The Breaks

In commemoration of J. Cole’s 39th birthday, Confucius and Fresh make a compelling argument for why Cole is the Nas of this generation. And if you’re a music manager or thinking of hiring one, the fellas also lay out the cornerstones of competence in Austin. Get that, an Unpopular Opinion about the impact of streaming on viewer experience, and of course Hip-Hop Facts plus Confucius Reads the news in this last episode for January 2024.

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 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 I was doing some research for the show, and I ran across an article that had a picture of  J. Cole, and I forgot what the article was about but J.Cole was in it. And, it’s one of those early pictures between sideline stories. What was the second one? Born center, born center where he was kind of finally focusing more on like trying to really become the artist he wanted to be. And I remember when he had that song was “I Failed Nas”?

Fresh Knight Let Nas Down.

Confucius Jones Let Nas Down. And I got to thinking it’s J. Cole like the Nas of the generation. And I say that to say Nas. While he’s been regarded as one of the top rappers of his time. What he was like, really, really going. He couldn’t get past kind of Jay-Z in a way. So I would say that J. Cole is the Nas to Drake’s Jay-Z. That’s one, but also him rapping at such a high level that it kind of doesn’t matter. You don’t really see it as much. So. I don’t know, is J. Cole the Nas of this generation?

Fresh Knight I think most people would agree with that. I think that’s kind of being the label that has been tagged with J. Cole since making the song, Let Nas Down. I think they kind of put things into perspective for a lot of people when it comes to like, I guess, musical comparisons, that he is this generation’s Nas and like you said, he would be the Nas to Drakes being Jay-Z, aside from them not beefing with each other. Yeah, I think there’s a lot of similarities to both Cole and Nas. They take a more, I will say, of an artistic approach to making music in wanting or at least wanting, having something to say. Most people will say, and some people will say both of them are boring at times.

Confucius Jones Jay and Nas?

Fresh Knight No, Nas and J Cole.

Confucius Jones Yeah, yeah.

I think most as the knock on J holds that, you know, his music is good for cleaning and I and I think to myself, I listen to a lot of a lot of stuff while cleaning doesn’t make it boring, but alright, but not going to admit that he is boring. I’ve heard people say Nas is kind of eh.

Confucius Jones Yeah, I think too, it’s they both exist in this place of. Hip hop superiority in a good way. Like you can say J.Cole music is cleaning music, but you’re not going to say he can’t rap, right? Same thing with Nas. Like people might say, well, I like Jay-Z better, but nobody’s going to say Nas can rap. So they both exist in that space. Also, Nas has way more albums than J. Cole currently Nas has 16 and J. Cole has seven. Take granted, J. Cole hasn’t been around as long. And also Nas has  been on a tear for sure for sure last few years. There you see J. Cole doing something like that at some point.

Fresh Knight I think the his equivalent of that is what he’s doing now with features, how he just jumps on every song and just been on a tear since like 2018.

Confucius Jones Yeah.

Fresh Knight Very true. I will look at it like that. I mean.

Confucius Jones Did Nas have a run like that at some point? Where he just like went did a bunch of features.

Fresh Knight I don’t think so not that I remember. Not that I can recall that he just was on this tear of features. He has some great features, but I don’t remember like one coming after the other for like what, six years straight?

Confucius Jones  Yeah. No.

Fresh Knight Yeah though I mean but yeah, Cole is definitely the Nas of his generation while being signed by Jay-Z, I think the song let Nas down and kind of let it be known that, like I kind of look up more to Nas like I’m looking more for his approval than I am for Jay’s approval. Even though I’m saying to him I’m looking for Jay’s approval because I’m signed to him and I want to get my music out. But when I put it out, I want Nas to feel a way about this. Like I want him to be a fan of me the way I was a fan of him. So like, yeah. And he felt bad. I think he did. I forgot what song it was, that Nas said like, “Yeah, that was trash. You shouldn’t did that.” But Cole was also like, but you may, you owe me. I thought you would, like, really understand about putting out a song you didn’t remember. If he says it in the song, in Let Nas Down. So I think.

Confucius Jones Oh, the only the only Mr.. Yeah, I remember that story.

Fresh Knight Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah. It was a nice. Let me. You owe me. You should really understand why a lot of people do a lot of things.

Confucius Jones So you know what we’re talking about. You owe me. But I’ve seen him perform at shows.

