The Breaks

Think 6th Street could use a couple tweaks? Confucius and Fresh do too! They also couldn’t resist a chance to chime in on the Nicki Minaj/Megan Thee Stallion situation. Hip Hop Facts and Confucius Reads the News are both in fine form this week, as is Fresh’s Unpopular Opinion for Austin’s prospects as a “Texas rap city”.

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 Austin is growing into one of the fastest growing – it is one of the fastest growing cities in the country. I argue that Austin has a lot to offer for people either just moving here or that visit here. I don’t like when people say there’s nothing to do in Austin. Yes, that’s because you’ve been here for 25 years.

Fresh Knight I don’t like when people visit and they say there’s nothing to do here. And then when you ask, well, what are you trying to do? And then they don’t have an answer.

Confucius Jones Oh, yeah. True.

Fresh Knight Because there’s things to do.

Confucius Jones One of the staples of Austin in terms of fun things to do is sixth Street, right? Mainly Dirty Six. That’s the nickname for sixth Street, of course. It’s home to clubs and bars. Some people have compared it to Bourbon Street. I assume that people that compare to that have never been to Bourbon Street, but I get –

Fresh Knight I see the similarities.

Confucius Jones  I get the comparisons. Do you remember the first time you ever went to sixth Street in terms of like, past 10:00?

Deezie Brown Yeah.

Fresh Knight 1999. Texas Relays, fifth grade.

Confucius Jones Oh, you beat me. I think I was 13 the first time I went there.

Fresh Knight My brother, my older brother was three years apart. Me and him at three years apart. And one day during Texas relay weekend, he jumped in my room and said, hey, yo, man, find something. Find something to put on, iron it. Do what you need to do. Get dressed. You’re going out with me. You won’t be out with me all day, mind you. We’re three years apart. So if I’m in fifth, he’s only in eighth.

Confucius Jones Yeah. What’s he? Like 13 or 12?

Fresh Knight Yeah. So. Oh, I was like. All right. Cool. So I got up. I got some shorts, a shirt, and we was outside all day. And we, as we’ve talked about, we did the trifecta, we did the track meet, we did the mall, and then we did.

Confucius Jones A lot for a ten year old boy.

Fresh Knight And we did sixth street. Yes, my feet hurt and I was hungry. But I was outside all day and that was the first time on sixth street.

Confucius Jones How’d y’all get around?

Fresh Knight We knew people with cars.

Confucius Jones I was about to say, I know y’all weren’t driving.

Fresh Knight We knew people. He knew somebody that had a car. He was driving.

Confucius Jones Yeah, I was about 13. First time I went my sister, may she rest in peace, would go down there and take me just because, you know, she didn’t want me to be home by myself. So I just me and – had to have my friends with me sometimes so we would just wander up and down sixth Street. We couldn’t get into anything. But, you know, the history of sixth Street is a place known for that. You for us people who have been in Austin, you know, if you’re visiting us, this kind of a rite of passage for us. In recent years, it has undergone some changes, some, I would argue not for the best. On Fridays and Saturdays a lot can happen. Matter of fact, this morning when I woke up, somebody sent me a video of a fight on sixth Street. Police are breaking it up.

Fresh Knight I’m sure they were.

Confucius Jones  It was a very random video because the first it was two people on the ground being, you know, restrained by police. And then the camera pans to the right and a policeman is falling off a horse, and then the camera pans again to the right and then somebody dressed up in a Donald Duck suit, I’m like, there’s a lot going on in this video.

Fresh Knight Wait, what?

Confucius Jones Yeah, it’s got a lot going on in this video.

Fresh Knight Why is Donald Duck in this?

Confucius Jones I have no idea because I first saw the video, I’m thinking, okay, that’s another night. People fight, get drunk, fight, get restrained by police. And then I saw the policeman fall off the horse.

Fresh Knight Was he knocked out the horse?

Confucius Jones He just fell off of it. He was just standing there. The horse was standing. He just fell off. And the police officer helped him up. The the person that was filming it, paying the camera to the right of somebody dressed as Donald Duck, full, Donald Duck outfit. Like there’s no human skin being shown. It’s like, what day is this? But that’s kind of sixth street.

Fresh Knight That is very sixth street.

Confucius Jones But sixth street on Fridays and Saturdays is one of the most secure places in Austin. Right? So I was talking to somebody I know who goes to sixth Street and promotes, you know, goes out there hands out flyers and stuff. I was telling myself, sixth Street, from what I’ve been hearing and reading, the city is trying to make some changes because they don’t like the violence that has been happening that’s been increasing there over the years. So what the city is trying to do is give out money in grants to people that are mainly coming out of town to help reshape sixth Street and make it more safe and more appealing to tourists, for example, to try to get more high-scale restaurants up there in more high end clubs because they feel like a lot of the clubs down there are attracting a younger crowd who is not as cognizant or respecting of the space of that area of sixth Street. And the person I was talking to was like, that’s not true. Sixth Street needs young people, like man it doesn’t need young people, bro. Because he tried to make the comparison, say, well, that’s like, you know, people in New Orleans, they doing some new Bourbon Street. I said, people in New Orleans don’t really go to Bourbon Street like that Bourbon Street it’s mainly tourist. It’s like 90% tourist.

Fresh Knight Yeah. I was probably make the same argument for what is it in Memphis, Beale Street. Yeah. Like I think those are things that have been designated, like you say, to just mainly this is now it’s just a tourist attraction. This is something mainly tourists, people, tourists do when they come. These are things that tours have to do when they go to a Memphis or a New Orleans and Austin. It’s not really the same. We go down there kind of regardless. Like if it’s nothing else to do on a on a weekend, you know, we always hit sixth. We can always go to sixth. It’s not. Yeah. You tourists are down there and I’m sure a large percentage of the people on sixth street are tourists, but I’m willing to bet the other half of that are natives or people who live here in Austin.

Confucius Jones Yeah. Because also it was a Twitter page that came out and said that internal demo permits were filed a couple weeks ago for the 11th street and sixth street to be renovated. Most of the renovated buildings are been turned into restaurants, so that is a huge sign right there. They’re trying to what they’re trying to do is they’re trying to minimize the people that, like I said, that go down there and just kind of just.

Fresh Knight Hang out.

Confucius Jones Hang out and kind of get rowdy. Because what ends up happening is understandably, people drink, they get into it. I’ve told people that aren’tn from here and I told my wife one point, do not hang on sixth Street after 2 a.m. that’s when most stuff happens because all the clubs let out. Everybody’s drunk. It’s not a good time.

Confucius Jones Well it’s kind of a fun time, though. I’m not gonna lie, I used to. I used to enjoy going, in my in my youth

Confucius Jones Man, look –

Fresh Knight My youth.

Confucius Jones As somebody who used to go to sixth Street and get into a lot of different altercations, I know.

See, I’m the others. I am.

Confucius Jones No.

Fresh Knight The other side of it. I wasn’t getting into altercations. So in my college days when I was home.

Confucius Jones  I got in too many clubs, that’s why.

Fresh Knight Yeah. After the the bars let out at two. Yeah. You posted up somewhere and lingered around until like 230 and yeah, cause that probably was your best time to talk to a young lady. That probably was the time that she was a little more inviting. I’ve seen it happen.

Confucius Jones I know, but it’s, just

Fresh Knight Know your experience

Confucius Jones Just the wording of it. She got a little bit.

Confucius Jones Yeah.

Fresh Knight Just maybe inviting isn’t the word. She’s more – she’s more receptive to you than being in the club.

Confucius Jones Take this exit right here and just get off.

Fresh Knight Is that better wording? More receptive? She’s more receptive.

Confucius Jones I get what you’re saying.

Fresh Knight So yeah I think like if.

Confucius Jones Anything I would say just to your point, it’s best if you see a young lady that you think is attractive in the club. The best time to talk to her is outside because that’s the motion. And you know, the spirits in reality. I get what you’re saying though.

Fresh Knight But I’ve also seen what you was saying. Like lingering around after two like yea. Something is bound to happen. It may not happen to you, but something is bound to happen.

Confucius Jones If you look at most incidents, they happen after 2:00. Yeah, it’s one of those weird things. I don’t want to sound like the old man on the porch, like all these young kids down here, but sixth street is a very important staple, and I’ve seen what Austin will do when it feels like the environment’s not safe enough. Because look at what happened to relays. They closed down most of sixth street for relays.

Fresh Knight Man, they was herding us like cattle in Highland Mall, man.

Confucius Jones But in terms of sixth street a lot of bars were closed because they just didn’t want to deal with the the crowd, which is racist, but. I do think sixth street does need revamping.

Fresh Knight I think it’s overdue.

