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Fashion Over Function with Dee
99 Plays2 months ago
In June after a brief hiatus I got back to recording the podcast and had to have one of my closest friends on the podcast. We talked about this episode for months and we finally were able to get it to happen. This week's episode I am joined by Dee, he is many things from frontman of The Oxymorrons to founder of a Mental Health Organization. He hops on the pod and we talk everything from growing up in Queens to touring the world in a band. Also we talk about how sneakers has connected him to people in all walks of life. We touch on what we currently see in the cultures we all partake in. Plus so much more!
Where to find :
Socials: https://www.instagram.com/deeemi_god
Podcast Linktree: https://linktr.ee/myfirstkicks
Intro Music by The DoppleGangaz: https://thedoppelgangaz.bandcamp.com/
Outro Music by Gordon Bombay: https://thegordonbombay.bandcamp.com/
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Transcript
Introduction and Setup
00:00:15
Speaker
everyone Welcome back to my first kicks and this, whoa, whoa, whoa, my bad, run it back. yeah yeah What's good, everyone? Welcome back to my first kicks. This is episode 178. And this week I bring to you one of my best friends, Dee from Oxy. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, what's good?
00:00:33
Speaker
It's early, but it's not early. It's definitely not that early. If you're looking at this, you're watching this, and you better be watching this on YouTube. Many apologies. I probably look sweaty as hell. Yeah, you look crazy. That's because you made the unfortunate decision of riding a bicycle to shoot, to a podcast shoot before you shout. I didn't think I was going to get... It's an e-bike. I'm not going to get crazy sweaty. It's New York City sweat,
Remembering a Friend and Support
00:01:03
Speaker
and it's one of the hottest days yet so far, and you decided that that's what you was gonna do. And I don't look any better, I'm in black, but I drove over here. You drove, yeah, yeah, yeah. I was under the impression that I would be fine, but I also should've done the smarter thing, which was bring in a second shirt. Oh, yeah. And when you said you didn't bring a second shirt, I said, interesting.
00:01:27
Speaker
So if you're watching this, you will see me progressively get drier throughout the episode. And hopefully by the end of this episode, my shirt is dry. This is the episode is called, ah is water wet?
00:01:39
Speaker
ah But we also have another special guest in the group in the room, my boy Julian. He came to pull up because ah if you haven't or or seen on the socials, I've been posting about my one of my best friends ah from childhood passing away. And um this is more of just like this episode. It's an episode me and Dee have been talking about for for months and months and ah on end.
Sneaker Culture Beginnings
00:02:04
Speaker
and um I was like, you know what, this is, I kind of need this support that you've been giving me throughout these past couple of weeks after hearing about him passing. And then on top of that, Julian also been helping me out and just wanted to to show my appreciation for you and and for you and for everybody who listens to me every week. I appreciate y'all for tapping in and this is gonna be a ah deep one. And also, you know, we're gonna get to we go get down to these kicks.
00:02:32
Speaker
Let's chop it up. so So let's jump into the question that I asked everybody. And I forgot to hit you with it, but I'm pretty sure you know you know the question. And that's the question I ask everybody each week. What's your first kiss with that first pair of sneakers you absolutely needed to have?
00:02:48
Speaker
Um, I wouldn't say absolutely needed to have. I would say, uh, I always, I always love sneakers. I love shoes in general, i like affinity for shoes. And I would say, um, the, the first, my first kick story is more of like, not really my first sneaker that I needed to have, but more so the first sneaker that I paid for myself. Okay. Um, and in that, and, and, and it was cool because it's attached to something that that's there to me as basketball. So ah ah they had dropped the NYC all black ups. Did you do the sheets? You know, I'm talking about the sheets and um and I wanted the sheets and we ended up being able to get the sheets as a team sneaker. That's crazy. No, back in it not. But yeah, but you paid for your team sneakers.
00:03:37
Speaker
Until college and other things, unless you was on one of those elite teams, they are like Christ the Kid. I was good, I wasn't that elite. Unless you don't want, because they're sponsored by Jordan or some nonsense like that. It's crazy. But yeah, and then those, those right there, I remember going to grab them, all black killers with a little bit of the white on the bottom, you know what I'm talking about a little? And then they had the NYC, it was the high top with the strap. So I had the NYC on the strap. Yo, when I mean we was killing them, we was killing them with those. That right there, that's when I first realized, wait a minute, like,
00:04:14
Speaker
swag come with sneakers in a particular kind of way. Because before then, it was like, yeah, I understood. You know, you dress good. You always wear sneakers. But that's when it really hit me like, oh, I
Sneaker Shopping in Queens
00:04:24
Speaker
love sneakers. I really have a passion for this, because it was just like, those are supposed to just be sneakers I hooped in, and they turned into a whole like fashion statement. That is crazy. i can' but First of all, I can't believe you hooped in Air Force like air force One. It was a bad idea. yeah yeah yeah Like I said, no bounce, bro. That was fashion over function.
00:04:46
Speaker
Y'all is out here looking like, um, with the fab five, but the fab five with, uh, with the whole team rocking the sheets. You know, the whole team, we all had the sheets. We all made that collective decision. That's crazy. And what's crazy is when when you think about it, like, I remember um was night they were 90 cash. Yeah. Like, like, that's what, yo, that's that's another partisan coach right now. And I know we'll get into that. Like, that's kind of kind of crazy. Yeah. Like, when when did the when did the prices become like this? This is out of pocket. You did you because I mean, you're from Jamaica, Queens. So like, was the did you go to like
00:05:20
Speaker
ah parson bull what's this What's the Boulevard? Bro, it's the Ave. It's the Coliseum block. yes yes yeah If you're from my neighborhood, you grew up going to the collie block to get your sneakers sometimes. And then also now, to tell you the truth, growing up um like way far down for me was when my mom would go get my sneakers real quick if she didn't go to the Ave was Bob's Sneaker Corner. Bob's Sneaker Corner. Yeah, Bob's Sneaker Corner. But the Bob's Sneaker Corner in my hood had all the releases. You see, that's the difference. He had a Jordan account.
00:05:48
Speaker
Like what? That's crazy. He had all the dope stuff. So it was like, it wasn't really like you was going like Bob's, you know how to get that. Yeah. You're just like, oh, this is just the mom and pop. Like my mom just goes over there for like $40 sneakers, whatever. Nah, he was, he was guy he was, he was legit. And there was some like, there's a mode, the modal is right next to him. So it was complete with the, with for the white tee era.
00:06:10
Speaker
Yo, I've only been to that block, I think like one time to the, one or two times. That's not even the collie block. That's literally Rockway Boulevard and Woodhaven in my neighborhood. So that's the collie block though. They had everything, come on man. Like you go to Jamaican Flavors, you pick up a beef patty and you keep strolling that. And then also one of the key things you do as a sneaker head is, I know most of y'all probably noticed, I'm hoping, cause sneaker culture right now, it's more about the reseller than it is about the culture of the sneaker.
00:06:38
Speaker
ah but um But like, yo, you get the beef patty from Jamaican Flavors, and you you take this you hit the strip. Now when you hit the strip, there is going to be, they gonna have the sneakers, right? Now you gonna heckle though. You're gonna go to the first store and see what they choppin' it up for. Then you gonna go across the street and see what they're charging for. it they like So after about six or seven stores, you now having a consensus on price in this scenario, and now you go buy your sneakers. unless you was like we who knew the dude in the Coliseum, who had the plug, who always give me the price with no tax. See, that's fire. I never got that. I never got that. And it's for me, it was always just like going to Queen's Center Mall a lot. So I'd just go to Queen's Center Mall, cop. and it That's crazy, because that's that's wild, because I never bought a pair of sneakers from Queen's Center Mall, I don't think. It's wild, because that area, like, like think about it. like going I went to high school by there, so it was like,
00:07:34
Speaker
It was easy to get to it, so we always hung out there. like i didn't so I never associated Queen's Center Mall with ah with shopping which with um sneakers, in that kind of way. I associated Queen's Center Mall with like getting some clothes, if like the because they had these certain elite shops, right right and then like just banging bitches and shit. like yeah The food court over there, elite. That's Food Court and um Manhattan Mall Food Court. If you ever did it if you ever did a Manhattan Mall Food Court. Yo, that's crazy. fun Fun fact, people don't know about me. I went dumb hard and bought the Justified album over there.
00:08:10
Speaker
Shout out to Justin Timberlake, although you turned into a weirdo. What a time to say this right now. You turned into quite the weirdo,
LeBron's Sneaker Line and Sneaker Trends
00:08:18
Speaker
but i I went hard for Justified. At least I come to find out it was supposed to be written for Michael Jackson. Well, it was written for Michael Jackson. That's crazy. I didn't know that. That I was bestowed upon to Justin Timberlake. Oh, wow. Yeah, that's something. Didn't I know that. That happens a lot in the industry, like cool albums and songs. right You know, like people don't realize, like, we would have no B.O.B. if ah Lupe didn't turn down nothing on you.
