The Breaks

Will Beyoncé’s upcoming Act II score the Queen her first “Album of the Year” Grammy? What role should rappers play in political discussions? And does Houston need to share more of its legacy with the rest of Texas’ hip-hop hubs? Find out what Confucius and Fresh have to say in this latest episode.

The full transcript of this episode of The Breaks is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or captions on some podcast apps.

Fresh Knight I’m Fresh and you are now listening to the Breaks podcast. These are highlights from our Saturday night hip-hop show on KUTX 98.9 in Austin, Texas. My co-host Confucius Jones and I are native Austinites and we love talking to hip-hop, Texas hip-hop, hip-hop history, and what’s going on right now. And just so you know, the opinions expressed in the podcast are our own and do not necessarily reflect the position of KUTX  in Austin, Texas.

Deezie Brown We here to talk over the airwaves. No matter where you’re from or where you stay. 98.9 you in the place to be. Wake up, wake up, wake up this is the Breaks. You could be anywhere  in but you ain’t. So let’s proceed with the wave. 98.9 You in the place to be wake up wake up wake this is the Breaks.

Confucius Jones This past weekend we had the Block Party weekend.

Fresh Knight Yes, yes.

Confucius Jones Membership drive. Also, thank you to everybody who donated. Without you, we’re nothing.

Fresh Knight Yes, that is very true. Thank you all.

Confucius Jones I will listen to your awesome instruments. One of my blocks was Black country artist from Texas. I played Beyonce. I played Charlie Crockett and I played it.

Fresh Knight This ain’t Texas, ain’t no hold ’em. That’s some jamming. Y’all some haters out there. Y’all some haters, man.

Confucius Jones I forgot the third guy I played but all of them were from Texas.

Fresh Knight No Mickey Guyton.

Confucius Jones No, I don’t even know who that is. Oh, man. I don’t do that. So I think kids are universal. I’m not a jukebox, bro.

Fresh Knight Rockwell. Right. I’ll just say I rock with Mickey Guyton. I rock with Mickey Guyton.

Confucius Jones Yeah, but Beyonce is dropping a country one, too. Going to be a country album. Like I say, Texas Hold’em is the number one song in the country. Very catchy song. There’s rumors that she’s going to remake Jolene by Dolly Parton, which like our producer Elizabeth said, if that’s the case, I know Dolly Parton is like, oh, bring – go ahead and sign them checks.

Fresh Knight Boy, yes, I’m clearing this.

Confucius Jones That’s what happened with the bodyguard soundtrack. You damn right I’m clearing this. People forget that Dolly Parton song at first, but, I do, but I will go on that Celine Dion. But, yeah. So if this album comes out and does stupid numbers, which I think it will. Because the first act one, it did really, really good. And of course that two, it did really well, but there was no videos for it. And I would be surprised if no videos. Fact too. But house music is still kind of looked at as underground in a way like it’s big in festivals for the huge but it’s not. House music very rarely goes number one, so it’s not surprising that act one didn’t do Taylor Swift type numbers. She doesn’t do promo like Taylor Swift. The absolute on top. But country music is huge. I read somewhere that the biggest ratings the CMT Awards had was when she performed Daddy Lessons with the Dixie.

Fresh Knight Chicks, and they were rather mad that country music fans were rather mad.

Confucius Jones About. Yeah, the video, they had to take the video down of YouTube because all the racist comments.

Fresh Knight The people I saw people online say Beyonce, they usually take their own video performances of like I’ve seen some old video performances still online. I don’t know what you’re talking about.

Confucius Jones Yeah it’s still sitting there now. No CMT took it down. Well I don’t know Beyonce might have the rights to the video, but they took it down. So there’s a chance that act two could really, really be big win Beyonce’s biggest album. Granted, what remains to be seen is how the country music world reacts to it. Because everybody’s gonna sit back, wait, wait for the racism that’s coming in.

Fresh Knight I mean.

Confucius Jones It’s already started, but it’s going to get worse when album comes out.

Fresh Knight Definitely.

Confucius Jones But with the fans and the music in, the smart artists embrace it. Will this finally be the time that Beyonce gets album of the year at the Grammys? Oh, because she’s lost so many times.

Fresh Knight She lost her four times.

Confucius Jones I think so, I think to Beck, taylor. Adele, like I said at.

Fresh Knight Three right there.

Deezie Brown Yeah.

Fresh Knight Make a deal. Taylor. And you.

Confucius Jones Know. Damn.

Deezie Brown Since I.

Confucius Jones I like Beck but ome on bro. It’s like Adele makes good albums. You know.

Fresh Knight Adele was good, but even Adele got up there and said, you know, what? Is she what she have to do, man.

Confucius Jones At this point, really, she bet she’s done. And she’s done every genre. Somebody I saw video of everything they broke down, every genre she’s done. She’s done, every genre.

Fresh Knight She made a rock album.

Confucius Jones Lose yourself Jack white on Lemondade is a rock song.

Fresh Knight You’re right, you’re right, you’re right. I do like that song.

Confucius Jones Now, but baloney.

Fresh Knight I think that’s what this is.

Confucius Jones It isn’t a system. I think all Lemonades in the system.

Fresh Knight But will this be the album that gets her the album of the year award at the Grammys? I mean, I think there’s a strong chance because the way I’ve heard it.

Confucius Jones Sort of cut you off. Is there more pressure on her to finally get it off for the Grammys, to finally give it.

Fresh Knight To the Grammys, to finally give it to? Okay? I think there’s more pressure on the Grammys to finally give it to her because like we said, and like other people saying, like, I just sat here saying and you said it, I think last week or the week before last, even Adele, a person who won in overheard, stood on stage and says, yo, what does she have to do to get this award? I thought that she would be standing here, not me. I’m shocked that I’m standing here and it’s not her. So what does she have to do? So I beat her musical peers, sees that like she’s had an album of the year. How does she not get it? Maybe Beck won’t stand up there and say that.

Confucius Jones But I think I think Blake was surprised, too. But he did say it.

Fresh Knight I think for an artist as big as Adele, stand up there and say, you know, I’m shocked. Like, y’all gave this to me. Like, this should be hers. Harry Styles beat her hairstyle, hairstyles beat her up.

Confucius Jones Last with that last year. Last year because she was that’s what renaissance. Yeah. This one. Yeah here’s here’s.

Fresh Knight What I.

Confucius Jones Gotta say. She’d be be I think I’m give credit where credit’s due. Was good at.

Deezie Brown It.

Fresh Knight But I think it’s way more pressure on the Grammys to finally, like, open their eyes and ears and see it, see the impact. Which is where I was going with what I was gonna say before. The way I’ve heard it described is like record of the year and album of the year. Record of the year is the, it’s a songs song, but like those categories in like best album categories are supposed to be projects or a song that kind of help push that genre.