Confucius Jones Because it has to be a place that people can come here to enjoy themselves. Because that same friend of mine, also a person I talked to, said that he noticed it’s not that many college kids down there as there used to be. Like I said, we were coming up college kids all through sixth Street. But now I look and I do see. I said, yeah, this is this is like there’s people that live here.

Fresh Knight And it’s kind of always been the crowd. Like, I was talking to one of my aunt’s one day and she asked like, do y’all still go down to sixth Street? Do you like, do people still go down there? And I was like, I mean, we don’t frequent it as much as we did when we were younger. But I was like, yeah, people still go down there. People still like enjoy going to Sixth Street. And she was like, I just can’t believe y’all really go down there. And I was like, why? She was like, well, when I was coming up, she was like, that wasn’t a thing that we did. And when she said we she met Black people, she was like, that was kind of just reserved for the UT kids. That was like a UT thing that they just went out. That was where they went downtown. We if we were downtown, we were not on sixth Street. We kind of stay somewhere else or we stayed east of 35 and they kind of were just on sixth Street. So to see us down there on Sixth Street now, she was like, it’s kind of a culture shock. It’s kind of like, oh, well, things have really changed. But I think even when we were frequenting it at a high rate, it was still mainly college students, whether it be kids, it be college kids from another city who were here for a football game, or it’d be a holiday, and everybody who had left Austin to go to school had returned. It was still mainly college kids, and I think it was kind of built for that crowd.

Confucius Jones Yeah, but I’m all for sixth Street maturing and going in new direction. I think it’s needed.

Fresh Knight So I’ve seen the post you were talking about. You sent it to me, and I recognize the building that they are going to renovate and turn into, like a nice, upscale restaurant it’s Buffalo Billiards. I used to frequent Buffalo Billiards. One, Buffalo Billiards is already serving food.

Confucius Jones It’s a great hangout now.

Fresh Knight Yes, a lot of a lot of vagrants out in front of Buffalo Bill. It looks like they’ve like the Walking Dead out there. But anyway, I’m for it. Like I said, at the sixth Street, at least that section of sixth Street is due for a revamp. We’ve seen what they’ve done to East Sixth. We’ve seen what they’ve done to the other end that’s on the east end of 35. We see how they revamped it and they’ve kind of made that more tourist friendly because before, for those who didn’t know, it was a lot of Chicano clubs as East Sixth was for the most part. So I mean the upscale restaurant, some more upscale type clubs I think would help. And Lord knows people keep crying to Austin needs clubs.

Confucius Jones So yeah, true.

Fresh Knight So I’m interested. I won’t say looking forward, but I’m interested into seeing how. The revamp of Dirty Sixth ends up. And if you don’t like it, you can always go west.

Confucius Jones All right, go ahead and talk about Nicki Minaj.

Fresh Knight All right, let’s get into her.

Confucius Jones Go ahead.

Oh, well. Why I gotta start it off? My God. I mean.

Fresh Knight You know what’s going on.

Fresh Knight I think she’s on a drug binge, to be honest with you. And we say that on air. It’s already been said. Look, man, Nicki MinaJayand Megan Thee Stallion have entered into, I guess, what you would call lyrical fisticuffs.

Confucius Jones It was very predictable.

Fresh Knight I mean, yeah, it was. Megan has released her single hits, which took a shot at Nicki Minaj, and Nicki responded with her song what was it, Bigfoot? Yeah, and I guess the best thing she could come up with from Megan was to say, oh, you’ve been shot in the foot and you’re really and you’re really tall.

Fresh Knight You’re promiscuous.

You’re really tall. So I’m gonna call you Bigfoot, which I don’t see the insult in calling her tall. We all know she’s tall. Everybody know she’s tall.

Confucius Jones It’s also kind of the “Stallion”.

Fresh Knight Yeah, that’s where that comes from. That’s why she, like, dubbed herself there, so, like, it’s more of a compliment. Yeah. She’s tall. She’s a tall woman. She’s going to have a big foot. That’s not a knock. That’s not the knock. You’d think it is. And I, and I personally think the whole point is that she got shot in the foot and she was twerking a week later or whatever, have you. I just kind of played out by now, like the trial is happening. Tori is incarcerated. It’s been, what, two years since the shooting.

Confucius Jones That was during quarantine.

Fresh Knight Year and a half – so going on for some years?

Confucius Jones Yeah, it’s been a while. Yeah.

Fresh Knight Yeah, bro, it’s kind of played out now. Like, it’s not like the jokes aren’t aging well, considering that the man is incarcerated. Like, you kind of gotta let it go at this point.

Confucius Jones But even take the diss out of it, what is going on with Nicki? Because I say that before you answer. So her last album, Pink Friday 3.

Fresh Knight I think it’s Friday 2.

Confucius Jones Oh, she’s got like six of those album titles.

Fresh Knight I know man she keep naming them all the same album. I don’t know.

Confucius Jones Well it’s a good album, I would argue, was one of her better ones.

Fresh Knight Last two were good. That one and Queen.

Confucius Jones That this one, this one is better than all of them in my opinion.

Fresh Knight It’s something I haven’t heard.

Confucius Jones It’s the most consistent album she’s put out. Gosh, a lot of her albums just kind of jump all over the place.

Fresh Knight I’ll take your word for it.

Confucius Jones I stand that Nicki has a lot of negative about her. But this album kind of made me say like finally, like, okay, maybe she’s finally getting back to the music, which is what rose her to prominence.

Fresh Knight Which is what she said she was doing.

Confucius Jones You know, I was like, okay, now, to be fair, play devil’s advocate. Megan did throw a shout out there, and Nicki has the right to defend herself in that sense. It’s just all that comes with it, right? Granted, she’s not the first rapper to get dissed into going huge campaign tirade against the person who did it. NAS famously did against J. My thing with Nicki is that Nicki goes to places that she goes to, even when she’s not being dissed. And it’s now put the focus back on the type of person that Nicki is. And I was like, okay, maybe like, I like I, I repeat myself. She’s finally getting back to the music. That’s why I’m like, damn it, Nicki, you just. And that song Bigfoot sucks.

Fresh Knight I wish she would have just wrapped. Normally, I didn’t need the animation. Like, I didn’t need all the silly voices. Like, just like you are a great rapper. Just rap. Like is really what I was expecting. What I want. It just rap. But to get to you a question of what’s going on with Nicki, like you said outside of the diss, I think Nicki’s paranoia has finally got the best of her. Or alleged paranoia. I think every day Nicki Minaj says that the industry has been trying to do to knock her off. I think it finally got the best of her. I think she is in a place where she thinks everybody is out for her, and if somebody allies themselves with the opposition being Cardi B, she takes that as well, if you’re not with me you against me. And she looks at everything as an adversary like, you know, I could be a fan of Cardi and be a fan of you. Just like I can be a fan of Nicki and be a fan of Lil Kim. I don’t have to choose as a fan and as a listener. I don’t really have to choose. I like Jay and I like NAS. I like Jay a lot more than I like NAS, but I like both I don’t really have to choose. I could, but I, I’m bought the blueprint and I bought Stillmatic.

It seems to like Because Nicki and Megan had a relationship they got a song Hot Girl Summer. Which song? Which I don’t like that song. The interesting thing about Nicki and her approach to female rappers that she has issues with, what I’ve put together is the respect level. Nicki feels like these artists aren’t respecting me for being who I am, and paving the way for them to be who they are.

Fresh Knight Says who?

Confucius Jones I’m saying that’s that’s how Nicki.

Fresh Knight And I. Yeah, I’m saying and I’m my question because her would be says.

Confucius Jones Who know because like for instance with her a lot of guns issue a lot of released the DMs with a lot of was basically saying like, hey Nicki, I feel like you’re throwing shots at me, which is confusing me because I look up to you and, you know, and I’ve tried to create this relationship. It’s ironic that Nicki is feeling that way towards these female artists when she famously high cited Lil Kim for what she’s arguing that these girls doing to her. Nicki refuses to acknowledge Lil Kim at this point, but in the beginning of Nicki’s career, she not only mimic Nicki, I mean Lil Kim’s famous squatting pose, but she paid homage to.

Fresh Knight It a lot.

Confucius Jones But of course her Lil Kim get into it now. She just, you know, I that.

Fresh Knight Was I didn’t I didn’t I wasn’t out here wearing a color for weeks because of you fam. Who was doing it? Who did it before, you know.

Confucius Jones Exactly. Now Nicki praises is Foxy because Foxy has, you know, basically kiss the ring in a sense. But that’s the irony of it to me, is that you are hooting and hollering on any platform you can get on social media wise, except for Facebook, which I’m surprised you ain’t over there. They would eat all that up and you holler about how these these female rappers are respecting you, how they aren’t who they say they are. But you did the same thing to Lil Kim. Even Lil Kim has had to say before. Like, my problem with Nicki is not the fact that. She doesn’t give me credit. It’s the fact that you just try to erase any influence I had on you. And I have evidence that you. I once said.

