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April 29, 2024

What does Drake’s A.I. Diss Song Mean for Rap?

By: Elizabeth McQueen

Fresh defends Drake’s “Taylor Made Freestyle,” which uses dupes of Snoop and Tupac’s voices. Plus hear Confucius’ take on the University of Texas’ response to a recent pro-Palestinian protest along with other headlines, and Hip-Hop Facts.

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.

Confucius Jones I’m Confucius. 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, Fresh and I are native Austinites and we love talking hip-hop Texans, hip-hop, hip-hop history and what’s going on right now. And just so you know, the opinions expressed in this 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 Unpopular opinion time.

Fresh Knight Yes, if unpopular opinion. And I’m sure this one will be unpopular, so don’t get right into it.

Confucius Jones I don’t know.

Fresh Knight This this. Kendrick and Drake.

Confucius Jones Should Bob Mason here for this one.

Fresh Knight This Kendrick and Drake audio. I don’t know if progressing is the right word, because I think in order to progress, Kendrick would have to have sites have have to have said something. And we’ve yet to hear from Kendrick.

Confucius Jones And y’all better stop rushing him because this whole he Drake needs to he needs respond to Drake. Drake took three weeks to respond. So anyway, continue.

Confucius Jones Yeah, but.

Confucius Jones That’s not a popular.

Fresh Knight Opinion. Yes, definitely. I’m on. Probably because I’m just waiting to hear Kendrick. But Drake has had a lot to say. Drake released his first, dis record. What was it? Push ups. And then he just released another one entitled Tailor Made Freestyle. So this tailor made freestyle, Drake used a, eye filter to mask his voice to be Tupac and Snoop Dogg. Tupac’s estate responded by saying, we’re suing. Snoop Dogg responded by jumping on the internet and saying, everybody blowing on my phone, what’s going on? Could going on was let me know, you was cool with that, and you knew that was coming out and you cleared that. You was cool with that.

Confucius Jones You know.

Fresh Knight I think he heard it.

Confucius Jones I don’t think I think he knew it was coming. I don’t think Drake asked him.

Fresh Knight I think he knew. I think he knew, and I think he was caught.

Confucius Jones The video state responded, I think state.

Fresh Knight At 2.8. I’m talk about Snoop.

Confucius Jones But since the death row, though. Oh, they did President Trump anyway.

Fresh Knight Yeah I think Snoop. Was totally cool with it. I don’t think Snoop was bothered by it at all. I think Snoop probably thought like some people, he thought it was funny. Was gives me to my unpopular opinion. I’m not mad at the I drink this I’m not mad it. I’m not mad at. Now can we call it distasteful? Sure. We can call it distasteful. Use. Tupac didn’t go through the proper channels to have that done to get that permission. What have you.

Confucius Jones What are the proper channels.

Fresh Knight To do that?

Confucius Jones I’ve got a go.

Fresh Knight This is true, Mo. Pre.

Confucius Jones I don’t think so. I think it’s a group of people that like to say like Michael Jackson.

Fresh Knight Well yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah. Could people keep showing this? This is random white man. This is this is the man who owns his estate. And like, when you look it up, he’s he’s the manager of the estate, but he doesn’t own the estate.

Confucius Jones From what I’ve heard, nothing. Say this and get back to you. Think I heard it? It’s just that it has a lot of say over. Because he was the one that spoke in his Hollywood Star Walk of Fame thing.

Fresh Knight I can believe that. I think I can believe that. I’m sure his mother had that set up for her. I’m sure she had that set up, but I’m just I’m. I’m not mad at this. Like I said, can we call it distasteful? Sure. On the Tupac part, Snoop, I gotta say, I say my piece. I think Snoop was cool with. And I don’t think Snoop is bothered by it. I don’t think he see that as a big deal. And as our friend. Oh, friend of the show said, Snoop is in his era where he wants everybody to like him. So I shouldn’t.

Confucius Jones Say that about Trump two and would go off.

Confucius Jones Form.

Fresh Knight But but but but but. Moving forward. My thing is with everybody and they’re disgruntled about the this is I think what is getting lost is that this is what we’ve been wanting for ten years. This is what we have been waiting for for ten years, for two titans of the culture to go at it. Now, granted, Kendrick has yet to respond to either one of these, but. It’s coming. I don’t think Kendrick is going to sit back and take this lightly. However. Drake rapped. And. I don’t I’m tired of people. Ignoring that fact. I or not is him. Rapping is just a filter of Tupac and Snoop over his vocals or over his voice or whatever, but he was rapping and listening to it. The whole, especially the Tupac part. He came at an angle that I think most people were saying that this is what Kendrick this is what you should say about Drake. This is what you need to say about Drake. And Drake was like, oh, well, I’m just going to pull a rug out from under you. And I’m gonna say all this stuff myself. This is what you can say. You can say it is, and you can say that. But I’ve already done it. So if you come back and say it and don’t sting his heart, I’m cool. I don’t know what to say. I know what y’all saying about me, but he rapped really well, which is another thing I think I’ll just. Kind of let fall to the wayside about Drake because of the whole. Yachty wrote these songs for which we already knew. Gotti wrote on her loss because Gotti came out when the album came out.

Confucius Jones What do you like produce on that?