Confucius Jones Forward, got.

Fresh Knight You in an upward direction. And I think if arguably the biggest artist in the world says, hey, yo, I’m a Texas girl and I want to do a country album, and I go in and make this, I have no doubt that is not going to be a great album, a great sounding album, great songwriting. I have no doubt that is going to be good. So if she decides to say, I’m making this country album and the world receives it in a grand way, then yeah, man, I look at it like it’s helping push country music in a certain direction, because.

Confucius Jones To finally take down rap.

Fresh Knight I said all that. I ain’t saying I.

Confucius Jones Because what what country you write on consider who her husband is this.

Fresh Knight Country music artists who are taking elements of rap and adding it to their music. So I don’t see that. Yeah, but I see her album pushing country music to ears that it wasn’t being played by before. And if country music fans embrace it the way that they probably should or won’t, then yes, you’ve done a service to the genre.

Confucius Jones You know, and I’m trying to think because the album isn’t out yet. That comes out in March.

Fresh Knight I believe. So, yes.

Confucius Jones What competition, which you have next year at the Grammys, Taylor Swift coming.

Fresh Knight Off his commission now. So she announced it at the Grammys in.

Confucius Jones Taylor Swift and Stevie Wonder hold the record for the most album of the year Grammys. Let’s go. Stevie just had that with boy. She gave him two Grammys just for songs. Do your life for the next year. I’m going to use whatever Alicia Keys has got a Grammy for, The Diary of Women haven’t come out, so of course, the Grammys is voted by her peers. It’s not like the Grammys are just like the Illuminati of 13 like white guys voting.

Fresh Knight Way I think it is.

Confucius Jones It is a group of peers that vote on this. There’s rumors that Taylor Swift might be on the album, which wouldn’t surprise the current Taylor Cool.

Fresh Knight I think that would be great.

Confucius Jones And if anybody could pull a Taylor back to country, it’s Beyonce because Taylor ain’t touch country in years.

Fresh Knight Unless they need them ratings.

Confucius Jones In their blood. So I think she’ll get it because the Grammys hasn’t given a Black woman an album of the year since Lauryn Hill. That was 25 years ago. I think the voters will look at that and say, I think it’s finally her time. Because unfortunately, and it’s got something that Prince said in reference to you, to Black artists have to be exceptionally good consistently to finally get some type of recognition. Jay-Z said that when he got his Doctor Dre award about just keep showing up until they finally call you a genius CEO. I think the reason why Beyonce’s winning that because this is going to be her best album, because I think to look at and say she’s finally done everything, that what else? It’s going to be the Adele question, what else can she do? Which isn’t really fair because you see other artists put out one album, get all the awards, one hit. But Beyonce’s had to literally do every genre over a period of 20 years to finally maybe get it done.

Fresh Knight Everything but sing opera.

Confucius Jones I don’t know, man. I got to kind of like an opera. I said, yo, this chick, she’s done just almost every genre, so. I think she’ll finally get it. If she doesn’t, boy.

Fresh Knight If she doesn’t get it. I think you just really show how out of touch the Grammy board is or how biased.

Confucius Jones Well, yeah, there’s been rumors, you know, unverified sources saying, oh, you know, we just when we vote, we’d like to give you most people who haven’t already gotten it. And she’s gotten so many.

Fresh Knight And that’s the case Michael Jackson would have never gotten. And I don’t want to hear it.

Confucius Jones I mean, once again, they pissed off Mike Jackson. Off the wall. We got thriller. Imagine playing sports and you win the Super Bowl. That’s amazing. You still get a ring, but you didn’t play. You want to contribute something or you want to be a important key factor in why they want. You want to support are you just any championship. So to say that because Beyonce has so many that she should just let it go.

Fresh Knight That’s a cop out.

Confucius Jones That how do you mean something? That’s her peers saying her like, you have the best album we’ve heard this year.

Fresh Knight Of any genre?

Confucius Jones Yeah, exactly. John. So to say that she already has, I mean, that’s not that’s not fair.

Fresh Knight Yes, that’s a cop out.

Confucius Jones If she didn’t care, you wouldn’t see it there.

Fresh Knight So that’s what I always contend.

Confucius Jones Like was last time you saw him in with the Graham. I think Eminem has ever been to the Grammys and he had like five.

Fresh Knight If he had, he don’t remember the facts.

Confucius Jones So I think she’ll finally get it.

Fresh Knight I’m rooting for. I don’t know what else is coming within the time from Grammy submissions, but I think she has a clear path. I think the only thing stopping her is Taylor.

Confucius Jones Yeah, because Taylor’s just got one. And award shows have this weird thing where they kind of give you something after the fact.

Fresh Knight Because Leo, I was about to use that analogy.

Confucius Jones He just got one for The Revenant. He should have been got one. So like he should have got one years ago. But I think Oscars finally said, you know what? We should probably just give him this one. He should be like 3 or 4 Oscars at this point.

Fresh Knight As she said.

Confucius Jones But he only got one. So I think they got to be honest. And they were like, man, I think, yeah, we we should probably gave you this two years ago, but here you go.

Fresh Knight Like, yeah.

Confucius Jones I think.

Fresh Knight It’s the fifth time around for this year. We should have our bad.

Confucius Jones Yeah. So even when did people argue that they were trained like, you know, kind of because they should have been got one for so many movies today, but they finally say, you know, here you go, didn’t them? We gave us Sidney Poitier in the war. They’ll give you one too. And Halley.

Fresh Knight That’s on us. Our bad. Yeah. So I think that’s how it will be looked at by a lot of people is they’re like, oh, y’all giving this because y’all didn’t give it to her last year or the year of the year, but I’m rooting for I think, like I said, the person stopping her.

Confucius Jones Is Taylor.

Fresh Knight Is Taylor. But we’ve heard Taylor do country is what she comes from Beyoncé doing a country album. Like I said, I think it helps push the genre of country music, and I think it helps opens people ears to Black Country artists. Yeah, outside of Kane Brown. Oh, God. Because I know y’all know Kane Brown.

Confucius Jones Yeah, I saw that. There’s been a surge in.

Fresh Knight And I like Kane.

Confucius Jones Black Country artist because I say but. Like I said, you know, I read the news on the show, and, you know, I tried to newsroom everywhere, mostly politics, because politics right now is just so.

Fresh Knight In memory.

Confucius Jones And not in a good way. I saw Joe Biden just did an interview recently with Candace Owens, came on as a huge Black conservative. She, of course, ran for Donald Trump, has some very interesting views on the world and politics. And Joe Biden went over there and I said, maybe think about Kilimnik, who got some heat for meeting with Brian Kemp, the governor of Georgia. And then Ice Cube starts a I think last year, the year before last, where he was going on Tucker Carlson.