Fresh Knight I think you told me that he performs at a show. That I’m shocked. Cause annually I look at. You owe me the way I look at sunshine for Jay-Z. Like, yeah, you know, it’s in the catalog. Well, I don’t really see those guys wanting to perform that, but if not, they’re doing it. Hey man, Go Off Maybe is a bigger song than I thought. I don’t know.

Confucius Jones I like sunshine.

Fresh Knight Sunshine was definitely a bigger song than I thought it was. I mean, most people know sunshine.

Confucius Jones And yeah, I know, I mean, he never performed, but, you know, does J.Cole still perform stuff from his first album?

Fresh Knight I don’t think so. Maybe, was the joint with Missy Elliott.

Confucius Jones Nobody’s perfect.

Fresh Knight Yeah, I think that’s the only one.

Confucius Jones You definitely do it. I can’t get enough.

Fresh Knight No, I think that’s the only song that I know of that he might still perform. Other than that, no.

Confucius Jones  I’m pretty sure Nas does most of his catalog. He’s not – he’s going to do he’s going to do you know stuff off Illmatic. He probably does not. I don’t know by Nostradamus I.

Fresh Knight Don’t know if he performs Nostradamus, but he might perform something off of that album in Black Girl. Out on that album. Yes. He I think he performed with Black Girls.

Confucius Jones And Jake over here.

Fresh Knight And and you owe me. Was on you. You said he. He’s running around performing You owe me so.

Confucius Jones Oh, but, yeah, I do think J. Cole appears more than us than any of the artists of this era. No, I would say the only thing to is between the Nas to Jay-Z and Drake to J. Cole. Is that Drake is a much bigger artist than everybody. There was a time with Jay and I were kind of neck and neck. But I mean, everybody knows nobody touches Drake.

Fresh Knight So yeah, I think that will be the only thing that kind of the difference in the comparison is, like you said, Drake is just when it comes to rap, especially Drake is the biggest in the room. But as we said, when it’s all said and done, Drake will probably surpass and be considered the greatest of all time, but I don’t think Cole will be far behind. If not, the argument will continue about him being better and throwing Kendrick in there somewhere.

Confucius Jones Yeah, no, I think Old Legacy is submented. I don’t think it’s much more than he needs to do to prove what he is. But like say he gets on his features though, and then it’s like he’s like, I think think was on the song. Right. But he even Drake’s thing is Drake is just if you compare to Jay-Z at this point in time, he’s way past that. Drake is a huge international. Jay-Z is kind of international for the most part. But.

Fresh Knight I mean, I would say he I believe he can do his show overseas and it’d be a successful show. And people overseas know who Jay-Z is and know the music, but I don’t think he’s as big international wise as Drake is.

Confucius Jones You obviously go by the same way.

Fresh Knight Considering Jay-Z doesn’t really put out music like that either, though.

Confucius Jones Yeah, I think he goes on world tours like that. Yeah. So how do you feel about the hip hop and R&B scene as it stands right now.

Fresh Knight As it stands right now? The hip hop and R&B scene in Austin is, I will say, thriving.

Confucius Jones We both talked about that last week. It’s going in a great direction.

Fresh Knight It’s trending upward, is trending upward.

Confucius Jones Now, on the flip side of that, what are some things you think kind of hinder it from going a little bit faster?

Fresh Knight Management.

Confucius Jones Oh we’re like on the price is the right; the word here is. I agree. In your experience, some shows we’ve put on and all we deal with are even trying to get interviews up here or whatever. Is it sometimes harder for Austin artists to get that message across? Or the other artists we’ve dealt with?

Fresh Knight Yeah, I feel like reaching out to artists is frustrating. I’ll say that it’s frustrating because I don’t know from experience, artists don’t seem to comprehend well, for some reason. And then you would think that, all right, I’ll just talk to the manager and then you get to management. The management doesn’t comprehend well. And it’s like, what am I saying? That is not being understood correctly. Like when we want to have somebody interviewed here and we reach out and say, hey, yo, we want to have you on the show, bring you up to talk about the album and, you know, the new single, we need you here at this time, here, here. Are. We got to be up there at that one. Like I got to be there by that. Yes, that’s that’s what I said. And then if they have an artist, has a manager, you think, all right, the manager is going to be able to get them here, get them here on time and we can do this. And then when that doesn’t happen now you just sitting here scratching your head like, yo, where was the disconnect? Where was the mis communication. Like what happened between my communication with your manager and communication between your manager and you that caused things to go awry is disarray.