Fresh Knight When you openly said the like. Yeah, I looked up to Kim, I was heavily I was influenced by her.

Confucius Jones Who wasn’t? Yeah. From you just know where you’re from around New York. You weren’t influenced by that.

Fresh Knight I said that when it was beef in the light is no way that you weren’t like, that’s impossible. You could clearly see the influence. Yeah.

Confucius Jones So that’s my thing with Nicky. And I am in the position of when it comes to just records, anything goes. But it’s funny because I was watching Breakfast Club clip. And envy and cheer. All are making this all of these now to just lyrics comes on. We’re breaking down disregards in interviews like well you know Jay famously talked about NAS is baby mother and child Missy and he apologized for it. And then he made another example to too and said, yeah, somebody else apologized for that too. He said, you. So you could take it that far. But a lot of the examples, you name it, are people that eventually kind of step back, like I was going.

Fresh Knight To do it too. And they saw the error in a ways like Jay-Z famously said, you know, my mother call me about the super ugly and say, you know, Sean, you went. You went too far. Yeah. You didn’t have to say that. You owe that man an apology. And like you said, Jay apologized. Like at some point somebody sees, like you say, they have a little moment of clarity and they like, I maybe, even maybe I was doing too much.

Confucius Jones Even making Drake made up a great. That’d be funny to me.

Fresh Knight But it was serious to them.

Confucius Jones Yeah, but it was one of those things where, you know, both of them like, yeah, it was kind of it was way it just got way too serious and what it shouldn’t have. And so like with Nicki, you’re talking about Megan’s dad, mother like that, you’re trying to play into the portion of the internet that doesn’t believe Megan when she said the Tory shot her. And you’re getting them riled up along with your barbs. Who I would almost argue just on the same level of Trump supporters.

Fresh Knight I mean, the argument is they’re recent events.

Confucius Jones Yeah, in terms of just blind loyalty. And so give Megan credit, Megan knew that that one line would set Nicki up because unlike the rappers of old like Jay-Z and Mase, where Jay-Z throws little shots out there knowing that mace is going to hear it, but knowing that only mace would catch it, and mace responds accordingly. Somebody made a point of the Love Me song about which was all about women in Mace Company jumps on that dissing Jay-Z. But you would never had known that, you know, because it’s more like blip. Megan knew that Nicki could not resist making a spectacle out of that one line. A line that had Nicki not said nothing most people probably wouldn’t call. Granted, people kind of. When they said Megan’s Law, they looked up like, oh, that’s probably shot of Nicki.

Fresh Knight But you also had to look. You didn’t know it off the top. You had to go and be like, well, what is she taught Megan? What is Megan’s Law? You had to go look it up, which.

Confucius Jones You know, so what, you want to. I know that the father of the actual Megan, who make his law laws based off of try to come out and say that he didn’t like his daughter’s name. He brought its own. He’s also apparently a hugely racist.

Fresh Knight And I don’t really have the case, bruh.

Confucius Jones And so. But like somebody else said, how many of y’all knew what Megan’s Law was before it was mentioned in that song? So I would thank, you know, thanks for bringing attention to this law and what it means. But Nicki also just has put herself in such a tight hold to where we have. Jay-Z tells me, say your Rolex is fake. Hahaha, I said this, whatever I that’s more I’m reaching you. Nicki has a lot of character questions. And so when she jumps out trying to make fun of Megan’s foot size, her being promiscuous or telling her to drink when Nicki was trying to get pregnant like Nicki, you you’re you know, your side. It’s way worse, right? Like it’s way worse. Yeah. What is your brother in prison for? How did he pay for his lawyers? Nicki, do not remember you coming out saying that that 12 year old girl was like, why can’t your husband go and playgrounds?

Fresh Knight Wasn’t she named in the lawsuit for harassing that woman?

Confucius Jones Yeah.

Confucius Jones Great, I get it. That’s your husband. You believe him? Cool. But you might want to be careful about saying and stuff in public because you went around when he did this.

Fresh Knight And the state says he’s a sex offender.

Confucius Jones And if all your money that you got Nicki, you had to get that decision reversed.

Confucius Jones Hey.

Confucius Jones Yeah, that was a wild hill down.

Fresh Knight The government says otherwise.

Confucius Jones Rex and Nicki, I you know, Nicki, you spent a lot of money trying to get that decision reversed.

Fresh Knight I know she has.

Confucius Jones Which the Central Park nine got off with way less than that.

Fresh Knight Oh it’s which I think speaks volumes to that. Like you said, your side. Like if you are throwing these things into question about Meg’s character, then like your character is really into question is confusion. To say, spending all of this money trying to get him off the registered sex offender and this whole case, like thrown out a row, that’s a character flaw, in my opinion.

Confucius Jones Which is why, because they keep doing all this to try to clear her husband’s name, and she’s getting more lawsuits for trying intimidate that woman. Like I said, it’s not a regular beef to me, because Nicki’s problem is that Nicki doesn’t understand the cards in her hand. What’s again? You telling me a grown woman’s promiscuous is not the insult you think it is? I assume most adults are promiscuous in some way, shape or form.

Fresh Knight It’s definitely not the insult you think it is. In a time. Where are job supposed to be a woman empowerment and just supposed to be standing behind women? And we’re supposed to be like, what in that what Amber Rose was doing with slut? She walk like I don’t care. Like, my.

Confucius Jones Thing with that is you can’t you can’t make me feel a way towards a female rapper for sleeping with different people. When male rappers sleep with their people all the time and then you know about it, like, whatever.

Fresh Knight It’s some of the stance.

Confucius Jones Nicki, I’m sorry that you went from the only person that you had to settle down with somebody you dated when you were 12 and is a registered sex offender, and you’re the biggest rapper to work. That’s like Beyonce and marry that dude. It’s what the problem with in Houston. And big as you are. That’s. That’s who you said a.

Fresh Knight I mean, hey, if that’s what you want is which one I.

Confucius Jones Whatever.

Confucius Jones I.

Fresh Knight See, you know, to be off your terms. That’s what you want.

Confucius Jones Beyonce said being Beyonce said it makes sense for the big Jay-Z. Yeah. Nicki, at one point in time was positioned to be the Beyonce of female rap. And you married a registered sex offender. Nicki, you don’t have the car. Do you think you do? I wouldn’t say anything. I’d be like, you know what, Megan? Whatever. I don’t like you. Keep moving.

Fresh Knight If you know me, you know I’m all for rap beef. I’m all.

Confucius Jones Oh, yeah, I’m all for we. We got one room in mind, Nick. We’re about to get into.

Fresh Knight I’m all for it. My thing with Nicki is I think she’s trying to be 50 cent without actually really being 50 cent. I think, like I said before, she takes a shot at anybody that seemingly aligns themselves with Cardi as 50 cent D with anybody who seemingly align themselves with Ja Rule and 50 cent just consider it just went into just oh, Jadakiss is over. Joe was over. They did a song together. All right, well now you my enemy.

Confucius Jones Well, if anything said he felt like they were trying to revive Joe Root. I always like, you know, and a blast. Like, he also said that he come from a space. If you stand next to somebody I’m not dealing with, you’re an enemy too.

Fresh Knight So I get that. And I think that’s the position Nike is trying to tell you that I’ve been saying that the industry has prompted this woman up to try to take me down, to tear me down, and y’all just standing over there with her. Well, I could actually really be friends with her. And I could also still have this admiration for you and want to work with you. Like, she tried to act like she didn’t have an issue with the city girls, and then says she wanted to work with the city girl. Well, you didn’t want to work with them before because they were aligned with Cardi. But now all of a sudden, JT, your biggest fan.

Confucius Jones Yeah. This story is not over.

Fresh Knight It’s not. Think it’s more coming?

Confucius Jones Nicki’s going to.

Fresh Knight Say she had four. This is in the truck. Which. Why? I don’t know. I hope they are better than Bigfoot.

Confucius Jones The bar is pretty low. She doesn’t make good this record. No frauds with a good diss records. Does that sound to somebody when she did that? What a good this record. Nicki’s not good at this. $0.50. Not a good comparison. Not for you, but just anybody else to try to bring it up because 50 cent was ruthless. Yeah. And also 50 cent had a huge machine behind him.

Fresh Knight It’s also funny.

Confucius Jones Yeah that too.

Fresh Knight So that’s another point I can say I’m gonna make India get out of here. She tries to make the whole point that and has the entire machine, this big machine behind her, and it’s why she’s doing what she’s doing and in the position that she is in. And I think that’s just very ironic, considering you were saying to Young Money, cash Money Universal, it’s not like you didn’t have a machine behind you and had a ten year unprovoked run.