Fresh Knight Yeah, he was executive producer, and he came out and said that I wrote on the song and hey, that line y’all think it’s about Megan Thee Stallion? It’s not about trust me, it’s not about her because I wrote it. And I can tell you it’s not about her because I wrote it, but I think everybody lit that in the hole. Quit military, go about it. Drake can actually write, and Drake has written for people and boy can really rap. And he is rapping at Kendrick, which is what we wanted. But now I think the goalpost is being moved simply because it is Drake, simply because it is Drake. Now, I don’t expect Kendrick to do a, an AI diss. I do want people to cease with the whole will Kendrick, cuz I, you know, when he did the deepfake thing, bro, it’s not the same thing for one. And the whole poem. He did on To Pimp a Butterfly in an interview with Sitting Down and talking with Tupac once again. He went through the proper channels. He got they clear with the estate, and he handled it business wise. So it’s not it’s not the same thing. But my thing is I like to death simply because this is what we’ve been wanting. We’ve been wanting these to go at each other. Everybody, including me, was saying, Drake, don’t duck this smoke from Kendrick. And now he’s not ducking it. And now everybody has has felt some way now. The man even said in the song with the two pack, I mask over it like, yo you, you’ve been wanting this. Stay out here and see this through the in you. You’re not running from this. You’re not going to go back and be quiet for several years and let everybody forget all about this. Now, bro, we here now let’s do this and let’s let’s get to it. This is what you’ve been wanting. I’m here. Come stand outside in the front yard. Let’s get you back. Dirt. And that’s that’s basically what it was. It’s basically what this is a it’s just annoying that y’all thought he was going to smoke. People thought Drake, I guess, was going, took his tail and not say nothing. They just keep doing shots. They’re like, no, I’m here. This is what you want. I’m here. Let’s do this. Come on outside. I don’t think Drake is doing. I think now he is really waiting for Kendrick to see what Kendrick comes, wait to really go full force. And I think Kendrick probably has something that’s really going to be damaging to. So I’m here for I and and and I know the point is the whole. We were talking about I earlier I think I now becomes a part of the troll when it comes to rap beef. And that’s what Drakes Drake is a troll at heart. Drake when him and Raul start getting into it in our group chat, I say we’re all going to go back and forth with him because this is what Ross does.

Confucius Jones Ross got a video of his this.

Fresh Knight Ross going to get on the internet and he going to do all the games. He did that with 50 cent. He go, that’s that’s what he do. When Drake does that, they’re going to be on their be as women want to say these days being sassy on internet. They was both going back to back, back and forth with the AG story post and tagging each other. This is Drake. This is Drake. Just this is I is just now part of the troll man. This is just how beef will I think move will be played out moving forward, just like social media became a part of it and everybody felt like I don’t mean me again. The movement rap man back in my day, man, so-and-so didn’t do all this social media. What ain’t had J and nothin has social media. If they did, I’m guarantee you Jay-Z probably would have been on social media cracking jokes.

Confucius Jones I can see that.

Fresh Knight He probably not. I probably would not have. But Jay would have been on there cracking jokes. Yeah, Jay would have been on. No cracking some Joseph. Somebody on Rockefeller’s can’t would have been cracking jokes on us. I could definitely see Bleek doing it.

Confucius Jones I’ll definitely, definitely.

Fresh Knight See Billy cracking just.

Confucius Jones In that beef starting now. That’s like like where we’re.

Confucius Jones Had since that. Out of where I know I where it.

Fresh Knight So but I just think now the troll is the I. Yeah. And I, I think it was, it was kind of clever. Let me get this guy who is your idol and the huge staple in the West Coast. And then let me get this guy who was literally on stage with you, crowning you as the next out of the West, the King of the West. And let me troll you with this and let me try to bait you, continue to bait you into saying something back. I don’t think clearly isn’t falling forward, but I think he’s coming eventually. And that’s my unpopular opinion. Man, I like the this I thought it was at first. My initial listen was, yeah, I’m not cool digital using using park and a snoop like this, but I sat there and played it. I, bro, I get it. I get it. I get the troll. I’m a fan of the troll, but I get the troll.

Confucius Jones I.

Confucius Jones I thought it was. I thought it was a cheap shot. I don’t agree with it. Only because Drake is a big enough artist. He doesn’t need help. Granted, I know what he’s trying to do. He’s trying to bait Kendrick out of there for sure. I fully believe that Drake has been wanting this direct back and forth for over ten.

Fresh Knight Years, according to academics. Drake told him he’d been wanting this for the last ten years, which is when all of this has a when it’s which by 2014 is when all of this.

Confucius Jones Goes back to my point of I not in order for it to progress the right way, all stars have come to the table and agree on it. You taking Snoop vocals and Tupac to make it? That’s not coming to the table. That’s just you being petty and trying to get over. Although Mason, I mentioned he’s been on Twitter for the last few weeks defending Drake ferociously.

Fresh Knight Shout out amazing man, I mean hilarious.

Confucius Jones I probably made that right when I was something he said that I do agree with his Tupac estate. Trying to sue Drake is funny only because Drake in posted and he’s not making any money off of.

Fresh Knight That’s what that’s my issue with the lawsuit. It’s like, what are you suing him for?

Confucius Jones But what I just don’t agree with you because once again, Drake, you don’t. Kendrick is not going to do that. Kendrick is not going to come up with gimmicks to try to get at you, to just rap. He’s at a very high level and say disparaging things to get you. So I mean to me is Drake using are two pocket Snoop is like him getting somebody get into a fight and trying to jump somebody. Come on. We’re not going to jump in. Yes you.

Fresh Knight Come outside. We’re not going to jump you.

Confucius Jones That’s that’s how I took after Drake. You don’t need to do this. Like, just keep that. You didn’t do that with me. You didn’t jump on some song and do it. Well. Hey, I wasn’t available back then, but I grant it.

Fresh Knight I think he might. He did it with me. He might have did.

Confucius Jones He did. Stop it back to back saying I’m in a banging. I am clearly I, I hate me, I just don’t think what’s getting hold would never do that. You don’t need granite. Okay? You know, let me say this whole wouldn’t do I but hold would definitely send the support is definitely ahead. Stay property. Oh hot 97 going after NAS.