Confucius Jones What I was thinking, too, is, for instance, you have people that come from out of town to come here, that don’t have sometimes the jaded view of, like a lot of us do about the city that we grew up in. Right? So somebody have come here from out of town and they’ll say to themselves, hey, I like the scene and what I’ve found, and I want to be a manager there. You just seems to work at better than the person who’s been here a while and tries to manage it like they’re managing their best friend, from what I’ve experienced is a lot of times artists want to get managers before they’re ready. If you’re not getting your phone blown up, you don’t need somebody.

Fresh Knight Yeah, I think people get a manager because they think that’s what is needed.

Confucius Jones They’re not a booking agent, but you have people that you ask like, well, where’s my manager at? Oh, you know where we grew up together. Are they going to school for this? Like what are their order? You know, they just do x, y, z. And that’s sometimes when things get lost in translation. What I don’t like is the party promoter who becomes a manager, because most times they’re just trying to set up the client for parties. If you’re trying to be an artist to perform, you want somebody who like, you know, can get you in those places. But I asked a friend of the show, Wayne. I said, what for management companies. Do you know of an Austin like major ones? He says Laurel management, True Grit, 888 and why and how. And I also wondered what those type of management services, how many of those are reaching out, are looking into the scene to try to manage hip hop, hip hop and R&B. Also a lot them don’t have to settle for their friends right.

Fresh Knight I’m familiar with a couple of them, and I know they’re either are or have been some artists from the scene who have been represented by a couple of those companies. Well, some you said “I always thought about” You like you know, somebody gets their friend or somebody they grew up with or somebody they’re close with to end up being their manager. And I get it. It makes sense in an artist’s head, they’re like, you know, this guy’s with me. They’re here all the time. They see me working. They can help me out, especially if they’re going to be around and want to kind of reap some type of benefit after it. Let’s say I blow up and like, yeah, they help me get there so I can understand their line of thinking a lot. You know, I just make them the manager. But like you say, like, what are they going for school for this. And to my knowledge, there isn’t really a class or like that’s not a major in college to be a music manager. Yeah. Like business management is a major. But like, I don’t know anybody that has gone to school and say like, oh, well, no, I’m majoring in, you know, music, you know, music management, trying to be a manager. When I get out of here, I’m trying to trying to rap artists. I think that just for a lot of people, I think that’s something you fall into because you just happen to know people and you have made connections doing whatever it was that you were doing. Like most managers, I think in hip hop have stumbled into it, like I would say, the late Holbein, who at one point was managing Troy and he started out he was Troy’s manager, I don’t know who’s managing Troy now, though. Not my business, but I know Holbein was at one point, and I believe Holbein was managing smoke design and styles P upon his untimely passing. But I don’t think Holbein went to school for it. I think Holbein just happened to be a guy who was from New York, and moving around the city made some connections and felt like I can help further an artist’s career, especially after helping build up Troy. So I think a lot of people come into management that way, but it’s not for everybody. I’ll say that everybody can’t do. And I think most people think like jumping into management is something easy that everybody can do. It’s a skill. I will say that.

Confucius Jones Yeah, there’s a lot of former managers running around, but.

Fresh Knight I’m one of them.

Confucius Jones Right. Same. I’m not. Yeah. Same. Yeah. You just need you know somebody that like you said it’s like like a whole vein. Like it’s just a dog and just doing everything they can to help, their, their artist out the best way they can. But I just think it really does help sometimes to have a fresh pair of eyes. And that’s why I’m a fan of the out of town person becoming a manager. If you think about some of the artists that we’ve dealt with, their managers from out of town. Yeah, you know, I think Mike Milano’s group is and I know Bruce Frisch, that people from out of town. So you, you have this more a mentality of this can work because they’re not seeing the same limitations. People from here do we talk may you talk about on the phone the other day about how when, you know, I come visit your apartment, I think, oh, fresh apartments, nice and clean is cool over here. When I leave, you might notice like, oh, well, you know, the couch is not as comfortable at the sheet has been moved. And so that’s what we, like we said about artists here in the city, they hindered themselves because they had this negative view. But when you get a manager that doesn’t have that view, I think it definitely helps for sure.