Confucius Jones And I think Megan’s Mindy too. So I guess Mindy apparently is when you signed. But they push you. Then you remember how we didn’t know what to do. So I think she’s like. Because I know she’s not on 5050 and.

Fresh Knight 115, 101, whatever. Yeah.

Confucius Jones Anymore. And I think she’s working on a new deal, so I think she’s Mindy.

Fresh Knight I could see that. But my thing is with Nicki, you can’t try to criticize her or knock her down for having a machine behind her when you also had the machine behind you, which is why you had a ten year, unprovoked run of no other female artists doing what you were doing at that point. Once again, that’s not insults you think it is. When that was you? Yeah. When that was you. You. Now she might sail better than did Meg. But that was you. We’re taking a quick break. Be right back.

Confucius Jones And that was hip hop. Next time, the time of the show where we give out facts about the culture that you might have known, might not already of known. Give me. Let me give you this disclaimer, and this is also a shout out to our producers are. Our facts sometimes come from places where artist. They’ll say one thing in one year in the saying something else the other year. Very true. We all were talking about, my hip hop fact about being punched by Ghostface, and she said that she did some research and it was somebody else that punched him. But I told her that I saw where he transcript him saying it was Ghostface. I say at same time, you know, when mace when I have the transcript, I remember when mace was preaching. So it’s good chance he was like, well, you know, in my clear gospel mind, it was Ghostface. But then later on they never mind, probably with Ghostface and also Wu-Tang at the time, it probably happened deep as they were. You don’t know who punched him because remember last UN Riviera came out was like, well, it wasn’t Jay-Z that stabbed me, which I said, he told me Jay-Z stabbed him. So we were doing facts from people that are talking. There’s always a chance that you can kind of go one way and go another. I mean.

Fresh Knight Yeah, that’s like what the Joe Budden Raekwon thing. I’ve heard Joe Budden say that it was Raekwon and I’ve also heard Raekwon say, nah, I wanted to, but my guys that was with me. Like, he’ll me back for doing say I didn’t need to be the one to do it. And they did it. Yeah. So like, yeah, I could believe that Ghostface was there when he punched mace in May, saw him and recognized him and said, nah, that was Ghostface.

Confucius Jones Yeah. No, I mean, I mean, it’s fair if, if, if you get into with somebody and he’s somebody that’s not me that recognizes me, punches them, they’re going to appreciate me. Could more likely be standing over them like that will.

Confucius Jones So yeah. So yeah.

Confucius Jones And I want to believe in my, in my universe that Ghostface.

Fresh Knight That just sounds like a very Ghostface thing.

Confucius Jones If you tell me, if you’re telling me that DMX chased mace on a moped that he had, I believe mace was getting punched by New York rappers. I fully believe.

Fresh Knight And I believe Ghostface, I believe ghost in the face.

Confucius Jones Yes, method man has told y’all many times. Ghost in radio, like anybody.

Confucius Jones So.

Confucius Jones Are you want to go first?

Fresh Knight I’ll go first. I’ll go first. I guess. In celebration of his 48th birthday, which once again makes it wow that he was calling NAS and Jay-Z. Oh, and like you like fast steps. Mondo Boy Cameron turns 48 on the fourth of, this month. So I found his fact about hell real. And he’ll real be on the, diplomatic the first diplomatic immunity album. And his real said he was scared to tell Cam’ron that he had to go to jail while recording the album because he was there in a recording, an album. He’s only a few songs on the album, and there was like a whole acapella freestyle through the jail phone, which I’m glad people stopped doing that.

Confucius Jones Yeah. Oh.

Fresh Knight But hell, real scenes. Why they were recording like he was in there, like they were recording Built This City and he was like, after I did my verse, cam was like, oh man, that’s hot, man. He was real. Was like, I’m thinking in my head, you know, I got to tell him, I turned myself in. I got to go to prison. Like I got to go to jail. He was like, he told Kim. He was like, yo killa, like. And I got to go to jail. And he said, cam, stop. And Polzin was like, do you mean go and do your time and go, go, go do you time you got to go do that. And then I could do.

Confucius Jones About I’m mean he hero.

Fresh Knight And he said that’s when Cameron told him that like when you get out you’ll come home to a record deal, which he’ll, we’ll say that on diplomatic immunity. Killa say, when I come home, I’m going to be some sound. How many y’all know? I’m saying it gets out as soon as they come home. And so hell, real said he thought they like all the verses that he recorded on Diplomatic Immunity camera. I was going to just take him out since he had to go to jail, but Cameron ended up not taking him off. His verses on Built the City and I think on like Another, another song. Like I say, he has the acapella freestyle and I believe he starts off. The second is, if I remember correctly, I forgot the name of the song, but he starts off on that song.

Confucius Jones Yeah, camera’s birthday is on the fourth. Yeah, February. My camera on fact is, apparently his uncle is Roscoe’s for Roscoe’s Chicken Waffles.

Fresh Knight Cameron.

Confucius Jones Yeah. Yeah. For me, he pictures. He had made a post on Instagram a while back saying that I bet you to know that Roscoe Chicken from Harlem. He said, that’s awesome. My uncle. So yeah, the Roscoe’s Chicken Waffles has origins in New York.

Fresh Knight Roscoe’s Chicken waffles in Harlem.

Confucius Jones I don’t think so. But yeah, Roscoe’s is Cameron’s uncle.

Fresh Knight I mean, all right, that’s random. Is hi. Is extra bundles.

Confucius Jones I wish.

Confucius Jones I wish I could.

Fresh Knight I’m wrong was.

Confucius Jones I should that’s my fault. I should have looked up the. Yeah, this grandpa says fun fact. Would you believe me if I told you that the owner founder of Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles was from Harlem, and that he’s my uncle? No, I wouldn’t believe me either. Oh, well, what if Uncle Urban warned new location in San Diego opening up the summer?

Fresh Knight I mean, I can believe it, because Harlem isn’t that big.

Confucius Jones He posted that on May 20th.

Fresh Knight I could believe that. Like I said, Harlem isn’t that big. So, like, yeah, I can believe that. That’s his uncle and that they are originally from Harlem.

Confucius Jones Yeah.

Fresh Knight Most people think it’s the entire. Well, I thought Island of Manhattan is not. Well, I.

Confucius Jones Thought that Roscoe’s chicken waffle at Southern Origins. But. Yeah.

Fresh Knight I thought it was just some people. Well, yeah, I thought it was the people who had migrated from the south to LA and then started it. But hey, shout out to Carmen. All right, my next fact, since we’re talking about good down home cooking, this one is more of a funny story than a fact. I heard Questlove tell the story about Patti LaBelle owing him food. He was at an award show. He didn’t remember which one, but panel? The bill was there. He was like Patti LaBelle there. Did Jazzy Jeff do some other people from Philly that were there? And he said, oh, he was talking to Patti LaBelle, and he he was like, yo, I heard like you like, people always tell me about how good your food is. And, you know, I would love to have some. And Patti was like, oh yeah, maybe you can come on over anytime. And, you know, I cook it. I cooked fried chicken in and a potato salad. You see that? You can stay over and I cook breakfast and cooking it, the grease and the cheese and in these fluffy pancakes, Questlove was like, oh, that’s a bad. I’m like, I’m gonna call you when I’m back in Philly and and we’ll come over and get this food. And he was like, they got all together to take a picture. And he was like, Jazzy Jeff was like. I mean, I overheard you talking to Patty about food. May you not go see that food and jazzy tables like me. She told me that five years ago. And I still see nephew. He told you about the chicken wings. You go make chicken wings. And he was like Jesse James friend. That was William talked about. Oh, she said she was gonna make the pancakes. She said, she’s gonna make the pancakes, right? And Questlove was like, yeah. She said she would make the pancakes. And the I’m like, yeah, bro, you’re not. You’re not seeing it. That’s normal for the AP. And Questlove said like a year later. I think he was like a few months later, you know, he got back to Philly. He called the number that paid the bill okay, gave him, and it was disconnected. And he was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Maybe I typed a number wrong. Maybe that five was a seven. And he was like, so let me try this. And he was like, nah. He still he still kept getting the number disconnected. And so he was like, yo, Patty, play me. But I want the food. I want them chicken wings. And so he was like, I think like a year it passed. He was working in a studio with some artists, and Patti LaBelle son was in there because apparently he’s a manager in industry. And his group that he was managing was in the studio, and they ran into each other in the hallway. And he was like, her song was like, yo, man, I would like to get some beats of you from a group that I’m working with. And of course, I mean, I’m kind of busy, you know, I don’t really have the time, but he was like, you know what? I’ll do the beats if you can give me a plate of chicken wings and potato salad from your mama. And he was like, her son was like, yeah, what did you just ask me? You just ask for some chicken wings and, like, in turn, for some beats. And so the phone was like, all right, cool. He was like, I could get you the food. So quest was like, I went in there, I did the beats, I made him, I left him for about a he was like, I never got the food. He was like, I, I came back, he was like came back to the studio the next day. And like they had canceled all of their studio sessions, they got they beats Indonesia just left studio. They just on the station that they had planned for the week was just done no more. And he was like, but I ain’t gonna never get this food. So he was like, maybe like a few more years down the line, another artist was in.