00:08:40
Speaker
i did not I did not know that either. Nothing on you is the record that saved his career. That's crazy. I do feel like Lupe be turning down a ton of stuff when he first started. He's a particular artist. He's my dude though. He's one of my favorite. Definitely on my top five. And most and if dudes want to talk about battles, because recently, battles have been the thing. ah It's crazy how what the criteria for winning a hip hop battle has become what it used to be. I mean, it's not, I can't i can't even get into it. i' too I'm too i'm too into into music to be like, this is how it's supposed to be. Like, you're just like, if you lost, you took an L, you took a loss, as as Big L said. Sometimes you just gotta take the L.
00:09:19
Speaker
and keep it moving. You know, it's all it's all right, Drake. so you still Think about the L. Like, if you take your L, think about it. You still filthy rich. Right, exactly. It's kind of like what LeBron said one time out there gave. He was like, listen, we talking about basketball here. I'm going to go home, and I'm rich. yeah And people were mad, and I was like, y'all mad because it hurt y'all feelings a little. Speaking of Lebronze, I think he's he's the greatest player with the cornea-sneaker line ever. Wow, okay. Nah, he got, look, I'll give him...
00:09:52
Speaker
He has, I wanna say like four good models. I like two or three. Nah, four. Two or three. What's the- The originators, the originals. The LeBron general soldiers, whatever those. The originals, the very first ones, what else? And then you got the eight nines, eight and nines.
00:10:10
Speaker
That's the one, you know, the ones with the big 360 bubble. And then the nines are the ones that they turn into the elites. With the South beaches. I like the eight. I like the one with the big, but the South beaches is trash. Come on. Let's keep it on. The elite South beaches are not trash. I like those. I guess this is the subjective part of these scenarios. Yeah. Listen, I didn't even get to get them. And I still like them. Because I went to Jimmy Jazz. I did the whole traverse. I traversed all of Manhattan.
00:10:39
Speaker
right okay I went to, so they dropped, right? They dropped and I'm trying to get them online, L. So then I just hop on a train. I'm like, all right, I got to figure out a way. I go down to 42nd Street. I go to Times Square to get, not 42nd, 34th Street, Foot Locker. That's when House of Hoops was like still popping. And then I go there, nothing. And then I was just like, all right, cool. I'm gonna go to 125th. Go to 125th. And they didn't open yet. Cause I got there right before they open.
00:11:05
Speaker
One, two, fifth sneakers. yeah That was an adventure. You gotta realize the things you saying because coming from like the Queens Brooklyn side of New York and you talking about the uptown side of New York, I never bought a pair of sneakers from 125th. Like never had to. That's the craziest part, but I know it was popping out there because I had so many friends that'd be like, yo, the sneakers, the game is lit out there too. I never went up there for sneakers. Parties? Parties for sure. the ah But I went ah i went to 125th to Jimmy Jazz, go there, and I just see the line, and I'm like, all right, it's not that crazy. It's like seven people. I pull up, and then this guy comes out, and he's like six-five, like big. And he's like, if I don't get a pair, none of y'all get in the pair. And I was just like, aw, no. like I remember that, see? These are the errors. I was just like, I'm going home. i a
00:11:53
Speaker
I was just like, I'm going home. I turn right back around, bro. Listen, sometimes you just gotta go home, bro. A sneaker coach is crazy, because I often wonder, like, I see how it's evolved digitally, and I see how things have happened. But I like i remember, like, you couldn't buy sneakers that you couldn't, like, physically keep to yourself. Like, you couldn't, like like, to say even better, like, you couldn't buy sneakers you couldn't defend wearing.
00:12:19
Speaker
You know, like you used to, like it was literally like, if you went to go get some Jordans or you going to go get a specific pair of exclusive things, understand, you had to be able to walk, first of all, you had to be able to leave the store and then get home. The route home matters. And if you had the box or not, all these things matter. So it's like, I always wonder like, is that the same everywhere or is that just? I mean, I've had a couple of people on the podcast Because I know hoods are going to be hoods. I'm pretty sure it's like Chicago's. And I hate to say Chicago first. Sorry, I said Chicago first because that's one of the cities that I recently just visited and it's dope because I want to like even people think about hood when you say Chicago, people just think murder rate. And I'd be like Chicago's a beautiful city. And then also guess what? Chicago's not even top 10 on the cities of most murders. Straight up. People don't even realize that. It's always Chicago. They're like 18 or something like that.
00:13:12
Speaker
yeah fuck that yeah Just to dispel some stereotypes. yeah We do this.
Sneaker Culture and Black Identity
00:13:19
Speaker
and and ah But I've had some people, I've had a bunch of people on and I feel like it depends. because like once I wanna say like the cities are the ones that are getting the Jordans, right? They're getting the hot releases. So like when you go towards out, everybody that I've had on that lives in like middle America or like, or away from the city, they would always say, I had to go to the city to get it. So if if there's one area that is meeting all these different types of people, I feel like, yeah, you're gonna get that that action. Oh, yeah, that's true. What I noticed too, because touring lets me go into like small cities, although I always get to like run around and like really do things. But I've also noticed that like um nowadays, like ah where there were small cities um that wouldn't get sneakers and you have to like venture out. Now there's like a mad boutique shop. If you oversaturate a market of something, you lower the value of it. It doesn't matter if you're selling a soda can or if you're selling a sneaker. right It means nothing. Scarcity is what drives value. So if everybody's doing something,
00:14:21
Speaker
ah podcasting or whatever. ill yeah It starts to lower the value of said thing. So then guess what? Quality starts to trump quantity. Like think about it. Think about it. I grew up on dunks. I love dunks. Every flavor. i do ah black Like I still have my 2011 black and pale. Like literally I have dunks from all Evers cause my foot size hasn't changed. yeah Look what journeys he was on the journey Bro, listen, listen, listen. First and foremost, Blades. Blades, of course, Blades. But the journey... I'm with the mids? I'm with them from Blades. Blades don't... But the Journey Dunk Pack. Come on, bro. Journey Dunk Pack was insane. It was crazy. It was cool, but it wasn't better than Blades. No, yeah, because of the SBs. Yeah. I'm a SB hat. I'm a SB hat. Yeah, so it's like, but look what Sneaker Cultures has done to the dunk.
00:15:15
Speaker
it's so It's not even rare anymore. No, yeah, everybody everybody has everything. I made i made a video about the what the dunks and people were like, I was just like, we shouldn't care about them anymore. Because everybody wants them. what One of the things I wanted to talk to you about on the show okay is what is actual sneaker culture? Directly correlates with black culture. Of course. Right? So now when people scream the culture, ah you watch all these sneaker shows. I watch them. I see them. Some of them are dope. Some of them not. um Regardless of it if it's per somebody of the culture or not.
00:15:44
Speaker
um Sneaker culture in itself, what is it now then? Because it's no, it's the people controlling it and dictating it are not of black culture. So let's just be honest. there's ah There's a lot of conversations about this. And I mean, this is one of the reasons why I started this is because we don't get a lot of people of color who are talking about sneakers in the front and the forefront. right and there's ah And even on like sneakers Twitter, people will always be like, you got you know we got these black voices that are talking and this and that. And they'll like shout me out and stuff like that. And I'll be like,
00:16:12
Speaker
I'll be like, you know, I'm the person of color. I can't really, you know, I'm like, I can't be like, yeah, I'm 100% black. You know what I mean? Like, I can't be like. You see, and that's what I mean about with all these nuances, even with that sometimes, that very statement right there, like, what is actual black nowadays? Things have been, we've been, as a society, we so segmented right now, that it's like, you gotta question whether or not you black. You gotta like, it has to be specifically, like, think about how we identify that word is a hot word. Right, yeah.
00:16:40
Speaker
how we identify ah ah is is has been blown wide open. right and a And some parts of it cool, some parts of it not cool, because at the end of the day, you still need structure. But like- But yeah, I mean, what you were saying about sneaker culture, and I think that now because of you know the inclusion of of oversaturation, um people constantly, I feel like, The idea of stories within sneakers has gone to this thing where brands are telling you what the stories are about more than what the people who wear the sneakers are telling you. The culture has said consumerism. For sure. 100%. And they use it. And they, well, it's capitalism because they use it. They use it right back there in terms of just like. hes you
00:17:20
Speaker
I had one of my favorite writers, sneaker writers on the podcast, Russ Bengston on, and he you know he was talking about, you know when is at what point, like and when if they keep selling us back retros and bringing back retros and they're just recycling it back and we're just continuously buying it back,
00:17:36
Speaker
At what point, when do when do we get out of that and figure out that we want more, or better, or good stuff? And it's like, yeah. That's what I mean. Our problem is, it's the society that we've ah created that needs instant gratification. yeah um Social media, you know how it goes. It's trained the brain to think at this point at about seven seconds, you know. yeah before it's ah Before, I know everybody says 15, it's really, no, not every, mean i give those three seconds most people say a minute,
00:18:04
Speaker
on average, you you're you' I'm being gracious, you're you're getting about seven seconds of someone's attention. And you that's that's said and then glazed over a lot of the times where people don't really realize it and to the point where you're addicted, like I'm addicted, like I know this, like social media kills you and it's just like we when you do that, you dilute what you're doing. And everything to this point, as as once it hits that, it gets diluted, it's consumer, it's like um one of my favorite songs, um Andre 3000. You know, he's one of my favorite artists. And he has this. ah he He got this song on his mixtapes. and um And I wish I could. It wasn't on a mixtape. So I i could point to an album because I don't think it. ah And he talked about.