Fresh Knight For sure. Piggybacking on your point about having a fresh pair of eyes or somebody being from out of town, I think, and my, my or our experience, those have kind of, I won’t say have been the best, but have probably been the easiest to work with because some of those individuals are coming from a bigger market or coming from a much bigger city in a much busier scene, to where they have this perspective of, well, you know, out there in L.A. or in New York or in Atlanta when, you know, somewhere in Miami, like, this is how it works. I’m coming here thinking that I got to do the same thing that I was doing out there. And it’s not working like that out here, and I’m having to adjust, but it’s an easier adjustment to do it because I was talking to the process fresh manager, and he was like, I’m coming from L.A. and he was like, everything here is in emails and email. He was like, it’s kind of an insult in L.A. to shoot somebody an email like, you don’t like do that. Like if they know you and I just need a favor. But like here, everything is worked out. Email. And he was like, I mean, he was like, I can do it. That’s fairly easy for me to shoot off email and just wait for the response. I just think people coming from those situations, like you said, have a different perspective on it and looking it out and like, well, I like this. This is cool, this is easy. This scene and moving around here is a lot more manageable than moving around in LA or New York. And everything is go, go go go go. I can take time and shoot this email off and then sit over here and we can sit out and plan the next marketing for whatever single or album that we got coming or show.

Confucius Jones Yeah, no I agree. And I also just hope that the people in this city are the managers out there. Obviously from the companies I named. Doing their due diligence to try to help out the hip hop and R&B scene as well, for sure.

Fresh Knight I hope those companies and any other one that wasn’t named in the city are looking. We are looking inward to see what talent is ready and can be prepped for that next level, because I think that will help. We have all of these entities apparently have all of these entities in the city that aren’t looking inward. And I think that kind of stifles the seen, like if we have management companies in here, but nobody’s looking at the artists to say, I want it, they’re ready. They’re a star. Let’s see if we can get them to that star level. And you just letting it fall by the wayside like yeah that’s not really progressing anything here.

Confucius Jones So hopefully, you know, I mean, it’s one of the things I want to see improved this year. But we’ll see, you know make sure you management’s up to par guys and gals.

Fresh Knight Yeah. And don’t get one before you need one. Because I think that hurts a lot of you. And get someone who is competent.

Confucius Jones No. God.

Fresh Knight Get someone that’s competent. I’ve met a lot of y’all that are just not competent, man. All say. We’ll be right back after this quick break.

Confucius Jones And now it’s time for Hip Hop Fix. Some people’s favorite segment. One of my favorite segments. We all learn something new every day.

Fresh Knight Yeah, let’s let’s let’s get educated.

Confucius Jones You go ahead and go first.

Fresh Knight Well, this weekend, tomorrow to be exact. Well, not tomorrow. The 28th is the 28th Monday? What is it, Monday? No, no no, no, it’s Sunday. Sunday? Sunday. Because I got a doctor’s appointment on 29th. The 28th, we will be celebrating the birthdays of Rick Ross, J. Cole, and Rock Kim. Now, I knew J. Cole and Rock Kim shared a birthday. I had no idea that was Rick Ross’s birthday. So little fun fact there.

Confucius Jones Yeah, I had no idea either. Wow. Interesting. My first fact is the TLC biggest song, waterfalls, was produced by Organized Noise, which is the production team that discovered Outkast. When they were drafting that song and coming up with it, they asked CeeLo to sing a reference for it to give to TLC. So out there in the world, there is a Cee-Lo version of waterfalls that I would love to hear, and that is a reference. Wasn’t that it’s going to be rough, but great. I would love to hear that.

Fresh Knight Let’s stick with the Dungeon Family Frank Ocean song, Pink Matter off of Channel Orange. Yeah. Oh, that features Andre 3000. Apparently there’s a version out there with Big Boy on it.

Confucius Jones I’ve heard it.

Fresh Knight I heard it, and when I found fact.

Confucius Jones No.

Fresh Knight But apparently the label is what stopped the version with Big Boi and Andre coming out, because apparently somebody didn’t want a Outkast reunion or an outcast reunion. I don’t think Big Boi and Andre looked at it like that, but I think the fans would have been like, oh my God, they’re getting back together. So somebody at the label is like, yeah, just let this be a Andre thing.

