The Breaks

With another SXSBreaks in the bag, Confucius and Fresh recommend submitting your stuff for next year’s consideration sooner rather than later. Does hip-hop need another Damon Dash and how much does talent account for success in the current generation? See what the fellas have to say in the latest.

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 So like I said, South by Southwest is over. South by South-breaks 2024 is over.

Fresh Knight Actually, I feel like we’re forgetting somebody. Jakarta.

Confucius Jones Jakarta. I need to tag Mike on this graphic, cause I was when I was making the pose, I’m like, I forgot somebody. But he had and shoutout them, they had a great show. My favorite part of it was our shortest bout that breaks. I love that I was home by 1130.

Fresh Knight I love that, I mean, I went home and took a shower and got nice and snug in my bed.

Confucius Jones It was a great, great show. So now, of course, I understand it and we’re kind of doing the same thing. You take time to get your life back together after South by Southwest. If you’re involved in a heavy way and also to look forward to the next year. Great. Some people a friend of ours who was working south by. They go on vacation right after.

Fresh Knight I wish I could. Well, I mean, some people here, even did.

Confucius Jones I probably am next year.

Fresh Knight Wouldn’t be mad at it.

Confucius Jones But there’s nothing wrong with looking forward to the next year right now. Granted. With that being said, we have no idea who’s going to be on side by side.

Fresh Knight None.

Confucius Jones That’s not even an inkling. But for all of you out there who saw the lineup.

Fresh Knight And all of you out there who hit us up wanting to be on the lineup.

Confucius Jones This is the best way to get on our radar. And we’re about to explain it. I’ll start it off. First off, start submitting music now. That’s the simplest thing I can give you to start doing it now. Like we said before and numerous times on the show, the way we operate in terms of selecting artists is either one. You have undeniably created this huge buzz in the city within hip hop and R&B, to where we have no other choice but to put you on a showcase, for example, a great source of great songs and blew up last year of digits shipped through our digits. It blew up, we started playing it, and then we had heard of Summer jam. She didn’t submit the song to us, but the song got so big we had no choice but couldn’t.

Fresh Knight We could not ignore. Couldn’t you acknowledge? Yes, yes, yeah.

Confucius Jones Now, on the other hand, you have somebody like a Jedi I512 who we have been playing on here for a while. He becomes artist of the month up here and he gets a rotation of KUTX and we also add him a summer jam. So he went through the process of submitting music, getting recognized kind of by the listenership here and then us adding summer jam. So that’s kind of how it goes there. We try to add people on there who not only do we play on a consistent basis so the listeners know who they are, but somebody who the listeners might know about already because of the moves they’re making in the city. Those are the two best ways I can think of to get on.

Fresh Knight Man, put your best foot forward and then the best music that you have. If we like it, as I tell most of y’all, when I see y’all and y’all come to me. Me. Why you put me on show me, man. I needed to Be on this show, man. Why am I not going on the show? Man. Send the music. It’s very simple, very simple. Like I tell a lot of y’all KUTX loves when we do something or when they do something and hey, they have the music to play is real easy. Something that is already being play, whether it’s just being played on the breaks or in the regular rotation. They like that. Send the music, send the music. It’s really not that hard, man. If you don’t want to send the music that just tell me you don’t care. And if you don’t care, don’t expect me to care. So send the music. It’s just, it’s it’s really as simple as that. Or like Confucius said, man, get your buds up to where it is just undeniable. Yeah. Just undeniable. Like you mentioned, grace. And I even say jet. I was even at it when we added them to Summer jam. I think he was at a point to where it was like, you really can’t ignore him. He’s kind of the most at that point was probably the most, if not one of the most consistent artists releasing music. And a lot of people were talking about Jada. We just happened to get him for his very first performance, and he hasn’t done anything since.

Confucius Jones He’s put out music.

Fresh Knight Yeah, he’s put out music, but he hasn’t performed, and I think that’s just the way he wants it. But yeah, word we are paying attention. I know a lot of y’all think that we are not paying attention, but we’re paying attention. And if you don’t make the line, then you just don’t make the lotto. Maybe try again next year.

Confucius Jones Like, I mean, to be fair, side by side breaks is not to know all ends all. But I mean, I get it helps and everybody wants that stamp of approval and credibility. And not just that, but my advice to artists would be plan out your year, right? Say to yourself, okay, I didn’t make Side-By-Side breaks in March. Let’s say I’m gonna just take March off and reassess some things. But when April comes, I’m going to start from April to next February. My plan is going to be this I’m going to put up this amount of music. I’m submit this amount of music to them. I’m gonna reach out to them in some way. I’m not gonna lie to you guys. I don’t mind emails. And I understand that’s some of the only way y’all can kind of talk to us. But also, it’s kind of make yourself stand out. And I’m not saying, like, I’m just super, super special person that needs special privileges, but try to do something to be like, hey, you know, I check out the show all the time. I like the last thing I talked about. It was really Interesting.

Fresh Knight Don’t insult me. I tell you that even if you’re trying to be sarcastic, you don’t troll me.

Confucius Jones Yeah, that don’t work.

Confucius Jones Don’t troll me.

Confucius Jones That your music is just undeniably that good. Please don’t.

Fresh Knight I don’t care if it is, I will swipe left and delete that. Don’t troll me.

Confucius Jones Don’t throw me. You know, just something like that. Because what I found is a lot of you guys that complain about us not playing your music or putting you on our showcases, or people who want to be a part of them, don’t really listen to the show. And so it would help sometimes if you out in emails would say like, hey man, like, you know, this last topic I talked about really interesting. Here’s my thoughts on it. No, I agreed with Frazier. You Confucius I have music I think you know might fit into what you are looking for was good and whatever. Something like I said to stand out. But the main thing is you want to be able to create a type of brand and buzz that the listeners recognize. The reason why, you know, you see, like the One Trees or the Rock, the Park, all these lineups or South lineups. It’s because a lot of these artists we play on a consistent basis and listeners want to see them. I can think of even this year at Schultz, you know, we play girl on girl a lot and girl, girl and girl. And it was a good turnout format. Schultz people want to see him cast.

Fresh Knight Overall, I was just about to say I missed cast overall, but I heard that the turnout for cast overall was really good. What’s her name from? Seattle. Brittany.

Confucius Jones Howard.

Fresh Knight No. Not really. Yeah. Brittany Davis I heard, like, it was a great performer and she had a great turnout at the radio days. Days? You know why? Because we play her consistently.