00:18:44
Speaker
the the essence of art, the essence of something cool and creating something. And um and that that moment in when it's created versus the moment when you it starts to be sold and how different those two things are. And that's what that's what I'm looking at in the sneaker culture right now. like there's And don't get it twisted, there's so many people regardless of yeah ah yeah the whathop what you identify by. but that are true sneakerheads, like true, and you don't have to be black to be a true sneakerhead. You don't have to be black to be of the culture, of the true culture. What you have to do though is understand and stop calling dudes old heads when they are now upholding the rules set by the culture. right It's like, if we hoop in,
00:19:25
Speaker
and And there's a three point line. Unless everyone collectively agreed that that line moved, it don't make you old because you're still using the three point line. It makes no sense. thats lot there's this That's what I mean about culture. Who dictates the culture dictates the rules and why you see the rules that are changing the things that meant something to us growing up. The rules that were passed now to us from our culture that we created is being diluted and changed now because those who control the culture don't connect with the rules.
00:19:52
Speaker
because wonder why they're not of the culture. Of course not. It's so simple. Yeah. and it i mean and then it But it's funny because then there are people who do uphold the rules. But I don't think there's like, like there's set rules in terms of like what classifies you as a sneaker head or whatever. And it's very simple. Appreciate the culture. ah you know Do your research. Participate. Participate. you know Give back. like it's all it's yeah It's all simple shit. 101 culture things. 101 is not rocket science. Give back. Be part of the culture. Don't jump. If you jumped in because you can make a lot of money, you're not part of the culture. Understand that. And it's okay. Listen, the thing is, it's okay to be like, yo, I'm going to do this to make money, but stop acting like you're of the culture. The people of the culture, they don't do it for the financial, like like I've spent more money in sneaker culture than I've ever made from sneaker culture. I've never made a dime. I'll tell you the truth. But I enjoy the culture because your podcast, the stories, um those things like ah me and my boys, the conversations. And that's what people don't realize. That's literally the culture. yeah People only love sneakers. People don't love sneakers just because they look good on the design. It's what it's attached to. Right. Yeah. yeah You know, I mean, and I think that meaning is definitely lost because of like
00:21:12
Speaker
A lot of people just clout chase in terms of just like, I got the freshest stuff, I got the newest stuff. and and But that was always a thing. I know, I was just about to say that. I was just gonna say, I think, but it gets lost, right? Because like in the beginning, right? If you if you simply just talk about like, when during a high school, when it was like, yo, I used to go to the to the jewelry stores to cop the Jordans. I'm pretty sure you have people that that knew that used to do that, yeah right? I never did, I was too broke for that.
00:21:37
Speaker
um and so And so, like, that was like, oh, I'm ahead of it. I got the New Jordans before, like two weeks before it comes out. And it's like, now it's like, people are making videos about sneakers that are coming out next year and being like, yo, I got the new joint. And this is how they become part of the current sneakers. How do they get access to the sneakers? I mean, a lot of people are saying it's fake sneakers. So and there you go. That's what I mean. This is like, that's what I mean about the culture and all. be to In order to keep up with the quantity, the the demand,
00:22:07
Speaker
um they're They're trying to just keep up with the man and that wasn't a rule. In order to keep up, there's fakes now, there's altered. What do you mean credible fakes? There's no such thing. I'll be like, what? Listen to what you just said. ah yeah it's it's No such thing as a credible fake. You either have an authentic shoe or you do not. What are we talking about? It's bugged out. I mean, now now like now now it's been has been pushed out to this thing. And it's like, it's people are always pushing to be like, you gotta be more acceptable about people. I'm like, yeah, Sneakers is for everybody. that I think it's the culture of Sneakers that people don't fully understand. I think people fell in love with the style, the actual people who developed the culture of Sneakers, why you love what you love.
00:22:50
Speaker
um I mean, even just on the fashion part, like we can talk about how i' un how not accepted sneakers have been for so long. And then until it got... You can say it's your podcast. you know I'm just saying, I'm just saying. and Until it consumerism yeah and fucking white people found hell hell of value in it. But think about this. yeah Think about this, bro. it's just Sometimes we just have to be honest about these conversations. Think about this. How it could not.
00:23:16
Speaker
One of the things that i that I've realized in life in general, like we say these things and then we don't really hold actual value to the things that we say or the knowledge that we know. We are on the minority. If the majority jumps into something, right? The the majority, that means there's more of them. yeah that And they start to support their people, then they will hold the lion's share by mathematics. They don't even have they't have to be racist. That's nothing to do with them coming in, hating black people. They don't gonna do none of that. Just by sheer volume alone, they will always succeed more because there's more of them supporting them. It's that simple. It's no different than when people be like, oh, why did WNBA? ah More guys support sports financially than women do. It's not part of women culture. right It's just not It's not part of a capitalized women culture. You know what's part of capitalized women culture? Makeup. Billion dollar industry. You see that's the difference. If WNBA players started wearing makeup or if there was a reason to connect feminism with sport in that kind of a way, in basketball way, then that's where you see it. The only problem and is consumerism normally sexualizes everything. So now we got a bunch of girls who aren't sexualized and you're gonna try to sexualize them. But like the main point of it was to show like, hey,
00:24:29
Speaker
ah As black culture in general, which sneaker culture is, and one of the things that we have to realize as gatekeepers, one thing is ownership. Keep your ownership. And then two, um we can't be so inclusive. One of the things I've realized we ah combat.
00:24:47
Speaker
um And we struggle with it is that level of like, yo, it's for everybody, right right? Like black people, we always make stuff for everybody based on the fact that nothing was ever just for us. that's We've always had to share. so and and And by nature, we're inviting people. Think about like our cultural norms, um the cookouts, all these things, community.
00:25:11
Speaker
Because community is what helped us get through slavery. right So when you think about that and when we come out, community is our thing. But the only problem is we let anybody into the community and and and and and there's no parameters and we don't get to keep our own community, they can't keep it for us. So all of our art forms.
00:25:27
Speaker
Not only do we not own the platforms, we don't own the things that they release on or do, but they also are gatekeepers from people who are not from the culture because they own it. And that's what we have to do as a community, realize, sometimes say nah, sometimes yeah, he might be cool, but nah. Think about this, this is a great example of gatekeeping community and in a way where it's like so really subjective, country music. um Country music is hilarious, because country music, they don't gatekeep the sound.
00:25:53
Speaker
They keep the culture, yeah if you notice about it. And they don't care. See us, we'll accept you if you winning. If you lit and it's happening, whatever, we accept the cool, we accept that. Other cultures don't care if you're winning. If you're not of the culture, get out. Lil Nas X had a number one country song. They didn't care. Get out. Beyonce is one of the biggest artists in the world. They don't care. You're not of the culture. Peace, Post Malone.
00:26:20
Speaker
from the culture, you see? yeah Even though, and look at Post Malone. once he who what he know Who accepted him? Black black black people. but he But once he, this yeah be we talk about say the you but we we we talk about this, it was just like once people, once black you once white people or people that are not of black descent that and black sound use black sound and get get their fame off of black sound, they move straight off of it. yeah it's like What I want to do is remove the sound. That's not me. That's just the culture. yeah because That's what we're talking about. it's not I do frame things through music because I'm a musician and you see a lot of similar and similarities and that's where it is. It's just the similarities where you see like culturally, we're just more accepting.
00:27:02
Speaker
um And we I think we just need to frame our acceptance. There should be rules, guidelines. what are the What's the bar? What's the bar that lets you in? Oh, because you this, because you that. And also, now can we even make that bar now? Because a lot of our cultural standpoints, yo, yeah
Impact of Social Media on Art and Culture
00:27:20
Speaker
is' um isn't owned by us. yeah we we like Black people like ideation nuts. Like we create like a motherfucker, we just don't know. Oh my God.
00:27:28
Speaker
This is true, this is very true. I mean, like, yeah. I mean, a lot of- We talk about a bunch of shoes that black people don't own. Yeah. You know, it is wild that the, in terms of just like the culture itself, where I just think about the way it is now. And, you know, I'm all for just like, oh, let's figure out a way so that people appreciate this more. And I mean, we talk about, you know, we talked about this on the phone recently, just like how making this, making this podcast and this idea of like, I didn't want to just bring stories like people talking should be talking more and and community should be building out of this. And
00:28:09
Speaker
You know, the idea, everybody will tell it every time, every time I bring it up to somebody, this is amazing. But then, if I put it on online, nobody gives a shit. So it's like, you know. I think that's because you're rating ah the give a shit factor with online. um One of the things you gotta realize online is the killer of all art. Straight up, people don't realize it. um It's masked as this tool of reach, but it's not a tool of reach when um a machine is being built to control your reach. That doesn't make sense.