Fresh Knight So I’m telling you it would have been junkies galore.

Confucius Jones But let’s.

Confucius Jones Get it. This. That’s because they wanted to. Tupac is dead. And I’m pretty sure I think Snoop knew was coming, but Snoop didn’t know what it was. Drake and knowing Drake prior to being petty because Snoop I think it would take Kendrick side. Snoop probably told Dre prior to toasting. Like how many use I just to test that real quick. You had, you know, see that sound? Whatever. And then he just went out about his business. Did Snoop heard it was like, wait, what? Because I was again, I don’t believe anybody outside of the game who just is an exception to every everybody.

Confucius Jones Every rule.

Confucius Jones Nobody. California’s going to get game.

Fresh Knight I agree, I don’t think anybody. And I saw you talking about this, online with some random person. And I’m saying, man, if Drake came here right now and do a concert, he’d have a pack out. All right. We acted like if Kendrick went to Toronto and did a show, it wouldn’t be packed out right now. Yeah, I’m hearing that Drake is. Well, not necessarily Drake, but the people of OVO Fest in Toronto are thinking about moving it a weekend because future in a weekend are going to do a show there. So what? So what are we doing here? Like. But no. And like you said, nobody in the industry in LA it’s going to go against Kendrick. You’re not going to get you’re not going to turn on power 106. And here big boy or fairly fail. I don’t even know if any further still that power 106 but you’re not going to hear them or la. Anybody in LA LA leakers going disparaging or going against Kendrick? No, you’re not going to hear that. You’re not glasses Malone been tweeting the most. I have seen him tweet in like five years. Right now he’s on Kendrick side. He’s not going again. Nobody in LA is going to get some I agree on that. I just I, I, I’m just after further review I’m just not mad at this. I thought it was I do see how you say it’s like this is he jump and he doesn’t need to do it in.

Confucius Jones X because Kendrick not going to do it. And and also Drake trying to address the I like young girls allegations by using a yeah that’s tanking like bro that’s not how that’s like our kind going to make a version of you know I don’t know Jalen Hurts saying like oh you know I like young girls too. Like Brunson had it. No no no no that was tacky. Drake that was at I compare that to his what’s Jay-Z’s super mad freestyle.

Fresh Knight Oh the contraceptive in the car.

Confucius Jones So yeah that’s not it’s not gonna age with it that this.

Fresh Knight I don’t think so. I don’t think, you know age well. Well, for the time being, I understand the TRO.

Confucius Jones So very good to have an opinion.

Fresh Knight With that being said. Look. Tailor made freestyle. It’s not anywhere. Oh, wow. Tailor made for you.

Confucius Jones It’s not going to be.

Fresh Knight We’ll be right back after this quick break.

Confucius Jones Hip hop. Facts. Time. Facts about the.

Fresh Knight Culture. Facts about culture.

Confucius Jones Time to be surprised. Like I am every week. Because I never know what first go to say.

Fresh Knight Let’s take it to Atlanta. Let’s take it to Atlanta, where the players play the rock of the famed Atlanta duo Ying Yang Twins.

Confucius Jones I thought you were talking.

Confucius Jones Back from junior.

Confucius Jones My family with the rock duo.

Confucius Jones No no no no.

Fresh Knight The Rock before, joining in the Yin Yang Twins and their immense success. Successful career. He had a solo career and a solo hit. I say hit because I think it was mainly only in Atlanta or around the Atlanta area. The hit was Bank here bounce, the fame dance that took the 90s by storm that had everybody doing it. Goodie mob.

Confucius Jones Yes, I can.

Fresh Knight Do Goody Goody Mob did it in a video. They were doing it all over. Sister, sister in sync. Did it on stage. Like an MTV performance. It was a dance of the 90s. It was a dance that kind of help that. I won’t say hip, but it it defined the 90s.

Confucius Jones Yeah. It was, you know, Bankhead bounce due to brown eyed and stuff. You know, they were big.

Fresh Knight The butterfly.

Confucius Jones Yeah. Yeah. True.

Fresh Knight So all the all them dancers, they came out of Atlanta in Florida, Miami based music.

Confucius Jones And look, I’m all for because I could do them.

Confucius Jones If I could do them.

Confucius Jones I’m all for it.

Fresh Knight Well, yeah, that’s my first fat.

Confucius Jones Let me see. Okay, so this fact I have here. It’s interesting. So you know okay it’s two two parts. Two shorts. Birthday is tomorrow. Right, right. Oakland or Bay area.

Fresh Knight Rapids is Oakland.

Confucius Jones Yeah. So him and Jay-Z, right?

Fresh Knight Right.

Confucius Jones When you think of two short, you don’t immediately think of Jay-Z. No, I think vice versa. But they have collaborated.

Fresh Knight They have.

Confucius Jones What was it a week ago on?

Fresh Knight One of my favorite songs.

Confucius Jones That song originally supposed to feature Pepsi.

Fresh Knight I heard.

Confucius Jones I think I did a fact about that, about how Pepsi basically told, you know, Jay, like, I’m not leaving Atlanta, and Jay’s like, I’m gonna leave New York, so it’s never happened.

Fresh Knight So what were you doing here?

Confucius Jones But two show was the facilitator, but originally got the talks going on about Big Pimpin. What I didn’t know is that Jay-Z helped to show it. Right? Blow the whistle. Never knew that. Which is funny because the little John produced that song. Right.

Confucius Jones I.

Confucius Jones Can’t imagine Jay-Z over a little John B, but it has been said before by numerous people that Jay is able to adapt in any situation musically.