Fresh Knight Yes. And that was like last year. Sometime last year.

Confucius Jones I saw somebody tweet a picture of Joe Budden with Candace Owens. Somebody above that tweeted a picture of Jay-Z, Beyonce with Hillary when she ran to the UN 16, basically making the point that rappers engaging with politicians just never works out well. Before I get into my thoughts, what are your thoughts on rappers trying to jump into the political arena? From a political science major.

Fresh Knight If you are donating to a fundraiser or just giving your endorsement. Cool. That’s your business. Go for it. But when you like Ice Cube, when you start to try to become this figure that is speaking about the issues, I don’t need that from you. I’m not here for you. Yeah, you have an opinion, but when you step into politics, we don’t necessarily need opinions. We need facts and we need solutions, and everybody’s not bringing it. And I don’t think Ice Cube, when he did it, really brought that. Killer Mike is someone that speaks well. I hate to say it that because as it sounds, yeah, it does come down a way. Yeah, but that’s a that’s not what I was trying to convey. But to the mike is someone who articulate what his solutions are. I just don’t agree with everything he says. And I think there’s been some missteps in just my opinion. I just don’t need that from rappers. I’m not saying don’t have these opinions. I’m not saying don’t endorse anyone, don’t speak out about anybody, but don’t encourage people to vote. I don’t need you to also try to be a pseudo politician, I guess is what I’m saying. I don’t I don’t need that. Like, I don’t need killer Mike to tell me why I need to vote or kill a mike to be on the campaign trail with Bernie Sanders. I don’t need that, bro. If I want to vote for Bernie Sanders, I’ma vote for Bernie Sanders and kill him. Mike did all of that, and Bernie Sanders still owes.

Confucius Jones Me a.

Fresh Knight Two and nobody vote. And y’all, y’all y’all y’all listen to what Killa Mike said and was he was championing all of that and still didn’t vote for him. And yeah, I know y’all had voted against giving me an individual vote. He didn’t get the votes that was necessary. So a lot of y’all listen to what was being said and did not vote. I ask you, just doesn’t sound like he is very well versed. In politics. He sounds like somebody. The ice cube. I have the platform, and I can be on these shows and sit down with Tucker Carlson. But yeah, Ice Cube just never really sounds fully informed. I mean, he just sound like he’s always giving his opinion and never, like, really coming in there speaking with solidified facts.

Confucius Jones No, I agree. I think about Dave Chappelle’s gyro joke and he said it all the time of, you know, 9/11 happened and he turned on MTV and I said, we’re going to get gyro for his thoughts. I said, what is for gyro things? The problem with a lot of these rappers is they feel because of how famous they are, that they know more than somebody was actually doing the.

Fresh Knight What’s the more concise way of what I was saying?

Confucius Jones When I preference you by saying political science major, to let everybody know that you went to school to study politics.

Fresh Knight And have worked in public service, I have interned for several representatives and a city councilman.

Confucius Jones Politics is not something you just get into because you watch scene in 30 Minutes Out of the day. I don’t have a huge problem with Joe Budden, but I highly doubt Joe Budden knows anything about politics.

Fresh Knight I don’t think he knows enough. And once again, listening to his podcast, he deals in just his opinion. This is how I think things should have been going. But this is what I see. And that’s and I don’t, I don’t I don’t need that. I definitely don’t need that for Joe Biden.

Confucius Jones And that’s the problem because I forgot this guy’s name. I wish I had it up in front of me. He wrote an article about I just keep going to Tucker Carlson, and he compared it to Arm and hammer. During the rise of the crack epidemic in the late 80s and 90s, he said arm and hammer is not complicit in the rise of crack cocaine, but they benefited from it. Because their stock went through the roof because obviously use that to make the drug.

Fresh Knight Right.

Confucius Jones So what Joe Budden and the Ice Cube of the world, and to some extent killer might sometimes don’t realize is that you’re adding to an issue, but you’re not doing it intentionally in the way you think you are, because you’re not going to go on these platforms with these extreme policies. I’m not even talking about just Republican. I’m talking about even Democrats with far left. You’re not going to these platforms and changing anybody’s mind who listens to them. When Joe Budden goes on Candace Owens, nobody is going to listen to that. And so you know what? Joe made some great points. I might go switch over to Biden. So that’s not going to happen. What are you going to do is just increase your viewership from people on that side that you might not want on that side.

Fresh Knight That’s why I think the whole argument is, well, we got to sit down with the opposing side. They don’t not if they’re an extremist or if they, like you say, if they to the far left or to the far right. I know what they think, I know how they feel, and I know the people who all tend to support them. I get it, I don’t really need to understand their dislike for the other side. Like you say, it’s not changing anybody’s mind. Killer Mike sitting down with Georgia’s governor, Brian Kemp, isn’t changing anybody’s mind who is voting for him.

Confucius Jones Well, see, that’s why I said the ego kicks in. And this is just a human trait. When you feel like because you you’re so strong, your beliefs that you can supersede the reality of it, because killer Mike compared him talking to Brian Kemp to model, to King talking to LBJ.

Fresh Knight Two different things.

Confucius Jones Mainly because the Civil Rights Act was already in motion through JFK to talk to more to the King. So it wasn’t it wasn’t like Martin King walked in, LBJ told by doing nothing. It was more like, okay, well, what can we do to make this happen?

Fresh Knight And LBJ also knew the importance of the Civil Rights Act, but Bryant knew what needed to be done.

Confucius Jones But what? That’s what the thing would kill. Mike. What has Brian Kemp done to advance the politics of Black Americans in Georgia? Because all I’ve seen is just voter suppression. And he was super aligned with magnitude. Trump went off on about losing that state. I’m sudden, you know, I’m just try to protect democracy. Oh, now you’re trying to protect democracy. And Kilimnik is one of the most well-versed people in politics. He’s somebody who I think he knows more what he’s talking about than the Joe Budden. I listen to your rule or an ice cube because Ice Cube wouldn’t. On Tucker Carlson, he did the same thing a lot of Black celebrities do and start complaining about things, not realizing they’re making white people talking points. When you get on there saying, well, why are we doing thing about the violence in Chicago, bro? This mad, nonprofit situation, if you.

Fresh Knight Are not in Chicago trying to do anything about the violence in Chicago, shut up.

Confucius Jones Exactly. So once again, now you sound like people on Fox News at 8:00 at night. And I just I’m always skeptical about it because people treat politics the same way. I think people treat deejaying. Right. I’ll make a joke. I say, man, just like you. It’s like turntables, like an instrument. No, it’s not what you do it. Then get over there and do it. I’m not talking about pushing buttons. I’m talking about actually mixing the song, creating a blend and making sure it sounds good.