Confucius Jones And that’s the thing. Like, as an artist, you want. It’s kind of like people say about money. You want to have different streams of income. You don’t have just one musically. You want to be able to have as many people as possible listening to you so that you get asked to be on these stages, because that’s really what it comes down to. And we’re we’re honestly the lower level of it, but it’s higher you get in the industry. They’re going to ask you, well, how many streams do you have or how many shows have you done? What type of shows have you done? Because nobody wants to take a chance on somebody who has nothing. And by nothing I mean no buzz, no good catalog of music. I’ve talked to a friend of mine. He’s trying to put out music, I told him, I said, man, just rerelease all the stuff you already have. You think it’s good enough to rerelease it so you can have a back catalog? So when people look you up, they can say, oh, he’s had this whole thing going on. For example, I like Lucky Day when he dropped a song over what his biggest song I rather used biggest song. It made me really go back and look at his past catalog. He has a lot of stuff that, you know, just never caught on, but it was dope.

Fresh Knight Was probably his biggest song. But yeah.

Confucius Jones Which song?

Fresh Knight Role some more.

Confucius Jones That’s like, oh, was almost Jordan excited. All right.

Fresh Knight I mean I don’t know. But I understand what you’re saying. Even when Romo came out when like when you went to look up Lucky Day, there was still stuff there.

Confucius Jones Yeah. So I same thing that people said about Nipsey when Nipsey passed out, I was musically. Well, yeah, a lot of it. So that’s what I tell artists like just create a back catalog. And just like I said, get to a place in your career to then we put you on that stage. You already have a built in kind of base, because what happens is a lot of times you guys come to us saying, like, I want to be a part of South Bass. I break one of the people out of Summer jam, and we look at him like, if we put him on the stage, the people that probably show up, it’s going to be the friends and family, which is fine, I get it. But bro, this ain’t 12th grade theater. But we we’re trying to, you know.

Fresh Knight Trying to catapult you and push you forward.

Confucius Jones And reward the listener. You know, like, hey, you know, you you support this. All this because I remember when I went to was after the month, had a couple people emailed me, fans of KTC saying like, oh, we like his music. We’re fans of him.

Fresh Knight I had that when he was there at the when he when he was performing at some of them, a lot of people was in that they enjoyed hearing him or heard him first on the breaks and they been enjoying us playing him.

Confucius Jones I think, you know, stuff like that is important. But like I said, we’re not thinking about side by side breaking down, you know, pop our minds probably around November, December.

Fresh Knight Don’t come in February, no part of February asking about the show because I’m going to tell you by February the latter will be done.

Confucius Jones I will be done in January.

Fresh Knight We will be sitting back and just waiting for South By to happen by February. Don’t come February say, oh, I need to be on that now. And if I hear you saying, I don’t know how they doing it without me, I’m going to reply to you and say the same way. We’ve done it for the last six years.

Confucius Jones My best example is be. My final one would be if you’re trying to pursue somebody romantically. My best advice on doing that is go after somebody who likes you. What I mean by that is you go after somebody who takes an interest in you. Wants to support you, wants to help you, and wants to be a part of your life. Right? I would suggest not doing that with somebody who. You just met. And the problem with a lot of you, honestly, is y’all treat us like y’all just met us. We’ve been on the air seven years. We’ve made it very clear from our email, Twitter, social media, whatever, how to submit music. Don’t pop up on Valentine’s Day saying, hey, I want you to be my Valentine’s Day. Well, we have never heard about you before in our lives. Who are you and why should we do this.

Fresh Knight And send the music? Just send the music, man. That is the best way for us to gauge whether we want you on a show or not. May send the music and send it consistently. Don’t just send one song and then be like, oh, but I sent one. But you sent it in June because come time to do send us our breaks. We might not be playing it anymore.

Confucius Jones Exactly. So there’s so many podcasts now. So many, so many.

Fresh Knight It’s the new I got it mixtape effects. It’s kind of been there, but now it’s like it’s.

Confucius Jones Really out there, especially for athletes. But, we’re focusing on music. Somebody who I’ve been seeing on majority of those podcast, is former Roc-A-Fella CEO Damon Dash. Now I’m going to give you some backstory. Dame Dash now headed over to fresh for the topic. Dame Dash was one third of the ownership of Roc-A-Fella records, which included Dame Dash, Kareem Biggs Burke and the greatest rapper of all time, Jay-Z. Dame Dash is responsible for elevating Jay-Z to superstar status. Dame Dash is from Harlem, and he took a chance on somebody from Brooklyn. If you know anything about people from New York. People in New York are super territorial, so that is a big deal that somebody from Harlem decided to take a chance on a rapper from Brooklyn.

Fresh Knight To put it in a Texas reference is like somebody from Dallas taking a chance on somebody from Houston.

Confucius Jones Eventually paid off. Roc-A-Fella records and Jay-Z were one of the biggest labels and biggest artists of the late 90s and early 2000. At some point in the mid 2000, Dame Dash and Jay-Z Green Big Bird go their separate ways. The exact details are not known. There’s all kinds of speculation and opinions about what happened, and to this day, Dame Dash and Jay-Z seem to not have any type of relationship. Dame Dash has been going on podcast explaining his feelings about Jay-Z and what have Rockefeller for years, so much to the point that what people feel like they’ve talked too much. But the question I have is, does hip hop need another Dame dash?

Fresh Knight Does hip hop need another dame? Dash. Oh, man.

Confucius Jones Now for context, one of the things that people alleged Dame Dash and Jay-Z fill out about a Dame dash is very egotistical and he yells a lot. He’s boisterous. Yeah.

Fresh Knight So does hip hop need another dame, dash? I’ma say no. My explanation is we already have Dame and these days I’m big on. We already have this. We don’t need a duplicate of that. What hip hop needs is somebody to take what Dame did and then raise the bar and elevate it. We don’t necessarily need somebody to come in and be exactly what Dame Dash was. We just need somebody to come in and be better at what Dame did, or take what dame did and just take it to its next evolution, whatever that may look like. I know Dame catches a lot of flak because yes Dame talks a lot. Dame is always talked a lot I believe is just that. Now like you said everybody has a podcast. Yeah. And social media pushes everybody out there. So now we are just really seeing Dame Dash talk more. But if you follow Rockefeller the way Confucius that I have, you know, like this is just par for the course of the day. This is just dame if Dame if Roc-A-Fella was still around, I believe Dame would still be the most talkative person of him, Biggs and J. I think he would be still on everybody’s podcast all throughout the city of New York, cause most of these podcasts I’m finding are based in New York. I think he still will be doing it, but I just think hip hop needs somebody to come in and just do Dane better. One of the knocks against Dane would, like you say, he’s boisterous, he talks loudly, he’s egotistical. He’s not nice to people. Yeah, he’s he would be right. You in front of everybody and embarrass you and then act as if like that was okay. And like, yo, man, just suck it up and just keep and get the job done. But that isn’t always can do. That’s not conducive in the workplace. One, you can get sued by that these days. So we don’t need somebody to do that. We need somebody to have the same mindset, well, get the job done in a more conducive way within the industry in this day and age. But I think a dame like person is needed. I saw a video of Ray Daniels, who also talks a lot, and he was saying that, you know, the reason why you don’t see anymore. I guess he was meeting superstars. He said the record label Kill the Star, and I was like, it’s still stars in music, period. Were superstars. I don’t think that many superstars. And he was saying the label kill superstars because they don’t sign subsidiaries anymore, like Roc-A-Fella was a subsidiary of Def Jam Records, and then Def Jam is also a subsidiary of Universal Music Group.