Fresh Knight So I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Confucius Jones Yeah, yeah. But he’s, one of the writers on, Blow the Whistle.

Fresh Knight Well, that also explains when he there’s DeShawn Stevenson in the NBA, why he rapped over that beat.

Confucius Jones Oh, I forgot that happened.

Fresh Knight I didn’t.

Confucius Jones That was the 20th thing because he was defending.

Confucius Jones LeBron.

Fresh Knight Yeah I was like I.

Confucius Jones Didn’t I forgot that.

Fresh Knight I didn’t forget.

Confucius Jones It because he knows and I.

Confucius Jones Know the blow the whistle free stuff. But I forgot he was decent.

Fresh Knight DeShawn Stevenson. Yes. Who is no longer in the.

Confucius Jones League in every league game.

Confucius Jones Right. And most people that start LeBron and.

Confucius Jones Lean over.

Fresh Knight There drew and I think he was in was in the league before LeBron. Yeah he.

Confucius Jones Was.

Confucius Jones That did happen.

Confucius Jones Did you.

Confucius Jones Try to get somebody like this Jay-Z back.

Fresh Knight I think like Soulja Boy I think it was I.

Confucius Jones Think Soulja Boy

Fresh Knight memory unlocks it just he was in play for the Wizards. Granny he was there when Gilbert Arenas was there, but, you know Wizards.

Confucius Jones Yeah. Jay-Z.

Confucius Jones Write it. So.

Fresh Knight Well, look at that full circle moment. Oh.

Confucius Jones It was probably me. No, I don’t think he, like, wrote the whole thing.

Fresh Knight No, I don’t, I don’t think so.

Confucius Jones He brought it to do some little.

Confucius Jones Yeah.

Fresh Knight Have you ever heard the story about how two Chainz met Lil Wayne?

Confucius Jones Yeah, he was a weed dealer.

Fresh Knight All right. So.

Confucius Jones Had before 20 years late.

Confucius Jones But, you know.

Fresh Knight Two Chainz and Wayne retold the story recently on the Jimmy Fallon show.

Confucius Jones Like, you know, referred to. I saw that, so I know what you’re going to say, but I watch I said, I’ve heard the stories from it another way.

Fresh Knight I said the same thing as I was watching the video. But, the fact is not the two Chainz was his. We deal with Wayne’s, we dealer. He was a lot of rappers. We dealer. But two Chainz say it. When he finally got the courage to tell Wayne, that he rap and he want the Wayne to hear some of his music, they were already headed to the studio. And that same day, after Wayne heard the music, her music from Play a Circle, which is the group, two Chainz and Dollar Boy, or part of, Wayne was like me, I was correct. And that same day when I got to the studio, Wayne did the hook for the Fame single Duffle Bag Boy.

Confucius Jones Yeah yeah yeah, yeah. But like I said, I could have sworn I heard two Chainz said he knew Wayne before that. Two Chainz who said that? What? What? From what I’ve heard to Jake, I think what you’re saying. I know what you talking about. I think it’s true. But two Chainz has also been adamant that he met so many people because he was the one to Ludacris. Yeah. So he would meet people that way. And also he was selling. We just a lot of people. He’s oh, I forgot what you said.

Fresh Knight He said yeah, I it’s, I think it’s on pretty girls likes rap music. Yeah.

Confucius Jones It was funny because that was great. How about I Love you best to talk to everybody. So we took it easy.

Fresh Knight Ways to go get the bag from me.

Confucius Jones If they say I sold to Ross, it’s like, yo, this man here.

Confucius Jones Not out yet. That’s good. So D12, also today’s, anniversary of their final album, D12 world. D12 of course, the Eminem’s group.

Fresh Knight They had two albums or two, two.

Confucius Jones Three, two. Yeah. No, they had two. So for those of you that don’t know why they’re called D12 means it’s the Dirty Dozen 12 but of course, when you see that, you’re like, well, there’s only six people in the group. The reason why he’s 12 is because each of them have an alter ego like Eminem is Slim Shady. So yeah, that’s what that’s what I guess is 12.

Fresh Knight Times two is 12.

Confucius Jones Yeah. So that’s yeah.

Confucius Jones That’s why they’re called D12 because they all have. So they hate the other 2 a.m. Devil’s Night and D12 world. Devil’s night was the biggest one.

Fresh Knight Yeah. All right.

Confucius Jones That was also a different time. We could do no wrong. There’s always this, like, weird space when a solo artist put out the groups immediately after their debut album, it just helps.

Fresh Knight Yeah.

Confucius Jones Propel. Snoop did it. 50. Did it. Eminem did it. The lyric no. Did have a group. Yeah, I did it.

Fresh Knight He didn’t.

Confucius Jones Nelly definitely did it. Net look, shout out to Nelly. I understand that some of his former band members have feelings towards him, but man, look, he did not have to do that lunatic that I’m at all. You see, I did make copies. I got do nothing at all. I ain’t got to do nothing.

Fresh Knight To do nothing.

Confucius Jones At all.

Confucius Jones The fact that y’all around me is good enough. I sold ten man copy 50 cent dude, I.

Confucius Jones Drive, dude, you unit. But after I put up that album, I ain’t gonna do G-Unit.

Fresh Knight Not right away. But I saw that coming. I think we all saw that coming.

Confucius Jones Well, yeah. All that’s asked to be fade out. They were on the mixtape same man. So I get why he’s thing was like what people I know them through the mixtapes because of the album.

Fresh Knight I didn’t think he had to do it.

Confucius Jones He didn’t mean.

Confucius Jones It. Yeah, he’s like a year after that track.

