anything. They don't have to get it out the mud. I, Like, I want. I. Oh, my gosh. Like, when I tell you guys, I just feel like, you know, we have contributed so much to this world. The get it out the mud thing is tired. I'm not bringing that in in 2026, and I'm not bringing that into my children's lives nor any generation that is attached to me and my family. Like, even you will not have to get it out of the mud, because we didn't start from slinging mud. We started as these queens and these kings who were figuring things out with our hands and building, like, worlds and. And being in Africa makes you think about that and put all that into perspective. And then it makes me think about, like, to be honest with y', all, like, one of the things I was thinking about while I was going through all of the tours, and not even just the. The educational stuff that we did there throughout that tour, but just partying in Ghana and getting to see people's homes and the massive amount of wealth that some of these people have. And, oh, my God, I'm like, yo, they lied to us. Like, I'm sure, you know, like, everywhere else there is poverty there and everywhere else, too, but, man, we were in a New Year's Eve party with a man, young, about my age, who was one of the wealthiest men in the country, owns hotels, like, and I mean, like, the major hotels. Like, think about a black person in America, 33, 34 years old, owning the MGM grand casino and hotel. Like, that is how wealthy. Like, he former presidential candidate. I'm going to look up his name, actually, hold on. The. Oh, wait, he's 45. He does not look 45. Like, I thought he was my age. This man looks so much younger in person. He looks. The pictures I'm looking at online, he looks a little bit older, but we. I didn't meet him. I went to a New Year's Eve party for Bozeman St. John. I told you guys about that party. We heard some audio from that party as well in one of the prior episodes when I was live from Ghana. So please go take a listen to that. But, yeah, Nana Kwame. He is real estate owner, developer, entrepreneur, and he owns a hotel in Ghana. It says here that he is 45 years old. I thought this man was, like, 34, but just being around someone who has massed that amount of wealth in Ghana and, like, seeing him out every single day on the street and, like, I Don't know. It was just like a. I would say it was eye opening, but I feel like that doesn't do it justice. It was very much, like, it made me think about the things that we give two shits about over here. And to be honest with y', all, I left Ghana feeling, like, embarrassed. Like, yo, there's so much greatness that we have within us that we could be doing, and some of the things we are sitting and taking our time and doing for the love of TikTok in the stream and the chat is crazy. Like, I literally. That's. That's one of the things that I thought about so much when I was there. I'm like, yo, we are embarrassing. Like, what are we doing over here? And not that you're not gonna get people, you know, trying to go viral on TikTok everywhere, right? Any country, whatever the case may be. What I'm saying is, is that I went there and I felt like, yo, we are great. We are so much greater than we even. I think that there is, of course, that sense of, you know, black pride, but being in a place where it's like your people who came before you didn't just, like, roll over and take anything. They fought. They fought not to be enslaved. Even those people that we talked about in the castle at the Cape coast castle, they fought. Their story was not that they were just there and they just, like, bended to the wheel of whatever. No, they fought. People built, you know, economies from nothing, figured out gold and land and so much from nothing. And we have so many resources here, and we still. To get online and be like, we don't have this, we don't do that. We can't do this, we can't do that. I start. I kind of started to feel like, too like I understood why during the pandemic, everybody was like, I'm gonna move back to Africa. It's so free there. Like, it. I don't know. It's just a different feeling.

C (21:38)

A new year doesn't mean erasing who you were. It means honoring what you've survived and choosing how you want to grow. It means giving ourselves permission to feel what we've been holding and knowing that it's okay to ask for help. I'm Mike De la Rocha, host of Sacred Lessons. This podcast is a space for men to talk openly about mental health, grief, relationships, and the patterns we inherit but don't have to repeat.

A (22:05)

Here.

C (22:06)

We slow down, we listen, we learn how vulnerability becomes strength and. And how healing happens in community, not in isolation. If you're ready to let go of what no longer serves you and step into the ear with clarity, compassion and purpose, Sacred Lessons is your companion on your healing journey. Listen to Sacred Lessons with Mike De La Rocha on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Follow Sacred Lessons with Mike De La Rocha and start listening on the free iHeartRadio app.