00:28:36
Speaker
Even with TikTok, like we saw, and I'm not against any of this stuff. Do what you do. I don't particularly use TikTok at all other than in the band. I don't have a personal account. um But like, um do what you do. But at the end of the day, if you haven't recognized the fact that ah people like when they were like the band was coming, whenever that band was going to come, whatever was happening with that. um Oh, they're they're they're they're taking away our freedom.
00:28:58
Speaker
um I think the word and the terms freedoms of are so loose um because yeah you're not free on TikTok. You don't, they are free, are freedom to create art. You don't create art free on TikTok.
00:29:10
Speaker
You don't, you create art within the parameters they gave you. right So you're not actually creating anything that you truly would want to create because they told you it needs to be 15 seconds. They told you it needs to be 60 seconds. So guess what? If you was going to frame your art in a minute and a half and now you created this dope thing, what's the next context? Oh man, how do I get it down to 15 seconds? And that's for them because it's based on consumerism. They're not selling art, they're selling attention.
00:29:34
Speaker
So the because your thing is not getting a lot of attention due to the algorithm because you didn't fall within the parameters does not dictate the value of your art. That's our problem. Again, we've given power to people who didn't create.
00:29:47
Speaker
It doesn't make sense. like It's like the dude at Spotify said the craziest thing the other day. He said, ah ah who cares about our art isn't content. Who cares about content? Content's cheap to make. And everybody went up in arms. went crazy Everybody lost their damn minds. And I said, oh, yeah. Why am I mad? That's another thing. We're too emotional.
00:30:05
Speaker
Oh, are you mad? He literally said the truth. The problem is you weren't listening. A man who runs a business said content is free. It is free. Your perspective is not free for you. It's free for him because we give him content for less than a penny. right So in his mind, that's the value of content.
00:30:20
Speaker
because he doesn't sell content. He sells attention. yeah And a platform. He doesn't create music. They're not music people that take to at Spotify either. You know they're technology people. So he's selling his platform. And his platform is amazing. right Because we want to know why his platform isn't amazing, not because of any other reason it's amazing for the user. Because it gives you and everyone's music catalog from the beginning of of music till the day you're on that app for $120 a year. yeah It's crazy. And podcasts. No, I've been digging into podcasts and all of that. So what do you think that does to the art? They're creating the value of your art before you even put it out. You don't even dictate your prices. So please tell me again.
00:31:06
Speaker
where's this era of freedom? yeah forever Because free, oh, you're free to do it with within their parameters, and that's cool. and And that's what I say, and it sounds, oh, cliche, freedom, no. like Like, truly, people just need to start thinking. um we've We've become too much of ah an entertainment-based society, and I think we need to really start valuing critical thinking and a lot of other things, because, yeah, like even like for us, for me, we could talk about sneakers all day. but our sneaker conversation's always wielding so many different things. Yeah, we go we go in and out. Because it's a culture conversation. Yeah, yeah, for sure. of time You know, we wish, so what like, why I chose to put these on today? Because it's funny that we both wearing vans. And we didn't plan that. We didn't go, hey, vans, you've got to cut the check if we want to do that. But like think about this. like We just wore what we wore. And I tend to wear clothes. I don't get dressed to look fly. I get dressed to feel good. right There's a huge difference. you know like i used to wear I used to buy sneakers when I was really young ah just for the style, but I also now buy them for the comfort.
00:32:04
Speaker
It's just the things that you value has changed. I mean, look, I used to, I used to, what was my phrase? I used to tell myself all the time. I used to be like, it was a fashion over form or something like that. Fashion over comfort. I used to tell myself, I used to, you know, my feet used to be hurt. My feet used to be hurt, bro. Dude used to be like, yo, get that half size small to pull the soul out. Why?
00:32:27
Speaker
You are ruining your feet, sir. And listen, i'm not I'm not over here judging people because I literally did it. Like, I've adopt done it. I got a size 14 waiting for me in the house. Yo, I'm still trying to figure out the time to be like, all right, let me, I was like, I'll get some thicker socks, some thicker socks, that wear some wear some some Nike Elite socks with these, like, you know? like You know me, like listen, I also have the worst luck ever at at being a sneaker head, cause I got my feet size is nine and a half. yeah That's the beef size. That's like, everybody has my size. There's no, my size is never available when it's sold out. And I get the other spectrum. I'm a 13. If you don't got a plug, you buy retail size.
00:33:07
Speaker
but like At the end of the day, and that's what it is, it's just like, like sneaker culture for me, it's always played a huge role because it's just always been part of the culture of everything I'm into. No matter what I'm going in, and people don't even think, like even being in a rock band, or whatever you want to call it, because we're just a creative entity, because we don't fit into any boxes, and you know how that goes. We don't fit into boxes, people tend to get confused.
00:33:34
Speaker
um But they like to put y'all on the box, bro. Oh, absolutely. They love to put us in. the Because that's the whole thing, too. That's another realization. like um people were We're all built off of categorization. That's how we our mind has been trained to form and understand things. So I don't get mad anymore when people would be like, oh, yo, they put me in a box for their comprehension. like That's fine. like If you have to associate it with something that you can understand and recommend, because we all do that, that's all good. yeah we've would But society really needs to get into a space of just straight being honest with each other and really, really supporting the things and not worrying about online as much as it is because i'm not I agree with you. You always be like, yo, I want to do stuff in real reality. How is it impacting reality? And yeah, that's the truth. I don't think we think about how things impact reality as much as we should. No, yeah, i'm I've always been I mean, I've been preaching this like because a lot of people will be like, I don't I don't I don't think I have an impact. And I think
00:34:27
Speaker
that's, I think you're thinking about it wrong. And I always tell people, I'll be like, it's all of what you define impact. Are you making an impact on social media or are you making an impact on people's lives? So like, you know, like- Exactly. And also social media has these numbers. This era too, cause I don't want to just, like social media is the catalyst, but this era of just numbers in general, like people feel like everything needs to be astronomical for it to mean something. Like, if you don't get a like,
00:34:56
Speaker
That doesn't mean your idea is whack. That means only algorithm only let the people who saw your idea, that's it. That's literally all it means. It doesn't mean anything else. And that's what I mean about if we collectively need to start framing things properly, because we're in an era of so much misinformation. right You want to talk about sneaker fakes, man, we got deep fakes. I mean, deep fakes is crazy, man. Crazy, bro. Crazy. crazy so we walk we We worried about like faking shoes. These dudes is faking whole people.
00:35:25
Speaker
Entire, and they fake they fake the Game of Thrones flags on. Brooklyn Bridge. Bro, there's so many things. So if we have to question our reality, and that's the thing. What do you do when you start questioning your reality? You kind of start to fall in line, you look outside. yeah And when you look outside, you start to just fall in line, and that's what they're collectively doing. Like just building a culture of people who just follow.
00:35:49
Speaker
because none of us really know what being an actual leader or being an individual is about. Because it's so funny how being an individual is truly really really understanding collectiveness. Because as as an individual, you need to know how you impact the rest of the world because you do at all times. right but we as ah But we're taught individualism in a way of where it's like, yo, I'm an individual and my needs are the ones that matter. you See and this is the world that we live in the world that would doubt that's built for us right now and that's what you're feeling when you're like Oh, it is no sense of communities. No because think about it. Everybody got their own portfolio online. yeah ah Yeah Yeah, all day every day. It's me me me me me. Look at what I'm doing. Look at what I did today Did it did did did did it did it? Yeah, yo, yo and then and then if that's not liked enough now because you're sharing your
00:36:39
Speaker
yourself, right what do you start to do? Judge yourself. That's true. It's by default. That's crazy. That's all I mean. If you think about it, it's all mental. So it's like, if we want to wrap it in with the sneakers and from head to toe, bro. Head to toe. It's interesting. Like that, that it is because like I got into a conversation, somebody I was saying this a while ago, one of these rappers I follow, I think I had him on the podcast. He posted, he started posting like his L's also. So he showed like, he was doing like, you know. That's dope. Yeah. That I think is dope as hell. Like you show your wins and you show your losses. Right. So like he was talking about it. I'm going to have to start. I'm going to adapt that. Whatever this rapper is, you get some props. Oh, Brain Orchestra. Brain Orchestra. Shout out to you because that's a great way to adapt things. Yeah, so he was talking about it and then another homie jumped in and he was just like, nah man, you just gotta only post your W's. And I was just like, no, you should post your L's. Whoa. You should post your L's because people need to understand that it's not gonna always be a straight path to the top. That's why I am the way I am on my personal face.