Confucius Jones I remember too, when that happened, Andre was on the original song version, came out with Big Boi, and Andre himself had to come out and say, what? You know, I had no idea, but they were gonna try to add Big Boi to it, right? Basically, I don’t like you not gonna do an outcast reunion on somebody else’s song, which just not a thing. So yeah, that was a whole weird myth, man. Yeah, I’ve heard the label do not hear anything. We’re huge Wu-Tang fans here. Ghostface being my favorite. I’m assuming yours. Yeah. Ghostface, the people don’t know about Ghostface is he has a wave of crime in the 90s that he was doing against other rappers. I was digging around in there trying to find the fact, and I ran across this fact that at one point in time, Ghostface Killah of Wu-Tang clan broke rapper Mason’s jaw. May spoke on it after an incident back in the mid 2000, when Joe Budden was live streaming and got slammed.

Fresh Knight By that punch by Raekwon.

Confucius Jones Yeah. I think he was two past inmates at the time was on the whole, you know, I just don’t know what hip hop is going and getting violent. I remember when I got punched in the mouth by Ghostface and my jaw got wide and I got.

Fresh Knight While I mean he hit you pretty had if your jaw widened.

Confucius Jones Man.

Fresh Knight I mean, he broke something.

Confucius Jones Man, so yeah. Ghostface, I’m glad you’ve calmed down.

Fresh Knight I think I would say he’s calm down, I would say. I mean, I saw that whole Action Bronson situation. Yeah. I would say go for calm down a lot.

Confucius Jones That was just funny.

Fresh Knight This is my third and final fake quiz crap – ah! What’s wrong with me today? Chris Webber apparently produced two songs for Nas, which was Blunt Ashes, which I believe is on The Lost Tapes album. Yeah, and he produced survive in the times, which is on, I think, like the 10th anniversary of Illmatic. I believe I believe those on the 10th anniversary Illmatic. But yeah, apparently Chris Webber, I knew he was into like producing music and I knew he, I guess, quote unquote rapped. I’ve heard some raps from Chris Webber don’t look it up. So I’d say don’t you don’t want to be disappointed. But, I knew those things. And he was saying he got the chance to work with Nas. He played some stuff in Nas and not ended up liking what he heard in those songs. Ended up becoming, as I said, Blunt Ashes and Surviving the Times. Never knew that, though. Never knew they were produced by Chris Webber, all star forward for the Sacramento Kings. No wonder they didn’t win.

Confucius Jones Act like I didn’t hear that the next. The following year.

Fresh Knight When we found a fact, you said the same thing.

Confucius Jones Well, I say, oh, yeah. I did say he had been focused on basketball. He would have won game six. I would say it to his face, but I.

Fresh Knight Mean, no, Chris Webber like 16. I’m five. Seven.

Confucius Jones I’m like, yeah, I’m going from these. But, my final fact is, so this movie is considered a classic. I don’t think it’s a classic Forrest Gump. Do you think it’s a classic? No. Why not? Well, because he’s a wizard, and he was a part of every moment of American history? I don’t want to see that. You know, he sucked anyway. And I’m a huge Tom Hanks fan.

Fresh Knight The first person I’ve ever heard say that movie sucked.

Confucius Jones Mom didn’t like it. I did think about that. Anyway, everybody knows Forrest Gump. You know, he’s like, I say, that magical wizard who goes to every place at once throughout history, his best friend’s name was what?

Fresh Knight Bubba?

Confucius Jones Was played by a guy who. God, I can’t say his name is, Mick. Mick? Mick, you.

Fresh Knight I can’t, I can’t pronounce it either. I can’t.

Confucius Jones Here’s a waiting exhale. An idea with a lot of things. Yeah. He’s awesome. Black dynamite. He’s the one that got beat up in the pool hall. Anyway, he played the character in Forest Gump, but Tupac auditioned to play Bubba Gump.

Fresh Knight What?

Confucius Jones Yeah. Yeah, he. I think he got to the end of it. I’m not getting it. Yeah. In another it. There’s an alternate world out there where Tupac is Bubba Gump shrimp.

Fresh Knight With the swollen lip.

Confucius Jones Yeah, he had a.

Fresh Knight Little swollen man look, usually before the gum. You know what I’m talking about.

Confucius Jones Very, South in that movie, right?

Fresh Knight Yeah, man, that’s that’s crazy. I mean, I know Tupac was in his acting, but I don’t know if I could see Tupac doing that.