Confucius Jones I don’t agree with that. And most AutoZone subsidiaries, most of them are signed directly to the major.

Fresh Knight True, but the gist of his point was, is that you don’t. Or at least I think at least he’s not saying that you have these smaller labels being bought or brought in by these bigger labels that are the incubation or curating the next star and the artists, and those are the ones that are developing the artists, and then they end up at Interscope. Then you get a Dreamville that ends up at Interscope, and now we can usher out an Ari Lennox. I would say she’s a stoner superstar. Well, our willingness also has some things that she has done, how she got to get under control herself. But that’s neither here nor there. But I think that’s what Dane was. Dane was the guy that saw the talent in somebody and that could be able to say, you know, we can work with this. I like beans, let’s get beans. I think we can make him a star. He can rap. We can mark him. We can find a way to market beans. And I found a way and he got to go. Albums. I’m not sure what to become. Indeed it might I wouldn’t go, I wouldn’t percentage in album sales by the time he kind of came out. But the first two albums wouldn’t go. And JCA. Oh, he he became a millionaire. And I think, like you, that’s just what day in Rockefeller was like. We’re going to find these artists that probably no other label would give a shot. And we’re going to show you that, you know, we can make them a star, and I can push them. I can give them they shot. I think that is needed. We just don’t need it. The way Dame went about always doing things.

Confucius Jones There’s been plenty of people after Dame who had Dames mentality and more successful and went further than he did, I.

Fresh Knight Think because the way they went about it.

Confucius Jones I think there’s more dames needed only because you need more people now in the industry, especially hip hop, who willing to take chances on new artists and really invest into them like Dame did with Jay, I mean. And make the same mistakes they did, unfortunately. And this doesn’t take away from Dame’s intelligence of greatness. Dame ended up being a means to an end, which I think is why he gets on his podcast and is so emotional about what happened in him and.

Fresh Knight Jay, because he recognized that he was a means to an.

Confucius Jones End. He was he that J not used him as a stepping stone, but as the story of J is told, Dame becomes a stepping stone for J’s ascension to where he is now, because clearly J has gone on to be bigger after Dame than when he was with him without music. Exactly. And so there are people, and that’s just the game. But a lot of people don’t want to accept that, hey, you might just be a stepping stone in somebody else’s career. It’s human nature to want to be a part of something that’s great, and to stay a part of something that’s great. But it’s also very true. The reality of it is a lot of great things go through evolutions and changes, and you might not be there for all of it.

Fresh Knight What invasion say on, on the Avengers movie, something isn’t beautiful because it lasts.

Confucius Jones Yeah.

Fresh Knight Like it’s not great because it’s going to last forever. Like the rain. You can’t rain forever. Although people try, but you just can’t reign forever.

Confucius Jones But some people out there and anybody who’s listening, who aspiring to be a music manager or being a music executive, you have to understand that Dame’s problem is that he never accepted and he still hasn’t accepted, that J just outgrew him. A lot of you guys that once again are listening, guys and girls who want to listen and become music executives need to realize that you’re going to be that person, too. Now, once again, Dame’s problem was Dame was the bad cop to J’s good cop. So when they split up, obviously everybody goes with good cop. Dame has been very vocal about the fact that he went he fought many battles behind J. And he’s hurt now that J is not around anymore, but. You know, you got to give him credit for that. Because for him willing to go, to give it all for one artist who he didn’t grow up with, don’t get a misconstrue. Most of these guys in New York, they grew up together. And so even Steve’s dad and I grew up in the same project. So, yeah, the music industry needs more of that, but it just needs more people to understand that. You’re not going to always be around for the whole duration of an artist career. Jazzy fate was instrumental in Sierra’s creative beginning, and they’re not. They made music. This is what the second album.

Fresh Knight Tope and Tia.

Confucius Jones Yeah. They’re not they’re not together anymore. So that’s just that’s just life sometimes.

Fresh Knight But I think that’s what I mean by, like to have somebody with dames mentality just change the way you do your focus, your focus and and how you approach these. Like, yeah, like you said, you’re going to have to realize that. Yeah, you might just be the stepping stone. Yeah. You might be the sugar knight to somebody. Doctor Dre.

Confucius Jones Yeah. And if you notice the similarities with Sugar Knight and Dame is that you could tell they were fully convinced that without that, their presence is the only reason that these artists that they’ve, you know, helped out. I helped get to superstar status. That is the only reason that that happened. Like, these people cannot exist on this level unless I’m involved in it.

Fresh Knight I think that is the ultimate downfall of Dame like reason. I think a one of those podcasts can tell you which one. Just seen the clip. He was talking about his whole D.D. 172 venture. Right. And he spoke about it as if it was this label that he had all of these artists, the Wiz Khalifa, the big creates, the currencies, the Staley’s and how like, yeah, smoke this like, yo y’all, I talked stallion. He went over it and he took that deal and and it didn’t end up working out obviously talking about Staley signing with IMG, which I believe under at the time was under Atlanta.

Confucius Jones Yeah.

Fresh Knight And it didn’t work out. And then Staley is now back independent. Well then framed it was framing it like so you’re trying to tell you you don’t take that I was the one looking out for you. Well, but isn’t that what you want for an artist that you work with? Don’t you want them to aspire to get a bigger gain and go get the bag? Ain’t that what we all about is going to get the bag? Staley did what he felt was best for him at that time, and he thought like, yo, me signing with Rick Ross, who at the time arguably was the hottest guy in the game, starting his label. And now I’m over here with meek, who’s scorching hot and wild. They just one guy, Wally, who was also hot, and then they bring me to kind of balance this out. Yeah, I’m gonna go over here. Deals don’t work out. That’s music. That’s just entertainment. Period. And Dame frames it as if, like you say, they like. Easy. Y’all would have been so better off if it were just me. But who said that? Because currency suits you.

Confucius Jones Yeah, and cars left aside and turned out pretty good.

Fresh Knight Don’t seem to be complaining to me.

Confucius Jones Facts.