Fresh Knight Like understanding the timing, understanding where.

Confucius Jones Wood BPMs are in. Yeah. And when to bring the song in like that. Yeah, you do.

Fresh Knight It like, yeah, it’s a skill. It’s a skill.

Confucius Jones That’s the end that people treat politics that same way. Because to me, looking at TV and saying that you are a political expert is the same as watching E.R. all day, and I know I could do surgery. No, that’s not how none of that works. I could do a triple bypass. That’s not how any of that works. And I think a lot of rappers get into these spaces and start doing that, thinking that, okay, well, I’m making a difference. I love Charlamagne. Charlamagne is actually a radio role model of mine. His journey from Moncks Corner, South Carolina to being on one of the biggest syndicated radio shows in the country is a great story. Charlemagne is not good at politics, and I don’t like the fact that he keeps putting his his whole body into the water of, you know, I’m just I’m right now I’m just against your body’s not doing enough because it’s fresh. Because you let MAGA Republicans come on your show and spout these stupid talking points, and you don’t have any pushback against it. To me, if you’re politically what you need to be, you can obviously say when Nikki Haley gets on there saying like, yeah, but you saying that Civil War wasn’t about slavery was was stupid or her pushing back and saying, we don’t. So security needs to be eliminated. I, me you should have pushed back against that immediately by you. Allowing that to happen lets me know that you’re not fully ready for what you think you are, because people and you know this people that are that are in politics know how to maneuver. Yes. Around people who don’t know what they’re talking about.

Fresh Knight It’s very.

Confucius Jones Easy. That’s why the rise of Trump happened, because most people don’t understand politics. And he knew that. He’s like, you don’t they don’t know what they’re going through. Whatever. I won’t believe it. And so that’s the problem with me in hip hop, is that a lot of hip hop artists try to use their influence. And I’m not mad at Jay-Z, Beyonce and, you know, stage Hillary, whatever. Cool. Endorsing somebody different than going out and saying, vote, vote, vote for me. And, you know, going to the campaign for.

Fresh Knight Standing, I’m endorsing him is totally different from being on CNN or sitting down with Fox News or being on MSNBC and trying to discuss these talking points. I’m standing next to Hillary, donating to her campaign, taking a picture with her and publicly endorsing her. Like I say, cool. If that’s what you want to endorse, that’s who you want to give your money to. That is. Go right ahead. That is your business. But once you start sitting down and start trying to regurgitate her talking points, now I got to issue because do you really know what you talking about? Is this really the realm that you should be in? I applaud rappers for having some type of effort in the arena, but I don’t need you trying to regurgitate somebodies talking points or talking points you have heard. I don’t need that from you. If you want to be involved, you encourage people to vote, help raise money for some for candidates fundraiser that you believe in. But I don’t need you sitting down on national television trying to convince me that you are as smart as you believe you are. I just I don’t need that.

Confucius Jones Yeah, because even with Jay-Z, I say that they just basically endorse Hillary and kind of just, you know, brought out on stage. That’s about it. They go out there and start talking about, you know, she just policy. She is right. Like I appreciate Jay-Z Beyonce. We realized we don’t know exactly everything. So we’re not going to go that route. And I’ll say this at the end. It one of the reasons I believe that Black America is not where we should be politically is because of our lack of political knowledge. A lot of other racial ethnic groups studied the politics that benefit them the best and get behind it, whether it be financially or just physically. Right. Unfortunately, a lot of Black mayors, especially in this political climate, we get so caught up in clickbait a lot. And I’m saying it’s all because these communities where, you know, I can’t read and I see comment from everybody, but I just know from the people we talked to, they’ll say like, well, you know, I saw this thing on, did it buy this cloning clone and Gucci Mane like, bro, come on, please stop. Like if you go in the comment section of any like gossip site on Instagram, when you bring up politics, is most people talking about things they don’t understand, or you get the one comment on somebody being in there actually breaking down things and somebody like you doesn’t just allow you to listen to propaganda. And so that’s why I say Black celebrities have to be careful about trying to jump into the ring, because you’re already dealing with people who don’t have the political knowledge that they should, and you don’t want to go in there with the same political knowledge thinking, you know what you’re talking about.

Fresh Knight I look at it sometimes. I think I got on here and said, I disagree with this, this statement at one point. But when I see certain rappers doing what we were talking about, I think about Malcolm X, I think about Malcolm X when he sits up and he says, well, why are our leaders, the ballplayers and the entertainers and the singers? You don’t look at anybody else’s community, and you see that when I see Ice Cube sitting down with Tucker Carlson and I just be like, this is what brother Malcolm was talking about. This is what he talked about. It’s just like you said, you start. Speaking, and then you just start spewing the opposition’s talking points, and now you start to sound like them. And now we sitting there trying to figure, well, are you for us or are you not? Is it the same guy that was sitting down in an interview on MTV and had the Nation of Islam standing behind him? Just this is this is the same Ice Cube, and I hate to keep going at Ice Cube, but I don’t know, it’s just easy to it’s.

Confucius Jones Well, my ice cube has gone down a rabbit hole.

Fresh Knight Too. Yeah. It’s just it’s.

Confucius Jones Evolved.

Fresh Knight You start to look at it and just like, yo, is this the is this the same guy who had some very rather socio political lyrics in the 90s? This is the same guy. Wow. Like you kind of flipped to the other side of the coin and like I said, I don’t need it. I don’t need that from a rapper. If you want to encourage people to vote, if you want to throw a fundraiser for a candidate that you believe in, cool. But I don’t need you sitting down just regurgitating somebody else’s talking points. Man, are you just giving your opinion with no real solutions? I just do not need that. Don’t go anywhere. We’ll be right back.

Confucius Jones Hip hop facts. Time the time of the show. We present facts about the culture. Like I tell people, it’s always interesting to do these because I learn something new, because I don’t know what fresh facts are. He don’t know mine. So, but with that being said, I’ll let you lead the way.

Fresh Knight First I want to say happy birthday to a method man. He’s turning 53 today. Clifford smith. Yeah. Clifford Smith, man born in 1971. I dance in Staten Island. Shaolin. Also Rick Ross. It’s the anniversary of his album mastermind. Mastermind you, which I would say is his last. Really? Like. Strong good album.

Confucius Jones You can hear the budget.

Deezie Brown If.

Confucius Jones Def Jam.

Fresh Knight It was the last one that I think, like the last strong, cohesive album from him.

Confucius Jones Yeah, it was executive produced by Diddy. But yeah. Go ahead. First fight.