Confucius Jones Maybe he would have said I didn’t want the lips.

Fresh Knight Possibly. Possibly. But. But that was a good. I had no idea that.

Confucius Jones Yo, Tupac!

Fresh Knight Whoever was casting Anthony Mackie? Yeah. they need to be fired. Somebody cast him as Tupac and Martin Luther King Jr.

Confucius Jones He wasn’t too bad a Martin. He was a small one.

Fresh Knight He didn’t need to be Martin Luther King Jr.

Confucius Jones  I saidMLK Jr. was like five, eight. You know, he about six four. And now, ladies and gentlemen, it’s time for unpopular opinion. Refresh himself.

Fresh Knight All right. The internet was kind of in a frenzy because rap ish that was created by Issa Rae, that.

Confucius Jones Got Canceled.

Fresh Knight Got cancelled, based off of city girls.

Confucius Jones City girls canceled too?

Fresh Knight I don’t think so obviously they’re no longer a group.

Confucius Jones Yeah, I think so, too.

Fresh Knight But, it got canceled after its second season. A lot of people were in uproar. And then the main reason everybody was pointing to why it got canceled was because not enough people were watching. So that got me thinking. You know, I think this is one of those things where people are going to blame streaming services for shows being canceled and the viewership not being there. So my unpopular opinion is streaming services ruined the consumer experience. And I say that because, like with a show like rap ish and. A winning time show. Like Winning Time. It also was on Max. It came out that Winning Time was canceled because it didn’t have the viewership that I guess, and HBO was anticipating. And I think that’s because of streaming services, I think that’s because people look at it like, well, I don’t have to watch this on Sunday night. I can just wait until all just watch it on the app when I feel like it, or just sit back and let every episode play, and then I just binge it and I could just do that, which I hear people do with a lot of show, like, you know, I just let the season finish off and something else to watch or do, and then I just come back to the show and just stream it all at once. I don’t want to have to wait week to week, but for those, I would say that’s a privilege in this day and time, because there was a time where you had to just wait till the next week and anticipate what was going on, and if the season ended up on a cliffhanger, you had to wait X amount of months before you saw it. And I saw people complaining like, oh man, you know, they’re taking away from TV because they just pushing this stuff out and shooting shows and movies out so quickly now, you know, that’s just ruins everything when I was like that. But I would say the same about the same amount of time is going by that it was, say, in the 90s or even the early 2000s before streaming hit. Like if a show was part of a network’s fall lineup. You had to wait till next fall for that to come back around to see the next season. Like, that’s just how it works. Nobody like one show isn’t a part of the spring lineup, and then you going to catch it the next season and fall out. It was don’t go like that. But I think, the fact that people have become slaves to the binge to binge watching, I think that has kind of ruined the experience for the consumer because nobody is like, you don’t go see a movie because you’re just like, I wait for it to hit streaming services. It’s going to hit a Netflix or Amazon Prime or Apple TV+ or somebody at some point, and it’ll be out in the next few months, because movies don’t stay in theaters as long as they used to. At all. And I’m like, they like some movies. I like, I just I’m not going to go pay to see that. I never would have it. That’ll be on HBO Max. It’s a Warner Brothers movie. It’ll be on Max. And so I did like Barbie. I didn’t really plan on going to see Barbie, so I was just like, that’s definitely going to be on Max. I’ll just wait to be four to be on Max. And I’ve seen it now because it’s on HBO, it’s on Max now. But I think that has taken away from people wanting to get up and go to the movie theaters or that whole thing when they simultaneously premiere movie in theaters and on the streaming service at the same time. I don’t get that. I don’t understand it. It sounds like you’re killing one of your revenue streams, but I but when it comes to like TV shows, I think it has taken away the experience of sitting down, enjoying it, the anticipation of what happens next week when you can just like I just wait until this, this passes and I’ll sit down and watch everything. Now, there are exceptions to the rule and. I’ll say it, it’s power. People stream power. When eight people watch power before you come out and start as this weird thing where they drop the episode at midnight so before it even airs on television. So you’ve already watched it, but it seems to be continuously getting the viewership that. It needs to on for people watching stars. But a show like rap ish, where people that seem to like really like the show and we’re really excited about the show, it didn’t get the viewership, and I think that was partially due to streaming. Y’all liked it, but what days did it come out on? Wednesday? Yeah. Y’all didn’t like it enough to sit down on Wednesday or you were watching something else on Wednesday. They took priority over that and you were like, I’ll just watch this on the app. Like, I can just cast it to my TV or I can log on to my account and I could just watch it there. And I think that hurts the viewership. I’ll be honest, I don’t know how watching something on the streaming service for like a max account for the viewership from television. I don’t know how that works, but clearly not enough of y’all was watching the show, either. Or you would stick around and the same with winning time. Which I really was disappointed about winning time because.