Fresh Knight Neither does Big Crate. Neither does Wiz Khalifa. It worked out for Wiz Khalifa going and taking the big deal. Mind you, all of these people still had their own thing going because Cory was running with Johnny Shapes and that was his manager. So it ain’t like he needed you to be a manager. It’s not like we needed you because Wiz was hot, bro. By the time he hit Diddy. 172. As I spoke this, I probably needed to, but I don’t see him hurting either.

Confucius Jones I think the overall thing is his name just hasn’t that. He’s like I said, the downfall and we both thought we both said he never understood that. Maybe I’m not ready for the higher ups like I wanted. But of course his arguments always. Well, I didn’t want to be that person anyway. Well, I think he did. I think he did too. Especially so many people who started under him, you know, are now those positions.

Fresh Knight But I do agree with you. I do think that more Daim esque people are needed to take the big risk on more unknown artists. Cause remember, ladies and gentlemen, Jay-Z was turned down by virtually every major label, all the label, even the label that he ended up over there with the distribution deal in Def Jam. They originally turned him down and did not sign him, and Dame took that chance and helped Jay get hot. I think that is needed more and I think they’re out there. I just think we just haven’t seen the next dame make themselves. No. Don’t go anywhere. We’ll be right back.

Confucius Jones I’ll pop that unpopular opinion. Hip hop next time you jump the gun.

Fresh Knight That little fast forward of the show.

Confucius Jones Unpopular opinions coming, but right now, right now, right now. Say but perfects. Who wants go first.

Fresh Knight Kick things out. Kick things off. Google recently I think ban be announced is that the artists balls have passed away. I saw a reporter before that she had made an Instagram post about needing a new kidney for some renal, I believe, disease that she she was, going through, but Bhumi tweeted that she had or posted on Instagram that she had passed away. So my fact is, boss was the first woman to be released on Def Jam. Worse, I also didn’t know it was a Def Jam worst idea.

Confucius Jones It just didn’t didn’t happen.

Fresh Knight Well, she was the first woman.

Confucius Jones Really make tables over there.

Fresh Knight I think you might have been the first artist released, but she was because I received the first woman released from on Def Jam was signed by Russell himself.

Confucius Jones Yeah. Def jam had left Jam West, their Jam South, and all the reason Def Jam South took off as good little music had been that before. Literally would have never. You know, rumor has it some it was fact. keep.

Fresh Knight That. Yeah. Keep it, keep it, keep it, keep it, keep me if you got it. If you gotta ask, keep it.

Confucius Jones Now I’m trying to think of what my original fact was going to be. Yeah, I’m gonna make it fake, because that original fact was kind of more speculation than okay, now it was Drake’s new favorite. Seem like neither one of them know the truth to it. No. So piggyback off yours or a Pita to boot. Def Jam South was run by Scarface. And Ludacris is what he had to take off. But when Scarface first put in charge, he tried to recruit people from the home team. He tried to get Paul, walk me in that little flip and they all turn him down. Me they say that deal was trash. I’m sure he says it. I’ll get your back. Rick. It’s Def Jam we love to tape you message you raised. So originally Def Jam South was going to be had. It work itself out would have been the home base for the Houston explosion. But also the argument that had they all going over, there would have been a Houston explosion.

Fresh Knight I can see.

Confucius Jones That. And the only reason Ludacris was able to take off the way he did, in my opinion, is because he was already huge in Atlanta, because his album back for the first time is basically incognito with like 3 or 4 new songs. So.

Fresh Knight Well, I mean, things happen for a reason, right? Yeah. Whatever reason. My second fact, Andre 3000, apparently one of his first rap names was jazz, and that was because of.

Confucius Jones Trying to talk with.

Fresh Knight Yeah. He explained that, is because of the song we got the jazz and him in Big Boy were huge Tribe Called Quest fans, which I think if you are now cats fan you you know that because they picked him up and give him props to.

Confucius Jones O.

Fresh Knight A Tribe Called Quest. Many of times anyone supposedly was supposed to do an album.

Confucius Jones Yeah, for to say that.

Fresh Knight Before five passed away.

Confucius Jones The video footage leaked of Andre at the advice. You know, we do an album that was never gonna happen. You don’t think it was going to happen? No.

Fresh Knight I think it could have happened.

Confucius Jones Now, Andre is very self-aware, and I think he got to a place like, you know, I’m really only here because I’m a fan of these guys, not because I really want to do this.

Fresh Knight I think that’s why it would have happened, because I think he would have got the he was so much of a fan, I think he would have wanted to do it. I’m not saying he would have put his best foot forward.

Confucius Jones No, I think Andre thought someone else. People do it. It’s kind of like there’s nothing I can add to this. It’s like when Quincy said it was a no no, neck with that. Dre said Stevie hit him up.

Fresh Knight Oh, yeah.

Confucius Jones He’s like, how can I beat this? Like, I can’t beat it that you worked on. Anyway, moving on. It is the 20th anniversary of confessions. Usher’s seminal album, his biggest album that’s.

Fresh Knight Been selling.

Confucius Jones The second highest selling album of 2000, behind No Strings Attached and sixth album, the newly reunited In Sync. Apparently the album was inspired by none other than Eminem.

Fresh Knight Wait, what?

Confucius Jones According to usher, quote, I have Eminem to thank for that. Well, in the time where I felt like music was in transition and R&B specifically was in a place where it could go older or could kind of be what it was. You had all these great, you know, artists that were either performers, dancers, singers or whatever, but I felt like there was no honesty in the music, the honesty of hip hop and what Eminem was saying on his records. It motivated me like, yo, if he could be that honest, you know, through hip hop. And there have been other stories, storytellers, but never quite as vivid as Eminem. So I was like, we need to keep it real. Like Eminem. I want to go all the way in. So let me talk about the unspoken, the things that people don’t want to talk about and don’t want to have to deal with.

Fresh Knight That’s interesting.

Confucius Jones I had no.

Fresh Knight Idea. I mean, either, but considering confessions is about Jermaine Dupri and then Jermaine Dupri says, yo, that never really happened. Like, I didn’t get somebody else. I wasn’t with somebody, didn’t get somebody else pregnant. But I just was like, with Jermaine. I’ve heard you say that this song is about you and like. But I don’t know, man. He did.

Confucius Jones Like, but no, but I think what he’s trying to say is not so much about what you’re saying that I. It’s my life. But let’s talk about things and on records and R&B records that normally aren’t talked about in most albums. Yes.

Fresh Knight Him talking some very, some very real topics. Yeah. Yeah, I think that’s right.

Confucius Jones And if you think about it, Eminem was huge in the 2000. So you got to make sense what kind of he.

Fresh Knight Was he didn’t do.

Confucius Jones Hone in leg, I guess. Makes sense.

Fresh Knight All right, my third and final fact. To A Goofy Movie, which is said to be the Blackest Disney movie ever.