Fresh Knight That was mine. Oh, wait. No, those are mine. That was my first mistake. No.

Confucius Jones I am not mad.

Fresh Knight That’s Jack with a Chico man. I have a gigantically with Chico.

Confucius Jones In fact, I forgot. My first one is somebody else who’s celebrating a birthday. Actually, it’s tomorrow. It’s Stone Luke. Legendary West Coast rapper Tony love.

Fresh Knight Coleman. Dino.

Confucius Jones Tony, look, as an actor, he was an Ace Ventura. What do you, baby? Basically, it’s.

Fresh Knight Yeah, he was. He was peewee. Peewee.

Confucius Jones Yeah.

Fresh Knight And he did, poetic justice.

Confucius Jones The poetic justice. He also appeared in, episode eight, season two of touched by an Angel. Episode was called Operation Smile.

Fresh Knight That don’t suck me at all.

Confucius Jones So I have not seen the episode that I was. It’s not, I don’t think touched By an Angel is streaming everywhere.

Fresh Knight I don’t think so either. Or syndicated anywhere.

Confucius Jones Oh no, I’m landing on Amazon Prime.

Fresh Knight But of course it is.

Confucius Jones Yeah. No, right. It’s Broadway, not dooby. It’s on Amazon Prime and Paramount. But I need to go back and watch it. I should have watched it.

Fresh Knight He has some. He has some credits.

Confucius Jones Yeah, he does.

Fresh Knight And he’s been on a couple of TV show, a few TV shows in the 90s that.

Confucius Jones In Don’t Look was pretty big. He was nominated for a Grammy.

Fresh Knight He was not very best, you know, best new artist.

Confucius Jones Yeah. I think he.

Fresh Knight Lost like 89.

Confucius Jones 89, 89. Yeah, he did an Ace Ventura centric hit song with Jim Carrey. So yeah, don’t look with me one boy. But yeah, he’s an touched by an angel.

Fresh Knight While thing is his biggest, it’s his biggest song to date. Still the biggest?

Confucius Jones I think so, yeah.

Fresh Knight Well shout out don’t look me 50 I, I he’s young. I didn’t think he would.

Confucius Jones I thought he was older than that.

Fresh Knight He was older than that. Well.

Confucius Jones He he came in the game.

Fresh Knight You usually he still looked 40 when he came back.

Confucius Jones The West Coast living on.

Fresh Knight My second fact is so math, I learned that he helped Eve get into rapping.

Confucius Jones Oh, I’ve heard the story.

Fresh Knight Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Confucius Jones I’m sure. Where did he meet her at?

Fresh Knight Eve says that when she was younger, before she got into rap, she was stripping. She was in a strip club in Philadelphia, and mace was in there, and she said when she was a she said she was lazy when she was on the job. And instead of dancing all day, she would rap. And, you know, I.

Confucius Jones Guess I wish to hell.

Fresh Knight I guess that worked for her. I don’t know, I don’t know nobody throw money at it. But she said that.

Confucius Jones They would go to, that type of club and see a girl on stage rapping, what the heck is this?

Fresh Knight She was at the gentlemen’s club and she would rap while she was on stage or whatever, and she said, you know, when I came in and he saw her, he was like, and he told her, yo, you don’t belong here. And she said with like an attitude, like, you don’t know me. What? What are you talking about? He was like, nah, man, like you should be doing something else. Something better than this. Something greater than this. He invited her and some friends out, and it was in a limo all night, and he just was in there rapping, and he was putting on beats and she was rapping to him. And that helped get her started. And going and getting into rap was later she ends up being all Rough Riders First Lady, platinum selling, getting her own television show, all that good stuff.

Confucius Jones Which we call the Eve show her name, even.

Fresh Knight Though that’s why I.

Confucius Jones Don’t understand the answers on the test. Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard that. So before I do, I fully believe that that happened.

Fresh Knight No, I don’t really believe that how it happened, but.

Confucius Jones I highly doubt he’s like, you know what I mean? Instead of me coming here to, you know, giving you money, I’m just going to help you with your dream.

Fresh Knight That’s the abridged version she wants to give. I’m cool.

Confucius Jones With.

Fresh Knight It, man.

Confucius Jones I love you. You bleed alley. Yes, you. You were just right. Okay, but. Moving on. CJ’s rude.

Fresh Knight Yeah.

Confucius Jones The, Houston Texans, the.

Fresh Knight Rookie Houston Texans player.

Confucius Jones Of the year, played in Snoop Dogg’s youth football league.

Fresh Knight I think I heard it, I think I heard Snoop say it or somebody brought it or he brought it.

Confucius Jones It would bring basically bragging about how the NFL players he can put through. And he mentioned C.J. shroud CDs, Rowdies from the L.A. area. And so yeah, because you know that Snoop Youth Football League provide underprivileged kids, with opportunities, you know, for like, like professional football kind of even Vince Staples. Yeah. We are enabling the back of jerseys and everything because he Vince Staples played with it too. But yeah C.J. Stroud man he used to play able to guy.

Fresh Knight That shout out to Snoop to help in making dreams come true man.

Confucius Jones I see that Snoop.

Fresh Knight Bacon of Vince Staples now and him playing football is a.

Confucius Jones Tall statement. Would it matter what you did in football?

Fresh Knight He might be six feet.

Deezie Brown Might be. Yeah.

Fresh Knight 14. Vinnie, my third and final fact, the real simple one, master killer of Wu-Tang clan is apparently related to Marvin Gaye and Nat Turner.

Confucius Jones I’ve heard that, first of all, how you know, he’s played Nat Turner, but.

Fresh Knight That, that that that that, I don’t know, it’s.

Confucius Jones Very possible that there.

Fresh Knight Is, you know, this is what I read. I’m not sure how the family tree connects him to Marvin Gaye, but I’ve read and heard several times that he is somehow related to Marvin Gaye and Nat Turner.

Confucius Jones I mean, you know, I mean, I’m not going to.

Fresh Knight I ain’t gonna be telling me lie any more. I said he was a descendant of Frederick Douglass, and the Frederick Douglass descendants came and say, no, you’re not. No you’re not.

Confucius Jones It’s true. My final fact is going to be something related to, the anniversary for rails album girl, his second album, solo album girl.

Fresh Knight That was the second album. Why do you think, though, like his third or fourth?

Confucius Jones Well, the first one was In search of. No, it wasn’t the first one they had that, the first one was had that girl on it. And number one, that song I hate.

Fresh Knight Okay, so am I. It was in my mind.

Confucius Jones Could you apply thinking of the N.e.r.d albums?

Fresh Knight No, no, I said I separate those. I just thought he had more than three albums. I don’t. I don’t know what.

Confucius Jones This girl is. The second one he put out.