Confucius Jones Especially out and.

Fresh Knight Yeah, that was that was trash HBO y’all gotta do better endings, man. I don’t know what it is with y’all, but like, yeah, it was this whole uproar about how, you know, the great shows get canceled before they time. And you know, y’all not really watching the y’all not watching these shows. And y’all say y’all want great television. Y’all want great television with Black people in a job not sitting down and watching it. I don’t believe y’all are sitting down watching it when it airs. And I think that matters a little more. I could be totally wrong, but yeah, I think streaming has kind of taken out the anticipation of waiting for the next week when you can just let the entire season play out and not watch it and just come back to it when I feel like. And I think that at the end of the day is hard because like I said, I don’t know how. Streaming. It is accounting for the viewership and I feel myself being repetitive. So we’ll end it right here.

Confucius Jones Yeah, I agree with that one.

Fresh Knight I had a take about music too, but I would have extended things.

Confucius Jones Like even with rabbit ish. I feel like I saw more tweets about it being canceled than I thought when it was on. So I do think viewership play, but no, I do think the consumer experience has changed because the expectations lower. So yeah, I agree.

Fresh Knight Yeah. And I’ll say it isn’t get out. Rap ish. But like you see more tweets about it being canceled in. I saw about it when it was on or when people were watching it. And for this to be an ESA ratio and where y’all rock with ether. I didn’t see y’all live tweeting the way I did. Insecure. Like insecure came on. It was a thing to sit down and watch. Let’s all, as a community get online and watch this together. I didn’t see that with rap. I didn’t see that in the first season and I didn’t see it this season. I saw y’all be in uproar about the ending of season two, but outside of that, I didn’t hear y’all talking about anything else about this show. So, I mean, were y’all really watching it? And now let’s get informed and laugh all at the same time. Here is Confucius reads the news.

Confucius Jones Started off the Comedy Central’s flagship show. The Daily Show has been without a host. As Trevor Noah left, there’s been a rotating cast of people from Charlamagne Tha God to World, which junior was hosting. It was that lady that dated a 50 cent white lady.

Fresh Knight Chelsea Handler.

Confucius Jones Chelsea Handler, she did it.

Fresh Knight I didn’t see hers.

Confucius Jones Just for like a week or two.

Fresh Knight And then I saw Marlon Wayans.

Confucius Jones And so now they finally found a host and is none other than Jon Stewart, who? The guy who ran it for 16 years and yeah, made it become a powerhouse that he is now that he had a host before that with, Craig Kilborn.

Fresh Knight There you go.

Confucius Jones And he didn’t really go that far, but Jon Stewart made it, groomed it to come show that it is. So he’s coming back. Leading up to the presidential election this year. He’s only can be on a Mondays, but every other day will be a rotating cast of the comedians that are on the show. So I think it’d be dope.

Fresh Knight I think people want to see Jon back in it.

Confucius Jones I also think they gave him a whole lot of.

Fresh Knight I definitely think they gave him a whole lot of money.

Confucius Jones Because he was he had to show an apple, but apparently left there because.

Fresh Knight The bag was right.

Confucius Jones Here. Now, because he was trying to talk about something on the show. They told him no. So he’s like, I’m out not doing it. Not I’m not.

Fresh Knight I’m not mad at it.

Confucius Jones I made that stance. So back in New Hampshire, they had their primaries. And Trump, of course, came in first. But Nikki Haley got over 40% of the vote out there as well. And that was a way higher number than pundits predicted she would get.

Fresh Knight I’m very sure what.

Confucius Jones I’m telling you is going to be Nikki Haley and Joe Biden in November.

Fresh Knight I wouldn’t be shocked if it’s her.

Confucius Jones She said she’s not dropping out. Good for her. Ron DeSantis also said that.

Fresh Knight And he already bend the knee.