00:37:44
Speaker
Like a few years ago, I realized like it takes so much work to keep up this perception that I'm giving you versus just giving you me. Guess what? I wake up in the morning and a lot of days it's fantastic. Some days it's catastrophic, you know? And that's what my life is. So if you everyone, that's like realism, authentic ah authenticity, all these real looking for the real. yeah All this shit, but it's right in front of you. And when people do the real, you ever notice the real doesn't move. right exactly So that's what I noticed. When I was when i post my reality, um my likes don't go nowhere, bro. Like literally. like i know people I have people in my stories every day, like legitimately, every day.
00:38:28
Speaker
That just look. That just look. I would love for them to engage. And the only reason why you want them to engage though, this was true. Is because you want the album. You want a little love on there. No, you want your fix. That's what it is. It's a dopamine shot. I'll make a mental note.
00:38:52
Speaker
But yeah, I forgot what I was even alluded to. You're talking about being real on on ah on ah social media. Oh yeah, being real on social media. It's just like when you get the when people give you their reality, ah it's not liked a lot or the engagement isn't crazy yeah because most people are looking for entertainment. They're not looking, you know. ah It's interesting because when you say that and it's like when I look at some people that be like, oh,
00:39:17
Speaker
I'm gonna post my W's or whatever and post like, you know, everything's good. um And then ah versus like me, like you see how I post. I only post, I push like a ah batch of pictures and I'd be like, yo, you know, this is the recap of the month. when You know, sometimes I do that and then that's like. I like that. Yeah, that that's like, I don't have to, it's not too much stress. It's just like the best, the pictures, if there's an L, there's an L, like, and then there's also people that just like only talk about their L's and it's like,
00:39:46
Speaker
at one point. You're miserable. yeah Yeah. Like, can we just get like a collective like this is if you're going to post about your life or like what you're going through or like I'm talking about not like not going through like going through something like every day of like, yo, I'm doing stuff. I'm doing this. I'm doing that. Right. Just post it. If you want to be online 24 seven, be online 24 seven. Don't just be online for the for the highlights. But they online for the dopamine. I mean, but yo, but dopamine comes in different ways. What you mean, bro? digital crackheads, that's what we call it in a band, we call it digital crackheads. We're all a little digitally crackish. 100%, all of us. And there's a thing, I always wrote myself in, because a lot of times people think that when I say things, it's because I'm judging someone, when I'm like, now I'm, actually a lot of these things I say to myself first, and then I start, like I'm judging myself, or when I'm like, they gonna be a digital crackhead, bro. Step your life up, stop looking at your phone, put the phone down. Stuff like that where it's like, yeah, digital crackheads, bro. That's what they've created. We're all fiends. We fiend for 15 second dopamine shots. That's what we do. And then when we don't get the shots, we do what a crackhead does when someone was raw. We get sad. We get depressed. We get the shakes. Some people get angry. All these things, oh, you wave through these emotions because you're addicted. It's really that simple. It's funny because i it's interesting cause like I talked about it on here. I i don't, i I think the internet, I think people on the internet are fake. Like I just be like, that's what I just have in my head all the time. I don't think people on the internet are fake.
00:41:18
Speaker
The internet is fake. that Yeah, it's a mix of that too. No, no, no, like, but literally. I like to always frame things in literal terms because that's the reality. That's like, that's something my mom's just do to me. And that's like how like all of my mentors frame stuff. They look at me when I say stuff, they look at me and then they just say it back to me in reality. They'd be like, Oh yeah. Oh, the internet. No, no, no. Internet is fake. And then I'd be like, yeah, yeah, it's fake. And they're like, no, no, no, no. It's literally fake. Cause it's literally made up. Yeah, yeah.
00:41:47
Speaker
Literally, somebody created it, it's not real. yeah it's i Like, yeah. The government created it. That's what I say, so it's not real. so And then when you when you when you, because what that does is lower the value right we're putting on these things. right When you just put it in the blatant terms, boom.
00:42:05
Speaker
There it goes. Now, it's your decision now to choose how you're gonna, how much value. How real it is to you. Yeah, that's all it is. And I'm not no guru. I get caught on the internet. I have my triggers. I just learned them and I stopped following things that trigger me. You know, I learned. I'm all about cater your time. You gotta cater your time. I'm very, very passionate about a lot of things and I'm passionate in anything I choose to grab my attention. So it's kind of like, the internet grabs me all the time with like, I catch myself arguing with trolls. Like that's my thing on the internet. I go, damn, what are you doing, D? And I will argue over anything. Like, I caught myself in a Caitlin Clark, uh, in a, you know what I'm saying? In a Caitlin Clark threat? Don't laugh like an hour and a half. Yo, going crazy, trying to explain to her fan base of people who don't watch basketball, why she's a great shooter, but not a great all around player. No, no lie, I'm arguing with these people and these people are just like, what are you talking about? She's the best thing to win this basketball, viewership's up. And I go, yes, both things can exist at the same time. This is what also people don't understand. Yo, we could both be right.
Society's Obsession with Value and Success
00:43:22
Speaker
My point is just stop negating that my fact exists. And then I realize, yo, what are you doing?
00:43:27
Speaker
I just wasted a whole hour. I can't get that back. Because the only thing in time the only thing in life that really matters is time. It's time for sure. but don't got ah We don't got a lot of it. know And you can't get any of it back. Any of it you waste, you can't go back and be like, damn, if I if i destroy these sneakers, I'll go get another pair. you know yeah It might cost me something, but that's what I mean, the value of it. right But time?
00:43:49
Speaker
name her, I wanna know who got that back. And if you figured out how to get that back, oh, I want in now. we all What's that Justin Timberlake? We bringing it back to Justin Timberlake. Was that Justin Timberlake movie? Wait, with the time? You pay you pay for stuff with time? Yeah, but bro. We get back. What's crazy is we laughing, but you do pay for stuff with time. Oh yeah, for sure. You do. Money doesn't, another created thing. Money is value. So how much value are you putting to something? Guess what? How much time?
00:44:19
Speaker
Something that you don't put a lot of time in. Think about it. Handmade versus on factory symbol line. more time It took more time to do it. It's worth more. It took less time to do it. See? It's no different than everybody's doing it. It's worth less. Very few people do it. It's worth more. I learned this thing when I went to college with this this phrase or something like that, where it's like, ah you can only get three things. And that's always, it's either it and that's and it includes time, money, and experience.
00:44:46
Speaker
and ah I mean, you can only get two out of the three things. My bad, I said it wrong. um You can only get time, money, or experience. So it's gonna be done well, okay? But it's gonna take time. huh And it's gonna cost more money.
00:45:00
Speaker
Yeah, that's true. yeah Or it's gonna be or cheaper. and what's you know and And what's so funny, if it if it takes more time, it normally costs more money, because time is the equity. yeah Exactly. like it just it is that sort of these These putting things in very simple frames, like, no lie to you, it helps me so much as far as like, ending even ah like if we wrap it back into the show, like we we talk about like,
00:45:23
Speaker
like picking a sneaker. Like ah my why is my always is always the focus. Why am I buying this shoe? right Not the shoes fire, not I need this shoe, but why? Why am I buying this shoe? For what? For what reason? Oh, okay. Because I like it. I like the style of it. Or hey, I like the style and it's in my affordable price point. right These are all these things, these conversations we be having with ourselves. Then we go, all right, better. Then you go, all right, I'm gonna buy these shoes. So think about doing that with most of the processes that you have in life.
00:45:52
Speaker
and just understanding and having an understanding. But again, as humans as well, my college thesis was just like like freedom and the the the ability to self-think, the ability to do your own thing is ah is human's worst gift. um It's our best gift at the same time, too. it' and it's it's It's a double-edged sword because we will we will never be a collective being because our very essence is to self-protect.
00:46:21
Speaker
So the things that we look for in each other, there will always be something that I'm going to value more than I'm going to value you. So understand that it's either you just haven't found that yet or it's not part of your story with with that specific person, but literally darre there there's kind of, there's just like, they'd be like, there's someone for everybody. Cause there's literally, there's literally someone that will not, that will find you useless to them. And if that someone who finds you useless to them becomes, holds a seat of power in something you need, here we go. And that's wild. Yes. You are 100%. No, here we go. It's funny. Cause I think about that.
00:46:58
Speaker
I feel like we spoke about this too. But I think about that, and I feel like I see it way more often. like people But people people count themselves out before they even get to that point. Oh, of course. Yeah. Yeah, of course. people Because they are afraid to get to that point. One other thing, like Lupe said this line in a rap, and it always stuck with me. He said, fear is such a weak emotion. That's why I despise it right and it. And it is a weak of emotion. It is. um And people thought of that in a way of like,
00:47:25
Speaker
Yo, fear. I'm scared. Ooh, shivering. No. Fear could be something where you're not scared. It's more so you could be afraid of yourself. You could be afraid of an outcome as far as like, yo, if I win, this is going to become this is going to bring things to my life that I may not be prepared for. Fear can come manifest in so many different ways. But fear, I can tell you right now, fear is the enemy of growth. Yes. Just like comfortability.