Fresh Knight He didn’t have to do it immediately after. But Nelly, Nelly.

Confucius Jones Nelly, y’all.

Fresh Knight Should just been happy being on tour.

Confucius Jones Boy.

Confucius Jones Nelly gonna see heaven for that.

Confucius Jones He did.

Confucius Jones Y’all came and said that you don’t even know the name of Saint Louis. Take the.

Confucius Jones Album. Exactly. See, that’s what I’m talking about. I don’t know if that’s going to happen because of that.

Fresh Knight I don’t know, with me whistling. Ain’t that the name of the album?

Confucius Jones No it’s not. That was called Free City.

Fresh Knight You right. You right.

Confucius Jones You haven’t just did not have to do that album. Yeah, it’s called Free City.

Fresh Knight You so. Right. All I know is.

Confucius Jones This song called.

Confucius Jones Oh, that. And, some in the city, which it’ll be on off most of the yo soundtrack, like.

Confucius Jones Yo, I am the king of this city. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I have to.

Confucius Jones Say, this may be good for kids.

Confucius Jones Movie. Yeah. Yeah.

Confucius Jones Okay. Okay.

Confucius Jones All right. All right. All right, all right.

Confucius Jones I see a picture of the name right now.

Confucius Jones Most people don’t.

Fresh Knight Which is crazy. My cousin C.J. He, he burned the album. I had that album for the album.

Confucius Jones Oh. You know. Yeah.

Confucius Jones So let’s get this completely out. Have you ever have a time in your life? Especially when we were in school where you would get an ab, like, burn in whatever. And you go to school like, man. I got, I got so sold whatever people like I that was me a free.

Confucius Jones You I got to do that. Like I know what that was like nearly like not real. Like I say.

Fresh Knight We just like Midwest.

Confucius Jones We we don’t like that like album that much. That is, if you like what you do, people like.

Confucius Jones Oh yes. We said like, this is good. Yeah.

Fresh Knight Beg for mercy was good.

Confucius Jones Yeah, but I don’t like it.

Confucius Jones That’s why we never got another one. We got listed to G-Unit at the beginning. Not one was they looted digital album. Oh my God. That was completely up top.

Fresh Knight Oh my my my final, my final fact. Shout out and congratulations to Mary J. Blige.

Confucius Jones It took me 20 years to get that free city thing. Got to.

Confucius Jones Wait.

Confucius Jones 20 years to finally say that. What? The bad.

Confucius Jones Album? Yes, she did it.

Fresh Knight Yeah. Congratulations. And shout out to Mary J. Blige, the queen of hip hop soul.

Confucius Jones Make it to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Fresh Knight Yeah. Will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Confucius Jones So well-deserved.

Fresh Knight Got to give her a fact. She sang background vocals for a lot of artists Uptown before eventually putting out her debut album was to 411. The one I famously remember her doing was, was was a brand name for them. See? Treat them, treat them, treat them like. What was it? Treat them right. Treat them like a legacy.

Confucius Jones You should continue. But yeah.

Fresh Knight That’s the fact. That’s my fate right there.

Confucius Jones So, granted, they got a cookie that was valued more than you know. So, my TV at home in my living room. I don’t know if I think a lot of people smart TV might have this, too. You can have it presented like they come with channels.

Fresh Knight Yeah.

Confucius Jones Any channels? Like something like it’s just one specific thing. Like there’s, like, a Price is Right channel. There’s a Dateline channel which be out of date. It is like a news. Whenever you had a day to go, they were like, so we’re here. And also we have Fox seven News and Fox seven news has a channel. But every time I go in, there’s like, it’d be 11 in the morning, it’ll be like, oh 5:00 traffic and let go.

Confucius Jones What? Yeah.

Fresh Knight Yeah, I noticed that too I watched it, yeah.

Confucius Jones So when I said to my TV comes on, it’s showtime with the Apollo, The last time I watched it, who.

Confucius Jones Was performing.

Fresh Knight Mary J. Blige?

Confucius Jones No, 5 p.m.. See who was his hype man.

Fresh Knight P Diddy.

Confucius Jones Pup. Yes. P Diddy.

Confucius Jones Who was singing background.

Confucius Jones Vocals, Mary J.

Confucius Jones Blige I wasn’t that professor yo. That Mary father keep mine.

Confucius Jones This is your policies in Harlem. They were losing. They my father was seen. All I could think to myself was, man, he’d never follow him.

Fresh Knight So he was supposed to be the next big thing.

Confucius Jones That’s what I’m saying.

Fresh Knight Oh, daddy, I think what, one of my earlier facts was that he was a background dancer in a father MC video. He was like, man.

Confucius Jones That’s like a boyfriend, right?

Confucius Jones And he did treat him right, because look at me right back there.

Confucius Jones So, yeah.

Confucius Jones That’s my file of fact.

Fresh Knight They want to see you. You look up to father MC video. Trina, right? You can see a young Mary J. Blige in the background singing.

Confucius Jones Yeah, also the show. So the host was Sinbad, And what episode? I watched the host with Steve Harvey because he end of hosting a take. You know who the musical guest was?

Fresh Knight Okay, I’m about to say Ne-Yo ain’t.

Confucius Jones Got no.

Confucius Jones No good, y’all. The Apollo would have amateur and then they have a headliner. So the headline was okay.

Fresh Knight I know. Right. All right. Yeah. Don’t shout out okay. Yeah.

Confucius Jones It it was yeah it was 94 okay.

Fresh Knight Shout out to kiss. Hello. Speaking of celebrating their 30 year anniversary of their debut album, Southern play holistic Cadillac funky music.

Confucius Jones And we’re not getting a I don’t recall Wade passing. Might get them.