Confucius Jones The story, you.

Fresh Knight Know, fact. He was like I said, it’s more of a funny story in effect. And he was like, another artist was in there. Another great Philly artist was in there, and it was like he was working. The guy told him. He was told Questlove he was working with Patti LaBelle on some music. He was writing some stuff, and he was like, why don’t you come in and like, help with the production or whatever? And he was like, I’ll pay you whatever, because they give me a big the label, give me a big budget. So it’s nothing to pay you in. Questlove once again was like, hey, if you give me them chicken wings, Patty told me she was going to give me, then, yeah, I’m cool. And once again, to do it was like he just asked for some chicken wings. Cool. That’s all you want? I’m. I’ma do it. And of course, love is of not getting food. Make this long story short.

Confucius Jones So I think we passed that.

Fresh Knight So he so he ends up saying that he was at home one day and he get the call from Jill Scott and Jill Scott asked him like, how are you a good writer like you? You’ve done some writing. I’m writing this article on Patti LaBelle. I was trying to see if you had like, a good way to start this article. And he was like, yeah, I got one. Patti LaBelle is a liar.

Confucius Jones Okay?

Fresh Knight And he was like, man, she said she was going do all of this. She was going to cook this for me, and I’ve never gotten any food at this point. Questlove was like, this is like six years now. This is like six years, and I’ve never gotten that food. And he notices that Gio kind of get silent. And it was like, did he ask? He was like, wait, wait, wait, Jill, where are you at right now? Because he looked at the number, I guess. He looked at his phone and looked at the number, and I guess he recognized it was like a landline number, not Jill’s number. And she was like, where are you at right now? He’s just got the answer. Y’all mean Patty House? I’m Patty House right now eating. And Questlove was like, ain’t this a. And that’s the story. I thought it was a funny story.

Confucius Jones I mean, it’s a funny story.

Fresh Knight Because I can’t imagine.

Confucius Jones I think that is the longest hip hop fable.

Confucius Jones But probably so.

Fresh Knight My first, my next one, my last one won’t be long. Anywhere near that.

Confucius Jones I don’t think we had the time for it to be that.

Fresh Knight I get straight to the point.

Confucius Jones My next one is a celebration of letting on reality. Fuji’s first album, which came out on the 1st of February, which was this past Thursday. That album took two years to come out. They completed in 94. It took two years to come out and they had issues with the label roughhouse.

Fresh Knight I bet that.

Confucius Jones Probably plays into why they don’t really performing songs when they self maybe nappy headed the remix, and that was more because what’s that producer? That salami?

Fresh Knight Raheem salami?

Confucius Jones Yeah, he must have produced that with.

Fresh Knight Salaam, Rumi. Salah, Rumi.

Confucius Jones A lot of you don’t even heard that album. Like that’s why, because they don’t perform songs from it. And of course the next album, the score was too big.

Fresh Knight Was their big album. They most of y’all think it’s their debut album.

Confucius Jones I mean, people think that they’re going, okay, as far as albums, though.

Fresh Knight That’s a wild though. And it was like for Interfax.

Confucius Jones But yeah, that is my second fact.

Fresh Knight All right. My last. That was your take, in fact.

Confucius Jones Yes. My follow up. My fault. My fault? My fault.

Fresh Knight My fault. My fault. My fault. My last fact. Like I said, I get straight to the point. Ice Cube’s first solo debut was on Burn Hollywood Burn with Chuck D and Big Daddy Kane. I know most people think is his album America’s Most Wanted. The first time we heard him solo, why? And Ice Cube said this himself. The first time you heard him solo, I was burn Hollywood burn because he said he’s a call. Chuck D upon leaving NWA on advice and Chuck D was. He said Chuck D adamantly told him to stay with NWA, was trying to convince him to stay with NWA like, yo, you sure you can’t work it out? And Ice Cube was like, nah bro, I’m I’m out, I’m leaving. And so he asked him to be on song with him and big that came.

Confucius Jones I did the fact not too long ago about Ice Cube’s wife was the only one that told me to leave if everybody else told me stay. So I believe that fully. My final fact is, Tatiana Ali Wright played Ashley Banks on Fresh, the original Fresh Prince, not the remake. Had a music career at one point. She did.

Confucius Jones Well, the name of the.

Confucius Jones Song daydreaming was one. And boy, you knocked me out. Which samples Bobby call. What you want do for love.

Fresh Knight At a daydreaming is the one that had the video, right?

Confucius Jones They both had videos. Oh, I didn’t know what you like. Me? I was the one with Will Smith was rapping in it, and they were like, boxing.

Fresh Knight Never seen it.

Confucius Jones It wasn’t. It did. Okay.

Confucius Jones It was.

Confucius Jones But that song was written by Kelly Price.

Confucius Jones Shut up.

Fresh Knight And Kelly Price, man.

Confucius Jones Yeah. Apparently I was looking up, you know, on Instagram they have these. I follow some like R&B page and they do like songs produced by people. It was Kelly Price nine times out of ten when they post produced a written by and it’s by an artist. It’s usually songs like they did case and every song and it was like missing you a faded picture them like his songs. I I’m not that surprised, but they did. Kelly Bryson yeah, I mean Grant a lot of those were songs that she that her songs. But one of Muscle Boy you knocked me I today I said about chapter out Ali she also wrote satisfy you about puffing that other guy so

Fresh Knight I, I didn’t know she wrote I don’t know is.

Confucius Jones That song she wrote to.

Fresh Knight He said the other guy kind of threw me out. Then I had to realize like, oh yeah.

Confucius Jones You must not be named. But yeah, that’s my final fact.

Fresh Knight The dark Lord. That’s what’s up, man. Kelly Price, I think it’s.

Confucius Jones From can’t be named would be an honest you.

Fresh Knight So facts Kelly Price is underrated voice and impresario in R&B music. I don’t think she gets enough. Just do in credit.

Confucius Jones The song daddy’s man. That’s my joy, man. And now it is time for unpopular opinion with fresh himself.

Fresh Knight Yeah, man. Yeah. Let’s let’s get straight to the point, man. With it. We talked about what was that last week about Austin. If 2024 is the year that Austin at hip hop breaks through, breaks through, my unpopular opinion is I don’t think at hip hop will break through. And I don’t think Austin will become the city that y’all really want it to be. If we get somebody that breaks through. I think most people in the hip hop R&B scene wants Austin to essentially turn blue, you know, like because Texas is a rare state and everybody wants it to turn blue. I don’t even think, at the very least I don’t.

Confucius Jones Kind of that’s another.

Confucius Jones Conversation another day.

Fresh Knight Yeah. But, Ken Paxton, I don’t think Austin is going to turn into the city that people want it to turn into. It’s not turn it into Houston. It’s not even going to turn into Dallas. And I think people think like, if a rapper pops off and then the floodgates open and all these other rappers and R&B acts get through and they become highly successful, that Austin is going to become this rap city in the state of Texas. And I don’t think that’s going to happen. I think Austin is going to be a city where people play strum guitars, and that is what it is. And when I say that, I think about Nashville, I think about Nashville. While Memphis has become more. Of a city known for rap, then for its blues roots. The blues roots are still there, but Nashville, even with the success of a young book and a star Lido, say, which I want about star Lito. He’s successful. Yeah, he’s successful even with those two individuals being what they are. And, what was the do the the yo guy? He, snooty while they passed a few years ago. He was from Nashville. Like, even with acts like that that have had platinum records and have hits, had been nominated for Grammys and rolled around with 50 cent and all of that, Nashville is still known as what, the capital of country music. Yeah, the whole the Grand Ole Opry is. There is the home of country music. I don’t think Austin getting a popular rapper changes squad. I don’t think anything changes. I don’t think it becomes this place, this hub where people are coming here. Maybe they come here and they look for like a nice artist design. But I don’t think he becomes this city that people think is going to happen. And I don’t think the time I don’t think the Titans I honestly I don’t think that like if. Let’s just say little Mickey Booboo pants takes off and he gets a diamond single. The song goes viral and album drops and it goes platinum. I don’t think that changes anything about the city as far as the music scene. It’s still the home of Willie Nelson. Even though Willie Nelson is not from most, he is still going to be the highest revered artist in this city. I don’t think anything changes because a rapper pops up. I don’t think the city automatically clicks and says, oh well, you see what happened? It’s so much rap talent here. We gotta we gotta really stop pushing it. I don’t think they I really don’t think they care. We talk about on this show a lot about how the city should get behind rap, and they should it the way the city pushes and reveres Gary Clark Jr and the Black Pumas. And a Jacky Vincent and etc. and etc. as well as they should. They should do that with a lot of these rappers here. They should, but I don’t think they care to which we all kind of figure that they don’t care to and I don’t think they changes anything. I don’t think these popping off changes anything in this city. I don’t think the t the popping off changes anything. I don’t think if Queen gets a double platinum selling single changes a thing. I think this city is always going to push the guitar players, the rock stars, the blues singers out front. They are always, I think that city, the city is just always going to do that. I don’t think raps or R&B success changes anything. It gives you more people to point to, to say what I did it, they did it, they did it. We can do it is here. The infrastructure is here for us to make it out. But I don’t think it changes anything. I don’t think the city becomes more rap focused. I think they stay focused on the men with guitars. Sadly to say, it is a male driven industry still and they still look for the men for guitars before they look at the woman with guitars. But in this city, if you more than likely have a guitar in your hand, they’re going to give you a bigger gauge, they’re going to give you a bigger push than if you just got if it’s just you and a DJ, some turntables. I just don’t think anything changes. Maybe Austin is just not meant to have the proverbial seat at the table of hip hop, and that’s my own personal opinion. Come on, give me some push back.