Confucius Jones Somebody said it was who was there?

Fresh Knight I said I didn’t see them as being Black. I didn’t watch it as a kid and see goofy as a Black man. That’s not what I saw when I saw goofy, and to be honest with you. But, but but the consensus says it is the biggest movie. So I’m rocking with the consensus.

Confucius Jones Whole episode of The Light about it when it went true.

Fresh Knight But that’s just I mean, I get why the episode was meh. But anyway, like I said, I’m rocking with the consensus. So with that being said, apparently Bobby Brown was supposed to be the original voice of the musical acting in A Goofy Movie power line that was supposed to be Bobby Brown not having Campbell. Apparently, powerline is supposed to be an amalgamation of Michael Jackson, Prince, and Bobby Brown. Aptly so. Disney wanted either one of those gentlemen and they went after Bobby, and I didn’t read why Bobby ended up not doing Prodigal Son. Bobby Reason and Tevin Campbell ended up being it, and I think it worked out for the best.

Confucius Jones Oh, wow. Nice. Another anniversary. Mad villainy.

Fresh Knight Yeah.

Confucius Jones Collab between the late, great MF Doom and Madlib. The entire album was produced by Madlib, except for the first track, which was produced in collaboration with doom. It is also considered one of the top 500 albums, as voted by Pitchfork.

Fresh Knight And, say, rolling Stone.

Confucius Jones By Pitchfork. Five of their all time all caps.

Fresh Knight When you spelled a man’s name.

Confucius Jones It was ranked number 11 on the Best Albums of 2024 on The Wire and All Music. The main thing with the album was that it almost didn’t happen.

Fresh Knight So I can, I can imagine.

Confucius Jones MF doom is famously what was famously known to be hard to find, and so in 2021, when they would, you know, as the album started, the idea of the app started to come together. Egan, who was the manager of stones Rose label, which is Madlib, was signed to, had a friend in Kennesaw, Georgia, which is a suburb of Atlanta. And asked the friend say, do you? If you know, do you mind giving him some beats? And three weeks later said the friend called back and was doomed. Love instrumentals won’t work with Madlib, but one of his quasi managers made an offer asking for a plane ticket to Los Angeles in $1,500. So apparently when they got out there, they basically like, so about this money and they stole through it and had the money. So, Egan said that he’s basically playing with just Doom and Madlib in the room and hope that they’d start working together. Just hope.

Fresh Knight For the best.

Confucius Jones And then figure it out. And it ended up working out for the best. And they got the money to him eventually. Yeah, I mean.

Fresh Knight I’m glad it worked out.

Confucius Jones Yeah, I know that’s considered a very important thing in hip hop.

Fresh Knight So it is, it is, it.

Confucius Jones Is about the Madlib and the late, great MF doom.

Fresh Knight Which people say. I saw a video recently about MF doom, and people was like the people only I was in. If it was some random podcast and they were like, they didn’t get it. Like give me one album by MF doom that like solidifies everybody’s argument for them. And my mind went to mad villainy. And the person who, like, I can’t really name one. I mean, you ain’t really listen cause you could easily say it mad villainy or easily say, food and like been done with and done with that whole argument, but all right, man.

Confucius Jones Unpopular opinion. Time had to give the dramatic pause, and I’m not mad at him. He would fresh himself right now on the breaks.

Fresh Knight Last year. Is due last.

Confucius Jones Year. That. I’m sorry. You got it. You got it.

Fresh Knight Last year we had, windy day on the show, correct? No. The last. That was 2023. All right. The years have been blending together. Like who?

Confucius Jones You who you telling?

Fresh Knight But last year, in 2023, we had the great windy day on the breaks. And she also she also spoke about when she was here. She spoke about the podcast that she co-hosts, the Chico podcast that I listen to quite regularly, and I share the clips. I share the clips with you all on my Instagram story. I hope you all are paying attention. And one of the clips got me thinking. And it’s something that I had already been thinking. But when her and her podcast fellow podcast host, Kingpin in Ferrari said it, I was like, I’ve been saying this man. And their whole thing was which is my unpopular opinion, is talent doesn’t matter. Their argument was talent doesn’t matter within the industry and it has never mattered. I don’t know about it. Had talent never mattering, but. When I say talent doesn’t matter. I’m saying. Talent isn’t the only thing you need. In the 21st century, in the year 2024 to break through. I hear a lot of artists, a lot of artists, all caps on that. Say, oh man, I’m telling you, man, I read way better than me. What are you getting at? Look, man, I mean, I read way better than you. How are you? Listen to me, I rap better. Oh, I sing better than you, so who cares? Who cares? We all have heard the saying. It’s a dude in the hood right now who’s been enjoying it and getting no shot. Why he didn’t get the shot. Just because you can hoop don’t mean you should be Jordan. Why? He didn’t get the shot. Did he put the work at the game? Was he out there practicing? Was he had to putting up shots? Was he the as determined as Michael Jordan? Did he go to college? Yes. Did he get the grades to go to college?

Confucius Jones Yes. You just don’t think it’s easy. But see my scouts. Why? You don’t know? He went to a you, I guess.