Fresh Knight We might get some. We might get like a, collaborative dungeon family effort. We might get some, we might get some. They may, they might.

Confucius Jones You know, I say this final faking get out here. Feel about, Rico’s house, not the dungeon. It’s though he had a he when he got money, he had a place called the white House.

Fresh Knight Yeah.

Confucius Jones That’s what Future Island would be in Cee lo, board estates turn into a museum.

Fresh Knight Shout out, silo man. Shout. You do some questionable things at the end of World Beach. Either you do get you do some right stuff to my brother, but, let’s get informed and possibly have a few laughs while we’re at it. Here is Confucius reads the news.

Confucius Jones So yeah, it’s been we’re in the news nationally here on UT campus, across the street from us. Actually, on Wednesday, there was a protest about the, Israel and Palestinian war going on. National news happened a few days before that. Columbia University had had a protest and it got shut down police presence. So of course, Texas, being Texas, sent DPS, troopers as a trooper. They would dress like it down to UT.

Fresh Knight DPS troopers.

Confucius Jones To try to mitigate the protest. And it turned it all out. Okay.

Fresh Knight Nice word. A nice way to word that mitigate.

Confucius Jones Dozens of people were arrested, including photojournalists. Students were arrested. They were released Thursday morning. With no charges, which let you know.

Fresh Knight Yeah. Yeah, man.

Confucius Jones And so when I saw that, I thought to myself was I look at those utke and I said, now you know how it feels to be a Black in the 60s. Good boy. All they gotta get was the hoses and the dogs.

Fresh Knight You didn’t get with the drama shepherds.

Confucius Jones Oh.

Confucius Jones And I get that people, especially people that from here come to Austin because in a state that’s so red, Austin seems like this great bastion of of progressiveness. And at times it can be.

Confucius Jones If you wait.

Fresh Knight At the end of the day, it’s still up.

Confucius Jones It’s also still Texas to Texas. Texas will not hesitate to send police to squash. Squash any type of uprising think is happening here. However, look no further than 1220 at during the quarantine when we had to protest and it was all bad boy. Also, side note. Never mind that I say that okay.

Fresh Knight And say forever after off might be on.

Confucius Jones I’m saying it’s in a place that I please. Actually I will quail. The situation made it worse anyway. A statement from you concerned UT Austin faculty. I’m afraid to say out loud and I quote we, the faculty of UT Austin, condemn president J. Hartsville and our administrative leaders decision to invite city police as well as state troopers from across the state on horses, motorcycles and bicycles in riot gear and armed with batons, pepper spray, tear gas and guns to our campus today, in response to a planned peaceful event by our students, the Palestinian Solidarity Committee had planned a day long public University for Gaza educational event today on UT Austin’s main lawn. The event was to have tokens, study sessions, pizza and an art workshop. There was no threat of violence, no plan to disrupt classes, no intimidation of the campus community. Instead of allowing our students to go ahead with their peaceful planned action, our leaders turned our campus into a militarized zone. Police and state troopers with no clear plan of action initially blocked off, divided and intimidated students to prevent them from gathering on the lawn. Eventually, police and troopers took over the speedway. Students in occupied the empty lawn were police, and troopers pushed the bulk of the crowd against the wall of UT’s hollowed fountain. At last count, several hours ago, 15 students have been arrested. Arrests are still ongoing. We are deeply concerned for our students well-being and safety. We have witnessed police punching a female student, knuckle knocking over a legal observer, dragging a student over a chain link fence, and violently arresting students simply for standing at the front of the crowd. After 5 p.m., the university police issued a mass evacuation order. Yeah, this is all bad. Yeah, I’ll bet I know.

Fresh Knight Look good for your Hot Wheels.

Confucius Jones They don’t.

Fresh Knight Like.

Confucius Jones What the president did. The president invited the police down there.

Fresh Knight That don’t look good either. It definitely doesn’t look good.

Confucius Jones John Oliver on Last Week Tonight on HBO said something very poignant because he was talking about the Columbia protest and how the police presence there was overzealous, to say the least. And John Oliver made the point of. If you can’t protest a war that you feel is morally wrong. What else can you protest like?

Confucius Jones Then? What else can we borrow?

Confucius Jones I’m not protesting the Starbucks that stayed open to hourly. I’m protesting a war which thousands of people are getting killed on both sides. That we that people feel that we are complicit in. What else do you protest? The Boston Tea Party was was less than that and that started this country.

Fresh Knight You know, man, this is very reminiscent of the 19, the late 1960s, 1970s.

Confucius Jones I say 60s, early 70s.

Fresh Knight You Vietnam. Yeah, a lot of it was a lot of college protesters being beaten in the streets, arrested, trying to have peaceful protests to say, yeah, we don’t need to be over there. And now history repeats itself, man. Which is why I say it’s important to know your history. If you don’t know what if you don’t know where you’ve been, you don’t know where you’ll be going.

Confucius Jones Man bear.

Fresh Knight True history is doomed to repeat itself, man.

Confucius Jones So going curly, going on right now, Trump’s case in front of Supreme Court about immunity is happening. Trump is basically arguing that as president, you can do whatever you want to.

Fresh Knight And it’s that verbatim.

Confucius Jones Basically that’s, that’s that’s the basis of, of, of the case is that he feels. So we all know Trump is doing that because he’s scared of going to jail. Yeah. So his argument is that the things that I did that weren’t popular that y’all said I shouldn’t be doing, I should be able to do because I’m President Richard Nixon.

Fresh Knight But.

Confucius Jones Right, exactly. See how it worked out for him?

Fresh Knight Yeah. To resign.