Confucius Jones Oh, I I’ll agree that Austin might not be. A major city for hip hop, like a Memphis or an Atlanta, because most cities are going to be that. To your point of the star Lidos and the young books coming out of Nashville. Nashville still being known for what it is one. Nashville does have this rich history of country music. Also didn’t have a rich history of anything except Willie Nelson and Stevie Ray Vaughan. So it’s still open season, in my opinion, on another genre overtaking both of those becoming the dominant genre here. What it is is that the city has been trying to mimic the success of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Willie Nelson for the last 40 years, and also with star Lito and Young Book why they didn’t help the Nashville rapper. It’s because they got signed to way bigger artists when they came out young Buck two, 50 and star later when he was asked on if you Remember will sound a little I do.

Fresh Knight Remember All Star.

Confucius Jones I’m glad to change his name for I’m Google Lord. I’m so glad he.

Fresh Knight Did it the same way. Like it was no change.

Confucius Jones No change. Boy, that’s hard to find. So that didn’t help them. And going back to my earlier point, we talked about sixth Street maturing. I think that helps the rap scene because what happens is you get more high quality venues that maybe might start letting rappers perform there. And if the clientele is more is less rowdy and spends more money, that also helps fund the scene more. You do a song six three now them kids don’t care about you rapping down there. They want to see people with motion which for you, those you know, that means somebody you know, look like they’re successful, are well known and they want to see somebody that, you know, it’s really not from here, but it builds itself up to be more mature and to have a different type of clientele. Mostly tourists and rappers can get shows down there. You can actually build a fan base. I was talking to a Jackie Vincent sister and she said that. Granted, while Jackie Vincent’s fan base is a lot older, they spend money.

Fresh Knight They do. We’ve we’ve seen.

Confucius Jones That. Yeah, exactly. And so. I think the city. I think it will break through. I think it’s a breakthrough. It’s just not going to break through. And if a queen gets signed tomorrow to CMJ, that’s not gonna help us at all. It’s good for Queen, but it’s not going to help. It’s going to. If anything just adds to Memphis.

Fresh Knight And I want to be clear about my point. I’m not saying that I’m not looking for or wanting the scene to break through. I’m saying I don’t think anything changes. I think it’s business as usual here. And to your point about Austin not having a long history of anything. I’m I can argue that. I will say Austin kind of has a history of blues, like from AC Boyz to, a Victory Grill to Antonio, but we may not have this string of artists who have come out of here, but Nashville necessarily doesn’t have that when it comes to country. It’s just the place that country music has been cultivated in. A lot of big time blues artists have come through Austin and have helped build their base, from performing at an Antone’s and at a Victory Grill. So I will say, yeah, that that is here.

Confucius Jones That’s that. I argue against that because. So it’s a difference between having a music culture and a vast music history like Nashville. You got Taylor Swift, Keith Urban, Dolly Parton, Chris Stapleton, Chris Young, Blake Shelton. Like that’s huge. That’s a huge line.

Fresh Knight I don’t I don’t disagree, but.

Confucius Jones You can’t really name artists of that caliber. Maybe more than five. They’ve come out all in one genre. That’s what I’m saying. So it’s hard to get past Nashville as a country thing when you have these.

Confucius Jones Huge.

Confucius Jones Music history changing artists that are coming from there from 40 years. Austin doesn’t have 40 years of one genre, just shooting out superstars every 5 or 6 years.

Fresh Knight I get that, I guess more. So what what I’m saying is, I think I’ll stay. Looks at it like we’ve had these places that have cultivated genres. And no, we didn’t push out our Ray Charles. But Ray Charles is known for being here. Are you has James Brown, Muddy Waters and I think.

Confucius Jones There’s a history of people stopping here. Yes.

Fresh Knight I think Austin looks at that is like this has been a hub for it. And I don’t think rap is getting past it. Being that Austin is gone, maybe I didn’t explain it. What I’m saying is I don’t think anybody being signed, anybody getting success changes anything. The way that people look at Austin all the way to Austin looks at Austin as this we supposed to be this big music hub, this live music capital. But when it comes to rap, nobody really cares about that live music portion. And we have become this hub for the blues and the rock and Americana. And I don’t think that changes. That doesn’t change. Also, it’s going to always push forward the artists who are gone though, because John.

Confucius Jones Austin and even which argument is stuck on nostalgia. Like you bring up. Yeah. Those people came through here. They came through here 50 years ago. And Austin still hold on to, well, you know, back into you know what time it of victory grill Ray Charles performed. Yeah. That’s dope history. That does not mean that Austin that defines Austin. But Austin keeps let it define it. Love it. Love Stevie, Ray Vaughan. Love Austin. But I’m saying that we don’t have stopping through here. And these people cultivating their careers here is two different things. And so I think what Austin needs now granted we’ve had Austin artists out before. Rappers. Yes. That that’s nothing new. What we need is a string of successful rappers coming out of here.

Fresh Knight I agree, what I’m saying is, like you said, yeah, we had all these artists here and Austin is letting that define it. That’s what I’m saying. The city of Austin isn’t going to let a string of successful rappers define it as a city the way Houston has, because country artists and blues artists have come out of Houston, they’ve come out of Dallas. But Houston has had the strength of artists to say, hey, yo, you know what? We’re a Mecca. We have Scarface, we have screw. We had to hoe. As you see, we have squished how that city has allowed itself to be defined by the success of the rap. I don’t think Austin is going to allow itself to say, oh man, we sold and had this whole string of artists. Let’s really get behind it. In the same way we got behind all of these rockets. I don’t think that happen. I think also is going to always want to be and allow itself to be defined by those genres and that history.

Confucius Jones I think it comes down to money talks. The Houstons in the Dallas, I would even argue Dallas to Dallas.

Fresh Knight Where Dallas is still Dallas Artisan. Dallas will tell you that they still fighting for this.

Confucius Jones City trying to figure out. But Houston, it’s just undeniable. That’s just one of those that like you can’t every city has to go to a park, but it also helps with the Black population. Yes, it does not help that our Black population is dwindling in Austin.

Fresh Knight It doesn’t. I think that helps. I don’t think it’s solely hills, but I think it helps. It definitely.

Confucius Jones Helps. That feeds into.

Fresh Knight Houston. All of you people who moved out and come and still complain effects.

Confucius Jones But with Houston it was so much all happy because if you think about it too, from the rise of Geto Boys to the death of DJayscrew, that only happened in like maybe a 6 or 7 year span because Geto Boys come out late 90s screw dies in 2000.

Fresh Knight They’ll get work in an 80s.

Confucius Jones Well, I’m talking about like when they kind of, like, started really.

Fresh Knight Oh, well, there’s also two factions of issues.

Confucius Jones So if you’re talking about the ones that were like called NWA, that’s like the late 80s. But if you’re talking about my play tricks and I was like, what, like 92, I think.

Fresh Knight Yeah, somewhere around in I’m 23, nine, four somewhere in that time span.

Confucius Jones But it’s still like I said, then the rise of screw was like 95. So it’s it became this until and then Swisher House come. So it’s it’s undeniable thing. That’s what I’m saying Austin. For Austin to get there with rap or even R&B, it has to be a consistent string. We’ve talked about this with the breaks. The breaks, in my opinion, is the first time in Austin rap history was something is consistently happening every time, every every Saturday the Breaks comes on.

Fresh Knight Well, I said that in my campaign for the when I was in music ward.