00:47:51
Speaker
And all right now, if you think about what the internet promotes, it promotes mostly fear and mostly comfortability. It's all about sitting in your seat, sitting in your little world, sitting in the microcosm that you've created for yourself and not ah not communicating or connecting with the outside factors. And the algorithm makes it even more such so because it's only pumping things to you that you want to see.
00:48:14
Speaker
So it's like now everyone everyone's living in need, these small little bubbles. We all just live in our own little bubbles. and then so that But then we want a world. and then But we're screaming collective society. We're screaming all these things. right But in all actuality, are our actions matching the vibe? No. Not at all. a we go We could lie all we want. We're not collective in anything.
00:48:31
Speaker
Let's just be real. Everyone's battling. Everybody 24 seven. Most people don't want to see people win because if we were a true collective society, the minute Zuckerberg and all these other technology dudes made that algorithm, we would collectively have just said, you know, we're just going to move. So it works for everyone. Yeah. I mean, we talk we talked about ah not on here, but we talked about like, so well, actually, I have talked about it on here. But the but the ah the collective like when somebody gets something instead of cheering them on and being like yo congrats we see more people being like why you why you deserve this oh because we that's why i said the the well not because because i speak kind of like my tone is always very assertive and direct so i it see it sounds absolute obviously there's nuances and variables in every scenario but i got say disclaimers nowadays because
00:49:19
Speaker
People would just be like, oh, Dave said this, nah. um I have a lot of nuance, bro. Have a conversation with me. Never just pick a statement you heard from me and think you fully understand. yeah No way. I'm doing all these damn disclaimers. But yeah, like, see, which makes me often lose my thought because I'm like, damn, I got to say something before I say something.
00:49:39
Speaker
that's the world we live in so if you could bring me back just a little bit that's the world we kind of live in where it's like like I wish people would just understand that these things aren't of a collective nature right you know the collective hating uh yeah collective it's not like even collective hating it's not more of a I wouldn't even call it a hate kind of thing. It's more of a, yo, this society has been built around. I now have my focus is me. yeah So when I see something that I feel like I deserve, my first question is going to go, why didn't I deserve that? I think about it. I do it as a band member. right You know, I'm in a band and I'll be like, yo, we worked our asses off. Why didn't I get that festival?
00:50:19
Speaker
And then I see an act that may be smaller than us, maybe think, boom, why? and i And I had to stop doing that. And therapy and all types of other things made me start to frame things and understand that like, yo, you have no clue why that person is in that seat.
00:50:32
Speaker
what they did, what they didn't do, and also, would you be willing to do what they did? You have no clue, legitimately. Clearly with Diddy out here, you have no clue what dudes did. People did to get to where they wanna go. Yeah, I'm not Diddy and nothing, so you know what, it's all good. I might not be platinum ever. There's certain parameters. Nah, but you're Billboard ranked, though. Yeah, whatever. Yeah, whatever, yeah, song did Billboard, cool, la, la, la. I don't live here. We gotta get the accolades in there, bro.
00:51:00
Speaker
But that's our problem. We're a society full of accolades. that's that's what This is exactly what we're talking about. True, true. That's hype. OK, I got a billboard. over Our record charted on Billboard. Right. Awesome. Right? Guess what? Awesome. I don't make no money off of this.
00:51:17
Speaker
see You know what streaming pays, bro? like I'm just being honest. like like People aren't honest about these things. like yeah Artists just be out here. i'm like I'm not going to sit here and lie to you, bro. What are you talking about? We not eating off of that. like The Billboard thing was cool. It was awesome. It's all about an accolade. The way you eat over that is like, yo, um ah I got a billboard. Now you got pay me more. right Because someone else values that. And I might be killing myself even more or whatever, bro. But I have to be honest. like We got to be real. I think we live in a society where there's just no one's um
00:51:48
Speaker
Everybody's dying with what what one another Kendrick ah they had that he got a song called sing about me. Um, and it's one of my favorite and uh, uh, they talk about like durst and all these other things, and it's just, so his grandmother talks on Good Care Mastery. I'm always listening to that. And and it's just like, this world, it's like, we need that grandmother. We need somebody to just kind of rail us back in and have us stop focusing on the things that we focus on. And it's not really OHA stuff, it's just really realistic things. like These kids are just out here whiling, and it doesn't, and it's not, not and I used to be like, damn, with AIDS, listen to how I sound, I sound crazy.
00:52:28
Speaker
Right, like like like, what the hell's wrong with you? But now I have to think about it, like, yo, the only difference between these kids now and us before was they have a lot of devices to record things and access to things we never had access to. So we would have wowed out the same way, so I'm not judging these kids. What I'm telling them is, like, yo, more so, like, yo, I'm not trying to judge you, because I did a lot of stupid stuff. The grace I had is that it wasn't downloading or something, because I'm pretty sure, yo, what if I had social,
00:52:57
Speaker
We, first of all, we did some things. I mean, and if we had the ability to record it, it would have been over. Like, I'm talking about at this level, ability to record it, but I took my upload into some dope stuff in the rest of the world. That was not a thing. Like, so it wasn't as rampant. So what are we talking about here? That's what I mean. So it's like, we have all these accesses, but we've put in no false saves.
00:53:17
Speaker
No, yeah, no no fail safes and in order to protect people. And i and i I'm a big fan of just like not desensitizing myself. So like I don't record a ton of stuff. And like i like i like if I'm in the experience, i need like my biggest thing, especially like ever since the internet, it's like I've always been big, big, big on like, I don't want to lose my sense ah my sense of flight. Like, if some shit goes down, oh you watch your focus yeah and you watch, and you're just watching it happen, nah, bro, I'm trying to get the hell out of there. Or I'm trying to help. Or, you know, like, cause like everybody's reaction now is to pull out the phone cause they, I mean, since World Star, I mean, we talked, Childish Gambino talked about it on this on on on World Star. And so,
00:54:03
Speaker
I always, I thought about that um and like, I was just like, yeah, I've always avoided that stuff. When my friends would send me, you know, people jumping off a building, like, you know, thousand faces of death and whatever, all those videos. I forgot about that. They would send me, you know, they would stay trying to troll me with all that, all that, all that shit. And I'd i'd just be like, nah, man, I'm not watching none of that. And then, you know, when something crazy happens, I feel like I'm more,
00:54:28
Speaker
I'm aware, yeah, I'm more aware of like, oh, something crazy about to go down. Yeah, exactly. That allows you to care about that thing. And I feel like, that but that's the thing, like now with kids now, they don't have that awareness. Yeah. And it's so crazy, like watching something, watching, like watching, being on something all the time literally brainwashes you. Literally, that's what it does. it's like so And they know the effects that that has. like like For instance, like there's people addicted to porn in that kind of way. The same way you're addicted to your phone. So we know that's a potential side effect. Why are we just letting it rock? But it makes sense why we let it rock. Because as a society, we let everything rock for our comfortabilities.
Personal Growth and Emotional Intelligence
00:55:12
Speaker
That's what I mean. As long as it ain't directly affecting me, who cares? right
00:55:18
Speaker
We're not a collective society. Then they, yo, let's all go vote. And as soon as you start questioning it. Oh, conspiracy theories. Bro, whatever. The only conspiracy is why do you allow these people to treat you like this? Very confused on why you accept this kind of behavior. But it's also because of our value. We were not really trying to value ourselves. We got some new stuff that we were working on as a band, and one of the lines that I said really sucked to me, and I've always wanted to say it, because as a band, we roll hard. We've pushed, we've done a lot of different things, but we don't... really officially feel like where we are, where we should be based on the work that we put in. But one of the things, and that's just what it is, that's life. But one of that line was, everyone take a look, look at the lucky ones. They told us to chase our dreams, but never told us to run. And I say that because, yeah, growing up, all they ever did was tell you what you could be. Go for it. But they never show you how. Right.
00:56:15
Speaker
You know, no, I show you how you got to figure that out. And those are the things you figure out and you build in podcast is, you know, no you didn't grow up that that's another thing of the culture. We didn't grow up with the the the nuances of building businesses and all these things. Just like this era is the era of the biggest era of the entrepreneurial spirit. But most black people don't know how to own a business because most of us never built one or most of us has never been around someone who has.
00:56:38
Speaker
One of the things is emotional intelligence is one of the things that really has jumped out to me as I've gotten older and I've i' ah ah just understanding myself, why I tick, okay? When you feel something, pause for a second. Think why do you feel like that? Is this feeling valid? Is it not valid? Are you feeling bad, but it's valid that you're feeling bad because you need to learn something. Self accountability, all these things matter. And we're not creating a society that is accountable to self at all.
00:57:07
Speaker
at all. Think about it. For sure. We we attack everyone else. we We put the cancel culture. There's a million things that we got in our society, checks and balances to control each other. But when are we actually taking a look at ourselves? Because it's so easy to point the other fingers, so easy to jump on Twitter and say, oh, he said this is so easy to, and but what are you doing?