Fresh Knight Wow.

Confucius Jones Yes.

Fresh Knight We did listen to that one. I’m.

Confucius Jones So active. I get why you would think like. Oh, well, he’s always on stuff.

Fresh Knight I’m saying I know that is happy.

Confucius Jones Yeah. But that album came out in 2014, so celebrating ten years tomorrow on that album, there’s a song called freak. No, I’m sorry, I got lost. Queen. It’s a it’s it’s the song. It’s eight minutes long. Right at the end of it, a song called Freak Comes On, which features Jojo, uncredited, singing on its own.

Fresh Knight I love the fact. Yeah. Oh, okay. I mean, I wouldn’t. I didn’t, I lived in Alabama. Like I said, I was happy.

Confucius Jones Yeah. I kind of like the album got thrown out there. Just got that. I think so, too. Happy. It’s good to have a man with you, so. But you have to. Jo Jo. Jo Jo is very talented, and I think it was an anniversary or two of her first album, which came out 20 years ago.

Deezie Brown Get out. I don’t know how.

Confucius Jones She read that stuff this weekend. Killed it.

Fresh Knight I didn’t, Jo Jo beach.

Confucius Jones Jo Jo. It’s just, just getting back out because she was on to the same label of, like, around. Yeah. I don’t know what they got going on over there.

Fresh Knight I don’t think nobody was pushing that.

Confucius Jones I just know everybody that was on there hates that place.

Fresh Knight You know, they didn’t release.

Confucius Jones Jo Jo with, like, she went multi-platinum.

Fresh Knight I think when they got the one, the rights and all of that, and they ended up streaming nobody.

Confucius Jones Well, Jo Jo did her album.

Fresh Knight Yeah, that I know.

Confucius Jones You know, the whole tattoo, we did hers and all that. So. But that’s my final fact. Unpopular opinion. Time with fresh himself.

Fresh Knight All right. Let’s just get to it. Like some of our unpopular opinions, I hear somebody say something and get a little spark of ideas for an unpopular opinion. I don’t remember who I heard say this, but this one is more so. Me posing a question. Has Houston been selfish? And when I say that, I mean when people think about Texas, they automatically think about Houston. Then they might think about Dallas. The name I think about us in the in, in San Antonio or some other place. They might even think about Corpus Christi, since that is the home of the late, great Selena. But for the most part, they go straight to Houston. Houston is looked at as the Mecca of Texas culture, at least when it comes to rap. Right.

Confucius Jones Yeah.

Fresh Knight So I got to thinking, has the music ecosystem of Houston been rather selfish? And I say that because I look at it like. I think a lot of artists in Texas. Run to Houston thinking that if I get pop it in Houston, I’m good to go. Everything is here in Houston. The deejays, radio stations, the promoters, you know, the big name artists that’ll help propel me into stardom. And I’ll be good. Just look at all the guys that came out and literally everybody that came out of Houston, man. They seem to be thriving. And then people get there and it doesn’t really work out the way that they. One. So I just think that if the musical ecosystem in Houston showed a little more love to some artists. Throughout the state of Texas when they come through. Like it could help the state itself be this powerhouse. Of a hotbed of artists, especially when it comes to rap and R&B. Because mainly when you see somebody driving in from Texas, they end up being from Houston or out of Houston. Most of them were from or born and raised in the Houston area. From Beyonce to Normani, Travis Scott, Maxo, Candyman, Megan, etc. etc. and those are just I was the those outside of Beyoncé. All the more recent stars that have emerged from Houston. I think that if the music ecosystem of Houston, the radio stations, the deejays, the promoters like really looked at some artists from Dallas, Dallas would have been would have already had his proverbial seat at the table, because even artists in Dallas will tell you that, yo, we still trying to get it. We still we still won’t. We still are kind of on the outside looking in and looking at things that we have done that everybody else has kind of come to Dallas and take in and push, and I’ve seen it like during Dallas Boogie era. Yes, the boogie era was poppin in Dallas, but I think Dallas. I think Dallas is a little more self-contained than other places in the state of Texas. What goes on in Dallas goes on in Dallas from the music, the fashion lingo, all of that is kind of really you only see that in Dallas or the DFW metroplex. But during the Boogie era, when Houston deejays got Ahold of it and Houston artists got Ahold of the sound, it took off. It took off. It was national. You even saw people out in California taking it and making it. This whole making it, trying to do their own, like Teach Me How to Dougie, which had already been done by a little while in Dallas with my dog and, the cat daddy was just the Ricky Bobby. And I think that explosion happened because not solely because. But I think it really helped when Houston DJ got Ahold of the Fat Pimps and the Young Nations and all of those artists. And it help spread it out throughout the state of Texas. Because if Houston says it’s cool, then it’s cool. Beeching took the saddle and took off with it is still running around making boogie music. Yeah, or Dallas style music. He makes it, you know. He does it so well that he still to this day has to tell people, yo, I’m from North Houston. Like I am not from Dallas. I just make music that sounds like it comes from Dallas, but I am from Houston. The Man of Steel says this to this day. But once again, if Houston says it’s cool, is cool. I think if the same love was shown to. A San Antonio artist, or a Corpus Christi artist, or an Austin artist. The same effect would happen that if a be it the music has to be good, the music has to be good. Boogie music was just good. You may not know, they was just rapping. Baa baa baa the greatest. But it was good music. Especially when you were in a club or a party or just want to have a good time. But I think the effect of Houston Radio, Houston deejays and all these other artists jumping on it and doing remixes helped the Boogie era prosper and spread out. And I also say that because I also went to Prévue, which is right outside of Houston, and saw it like happen and watched the spread and watched us here and Austin jump on it. Mainly because, I mean, I heard that point, Houston, I thought it was from Houston. Then they found out that they was from Dallas. Like I said, if Houston says it’s cool, is cool, and I think Houston could be a little more, what’s the word I’m looking for? Not selfish, I don’t know.

Deezie Brown No, no, no.

Fresh Knight I can’t take it a word. If they get a word, I will pick it up. But yeah, I just be. Yeah, I mean, I, this one was throwaway, man. I couldn’t think of nothing better. I really kind of thing in that way. And I said I did it sooner. I should’ve did this one sooner.

Confucius Jones I don’t agree, only because I don’t know. Houston thrives off of this mentality of they’re still the underdog. It’s crazy. Yeah. No. If you if you talk to most Houston artists, even the ones that are stabbed, like the slim thugs at the park walls, they talk like, you know, we’re still in the mindset of it’s 2000. We’re trying to prove ourselves.