A (22:37)

Today, when I was there, Dochi and SZA released their song is Dochi's song, but SZA is featured on it. It's called Girl get up. That song. That is the song of my 2026. I don't know how much we can put in this, in this episode just because of copyright, but that song is my song of 2026. Now granted, I'm not going to get into all the bullshit. I'm not going to, and y' all know I'm really cussing here, but it was needed at that point, at that moment. I'm not going to get much into it. But speaking of a lot of like, just bs, there's been a big conversation around Dolce for some time. To be honest, it wasn't just, you know, Aiden Ross who was trying to make it seem like, you know, Dolce didn't deserve what she had going on. But he is one of the big people. Not big people. He is one of the people with a platform that has begun to amplify that conversation. And I know that I saw like him and Tekashi 6 9, who I don't even understand why we are still even talking about him, honestly. Like, I think that his time for certain things has come and went. But I get it, he has platform and I mean, I don't got nothing against him, but when it comes to certain things, I'm like, why do we let certain people who we know can't even stand on their own ten toes about what they have going on dictate how we look at and talk about other people, right? So they put out a diss song to Dochi. Aiden Ross feels like Dochi was coming for him and some things that she had released prior. But the song Girl get up quiets all of that noise. And one of the things that she says in the song, she says this wouldn't even be a conversation. And I'm paraphrasing because I don't know word for word yet, but this is my song of 2026. Basically, what Dolce is saying is if the it girl, if the girl that was on top and killing this shit right now wasn't a black Girl, if the it girl wasn't a black girl, this wouldn't even be a conversation. And I am not targeting her. I am not pinning women against each other. I'm about to have a really honest conversation with y' all about what we witnessed with Tyla. When Tyla, very talented, beautiful girl, you know, her hits came and they were moving, going and yes, she was getting industry plant conversation a bit. You know, people were having that whole thing and I do remember people trying to have the conversation about, okay, she's been able to be positioned very well, is it she has the right team behind her and shout out to her team. I know someone that works with her who is really good at what she does. So I know she has a great team behind her. But. But when a woman like Atyla, who is obviously lighter skinned, hair texture a lot different, right when that happens and her success is going crazy, there's always this conversation about like, is this able, are we able to have this as a thing and as a, as a simulation, as a model of fast track to success whether you're talented or not. I'm not saying that Tyla or Dochi are not talented. Of course, course I'm not saying that. Doi, like I just told y', all, that's my song of 2026. DOI is one of the most talented people in this right now to me and I'm not knocking Tyler either. But what I'm saying is, is every time there's like this like spurt of success, people always want to argue. It happens with me. People always want to argue whether you deserve it or not, whether it's hyped or not. But people can't do what you do on a day to day basis. So I would never take anything away from either one of these ladies. I want to make that very clear because I hate when people do it to me. But I do want to bring in this conversation. When Tyla's success was moving, grow, growing, doing what it was doing, it was happening fast. There was a conversation about how much her fair skin played into that. They also tried to have the conversation with Flo Milli and they were comparing Flo Milli and the fact that, you know, she had Flo Milli was doing well, like she had the beats deal, she had the songs, she had a lot happening for her. And then they were comparing her situation to like a Ice Spice situation who was a fair skinned woman. And I think what the conversation is, it's more about like the rise and the ability to rise and the support that you get as you're doing it from, like, the brand, from these major machines and Dolce, for me, I feel like Dochi is so fucking fire. Oh, I'm cussing too much in this episode. But I'm just so excited. I'd be so excited by people like Dolce, because I think real art is winning. Real art is back, and people are so pissed off, and I. Oh, I love to see. I love real talent, like, getting what it deserves on major platforms and major, like, all this stuff. I hate the hate that comes with it. So I hate what we've seen. Like a Aiden Ross and all those people do so. Especially because she's a black woman. And let's be honest, I don't care because he's saying that, like, he only came at her because she came at him. I don't care who came, what, when, where, last, first, second, barely came, don't come at all. Whatever. Whenever a white man is in any position to disparage, talk down on, call a black woman, all types of beads and, like, whatever. It's never going to fly. Well, and it shouldn't. Like, it just shouldn't. Right. Um, I think, though, my point is, is that we always have these conversations about, like, race and skin tone and skin color and, you know, lighter skin this and darker skin that. And I think it's just dope to see Dochi just not be stopped by that and just create and talk to you about it. Like, this song she's really talking about. Like, yo, listen, y' all could say whatever y' all want to say. The album is here. It ain't going nowhere. Like, it's so. Like, it did what it needed to do, and y' all still mad. This is my life. Like, she. She posted this and her caption was life update. It was just so effortless. It was such an effortless, like, I hear y'. All. I don't really feel y', all, though. I see y', all, but y' all don't really see me. Because if y' all really saw me, y' all would understand that all of this greatness over here, you not gonna stop this. You can't. And I'm not gonna let you. And I know that, like, Dochi used to vlog. I've seen some of her past YouTube videos where she was talking about, you know, just the different things she was going through in life and whatever. People try to make it seem like this girl came out of a. Like a dark shadow on Monday and was, you know, Kendrick Lamar's favorite for the year by Friday. It didn't happen like that. There's literally video proof of this girl going through it, like barely affording to make it day by day because she was trying to chase this dream of things, right? No one ever cares about that type of stuff though. It doesn't matter. And that's why I'm glad she handled it the way she did with this fly as song and visual and smacking you back in your face with her talent and gearing the conversation to what really matters. The fact that it doesn't matter if you think that she should have it. God gave her to her anyway and she gonna keep showing you why he did. Oh my God, please take a listen to that song like that is the song of 2026. Girl, get up. Oh my gosh. I want to have a conversation with Dochi this year. I'm stamping it right here on the podcast. The Latest with Lauren LaRosa. We we are going to have a conversation with Dolce this year. It is going to happen. Oh my gosh, every January.