00:57:29
Speaker
What are your skeletons? We all got them. I got skeletons. We all got them. So why are we acting like we're these perfect people? And that's not to go to say that we shouldn't hold people accountable for some of the things. There are things. But it's ridiculous. It makes no sense. And I think people need to self-evaluate a little bit more and see where they at with life. Not with social media. Everybody's going to still continue to post. Oh, we know that, bro. What are we talking about? You know this is just a conversation. Like, listen to this, I mean like, yo, this is, this is, nah, I got these Jordans. It's gonna be like, yo, there's gonna be like seven niggas that's gonna hit us and be like, yeah, I'm gonna change my life. And then out of that seven, three of them gonna apply it. And then out of that three, one of them's gonna actually change. I wanna hear, I do that for the one. Yo, I hope, I hope, I pray somebody pulls up to a show and they'll be like, yo, I listened to that Mar first kicks episode, bro.
00:58:20
Speaker
I changed my life. But yeah, what's go crazy is that a lot of things change people's lives in that kind of way, man. Like, I'll never forget, like, what made me really, really, really understand certain things in life is watching how someone would react to something versus how someone else would. Right. Yeah. Same thing. So I go, oh shit, how you value when you see something really doesn't matter. It's like sneakers. We love sneakers. I love sneakers to the point where there's been points of my life where I've put sneakers before my food. Like what, what shoe? What shoe? Come on. Come on. Let's hear it. Come on. Define the moments pack, bro. Define the moments pack. It got ugly. I had to have it. Which one? The very first one. No, the first one. The very first one. What was the first one? It was the 11s. It was the 11s and the um, um, um, um, um. Is it the sixes? The sixes, yeah, the gold with the gold shrimps. Yeah. All right. And think about it, I'm hooping in them shits, idiot.
00:59:18
Speaker
Yo, I remember it. That, yo, basketball ruined a lot of kicks. That was one of the things I'm talking about. I think that's what they're for. Yeah, first ball was in thing four. So, but I wasn't of that. But I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't imagine. I'm not gonna sit here and pretend like I was, I was of that level of maturity back in those days. But I can't, I can't imagine you being like, I, like the first, like you get it and then every single time you ball in them, you put them back, like you've opened the drawer, you put them back and then every time. They stay in the same spot, but they stay like,
00:59:45
Speaker
But the thing is, and I only hoop him, I never have pooped in a pair of sneakers that I love, walking out the house like, yeah, I'm going to play basketball. It's always the like, so first of all, one of the things I see on the internet that was dumb, true, back in the day, I used to always, when you hoop, you got shorts underneath. Oh yeah, for sure. Yo, it's go time any given moment, right? So, and now you know why sneakers got dirty. I don't do well with dudes talking shit. Like, what, you say? You're trying to get it.
01:00:11
Speaker
got my I got my shorts on. What you talking about? That was already on you real quick. Yeah, I can eat 30 right now. and And that's all it was. So there's plenty of times where I feel like I feel like I had the who. But we talk about this. I feel like we I feel like you're the dude that will pull up eating the snacks with the you just eating you just eating garbage and you just go crazy on people.
01:00:33
Speaker
Not really, because I don't really eat that bad, but I was- Back in the day, I'm talking about back in the day. Young D. I was definitely- With the Funy's. I just showed up with the homies though. That was definitely my thing. I didn't really mess with the Funy's. It was definitely the Dipsy Doodles. Dipsy Doodles? Dipsy Doodles. If you caught me with the bag of chips, it was definitely the Dipsy Doodles. I'm sure it was hard. Is Dipsy Doodles or Doritos Cool Ranch? Oh yeah, you got to add a Cool Ranch. Listen, there is not a better chip than Cool Ranch. Debate me anytime you want.
01:01:00
Speaker
Anytime you want, I have history facts. i've I've studied this. like i'm a momma It's a top five for me. But like, if we not if we're not talking about, you know, if we're not including Kettle, the Kettle brand, yeah I mean, then it's number one for me. And then probably like Fiery, what's the the purple bag? I like that one. The Fiery's like, that's not bad. That's a good one. Or Chili, Chili after that. Welcome to my first Doritos. My first Doritos. I'm only doing Cool Ranch, that's it. I don't even do nacho cheese. My fiance love nacho cheese.
01:01:29
Speaker
And I'm like, nah, I'm good. We literally bought two separate bags, like that ass. Like I got my bag, yo. And I be catching her though, see? Her hands be in my cool ranch bag. I'm like, listen. Don't touch her. You're not your cheese. Don't touch my cool ranch. That's another thing life has been like. It's been cool. And also, my fiance is not a sneaker head. So it's just different. So every pair of sneakers she has, I kind of be like, yo, hey, let's do this. And I bought her some heat. Yo, she got heat sitting in a closet that she's never worn. And it be hurting my soul. I'll be like, you just don't. Because for her, that's what I mean about culture. For her, there's some sneakers. Like, what? She got so many pictures. I'm off this. Back in the Berks. Yo, she has an unworn, fresh pair, nine sevens. I'm talking about, I want these. I'm a 9-7 guy. I'm a 9-7 guy. We want to talk about sneakers. One of my favorite sneakers of all time, definitely it pings in and out of my number one is the Air Max 9-7. The silver bullet or? Any flavor. It's just the color tone depends on what got me there was the, oh my goodness, my first pair was the
Sneaker Culture in Music and Art
01:02:41
Speaker
They was rainbow, I forgot what they was called, but they had, it was all white with rainbow stripes. All white with rainbow stripes. I had bought the remake in 2019. I got a, I got a thing about it. We gotta look it up here. Yeah, but that joint, yeah, it got me into Air Max and I just been an Air Max head, like.
01:02:57
Speaker
It's funny because people don't understand culture, like but that's where I talk about how sneaker culture can kind of like rap in and be mad accepting and and it's just this thing and it bridges gas because ah um I'm in a rock band, for those who don't know, a rock band is called Oxymoron. yeah yeah ah We were playing um a festival called Welcome to Rockville. and It's nuts.
01:03:16
Speaker
And there's a band called Bad Omens. And we're cool with the band. We're cool with said band now, really big band. If you go look them up, you'll see what I'm talking about. But we were watching them backstage at the time. We didn't know each other. We weren't cool with each other yet. But I knew I heard of them and I wanted to see what was the hype. see what's going on. And this is before the blow up though. This is before they, cause they are astronomical now. Like, all right, let me put you, let me put this in the frame for you. When we were backstage with them, when we were watching them for the first time before we met them, there was 500 kids in front of them. All right? So there's 500 kids in front of them. The, in May, in the May, we played another festival with them. And that was in, oh, so let me put more frames to you. We did that with them in 2020.
01:04:00
Speaker
yeah 2022? Yeah. 2023. 2023. 2023. 500 people around. We just played a festival with them, Point Fest in in ah and St. Louis. They headline 20,000 people in was crazy. It was crazy. In a year. So yes, things do happen. it It absolutely does. And that little bit over there, I would say at this point, like a year and a half. But yeah, I say the story is because, OK, connecting music to that factor, let's let's swing it back in, is because um when I first saw that band, he died over there. He he died.
01:04:37
Speaker
die That's why I like podcasts, because you just keep it all. It's the real of the real. I love it. Yeah, you talk about bad ones. So Nick, Nick, shout out Nick. I don't know if they drummer. He's my guy. I love that dude.
01:04:51
Speaker
ah he um I look over, we backstage, they rage, and I'm like, this is dope, this is fire, I love they set. And I don't know them yet at this point, just legitimately just, we got pulled in because the person running the event was part of the team and like pulled us back there. So we get back there, and um and ah the first thing I notice, I look and they drummer, you know what he's doing? He is drumming his life away in some Air Max Not 7s.
01:05:17
Speaker
Oh, I love him already. I love him. Didn't even meet him. Hadn't even known his name. Didn't know nothing about him. He was just no shirt on. Just going. He's going crazy with these Air Max 9-7s. And all I could do the whole time, sneak at it, is look at his sneakers. Like, oh, he's just throwing. This is crazy.
01:05:35
Speaker
But he's crushing it at the same time. So I'm like, and it's kind of lit. Over the door. I'm having this whole sneak ahead moment at a rock festival backstage while a metal band is raging. And the drummer legitimately has an Air Max 977. That's how far Stinker Culture goes. Yeah. I mean, like even like I told you the story when I met Anthony Green at the, when you took me to, uh, what's the, what was the name of that festival you took me to?
01:06:00
Speaker
oh which one did you It was in Atlantic and atlantic City, that one. Adjacent. Oh yeah, so we went to, ja you he was playing you were playing, y'all were playing at the adjacent fest, and then I'm looking and I see Anthony Green, and then Anthony Green was traveling with all his kids, with all 70,000 of them, and it's four kids. I know, I'm just saying shots fired, not shots fired. So then, I ain't gonna say not shots fired, well, all 70,000 of his kids. It's not shots fired, it's a joke.