Fresh Knight I don’t know, it’s a million reasons. I my thing is, talent isn’t the only thing that prevails. You is not the only thing that push you forward in this day and age. I believe talent will get you in the door. But once you in the door, then what you going to do that you more talented? So it’s five other people in that same room that you in that’s highly talented. So what? Everybody gotta find some way. As Confucius said when we were talking about Sabah South breaks, you gotta do something that makes you stand out. Talent isn’t going to get it. I think Cardi B is highly talented, but I don’t think her talent is what pushed her forward. It was the personality and everything else that came with who Cardi B is that made us all stop and pay attention. We all didn’t stop and pay attention to the music because we just like, yo man, she really spitting on his track, man. We made man. I mean, she really spitting on lick. That’s not what made us pay attention to Cardi B. We were paying attention to Cardi B because we thought she was hilarious. We thought she had a great personality. She was relatable. If she was just somebody that we all felt like I could kick it with her man, she just seemed like a ball of fun to hang out with. Talent isn’t what pushed her for. Man, you need way more than talent. And I just think a lot of people in this day and age rely solely on their talent, pushing them forward. Nobody really cares how well you can rap these days. Y’all get on the internet, complain every day about how somebody is trash, man. They suck. Man. I can write better than them. I coulda did this. What are your songs? Can you write a good song? I don’t think 50 cent is the best rapper, but boy, can he make a song. Yeah, boy can he make a song. And I think that’s what propel 50 cent forward. 21 questions is just a great song in the club. It’s just a great song. Could he out rap some people? He probably could out rap. Some people. Oh, there’s some people that can out rap. 50 cent that didn’t get the same look at 50 cent got most definitely I believe that, yes, I definitely believe that. But hey look who’s who is who. And where these people ended up is all I’ll. All I’m saying is talent isn’t the end all be all. In this day and age, you need a lot more than just talent. A lot of people don’t want to become quote unquote content creators. But hey, you need that to move forward. You have to show you a personality some way. A lot of y’all want to come up here and talk. A lot of y’all can’t talk. And when I say can’t talk, I don’t mean like physically can’t talk. I mean that when you talk. It’s not interesting. This doesn’t sound good. You sucking your teeth. You. I mean, and it’s just a lot that nobody really wants to sit through 15 minute to an hour interview, hearing it. And a lot of y’all just don’t had a personality. Like, I think superstars or just stars in general have what they call the it factor, and not everybody has the IT effect. Doesn’t mean you can’t be successful, but you need a little more to break through in this day and age. This is all I’m saying. Like talent does not just simply push you forward. Like I said, it gets you in the door. It’ll get you on some stages, it’ll get you some streams, man. But everybody wants to be this. I won’t say everybody. Let me not say that, because everybody doesn’t want to be the big time superstar. Well, a lot of people want to be a big town superstar, and mainly the people who hooting holler how talented they are and why they not getting certain looks or why so-and-so or this person over here, or this lady over here, or this guy over here, got to look over them. Want to be those big time stars and are only wanting their talent to push them for it, and it just don’t work like that anymore, man. This is not Berry Gordy signing Motown. And I don’t think talent was. Everything was all he was looking at then. I don’t think anybody has just looked at how talented somebody was. Talent will get you. A certain place. But what happens after you get them in? And that’s my unpopular opinion. And also, I wanna say we’ve made a lot of great points on this topic during South by Southwest at Shoals Garden. I just couldn’t remember what they were.

Confucius Jones Talent gets you in the door. I wouldn’t say talent doesn’t matter because you need some of it. But also, we do live in a time where the best marketing genius gets in the door further than the talent wise. That part you mentioned, Cordy. Cordy was able to get on because her marketing prowess was top notch, even though she wasn’t, you know, she wasn’t like no marketing strategist. She was just making a bunch of funny content in the early days of Instagram. And that led to her being a loving hip hop, which created another fan base, which she parlayed into a rap career. Cardi B of course, the two top female rappers would be Nicki Cardi, and I don’t think anybody would argue that Cardi raps better than Nicki, but Cardi is just marketing wise, smarter than Nicki. Talent matters at a certain level. I would argue talent matters at the level that we talk about when it comes to soundbites outbreaks, you delete B talent. Yes, it helps to be good at marketing, but we we need the talent. But as you ascend and in the industry. The marketing has to kick in on a more homegrown level. Jay Soulja, Jay Soulja the very good artist, very very good artist. But his marketing I would argue is better that his.

Fresh Knight Artistry is pushing him into a lot of rooms.

Confucius Jones Exactly. So I also shout out to him for that Brian Simpson look on the Netflix bitch comedy special, but it’s those type of things that keep him in these conversations, because when the music isn’t getting him, having him talked about smoke at his. Like I said, him being on that the Netflix comedy special. So talent matters to me. But we would be naive to think we live in a time where talent is the main know all ends up. I do think Berry Gordy was looking for talent.

Fresh Knight I’m saying I don’t think Berry Gordy was solely looking at talent.

Confucius Jones But I think at that time he needed you to be exceptionally good. Yeah, most after him to. But also, that was a time when labels could sit you down for 2 or 3 years before you came out, because.

Fresh Knight He did it.

Confucius Jones I know the fantasy of the Jackson five being found in Gary, and it took him some years before he finally put them.

Fresh Knight Out and took a lot of them at Motown. Some years before.

Confucius Jones You get to go to that factory.

Fresh Knight Yeah. Before a lot of them came out.

Confucius Jones Even Stevie Wonder had to go through it. And Steven was a prodigy.

Fresh Knight Marvin Gaye went through it.

Confucius Jones Yeah. So that’s what a lot of them say. Motown sound got the same song. You saw Michael singing this, but, talent doesn’t matter, but it just. Maybe 30 years ago, the percentage of talent you needed was was way bigger than it is now, but now you probably need just 10% talent. Because that’s why when people, like you said, people jump out of trash. I mean, they are. But first, I think Playboi Carti is one of the worst authors of all time.

Fresh Knight He’s been consistent in this.

Confucius Jones But his marketing and brand is just on point. He’s just that mysterious. I’m different. You know, I’m goth.

Fresh Knight Now, this whole vampire thing, he’s doing.

Confucius Jones Like, people like it. I think.

Fresh Knight The kids love.

Confucius Jones It. I don’t, you know, I there’s that one Playboi Carti song over, like, okay, I get it. That’s never happened.

Fresh Knight But I like Magnolia. Probably the only one.

Confucius Jones Yeah, that’s probably the only one that. And, he did okay on theme if you didn’t hear the yelling. But that’s not to say that don’t be talented.

Fresh Knight Yeah. I’m not I’m not saying that. I’m not saying if you feel like you aren’t talented in music or entertainment, period, to just jump out there and just, like, push something else in marketing and social media. No no no no no no. Don’t want that to get misconstrued.

Confucius Jones Yeah. Because what happens is if you.

Fresh Knight Have some.

Confucius Jones Talent, if you’re all marketing with no talent, it looks really gimmicky really quick because at some point the talent has to showcase through. So yeah, you could say caught it as a rapper better than Nikki, but quite a kid, at least at some point she has to get on stage before. Yes, she can just go to Instagram and you know, and be funny, or else she has to. The music has to come through at some point.

Fresh Knight There have been instances of this where the very little talent and then all the marketing has, has pushed somebody forward.

Confucius Jones Takashi six nine.

Fresh Knight There we go.

Confucius Jones No talent. But he was smart. He came. He was smart in marketing.

Fresh Knight Smart marketing got him there and they pushed them forward. But it only lasted so.

Confucius Jones Long because once that time, when it was time for that talent to get game, when he got on them, allegations pop up and actually convictions. He got convicted that time.

Fresh Knight But even after that and being released, like the talent, I think people realized that yo dude, just not good.

Confucius Jones He’s not good.

Fresh Knight Like, yo do like this song. Just like what? This song’s just not good.

Confucius Jones You can’t rap, okay? And if you follow his story. Yeah, that’s. He didn’t get into it to me. He got a two because he was marketing. He was trying to find something to get him on. Yeah. And rapping was the one that took off. But yeah, the talent wasn’t there.

Fresh Knight So yeah I’m I’m saying have I’m not saying no. Walking is with no talent. I’m saying have some talent. Have please have some talent. I’m just say in this day and age, I don’t think it matters as much as it did. Say 20, 25 years ago.