Confucius Jones So during one of the oral arguments, Trump’s lawyer said, well, Justice Sotomayor, you’re asked if the president decides that his rival is a corrupt person. And I quote and he orders the military to assassinate him, is that within his official acts to which he has immunity? Trump’s lawyer, John Sawyer, said that could well be an official act.

Fresh Knight Assassinate someone.

Confucius Jones Yeah.

Confucius Jones So. But see, the reason I didn’t work is. So if Joe Biden says, you know what? Trump’s doing a little too much and we could get him out of here. You’re saying he could do that because president. Right.

Fresh Knight The goalpost has been moved.

Confucius Jones And, you know the Gulf.

Fresh Knight Coast will.

Confucius Jones Be the president. Whatever he wants to do. Joe Biden technically is still president.

Confucius Jones So he could easily be like, you know what I like?

Confucius Jones They Trump is saying, get him out of here. I’m president. You can’t touch me.

Confucius Jones Boy. See, you know.

Confucius Jones What, though? Shout out to Trump for trying to at least go through the legal process, because I really thought he just put like the input from and just do it.

Confucius Jones I mean.

Fresh Knight I literally I definitely did who but hey, but.

Confucius Jones You know, it looks like from what it seems like, the justices aren’t really. I don’t know. Of course, this case, it’s the courtrooms, as I can tell, that feel about it, but it doesn’t seem like it’s the arguments for to going the way they want to. But this is a court that has been shaped very largely by Republicans and based on, most recently, Trump. So it could go either way.

Fresh Knight Okay.

Confucius Jones Would I be surprised? So yeah, you know, do what you want to.

Fresh Knight I absolutely would not be.

Confucius Jones And I would hope that the case does come if the verdict does come down to what they say. Yeah. You know what, Trump. Yeah. Yeah. You’re right. I hope Joe Biden goes crazy as hell because I would oh.

Confucius Jones I do whatever I want now. Oh boy.

Fresh Knight Oh I’m president I got it I got that I well let’s do this then.

Confucius Jones So I see your mouth open the wrong way, boy. You out of here. I might not kill you, but you’re life gonna be hell in America. Speaking of Trump, he also isn’t, in court. Who? He’s in court himself for this hush money case of, you know, bribing adult film star Stormy Daniels.

Fresh Knight Boy, got that cases.

Confucius Jones That case is more interesting because the judge told me he has to be there every day. And Trump is hated. He has to be there every day because his argument, I have to campaign, bro. You ain’t been campaigning, hey, I’ll try to say, remember I said last week you tried, so I missed my son graduation. You never been here. You keep graduation. Also, they said that he. The first day of the trial, he was fall asleep in flight.

Confucius Jones I do.

Fresh Knight Nasty.

Confucius Jones But one thing that is happening at this case, because, well, there’s numerous cases where you can end up in prison, but he’s also violate his gag order in this hush money trial. And so now the Secret Service is having meetings about. How are we going to guard him if he goes to jail? Because, of course, no president’s ever been locked up before. Right. So they’re having meetings about whether he go to jail for the gag or violate the gag order, or if he goes to prison for losing one of his cases.

Fresh Knight Do you get the Secret Service detail if you’re in prison?

Confucius Jones They haven’t been about it.

Fresh Knight I mean, that is some uncharted ward. Uncharted territory.

Confucius Jones According ABC news, the US Secret Service had meetings and started planning for what to do if former President Donald Trump were to be held in contempt in his criminal hush money trial. And Judge Juan Merchant opted to send him to a short term confinement. Officials familiar with the situation told ABC news emerging on Tuesday. Reserve decision on the matter after a contentious hearing, prosecutors said at this point they are seeking a fine. But like I said, Secret Service, looking at it like this dude is not listening to anything because gagawin if you don’t know what that is, basically, did you I tell you, shut the hell up. And Trump, if you know after every day he has, he has a press conference and he starts talking mess about the people that are working on the case.

Fresh Knight You know if he does let’s say he loses the hush money case. Right. And he is sentenced to be incarcerated. The way I see it playing out is he’s not going to be in general population because he’s a former president. With that being said, he will have his Secret Service detail probably in Schiff’s out detail outside of his cell, and they will check the food and do all of that. Before it gets.

Confucius Jones Mad as hell. If I became a Secret Service, I had to sit in jail and guard somebody. Like, I thought it would be like going around the world and, you know, events, whatever. I got to be in jail because, man.

Fresh Knight I would be pissed, but I’d be in my mind. I think that’s the best way to do it. Or literally have them sitting in his cell. And if I got to be a Secret Service agent and I didn’t work this hard to get on presidential detail. And I got to sit in a cell with you. Nah, bro, I’m quitting too. I’m quitting that day. As soon as they give me the assignment.

Confucius Jones I’m not doing that. Also moving on. More politics. Tic tac back is about to be gone.

Fresh Knight It looks like it’s about to get about a man.

Confucius Jones To the president. I.

Fresh Knight Got to give you some stuff about tick tock shot.

Confucius Jones First.

Confucius Jones President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed a bill, according to CNN, that could lead to a nationwide TikTok ban escalating a massive threat to the company’s U.S. operations. Congress had passed the bill this week as part of a wide ranging foreign aid package meant to support Israel and Ukraine. It was approved by the House on Saturday and by the Senate on Tuesday. The legislation poses the most serious risk to TikTok since U.S. officials began raising concerns about the app in 2020. Under what is now U.S. law, TikTok is forced to find a new owner within months or be banned from the United States entirely. So the owner of TikTok got on TikTok and tried to say like, hey you. The sound of your voice. This is right. I thought it was interesting to me is that ByteDance is the owner of TikTok, and they’re based in China. Like I’ve said before, China has because they’re a communist country. The right to grab up by dance and say, give us all your data and let us see what is in it. So I’m all for TikTok being banned, or at least being sold to somebody else. What I find interesting is that most companies, especially new companies, Twitter’s done it. Facebook and Myspace did it. When they get to a certain level of popularity, they end up selling anyway by dance is refusing to sell, and they’re trying to frame it like, oh, well, they’re attacking us because, you know, our app is so great and they try to shut down free speech. TikTok’s not the only social media thing out there. Instagram has reels. Twitter is still access, still rocking surprisingly.