C (30:24)

We're encouraged to start over. But what if this year is about slowing down and learning how to understand ourselves more deeply? What if this year is about giving ourselves permission to feel what we've been holding and knowing that it's okay to ask for help? I might La Rocha, host of Sacred Lessons this is a podcast for men navigating stress, emotional health, fatherhood, identity, and the unspoken pressures we're taught to carry alone. We talk honestly about mental health, about healing generational wounds, and about learning how to show up with more presence and care. If you want a healthier relationship with yourself and the people who you love, then Sacred Lessons is the podcast for you. Listen to Sacred Lessons with Mike De La Rocha on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Follow Sacred Lessons with Mike De la Rocha and start listening on the free iHeartRadio app today.

D (31:23)

Today we'll attempt a feat once thought impossible, overcoming high interest credit card debt. It requires merely one thing, a SoFi personal loan. With it, you could save big on interest charges by consolidating into one low fixed rate monthly payment. Defy high interest debt with a SOFI personal loan. Visit sofi.com stunt to learn more. Loans originated by SoFi Bank NA member FDIC terms and conditions apply. NMLS 696891 in music news, Mary J.

A (31:56)

Blige so Mary J. Blige was being sued by a former best friend, Misa Hilton. Misa Hilton is like fashion icon. She Was st on the stylist side or architect side. A lot of people from her day will call her one of the architects of, you know, it girl style. We talking about it girls. One of the architects of it girl style. Misa Hilton, you know, famously styled little Kim for some time and, and styled little Kim. And one of the biggest moments in her career that I can easily point to that a lot of you guys would know. When Lil Kim went to the Met Gala, she was styled by Misa Hilton. Lil Kim at that time was the first rap, female rap artist invited to the Met Gala. Like she's done some big huge moments in fashion, has been friends with Mary J. Blige all of this time, up until, you know, these recently, things have fallen apart, obviously, because they ended up in a lawsuit against each other. And she also has a son with Sean Combs, with Sean Diddy Combs. Now, Misa Hill is some time back, we did an exclusive interview with her attorney, a guy named Nick, who told me that Misa was suing Mary J. Blige because there was a breach of contract. Mary J. Blige and Misa Hilton were doing some business in regards to a music artist named Vato, a New York based music artist named Vato. And. And some things went wrong. So let's take a listen to what Nick told us a while ago. That lawsuit has now been dropped. A judge said, look, you made all these claims. She's talking to Mr. Hilton. The judge says, Mr. Hilton, you've made all these claims. And when it was time for you to defend all these claims, claims which are very serious claims, you're claiming millions of dollars in damages to your business and, you know, things of that nature. When you had to, you know, when the, when the kitchen got hot and it was time for you to show, improve you. The judge says. The judge alleges that she abandoned her responsibility to do so. So the judge dismissed this filing. Mary J. Blige had asked for it to be dismissed. She said that it was frivolous. And then, you know, the judge came back in and said, you know what, I'm gonna dismiss it because there are certain deadlines that haven't been met. And the judge was really upset about that because, you know, once these things are put into court, especially when you're dealing with parties, you know, both of these parties are very well known in pop culture. It's going to pick up. It's just not something that obviously the judge is too excited to have any people spend time on. If you're not going to go all the way through with it. Now, I did reach out to Misa Hilton once. This lawsuit, once the news of this lawsuit being dropped was released, because, you know, we had kind of heard from Mary J. Blige's side in her last filing, when Mary J. Blige filed a response to Misa Hilton's original lawsuit, and she said that this was just made up. This is. Mary J. Blige alleged that this whole thing, this lawsuit was just filed to basically harass her, that it was frivolous. She claimed a ton of things we heard from Mary and that. So now that this was dropped, I reached out to Misa just to see if there was anything that she wanted to say, and she gave me a statement. So Misa Hilton says in response to the Mary J. Blige lawsuit