Confucius Jones I did. But you. I mean, better have some.

Fresh Knight Yeah, you gotta have some at some.

Confucius Jones Point, because it’s going to come in handy when the lights that flashing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Fresh Knight We were going to see a lot of these newer acts. See if they got the real talent.

Confucius Jones Yeah. You’re not going to be on have it for long. You know Nelly, you know you’re not as big as he was 20 years ago, but he can still perform.

Fresh Knight I’ve seen it.

Confucius Jones So, you know, he’s on to a Jackson right now.

Fresh Knight And now here we go with Confucius. Reads the news.

Confucius Jones Yeah. Good old, good old news. With South by being. Last week a lot happened, but I didn’t get a chance to do the news show. So no one pop opinion, no news. But we’re back this time with more news. How do you feel about the movie The Little Rascals? The movie, not the racy show from the 30s.

Fresh Knight I think I’ve only seen, like a few episodes from the show.

Confucius Jones From the 30.

Fresh Knight The movie. I enjoy it even today, even as an adult. Maybe that’s just nostalgia driving me, but I think it’s a classic.

Confucius Jones So this is not a reboot. But. In Houston on the 14th, which was last week at a Wells Fargo. It was robbed by three suspects. The FBI called the Little Rascals.

Fresh Knight If you tell me, if you if you finish reading and you tell me that it was it was three people standing on each other’s shoulders with a trench coat.

Confucius Jones No, but that’ll be hilarious. But close enough. The suspects are now in custody, and they are 11, 12 and 16 years old.

Fresh Knight Robbing a bank.

Confucius Jones Robbed the Wells Fargo in Houston.

Fresh Knight You said 1112 and 16 1206. Well, what Is the world coming.

Confucius Jones To? Two of the suspects were taken into custody after their parents recognized them in the surveillance photos and contacted law enforcement. Not the mom of snitching. Whoa, wait wait wait wait wait wait.

Fresh Knight Wait wait wait. The mom was working at the Wells Fargo.

Confucius Jones I would hope not. 11 years. So my oldest son is 11. I can’t imagine him. Me? He barely knows how to make waffles. He robbed a bank.

Fresh Knight He played another GTA.

Confucius Jones That ain’t real. They got away. Do they had to get that? That’s. That’s what that’s the crazy part about. They robbed the bank and got away.

Fresh Knight That’s the craziest thing.

Confucius Jones Bro. My coordination 11 years old. Hail 12 was.

Fresh Knight Horrible. I mean, that’s crazy. That’s crazy. I’ve just been just saying, like, getting away with robbing a bank is not. It’s like I’m better. I wasn’t robbing a bank and getting away with it. Then you do. Winning a lottery.

Confucius Jones That is true. That is true.

Fresh Knight They used to be. It used to happen yearly in Austin. We were like, stodgy, getting warm out. They start robbing banks for some reason.

Confucius Jones That point Ken Paxton, the attorney general for Texas.

Fresh Knight Because he was in the.

Confucius Jones News who was the shining example of doing the right thing and wholesomeness. Is.

Fresh Knight Far and fleeting.

Confucius Jones Yeah. There you go. He’s introducing lawsuits to two adult websites over accusations that they’re not following the state’s age verification law. The latest effort to legally go after adult websites. The office of the attorney general filed two civil lawsuits Tuesday afternoon in Travis County against the respective companies that owned two websites that say the names. Paxton said they’re not doing enough to stop those younger than 18 year olds from looking at adult content. Paxton’s office will like a court to issue a permanent injunction against the two websites, and forced him to pay hefty fines. They will come into compliance with House Bill 1181, which went into effect September 1st last year. That bill requires age verification measures to protect minors from what the law supporters call exposure to sexually obscene materials. I’m not mad at it. I’m not mad at it. You don’t want children under 18 seeing something that’s supposed to. Here’s my issue with Ken Paxton outside of the fact he’s super corrupt. Just kind of wish I had that same energy when it came to guns. I just kind of wish you were in that.

Fresh Knight I mean.

Confucius Jones Our governor has had that same energy when it came to, you know, ATO not getting hold of.

Fresh Knight Guns. I was going to go there, but issue a segment.

Confucius Jones Yeah. So, like I said, I if you want to go to One Direction, say we need to protect kids from things that could harm them mentally. You have to go after that, affect them and hurt them. Feeling like you.

Fresh Knight Got to do the whole spectrum.

Confucius Jones Like you maybe should do better about that.

Fresh Knight They run the whole gamut on that.

Confucius Jones So clearly, y’all have the power it feels to look after kids in that regard, because that Texas also has one of the strictest abortion laws in the in the land. You should probably look out for the guns too, because guns also kill kids if you didn’t. Yeah, I didn’t know that. Yeah, it getting back to the of all the things you have to worry about, you worry about adult sites. I can’t wait to you go. I know we’re supposed to be, you know, but Ken Paxton, you’ve. Max. Documentary time. Get on it. Good boy. I mean, they look at.

Fresh Knight It, they they get a max documentary on him, boys.

Confucius Jones Man, that’s going to be episodic. Boy, maybe some seasons on that one. What Ken Paxton is doing the most.

Fresh Knight Been doing a lot for a while.

Confucius Jones One of fresh. His favorite artists. Kelly is still an idiot, apparently.

Fresh Knight I don’t take him on me, man.

Confucius Jones Don’t put him on me. You did a fact about him two weeks in a row. You gonna get this work? Kelly, a good hip hop DD is seeking a revision for his 30 year prison sentence. And his attorney has cited frat culture during her appeal. Speaking to an appeals court on Monday, March 18th, attorney Jennifer Botting reportedly claimed cottage for attorneys could be deemed racketeering organizations under a law. Youth convicted singer. The law was used when he was found guilty on three counts of child pornography and three counts of child enticement, according to missing. Bougie and tried to persuade judges that prosecutors improperly used a racketeering statute written to shut down organized crime, to go after Kelly and attempt to reverse the 2021 convictions or win him a new trial. Quote. This is not a collection of people who had purpose to recruit girls for things that they shouldn’t have, whether they turned a blind eye, whether some of them suspected that some of these girls one date, that’s a whole different matter. And once we get into that sort of territory where we’re going to say that constitutes a Rico enterprise, what we have a lot of organizations, we have a lot of frat houses. We have all types of organizations that are now going to become Rico enterprises. Let’s say she’s right. Let’s say she’s right. Rico statute really hard to uphold. She might have an angle with Rico David our Kelly. If your argument is that frat house would do it to lock them up too. What do you think. What did you think. The answer here is to that. If I was judge, I said, do you have any specific frat house you want to mention right now? I’m saying because it’s if that’s what you want. If the argument is we need to get him out of here because the statute that you put him in under isn’t fair because Fred has to do it.