Confucius Jones So I.

Fresh Knight If the community is keeping it rocking.

Confucius Jones And Black Twitter. But yeah. So it looks like what’s going to happen they’re going to sell it. And people I’ve seen people come a little. Duvall tweeted on Thursday that, you know, if TikTok gets banned and Joe Biden’s going to lose by Trump going to win in a landslide, I don’t believe that. Because, yeah, it might piss off young people. But you have to understand, I think young people at this point. If they weren’t going to vote for Joe Biden, they TikTok wouldn’t be able to tip them over to me.

Fresh Knight I see that. And I see.

Confucius Jones The conflict in the Middle East is more prevail in people’s minds. And tick tock, tick tock is not a policy maker. It’s not it’s not complicit in things we might not agree with. And I’m sorry, you guys trying to more likely is looking at your data.

Fresh Knight And is what I was about to say. I think a lot more people. Understand why the U.S. government feels that way about today and has few has felt the way they have felt about TikTok. I think a lot more have understood that they are willing to openly say, no, I get it. I get it. Like we say, we like domestic surveillance. We don’t like.

Confucius Jones You know, like we’ll spy.

Confucius Jones On other people we’re not doing.

Fresh Knight We all spy on, we’ll tap your phone, but we.

Confucius Jones Don’t of that. You have to understand Americans, petty and small minded to the fact of. They’re inside the meetings. They might be having a conversation of, damn, why don’t we think of that? Why don’t we make an app and spy on China? Because China would let that happen. That’s why only we would let that happen. Not saying that Bytedance’s doing that, but I’m just saying they’re based in China. And finally making the station is being sued for unpaid wages by a former photographer. The lawsuit was filed this past Tuesday in the lawsuit. The photographer claims that he was forced to watch, make the staying in have it. Of course, it was unfairly fired soon after and was abused by her as an employee. Megan’s lawyer, Alex Shapiro, according to AP news, said, quote, this is an employment claim for money with no sexual harassment claim filed and with salacious accusations to attempt to embarrass her. I went over the court documents myself and yeah, just looks like he’s mad he didn’t get paid. What happened was that he does. He basically stated in the lawsuit that he was a work for hire, but was treated like an employee in terms of payment, because when employed, you can pay them on specific time, work how you got to pay them immediately. And so he tried to throw in the whole like, oh, I had to see her do things in front of me that I did agree with to try to kind of, I guess, goad her into paying more money. But she’s being now represented by ROC Nation’s top lawyer, so that’s not a good way that.

Fresh Knight She as she as as we all know, ROC Nation is right here.

Confucius Jones The ROC Nation will protect Megan. So of course, people on line was saying like, man, if I’d been at guideline that had been off, would I get that my only because this is a, family show, I’ll say, if I had an issue with it, I would have raised those concerns immediately.

Fresh Knight If I wasn’t getting paid to address those concerns.

Confucius Jones It you can’t say like, oh, these things I don’t morally agree with. After months after because you didn’t get paid like so when you were getting paid it was fine, but so you didn’t get paid, which is what I said, happens to a lot of powerful men. That’s why they end filing, because they’ve been paying people out for years, and I’d say nothing. As soon as they stopped, people stopped talking, which is aspo. So what lesson to be learned, children, if you don’t do dirt and you pay people on time, everybody will shut the hell up.

Fresh Knight Everybody, you will live a happy life.

Confucius Jones I just don’t do dirt, man. That’s the main thing.

Fresh Knight Don’t do dirt.

Confucius Jones I don’t have to pay anybody off because I don’t. When I’m having money and do I don’t do anything I shouldn’t be doing. So that’s Confucius reads the news.

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

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


Episodes

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Rap Beef Episode III: Revenge of the South

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Rap Beef Episode II: Attack of the West

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September 16, 2024

Thee Phantom Interview

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September 9, 2024

LARA’ Interview

Austin R&B singer LARA’ joins Confucius and Fresh in conversation on her new album Luvology and her upcoming tour with Rapsody. Then the fellas weigh why R&B isn’t as profitable as hip-hop and Meek Mill’s status as a top tier rapper.

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September 2, 2024

BLK ODYSSY Interview

Confucius and Fresh sit down with August 2021 KUTX Artist of the Month BLK ODYSSY to talk about their newly released album 1-800 Fantasy before setting the stage for an upcoming series on beefs.

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August 26, 2024

Shxwnfresh in Studio 1A / Interview with Chey

Confucius and Fresh break away from the routine chatter for a two-part guest appearance: Shxwnfresh & THEBROSFRESH in Studio 1A ahead of a Stubb’s show on Friday, August 30th and an interview with Staten Island’s Chey. Hear all that plus an Unpopular Opinion on Heavy D this week.

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August 19, 2024

Sitting Down with SaulPaul

Confucius and Fresh kick things off by catching up with Austin-based Grammy nominee SaulPaul ahead of his next album Speak Hope, Sing Joy: Change Maker Music for Kids, out August 30th. Afterwards the fellas chat about the authenticity of Atlanta’s ian and navigate an Unpopular Opinion surrounding Kendrick Lamar and Nipsey Hussle.

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