Fresh Knight Well, I think that’s because of the way people treat Texas rappers in Texas. Well, at least treat that generation of Texas rappers like I once heard some thug on the radio and in Iliad and ask them something about steel tipping. And he was like, man, that was ten years ago. He was like, that was ten. That was. And this was in like 2014. He was I mean, that was ten years ago. I’ve had plenty of other albums and projects since then. And you asking me about something from ten years ago, I think hip hop media has only focused on that portion of Texas, of Houston, and only looking in lock in on that was like, well, bro, we’ve done more. Now they have more to talk about with Travis and Megan and to man and all of them.

Confucius Jones It seems like every state that has a major hip hop city, that it’s just that one city that’s contained because the music that comes out of L.A. doesn’t sound like music comes out of the bay. And it’s almost an argument that just because N.W.A. Doc Dre blew up didn’t mean that E-40 in 2000 had it easier. I’m pretty sure there’s rappers in Savannah, Georgia case in all Atlanta. You see, a Griselda won’t shut up about being from Buffalo, understandably, but apparently New York’s success didn’t help Buffalo.

Fresh Knight It didn’t.

Confucius Jones So it’s one of those things where Houston can only do so much. I think Austin’s problem is that for too long we were trying to be Houston. So I think now we’re finally kind of getting away from that.

Fresh Knight But I think we’re getting away from it because that’s not the proven the sound anymore in Houston.

Confucius Jones At that point.

Fresh Knight I think that’s the only reason why I think if the screw era sound was still the prevalent sound, it would be plenty of artists in Austin still trying to sound like screw era artists.

Confucius Jones And I think, too, they realize that you get you doing his own song with zero. A little flip would go get you what you thought was.

Fresh Knight That money and then ain’t working.

Confucius Jones Exactly. Y’all doing the same job, the same spot. So no, I mean, it is what it is. Everybody needs to find their own way. And I think the only way for music itself to. Any city in Musical City has to find its own identity. Nashville and Memphis can’t be the same.

Fresh Knight And they are.

Confucius Jones Not at all. Like I said, the Bay in L.A., they have two different sounds. Dallas and Houston, like you mentioned, have two different sounds. Also, gotta find it sound. Anybody saying find a sound or something doesn’t sound like something that’s already been before us. And I’m not saying like. Everybody knows he’s making one thing, but it shouldn’t sound like something that actually came down to down to.

Fresh Knight Got you got you got you got.

Confucius Jones So I mean, I like the unpopular opinion though.

Fresh Knight Yeah, I appreciate it. Yeah. I had it more well thought out last night. I should have wrote it all down, but I’m working on it. I’m working on it. And now let’s get informed, man. Let’s get some news in our live. Here is Confucius reads the news.

Confucius Jones Good old news time. I like the news. Somebody was telling me to watch, and I was super broke, and, like, I feel like nobody watches the news anymore.

Fresh Knight I mean, I watch.

Confucius Jones I think I’m more. Here’s why I do the news. It’s because people have so many opinions about what happens in the news, but I don’t watch it. So I’m trying to at least kind of guide them in the right direction.

Fresh Knight I mean, we’ve been out and we’ve heard people say they like this segment is their favorite segment. They look forward to hearing you.

Confucius Jones I’ve never heard that before.

Fresh Knight I’ve I’ve definitely I’ve definitely heard it. So maybe you are in with me 181.

Confucius Jones Yeah, I’ve never heard that. But I’m glad people like it. It’s out to them. You know, I have three children, right? I assume I’m finished with kids. I assume I’m done having kids. Kids are a blessing. I love my kids to death.

Fresh Knight But no.

Confucius Jones More. I don’t want to start over. The same can’t be said for Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.

Fresh Knight Gosh, what a segue.

Confucius Jones A judge’s order Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said he must take a paternity test to determine whether he’s the biological father of a woman who sued him last year.

Fresh Knight 89 oh eight. But it never stops working out, and you don’t have to answer.

Confucius Jones I wish you just had one. So he’s 81 now? Actually, according to Yahoo News, actually USA today, the decision was made after hearing earlier this month. According to documents obtained by The Dallas Morning News, the woman, 27 year old Alexandria Davis, has said in court documents that her mother’s ex-husband is not her father and that was confirmed through genetic testing. Now, glad to you. If I found out I had a 27 year old age one, I’d be mad as hell. I ain’t got no money. I ain’t got no way I can even do it. I can’t even do it, man.

Fresh Knight It’s kind of hard when you know you yourself or a multimillionaire.

Confucius Jones All those times he popped up at postgame interviews, for whatever reason, they come to buy vitamin A, we get.

Deezie Brown You.

Confucius Jones Y’all can’t name every NFL team. Y’all can name Jerry Jones.

Fresh Knight I really can’t say like, I think I can only name Jerry Jones.

Confucius Jones Oh, man. Because they don’t help. The Dallas Cowboys are the most profitable, most valuable sports team in the world. But yeah, she sued him in 2023 for defamation, alleging that Jones and two others made deliberate attempts to call her out as an extortionist and shakedown artist. The case was refiled in November. After being partially dismissed in October, we found that JJ Jones got some old goons pulling up like I was naming Jango. I can’t say nothing out of this. Well, he but I would.

Fresh Knight It wouldn’t surprise me if he if he has some people on a payroll like that.

Confucius Jones I agree. Speaking of old decrepit white men, Mitch McConnell is stepping down from his GOP leadership position in the Senate in November because once you see the face of death in piles at the podium.

Fresh Knight I’m telling you, you.

Confucius Jones Start to make some different decisions.

Fresh Knight I see an angel himself walk in the room, suddenly got cold.

Confucius Jones He says that he is going to stop November. That’s going to be the end of my contributions and they are closer than I prefer. He says that as I’ve been thinking about when I would deliver some news to the Senate, I always imagine a moment when I had total clarity and peace about the sunset of my work, a moment when I’m certain that I have helped preserve the ideals I so strongly believe. That day arrived today. Let’s go down some of the things that, good ol Mitch McConnell is doing when he’s in a leadership position. He basically blew up how he nominates Supreme Court justice because he refused to even have a hearing on on one when about Obama was president. So that’s why Trump got three of them. Let’s see what else he did. Doing that also led to the path to Roe v Wade being overturned. He also helped with the rise of Trump. And regardless how you feel about that, that’s something that’s going to be interesting. We say it in history books. So yeah, like I said before the show, I always imagine Mitch McConnell retiring by getting thrown down a shaft by his apprentice who has breathing problems. But, I mean, I guess he’s going to step down on his own accord, gasping for air.

Fresh Knight Calling him the Emperor.

Confucius Jones Palpatine get thrown out of shaft, shoe electricity out his fingers. Yes, that’s exactly I pitched him going out, but, now I can see he’s going to take over him. Mitch McConnell, in my opinion, has a feeling that Trump might win again in November. Was like, I can’t be about this anymore. I gotta get out. Because why would you? Why would you wait till November to quit?