Confucius Jones Then, like these frat house.

Confucius Jones Whatever you need to do to protect women. Yeah, I’m all for it.

Fresh Knight Lock up. Alpha.

Confucius Jones Whoever I was, I had the argument. You take it is like the same thing they say. Like you when they talk about, you know, tear down statute was talking to a judge watching on Slaves by Mullins.

Fresh Knight Yes. I get statue down. I don’t get it. He was president on the. What do.

Confucius Jones You think? Answer. The answer’s all the test. Yes. Like nobody that owned slaves. They have a statue. And anybody who abuses women does not deserve to be walking around freely like I don’t. I’m confused on what to put that what the argument is here. Yes. Okay. If your argument is that the Rico is too wide and it’s too, you know, it’s a gotcha thing, I get it. There might be an argument that might have been thing he’d been charged for, but I’m pretty sure I can’t. I still think he could be charged for.

Fresh Knight I mean, well.

Confucius Jones I Rico was the only thing that got him on, like, come on, stop. I get it’s your job as his lawyer to do that. But saying if Fred has to do it is not the flex you think it is.

Fresh Knight We got frat houses. I could follow the Rigo two. I didn’t get the two.

Confucius Jones That’s like people who smoke cigarets, who complain of people who drink soda. What? We’re both unhealthy over here. Please don’t do this. You shouldn’t be drinking or soda, and you shouldn’t be smoking nicotine.

Fresh Knight We’re both killing ourselves.

Confucius Jones What are you talking about here? So that all I can hear, you know, it’s a frat house to do it, too, Oh, my kids get in trouble. You know, smelling you tell on each other is not gonna help. Consider y’all were in the same room when it happened. That it’s not going to work out the way you think it is, And that. But once again, like in gym is why our Kelly is still an idiot. You can’t read infections in the Midwest.

Fresh Knight Functionally illiterate.

Confucius Jones Apple. One of my favorite companies in the laptop I’m currently using, is getting sued by the Justice Department over antitrust laws. Okay. According to the Associated Press, the U.S. Department of Justice in more than a dozen states have filed a lawsuit against Apple in federal court, accusing it of violating antitrust laws by making it software and hardware products largely inaccessible to competitors. Apple’s walled garden, quote unquote approach to business, as it is so often called, makes it difficult for rivals to compete and for customers to switch to other company’s products. The lawsuit comes on the heels of the European Commission slapping Apple with a $1.95 billion fine. Apple, the commission concluded, prevented music streaming developers from informing iOS users about alternative and cheaper music subscription services available outside of the App Store. I was proud to get a lot of applicants who would be honest with you. Apple makes it.

Fresh Knight Kind of them.

Confucius Jones Do you have to imagine being any other app? That is not supported by Apple. They really make it hard for you to to bless through. And also one of the arguments is that Apple undermines other apps and technology, for example, that are under iMessage, the green bubbles. But you can’t get them to let you under UK if you’re not. If you’re not. That matter unless you let you have cell service. What apple you get underwire for? So I mean Apple knows what it’s doing. Do they deserve to be sued? Yes. You know why. And I’m hoping they lose because I want them at some iPhones to come down. Because I need a new one. I look at price. They ask $1,000.

Fresh Knight That’s why I still have my little cracking ones at that point.

Confucius Jones I know I need to doing some. You know, we can I can contribute to the reals. But yeah, I was getting sued.

Fresh Knight So how will Apple prompt over that?

Confucius Jones The suit also suggests that Apple has made it harder for Android messages to appear on iPhones, obstructed rival payment platforms, and restricted how competing smartphones integrated wireless devices are restricted. They can’t do it. Would you be restricted? Oh, boy. Luckily, most Android people don’t. Don’t read the news. So, I don’t have to worry about here in their mouths, but I basically told you. Apple. Look, I don’t care what you say about Apple. I’m sticking with it. This is what it is. It is. I’m faithful to Apple. I like their products.

Fresh Knight That’s just the way it is.

Confucius Jones It looks good when you pull out a MacBook on iPhone. They look good. You pull out the Guardians Android phones. Sorry.

Fresh Knight Or a PC? God. It’s heavy.

Confucius Jones And on top of that, I mean, yeah, I get the lawsuit. And also to kind of defend Apple a little bit while, yes, they all kind of win monopoly. I’m surprised they hadn’t get hit with nothing yet. They did just enough to kind of stay out of that. They’re like, hey, we won’t buy everything. We’ll just, you know.

Fresh Knight Got on just enough not.

Confucius Jones To be a monopoly. But Apple don’t have everything. Like they ain’t got no waterproof phones. It’s waterproof. What? What phone is waterproof? I was 13. What? 13?

Fresh Knight 13 up to, like, a certain amount of years. Waterproof.

Confucius Jones So a certain amount of feet. Yeah. Most things can survive a certain amount. Yeah.

Fresh Knight But I. Yeah, that’s why it’s not waterproof. Is water resistant.

Confucius Jones I don’t have to.

Fresh Knight I mean, I think if it’s less than three Viet.

Confucius Jones Nam, two if it’s 13V2 while it’s a pool, bro. But. Yeah. No, let’s say I was allowed to play with.

Fresh Knight Your. Your iPhone falls in the toilet. Now, you can pull it out and you don’t have to, like. Really? Yeah, I’ll put it in rice and all of that.

Confucius Jones You have to realize that one that’s, the Federal Trade Commission goes through you. They sued Amazon.

Fresh Knight Amazon.

Confucius Jones The government is the probably the only entity on this world that can go up against Apple in a lawsuit, because Apple has the most liquid cash of any other company in the world. So they have the money. But the government, like we got the money to do all I’m taxpayer dollars. So all I’m saying is my taxpayer dollars go to Apple iPhones coming down price wise, I’m all for it. And that is Confucius reads the news.

Fresh Knight All right man. Hey, look, if I give me a cheaper iPhone, I’m all for it.

Confucius Jones I’m just like them.

Fresh Knight If I get 13, I can knock the price down on a 13, a low multi.

Confucius Jones I’m saying.

Fresh Knight Wait it.

Confucius Jones Me I got I think I looked up, I looked up the 15 Promax. That thing was on and off.

Fresh Knight I looked, I looked it up to to titanium and was like yeah, I won’t be getting that.

Confucius Jones I’m cool. I’ll be on eBay looking mine. That’s what I call I get it for cheap. I think the cheapest I found with a 15 is the regular 15 for $5.49 With used. And then of course somebody that had have a good celebrating with like two two sales. And he took a picture like I’m a cancel man. Okay. Think about it. If I’m putting a word when he sent it to me that we were a better rating, although they’re kind of. But guys, maybe you think I was like 120 something. Oh man, we suck. I was late 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.