Confucius Jones I mean, it’s true because like we’ve said before, what used to happen, we would get some rap, we would get on the cover of the Chronicle in May and we wouldn’t have anything else, and to maybe South by the next year. So with the breaks, you have consistency. But in order for this thing to blow up, it has to be consistency from everywhere. We’re going to have multiple artists doing big things, going on tours, whatever, selling out, whatever they’re putting out. It has to be a lot. It wants to what cities like, we really can’t just. Because you’re right. The city is going to fight, fight, fight, fight and fight it. That is the uphill battle because the city does not want to be known for that. But once the money starts showing him, it will.

Fresh Knight I think money. I wish it.

Confucius Jones All of its money.

Fresh Knight I’m with you. Money talks. Money does talk. And we’ve said this before. It ain’t like people in this city don’t like rap. They just don’t know what they like until you put it in front of. But like you said, the city is going to fight, fight, fight. And I think do. I think despite the money, they’re going to fight tooth and nail to keep the image that they have been preserving for decades. And I think they don’t want to let that go. And they don’t want rap to be the image of the city.

Confucius Jones Well, I, like I said in my final point, is Austin is money driven. I can’t go into details, but I’ve heard many stories about things that are supposed to happen. But then somebody with the right amount of money comes along and I’ve heard.

Fresh Knight I’ve heard similar things.

Confucius Jones At Tucker Watson. So like I said, if rap gets to a point where it’s just undeniably making way too much money, what’s going to be happening is it’s going to get to a point where it’s making more money than Austin was ready for, and Austin was trying to regulate like, oh, let’s just let’s give him a hip hop venue.

Fresh Knight Because we are a very reactionary city.

Confucius Jones Exactly. And also.

Fresh Knight The population.

Confucius Jones What’s going to happen is my prediction is that by the time Austin somewhat comes around and starts trying to get behind rap, it’s going to be about ten years too late.

Fresh Knight I was about to say that was going to be my ending point. I hope that the city gets to that point, and I hope that with the population growth that the scene breaks through, I’m really hoping for, I’m pushing for, I’m pushing for I want that to be misconstrued with my unpopular opinion. Is unpopular paying for a reason? You got to come up with something new for us to have some banter. But I hope it gets there. I hope it gets to that point. But I do think by the time it hits yo, the breaks will be 30 years on air. The break. No breaks and be. I think by that point we will have been somewhere else off air, and they’ll have passed the brakes on to two other gentlemen or two other individuals, maybe two women or whatever. And I think it’ll be a whole new iteration of the show, and it’ll be it’ll be looking at like, what, man, this is what they was pushing for.

Confucius Jones I think what’s going to happen.

Fresh Knight 2017 before.

Confucius Jones I will say this is my final point. I think what’s really going to be happening isn’t going to be 1 or 2 or maybe three artists from either rap R&B that really, really blow up and leave. And it seems like all that, we can’t let that happen again. We gotta gotta keep him here.

Fresh Knight That’s what they fight now.

Confucius Jones That’s what I’m saying. It’s gonna be I’m talking to somebody like, we’ll get huge and they’re going to say they’re from Austin, but then we’re going to look at to like, wait till they live in L.A..

Fresh Knight I think it’s going to be somebody, as I’ve said before, that nobody knows about that. That happens, that they leave and they blow up. Always going to be somebody that the city just has known was here, and they live and they blow up that the people have a consensus that they just don’t like. I don’t really what I would do, like, I don’t really know how I think it’s going to be that I think it’s going to be individuals, that people either just have no idea who they are or people that they just don’t like.

Confucius Jones I mean, we’ll see.

Fresh Knight People you just don’t care for.

Confucius Jones I like this though.

Fresh Knight I like this. I like American rap. None of y’all.

Confucius Jones You talk to words. I don’t care.

Fresh Knight What y’all say, I don’t care, I don’t care what none of y’all say y’all could talk about. She keeps saying Flo, she from Texas.

Confucius Jones She don’t keep the same flow.

Fresh Knight And even if she did, she’s from Texas. Y’all clearly have never listen to Bumby rap. B.o.B got the same flow on a lot of song.

Confucius Jones You can say he tried to be bumpy a Pepsi. That’s not.

Fresh Knight To insult. You think you. Not at.

Confucius Jones All. Not even.

Fresh Knight Close. A woman has an entire album called Tina Snow. Well, yes she did. Yes. She wants to. Yes. She admires Pepsi.

Confucius Jones Anyway.

Fresh Knight Yeah. Anyway, anyway.

Confucius Jones Anyway, it’d be a whole nother mega tale.

Fresh Knight Anyway, so I actually don’t know even. Nick, you don’t want to share the fact. That I actually own you. Drugs. Okay.

Confucius Jones Okay.

Fresh Knight Like. Oh, bruh. But anyway. Anyway. Anyway. Anyway. Anyway. Anyway. Anyway, anyway, let’s get it to our portion of the show where we get we get very informed. Here is Confucius reads the news.

Confucius Jones The news is Mexican, right? That shouldn’t be that. That’s dead I because I don’t know.

Fresh Knight Like one minute show time and time again that she can rap.

Confucius Jones I would argue that I would argue would make a worthy competition for Nicky granite. Nicky. Still. Nicky.

Fresh Knight I thought the same D.

Confucius Jones But I think Megan making Megan getting that ring. What she get on me? Yeah, they get it made me reason. It’s been interesting. Newsweek. The Super Bowl is set for next weekend. It’s going to be the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco. Kansas City has played in the last four out of five Super Bowls. Its course is disheartening for me only because the coach of Kansas City is Andy Reid, who was with the Philadelphia Eagles for ten years. And then win one damn Super Bowl.

Fresh Knight I went though right. I went oh five.

Confucius Jones For yo for and against the Patriots and we lost. But I mean we did get one after he left. So it is what it is. But yeah Super Bowl. The main headlines though for the Super Bowl that I’ve been seeing Taylor Swift and Travis Gibson tight end for the canes.

Fresh Knight I thought this I don’t even know why this is like, this was news because I thought this made sense.

Confucius Jones I, I will admit, the only, only ill feelings I have about it. This used to be a Philadelphia Eagles fan, but I get it. Support you, man. Whatever. But hey, man. Whatever. Whatever. What so it’s looked like it’s going to happen is also Taylor Swift is going to come out and endorse Biden. If anything, she just fervently anti-Trump. And of course, I mean, yeah, you know, of course Trump feels away. According to rolling Stone, he feels like her endorsement of Joe Biden would help because he’s more popular than Taylor Swift, and his fan base is more loyal to him than hers is to her.

Fresh Knight You know what I mean? He might have argument, right?

Confucius Jones Go. Like.

Confucius Jones I’ll say this. Okay, here’s my here’s my thought on that. Who will women under 25 listen to more Donald Trump or Taylor Swift?

Fresh Knight Oh, definitely Taylor Swift.

Confucius Jones I think hard to us meant of Biden. Just saying don’t vote for Trump is going all.

Fresh Knight Those all those newly freshly turned 18 year olds that just filled out they voter registration forms. Oh yeah. Unless they are already far on the right. We yeah they go Taylor say I’m voting like I’m my power and my strength and my influence is behind Biden. Yeah, they rocking with Biden.

Confucius Jones Apparently Trump aides are pledging a holy war against Taylor Swift. Don’t know what the hell that means.

Confucius Jones But it’s like.

Confucius Jones Oh, how do I think this is gonna play out?

Fresh Knight But a holy.

Confucius Jones War, holy war. Let’s go to rolling Stone. Joe Biden might be counting on Taylor Swift to save him, but voters are looking at those sky high inflation rates and saying, we are never, ever getting back together again. That is what they told rolling Stone. It’s a play I want to take with you.

Fresh Knight I know, I know, but is that a holy war.

Confucius Jones Bro?

Confucius Jones First of all, you’re not going to convince me that, Donald Trump thinks anybody’s more popular than him. So, yeah, I can’t see him sit down and say, like, you know, I can see that, you know, I just I Renaissance came out, I lost, voted.

Fresh Knight Hey, he’s a megalomaniac.

Confucius Jones He’s not. Yeah. He’s not that bad. It works. You know, you don’t you don’t you don’t become less of a megalomaniac in your damn 80s. They had. It works. But. Moving on. Fresh, his favorite podcast, Joe Budden Podcast, recently talked to me, recently talked about he’s not me. I’m not lying. You do like Biden.

Fresh Knight Is entertaining at times. We can be with a new cast. It’s entertaining at times. It’s not what it used to be.

Confucius Jones To me that people on that show, it’s the male version of The View would Viagra. And so.

Confucius Jones Joe.

Confucius Jones Joe Budden recently made comments about Draya being a predator for allegedly getting pregnant by a 21 year old NBA star, Jalen Green. Everybody on the show, except for Melissa Ford trying to make the argument that, yeah, you know, she’s white because she’s 39 years old and he’s 21 and she’s too old to be basically dating somebody that same age as her older son. And once she abandoned.