Fresh Knight I see that definitely being the reason that I don’t want to do another round of this. Another for you. If he wins another four years of this, I don’t want to do.

Confucius Jones I’m cool. Yeah. Because it’s one thing to try to, you know, and every, every politician and party does it to try to align yourself with somebody politically for political power. But like a lot come for Trump. So Trump ego to sit back player. Thank you. It’s going to be a this can be a lot I’m going to do a lot of groveling that made this song so far. You can get with the double cheeseburger at McDonald’s with Trump. So going to off the news, people have started to ask questions because about the homicide rate in Austin. Like, is it worse than it was last year? But in reality, according to information obtained by Casey and the NBC Austin affiliate, according to the Austin Police Department, there have been 11 homicides so far this year, while in 2023 there were 15 homicides by the end of February. So we do not have as many murders we did last year, only four. But you know, we’re not first 48 level yet.

Fresh Knight I try to tell y’all that y’all okay for me about that interview. I knew for a city once again, stop trying to give me your opinion and listen to fact.

Confucius Jones They live with a lot for us. Yeah. For us. That’s a combination of things, you know, people come. The bigger the city grows, the more crime there is. I want to see the statistics of where these homicides mostly happen, in that the graph doesn’t say.

Fresh Knight They never do.

Confucius Jones Because I’m going to assume they happen a lot at night on sixth Street. No, I don’t mean.

Fresh Knight I think they happen.

Confucius Jones I don’t like street no more.

Fresh Knight I think they happen in what people would say in the urban areas, which. And when you’re in the city, it’s all urban. So I mean, that’s why I never understood that term, but works. I think most of the homicides or isolated incidents, people hear homicides and they see the rate. And then they think that, like it’s just something sinister going on, looking at, look at all these murders, and then you just see the like, well, none of these are connected. Like these are really just isolated incidents, crimes of passion. So on and so forth.

Confucius Jones Yeah, I’ve said it for years. Austin doesn’t want police in this city to actually have something to do because it’s going to be all bad. Like we’ve been coasting by for years with not bad crime and sort of police probably have to kind of find things to do, but don’t give them like a reason to actually have to really go out there and turn this thing in the first 40 acres. I want to explain, y’all that six Street Fight video that was like going on that video cop falling off horses and you know, somebody dressed like Donald Duck, you know? Please, we don’t need that. So moving on to something that is depressing the Middle East still ongoing war with Palestine and Israel. On Thursday morning, it was reported that more than 100 people were killed and hundreds more injured when the IDF allegedly opened fire at a food distribution site in Gaza. Biden came out and said, Hope springs eternal. I was on the telephone with people in the region. I’m still probably not by Monday, but I’m hopeful they were trying to. He said that because they were trying to be negotiators for a cease fire. I’ve seen clips of Biden come out saying, you know, they should you know, he’s we should tone it down. Excuse my language. What the does that mean? What do you mean? Tone it down, bro. If you buy your teenage son a car with loud music in it, right? And you go outside and say, hey mate, maybe turn the music down. You probably should have bought him the car with the loud music getting. It’s getting to the point where there’s a lot of questions of what is really going on. It’s not about sides. What I feel is, what are we really doing over there? And yet the white House response to it, this whole like, well, you know, we try to tell them to calm down. What do you mean? What are you talking about? Like, we saw clips there. Kind of like, you know, we totally, you know, chill out on, you know, basically telling somebody. Civilian’s. What? Look, Hiroshima. Nagasaki happened in a period of, what, two days? Yes, and that was horrible.

Fresh Knight Very much so.

Confucius Jones Horrible. We’re the only country in the history of the world that’s ever dropped a atomic bomb on another country. Imagine that happening over the span of months. Like that’s.

Fresh Knight Bad. I mean, the death toll.

Confucius Jones Yeah, the death toll. Right? There’s always going to be conflicting reports. How many people have died on each side? Because, of course, one sides will make it seems like worse than the other. But when reports are coming out where people are getting shot up at a food distribution site, that’s pretty bad. Granted, like I said last week. And here’s what gets me about people who make these opinions about, you know, Biden is bad and Trump is bad. Do you really think Trump will be any better in his approach to this? The man has openly said that Ukraine, he’d give Ukraine to Russia and he just ignore NATO, which has been in place since World War two. Trump moved. What was it he moved for, from Israel to Jerusalem. The first president to do it. It was on the, you know, Palestinian side. He moved it to the.

Fresh Knight It’s escaping me.

Confucius Jones I should look that up for you. Do you really think Trump will be any better? That’s my argument. That’s why I said, you know, sometimes you do have to kind of focus on domestic issues and trying to push forward the, Black American agenda as best you can. But don’t sit here and tell me that Biden and Trump had the same person. War is always going to bring out extreme sides. Franklin Delano Roosevelt famously did not want to drop bombs on Japan. As soon as FDR died. What did Truman do? Drop bombs on Japan. If you haven’t seen Oppenheimer. Spoiler alert. When I’m going to talk to Truman and say he had blood on his hands, Truman handed him a handkerchief. That’s just war. And this is my final segue. I just want people to be fair to what you’re seeing. I don’t want to hear about how old Biden is when Trump is, like, three years behind him. I want to hear about how funny Biden is walking with Trump on TV calling his wife Mercedes. I just want people to understand how bad it is overseas. Trust me, it can get a lot worse. It it’s a chance it might get really bad. And so instead of just trying to look at everything from a lens of, well, I just want somebody to stop it all, it’s not. Unfortunately, it’s not going to stop. That’s just the reality of it. Israel is America’s biggest ally, a strong as I like we have on them for 70 years. It’s going to continue to be that way. No president’s going to come out and say, sorry is where you got it from here. So all I’m saying is, going forward, guys, this is an election year. It’s going to get crazy out there. But please, please, please look at what’s on the ballot. And don’t vote with your heart. Vote for what you think can help push what you think is best. But I’m telling you right now, it’s going to be an issue. And that’s Confucius Reads the News.

Confucius Jones This episode of The Breaks podcast is a production of KUTX 98.9, The Austin Music Experience. You can listen to the Breaks radio show every Saturday night from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m.. This podcast is produced by Confucius Jones,   Fresh Knight and Elizabeth McQueen with editing help from Jack Anderson. Additional production help provided by Zahra Crim. You can   follow us on Instagram and Twitter. We are at TheBreaksKUTX and you can find more episodes at KUTX forward slash  The Breaks. Our theme song is by Austin artist Deezie Brown.

This transcript was transcribed by AI, and lightly edited by a human. Accuracy may vary. This text may be revised in the future.