Confucius Jones Already bend the knee. Got to bend the knee, man. I saw a video of Tim Scott and Vivek Ramaswamy. At Trump side of the rally and, was again looking like their obedient servants. They, and, Senator Tim Scott said, he told Trump he loved most aid. oh my God.

Fresh Knight You think there’s, like, an agreement? You think Trump make him sign an agreement to say that.

Confucius Jones I don’t know what he does, man. I don’t know what he does, but man. So yeah, we’ll see. I mean, Nikki Haley got a lot of momentum.

Fresh Knight Clearly 40 over 40% in the New Hampshire primary moving forward. Yeah, man. She could yeah. She’s a threat.

Confucius Jones The Oscar nominations came out.

Fresh Knight I thought out in a frenzy about that, too.

Confucius Jones Yeah, it goes to Barbie, the director Greta Gerwig. Gerwig didn’t get nominated for best director.

Fresh Knight And Margot Robbie wasn’t.

Confucius Jones Nominated for Best Actress. But Ryan Gosling was nominated for Best Supporting Actor.

Fresh Knight Which is kind.

Confucius Jones Of and kind of what happened in a movie, basically. But to be fair, the movie was painted it, of course, that men were admittedly superior in a position they should be Ryan Gosling, very much where the yeah, this is kind of fair. So you got he came out with a statement.

Fresh Knight And he’s been in the business long enough.

Confucius Jones Yeah. He’s basically saying that he that the movie wouldn’t have been what it was. America Ferrera who was in the movie got nominated.

Fresh Knight Which I didn’t see enough people like championing that. But, I guess I’ll still made that. She don’t take backs like that. I don’t know.

Confucius Jones Do you bathe? Oh, she’s a hit that she on bathe every day. But.

Fresh Knight Look, man, we reported the news, right? That was in the news.

Confucius Jones We’re reporting news, right? It’s a while since now, but I do think that’s unfair. Barbie was a critically acclaimed movie. Yeah, and Oppenheimer got, I think, the most nominations yet for this year.

Fresh Knight Shocking.

Confucius Jones Robert Downey Jr is nominated.

Fresh Knight I mean, shout out to RJ, but.

Confucius Jones Have you seen happen? No. I’ve seen.

Fresh Knight You probably won’t be honest with you like Chris.

Confucius Jones No.

Fresh Knight I like Christopher Nolan, but I’m just tired of. I’m tired of movies. That are built around World War One or World War Two, and there’s no Black people in them because they act like we were not in those wars. So I don’t really need to see another movie about the nuclear bomb Hmhm Bay.

Confucius Jones I want to see it.

Fresh Knight I’ll go right here, man. Let me know, how was.

Confucius Jones Drama in God of the Breakfast Club? Famous radio personality. I think, you know, he’s in the Radio Hall of Fame. So, Breakfast Club goals and. He has been very vocal about President Joe Biden not running again. I’ve read the article that was in Politico, and it was Charlamagne was trying to justify it by saying that he feels like Biden hasn’t lived up to any of his promises, and that Democrats are being lazy by not trying to find an alternative. Not the biggest fan of that rhetoric, not because I’m a Joe Biden supporter, but because Charlamagne is not the most qualified person, in my opinion, to take such a strong stance in politics. I think for him, because he’s now jumped into that world through The Daily Show, he started to try to get into that Jon Stewart lane, but I don’t think that’s his angle. It’s like how stern is political but not super political. I also think it’s dangerous too, because you all means comments and audience tends to go run to the Shade Room or Hollywood like all those places, and they bash, you know, President Biden every chance they get.

Fresh Knight Look, man, I know Biden said he clearing off student debt.

Confucius Jones It’s clear that a lot of it.

Fresh Knight He cleared that student debt, man. So yeah.

Confucius Jones Charlemagne made the point of two that Biden is just not a showman like Trump is like, you know, Trump takes credit for things that he didn’t do. And Biden keeps quiet about things, you know. So.

Fresh Knight I mean, but that’s a personality trait that ain’t like a presidential trait. And yeah, this is Biden is not that guy. So I mean, he’s not the guy to just jump and say, well, I did this and this and this. He’s he’s he’s not we’ve had many presidents like that. Yeah.

Confucius Jones Rex Clinton was like that. Slick Willie strikes again. You know what. Yeah. That’s Confucius reason to.

Fresh Knight Oh. Right. I don’t know why you threw it in.

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.