Fresh Knight Yeah. The one she left at home while she was in Vegas or something like that.

Confucius Jones Yeah. Dancing.

Fresh Knight Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.

Confucius Jones Here’s the irony of Joe Budden saying that when all those allegations about puff came out.

Fresh Knight Oh.

Confucius Jones Joe Budden was quiet of the church mask.

Fresh Knight When you hear a rat piss on cotton.

Confucius Jones You know, when it’s.

Fresh Knight Like, oh.

Confucius Jones But what is Draya? Oh, boy, she’s a predator.

Fresh Knight With Joe’s links to the misogynistic side.

Confucius Jones Leans.

Confucius Jones And we.

Confucius Jones See Michael Jackson lead it in.

Confucius Jones It.

Confucius Jones What, you mean.

Fresh Knight Let’s move criminal leave.

Confucius Jones And Joe got some allegation himself against women too, so he really needs to just. I would even said nothing but that just that is very.

Fresh Knight Much expected him to say.

Confucius Jones Some idea to the show is built of male points of views of misogyny. Not saying that people listen would feel that way, but Joe is not too many steps away from Andrew Tate.

Fresh Knight You know what? I’m gonna just leave my comment alone. I’m not gonna say anything.

Confucius Jones Yeah. Joe quote said she looks absolutely nuts if you want to sleep with a 21 year old. But now you got a baby by a 21 year old. You are a predator. Once again. All those allegations about puff, puff, blow up Kid Cuddy’s car, while that is wife outside of the obviously evil stuff you did to cancel that little kid got his car.

Fresh Knight Tried to murder somebody.

Confucius Jones So.

Confucius Jones My family could have had a.

Confucius Jones Go.

Confucius Jones At the crazy, but I ain’t never seen him talk about be in no.

Confucius Jones Car.

Fresh Knight I seen you with some car.

Confucius Jones With you driving him. Yeah. No, I must not be reasonably priced. Y’all see.

Fresh Knight This? This was. Wow. This is a while ago. It was a while ago.

Confucius Jones Right when they blew up. You see? You see what I drive, though.

Fresh Knight To be fair with you, it’s only one video I’ve seen. You mean like the Mercedes? Like a Mercedes being like Carl, but like. Yeah, okay. They blew up that car.

Confucius Jones Yeesh! Know I would ride a boy. They tried to be like the deer rabbit. Robert DeNiro in a scene, a casino. They would blow me up. Anyway. Moving on. Biden is taking a hard stance against immigration. He is trying to pass a immigration bill that would essentially shut down the border, which he has touted is one of the hardest immigration bill in years. Of course, critics have questioned Wilders said he is taking on Republican talking points about the border because Republicans have been trying to shut down the border for at least 20, 40 years.

Confucius Jones But for decades at that point.

Confucius Jones There’s two guesses. I have one, Biden knows that Republicans are actually making headway with the immigration debate. They’ve been making headway for years. Doesn’t help that I own governor. I’m going to say something, but last time I did is we’ve got our own governor. You know, his basically rallied other Republican states to send down the National Guard to enforce the border after the Supreme Court said that that razor wire can go up there, on the border. And so Biden is trying to take a hardline stance and make not make himself seem soft on immigration. Also, for those who didn’t know that another president who had a hard line immigration stance and no, it was not Donald Trump, President Obama. Yeah, yeah, one of the hardest immigration stances in American history. So it’s not surprising that Biden would take a even harder stance.

Fresh Knight I’m sure he has discussed that with former President Barack Obama, because most former presidents, especially when you were on the same party you have, you discussed these things with the person who every 50.

Confucius Jones Democratic presidents have a very bad habit. The last three Clinton, Obama and now Biden. They have a very bad habit of once they feel like Republicans are getting some type of headway politically, they start moving further and further to the right. President Bill Clinton famously went all the way to law and order after he lost the House to a new game. He took that from him. Next thing you know, you get the 94 crime bill, you know, like about Obama getting killed on immigration. Let me just, you know, be strict on him. So he can’t say I’m being soft on the border and Biden doing the same thing. And it’s it’s unfortunate because there’s no solution is going to solve the immigration problem. And in my opinion, the reason why an immigration problem has gotten so bad at the Biden is because Republicans keep talking about the border being open. I don’t know why you think they don’t have TVs over there and they’re not hearing this. So I don’t know how you think this works. If so, I’m serious. Like, they they have TVs, they can they they hear the old snap. We walk over here and, speaker of the House Mike Johnson said the other day that he will accept no bill that doesn’t have that doesn’t have immigration be zero. Somebody pointed out this, Mike Johnson realized that there has never been a time in American history when there’s been zero immigrants coming over here.

Fresh Knight This country was built on what?

Confucius Jones Immigrants.

Confucius Jones You go.

Confucius Jones It is ever since. It’s like I said, the day this country was founded was people coming over here.

Fresh Knight I think is what state was like that my thing is the Republican Party is really hard and take a hard stance on like, crime and punishment and crime in order. Hey yo, hey yo, Republican party. Guess who built. Guess who physically built the police department because nobody else wanted to do that job. Irish immigrants.

Confucius Jones Irish immigrants Irish.

Fresh Knight Immigrants. This is why you hear bagpipes doing like when they have parades or when somebody, a police officer dies.

Confucius Jones The other guys.

Fresh Knight Yeah. Like that is why. Because the Irish built what is known today. What the police and the fire department, first responders period where they built their bro.

Confucius Jones I would never I would never not do a Republican stance on immigration just comes from their fear of losing the electorate because they feel like anybody comes over here. That’s not doesn’t look that’s not pale, is not going to vote for them.

Fresh Knight Yeah, I can definitely believe that. But like, yeah, like there’s never been a time in this country where immigrants have not. Immigrants have not.

Confucius Jones So it might Johnson just he’s he’s he’s an idiot. So, you know, whatever. Y’all have fun with it. And finally, FBI Director Christopher Wray warned this past winter that Chinese hackers are preparing to wreak havoc and cause real world harm to the United States. That’s not that hard. You saw with Russia data through Facebook. Like it’s not that hard. People, I was watching a congressional hearing with social media platforms, and they had the CEO of TikTok on there, and Senator Josh Hawley was. Berating him about. Are you a part of the Chinese Communist Party? Are you a. You know, a citizen of China? The CEO of TikTok is from Singapore, and he repeatedly told me, I’m from Singapore. I’m like you, I don’t know you really? How racist that sounds like, bro.

Fresh Knight No, they don’t, they don’t.

Confucius Jones He’s like.

Fresh Knight I notice a whole different country.

Confucius Jones Right?

Confucius Jones He’s like. And he said, you and your wife and kids are born here. He’s like, yes. Like, I don’t know, a James Bond movie. You’d be watch it. But they’d had his work. And so, yeah, I mean, of course China’s going to strike it out offensively or stop the wars of tomorrow are going to be fought through technology. It’s not going to be Band of Brothers. And, you know, in Pearl Harbor, it’s going to be people logging on to Facebook and Twitter and making a fake accounts and sowing discord throughout the United States, which is already happen because now you see a lot of politicians having Russian talking points.

Fresh Knight My father said that years ago when. My man is in Egypt.

Confucius Jones Gadhafi.

Fresh Knight Yeah. And he. When they was doing. Right. Cause y’all gotta get on Facebook. We’ll be talking about it, spreading all that. They don’t mean all it. I Alamut as a partizan major. I didn’t brush it off. But then I thought to myself, and, oh, man, I got a point.

Confucius Jones You.

Fresh Knight Cause we got a.

Confucius Jones Point, man. He said, the Chinese hackers are working to find and prepare to destroy our degrade to civilian critical infrastructure that keeps us safe and prosperous. And let’s be clear, cyber threats to our critical infrastructure represent real world threats to our physical safety. The Chinese government has previously denied allegations of hacking efforts. Because why the heck with it meant that?

Confucius Jones Hey, hey, yo, we hacked y’all.

Confucius Jones What you gonna do about it? Nothing. Like that’s not how any of that works. And let’s be fair, let’s be all the way fair. Do you honestly think that the United States of America is not doing the same thing to somebody else, somewhere else in the world? I saw you in the state. I know how this works, but they’re.

Confucius Jones Supposed to say that.

Confucius Jones I’m just saying. I’m just saying. That’s saying, look, I love my country, but let’s let’s be honest. Everybody’s doing something right here. That’s how this. That’s how superpowers. You know, you don’t maintain being a superpower by being nice to everybody.

Confucius Jones Well, this is true.

Confucius Jones So that’s Confucius reads the news.

Fresh Knight All right. Man, what a news segment right there that was entertaining. I mean, I laughed, I got a kick out of it.

Confucius Jones I enjoyed it.

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.