01:06:30
Speaker
ah You know how many kids he has? He has a lot of kids. Because everybody loves his music. So he's birthed a lot of kids. He could have used some condoms. yeah yeah So so i pull up i'm like I'm watching, cause he's playing with that, his new his newest band that he created, I forgot the name of it, sorry. And I see, look down and I see his son is rocking a pair of the Pawn Stars, not Pawn Stars, it's like a pawn shop, skate shop.
01:07:02
Speaker
Nike has bees. And I go, I'm like, yo, yo, yo, some, some heat on whatever. And he was just like, oh man, thank you. Thank you. So then I talked to Andrew Green and he's, ah and I'm like, yo, I do a podcast and he's just like, he's like, yo, my son is really in the sneakers. I was just like, I was just like, that's crazy. I like i never thought ah Anthony Green from Circus of Vives, Sayo said, be like, I said there's so many of them that'll be sneaking heads. I've had the wildest conversation. That's mean about like nuances of people. Like people are so dope. Like we're into so many things and they and they try to separate us in so many ways when we have so many things in similar. Like I had a whole, think about this, I had a whole ass conversation with, ah what's the name of this man again? Oh my God, I got the Elise singer.
01:07:43
Speaker
In my head, because we was in Germany, he came to one of our shows, he played in Germany. Oh my God. Atreyu. Oh, Atreyu? Yeah, Atreyu. So the lead singer of Atreyu, he came to check us out at one of our shows. Matter of fact, it was when we was on tour with the Bad Omens. They came over, we was playing Hamburg, and they came. And we just chopped it up, and we chopping it up for mad long, come to find out he a fragrance head. So he loved La Lava. Oh, yeah. So now we start talking about about Nas 29, and it was so crazy. So literally, you got guys who are in music, but we're backstage. We're not talking about music. We're only talking about making a track together. We're talking about none of that. We was actually talking about fragrances.
01:08:25
Speaker
It's wild, I mean. It's wild, dude. But it's also just like, you know, you're in a rock band and I'm pretty sure you grew up where people were just like, oh, you're playing that white music, you know? Oh my God. But that's the crazy, that's what I mean about what's culture now.
01:08:40
Speaker
because it's like culture used to be attributed to very specific things. So it's like, yeah, it's white music when I play rock music. That's only because whiteness has dominated rock culture. That's pretty much what it is. It's stolen it. If we
Black Culture Beyond Struggle
01:08:54
Speaker
wanna just see the truth and all the nonsense that people don't wanna accept, whatever, I don't wanna get in that discussion. But that's too much. I have a whole album based on that discussion. Don't listen to it. You catch my views. We only got like five minutes and then we don't got time left. Wow. 40,000 years talking about that. But in general, like like spaces like that, like when it when it comes to rock music, all of these things, it's like, yeah, I'm in a band. That's what it is. Right. That I don't go I don't go.
01:09:25
Speaker
any farther, any more, any less, even with the post, the last post that we did that, um not the last, very last post, but one of the posters that changed the era for us when we ended the Melon and Punk era. It was more so like, like, yo, we spent so much time fighting in the space of resistance and doing all these things. Funny I'm saying this on Juneteenth, hilarious.
01:09:44
Speaker
So in a space of resistance yeah and always representing who we are, blackness ah leading with that at all times. And um and we realized like, yo, ah you spend so much time in that space, and in the space of trauma, in the space of anger, frustration, and all these things. And I go, yo, that's not just the only black stories.
01:10:02
Speaker
Like that's, yo, we got a lot of beauty and people say like black is beautiful. Yeah, I'm not talking about it in that sense. I'm talking about in a sense of like legitimately there's other things we're interested in. There's other ways that we can frame black culture and and what you see as black culture. So it was like, yeah, and that's often not the thing. Our struggle normally leads the frame of everything we do because it is a big part of who we are, but it's not our total identity. So now it's my, my shit is like, all right, whatever. I don't care. Like not that I don't care about my blackness, but it's like Jaffa always say Jaffa is my guitarist Jaffa. Shout out Jaffa. He always says our existence is resistance yeah and, and, and not more than me. I don't have to be a black man.
01:10:44
Speaker
It's obvious. I walk in. What do you first see? Those are one of those things. Like, i think about that. When you look at me, you know, you you already get an idea of my cultural identity. I don't have to scream that down your face. All I have to do is exist. And in existence is creating art and existence is creating or just living and doing what I need to do. And and then while you see me and watch me do this in joy, then you'll understand another black frame because I could scream it to you all you want. But if you've never seen it, does it actually exist?
01:11:12
Speaker
if it's not something you normally used to seeing, it's not gonna be real to you. So you gotta show it. No different than yo, one of the biggest changes I've made was ah the way I perceive my people. you know Like I walk down the street and I realize one day at that yo, if a white dude walks by me, I'm fine. If a black dude walks by me, I'm at attention, why?
01:11:31
Speaker
Yeah, that's wild. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Why? Why? Because the white dude could be, he could be a mass shooter. He could be like, he crazy in here. And I'm good? No, it's because I've been brainwashed. I have my biases. And because I'm so self-aware nowadays, and I'm really, really, it's my goal to really be that aware, I go, yo. And I stopped doing that. It's like a long time ago. I'm a year and a half in that I don't grill black dudes when I seen them.
01:12:00
Speaker
Yo, how you doing? What's going on? I smile, intentionally. And guess what? I haven't got into one heated conversation. And I know why now, because I was getting into them before, because if we both walking each other, just grilling each other, of course. Yeah, you got a problem. And we don't even know each other. There's no problem. It's just our energy is always defensive. And we don't know any other type of energy because we're always in the defense. That's what I meant about my statement about when we switched the gears for this band, it was about like, yo, focus on this art.
01:12:30
Speaker
focus on this other stuff, we gonna fight, we gonna run a resistance, it's the resistance. It's part of life. But like understand that blackness comes with different shades, understand that blackness, like there's different types of art and you just absorb it, see it, and also guess what, we have a lot of fun. Black joy is dope. Where do you think all this ideas and creativity come from? Because happiness, we just was able to find happiness where most people would find despair, and that's the black gift. We have to realize that.
01:12:58
Speaker
being able to get through things, but being able to get through things doesn't mean that's the way we should always be and understand that. Like, you know, don't wear it as a badge of honor. For sure.
Support and Final Thoughts
01:13:07
Speaker
um You know, as we twindle down, twindle down, dwindle down to the the end of the podcast, I do ask another question at the end. and So that at the end.
01:13:16
Speaker
I want you to do a little visualization. Remember when you were about to open, as you were a young D, you were about to open the box of the Air Force One sheets with the black joints? My bad, I wish I had the full description of it. But yeah, now you're you behind your younger self. What would you tell your younger self as they open that box?
01:13:41
Speaker
You chose violence. yeah You definitely did, bro. I had black on black up Me now be like, it yo, pat him. Pat him down. He might have the strap. He's going to rob somebody else for their other pin. I'm just joking. I'm ridiculous. I have to laugh at things. What would I tell my little self, man? Enjoy that, bro. Enjoy that. um And you're never going to play ball in those again because they too heavy. That was Since that period, I have never played basketball in another pair of ups again, ever. It's just not the proper shoe. And also, how we gonna have a shoe podcast? And I have shoes right now, we ain't talking about ain't talking about it, it's fine. the ah But let everybody know where they can find you, you know find the band. listen You can find me at... ah
01:14:37
Speaker
Demi underscore God, D spelled with three E's, not because the the button got stuck, but because I like Andre 3000. So that's a Triple Shack reference. there you go ah and ah And then Oxymorons is the band. It's ah O-X-Y-M-O-R-R-O-N-S. not So it's Oxymorons with 2R and N-S. Yeah, 2R is it's the slogan. um I'm not here on official capacity, so I'm not trying to be promoting that stuff. It is what it is. um I love the band. This guy's my guy. We met.
01:15:07
Speaker
and no all It's so crazy. Music put it brought us together. The Fever 333 show. isnt like This dude was just a real dude. And that's how I am. I'm a real dude. like i ah if If you connect with me, we connect. I don't need to know you forever. Energy is energy. and he's just He's been cool. so And at the end of the day, support your friends. for That's one of the things. like he He's been doing it and I'm watching him like really put into work and really really try this thing and people need to understand that and you know, there's always the if he doing something I like while I got to support it. Because if no one supports it, he can't do it. Exactly. Understand that. And it takes you nothing because support is free.
01:15:48
Speaker
Exactly. That's the only thing of this era that I don't understand. Everybody should be lit. It just shows you where everybody minds is because it legitimately cost you nothing to like something, but people don't do it.
01:16:00
Speaker
It's a fact, that's a fact. And you know where to find me, I am, who is hostile on social media is follow the podcast on My First Kicks Pod. If you have a My First Kicks story, hit me up, myfirstkickspod at gmail dot.com. ah If you have been listening to this and you decided not to watch it, you should go to YouTube, subscribe to My First Kicks, watch the video over so you can see Dee go crazy on the couch and- The couch is fun. a Shout out to my friend's basement for Landis Rocking here and facts. See y'all next week.