that she had filed being dismissed by the court, she says, over the years, there have been people very close to me who have hurt me deeply. And I chose not to pursue them even when I could have. That reflection led me to ask myself, why would I choose a different path for someone I once caught my sister. Through this experience, I learned that mixing family, friendship and business is not always wise, and that even in painful moments, there are meaningful lessons to be learned. While I don't agree with everything that was done, I chose peace. This entire ordeal has taken a significant toll on my mental health and has caused me to reflect deeply on life, memories, relationships, and their true purpose and meaning. I pray for healing for all of us. Case closed. Sad thing to see. I think anybody who knew the relationship, just as a pop culture fan, knowing the relationship of Misa Hilton and Mary J. Blige and that time period, and like, everything that they were able to, you know, even, you know, Misa, working with her as a stylist and, you know, everything that they were able to cultivate during that, that era, like that, you know, bad boy era, just style wise, look wise, um, and everything I'm sure they probably went through together, being friends for that long and going through everything that they have, um, it's kind of like a folktale, like, hearing of their friendship, and then now it's just not anymore. And it ends in a dismissed lawsuit. Nick Reiner, the son of Rob Reiner and Michelle Reiner. Rob Reiner, you know, famed director and actor in Hollywood. It's been alleged that Nick Reiner killed his parents, Rob Reiner and Michelle Reiner, in their home. Very gruesome situation. Like, oh, my God, like, literally, it's being alleged that he slit their throats. With a knife. But his legal team has pled or they plan to enter in and continue to enter in these pleas of not guilty. It's been, you know, assumed that they would do it based on, like, insanity and, you know, just some things that have been said about, you know, just where Nick Reiner's mental state was at the time because of medicines that he was or wasn't on. And there's a lot happening over there. But most recently, his famed attorney, Alan Jackson, who was the attorney who got Karen Reed off of the case for allegedly killing her boyfriend, who was the police officer in Boston, has stepped down as his attorney. And when he became his attorney, I was like, how the heck is he affording him? I mean, I know he's the son of Rob Reiner and Michelle Reiner, but, like, I don't know what he was doing outside of just being her son. And I know that he had had some drug issues and, like, you know, different things that he had talked about over the last couple years. So I just didn't know, work wise, like, what he had been doing to be able to retain such a high powered attorney. And now this attorney has had to step off the case and will not say why he has had to step off the case. He's just saying that these, you know, things are beyond Nick Reiner's control. But he is 100% confident that under the law in California, Nick Reiner will be found not guilty. So it does sound to me if I'm predicting that they're going to lean into that pleading not guilty for, you know, purposes of insanity. But there's a lot more that's going to be unveiled here and that we're going to be seeing in the next coming days. He'll be headed into court within coming weeks with now a public defender. So we'll be back in court. I mean, we left court because Mary J. Blige's situation was dismissed. And we'll be right back into court because there's a lot still with this Nick Reiner situation. You guys know that we've been following that very closely here at the latest with Lauren, the rose of the podcast. So I'll keep you guys updated in our, in our upcoming episodes. We are back, baby. It's 2026, girl. Get up. Okay. Let that greatness shine and glisten all over everybody. That is the energy that we are given all year. And I am, like, I am so dedicated to keeping that energy, that vibe and all of this, like, sense of being that I just walked into at the dawn of 2026 in Ghana, all year and for the rest of my life. Okay? And I'm breaking the spirits this year, so I hope you guys feel the same way. I will see you guys in my next episode. Low Riders, I tell you, every single episode, you guys are here with me listening to all these things. You could be anywhere with anybody hearing them talk about it, but you choose to be right here. And I appreciate you guys for that. I will catch you in my next episode. This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.