Music Journalist, author, podcaster and, self-proclaimed hip-hop head Touré joins The Blackest Questions for a special Black Music Month episode. Dr. Christina Greer will test Touré’s music history knowledge and send him spiraling with a Queen Latifia comment. The pair talk everyone from Wu-Tang Clan and Nicki Minaj to The Geto Boys and Jay-Z. Touré also dishes on his infamous conversation with R. Kelly and his terrifying run-in with the disgraced former CEO of Death Row Records, Suge Knight.
FULL TRANSCRIPT BELOW:
[00:00:00] You are now listening to theGrio’s Black Podcast Network Black Culture Amplified?
Dr. Christina Greer [00:00:06] Hi and welcome to the Blackest Questions. I’m your host, Dr. Christina Greer, politics editor for theGrio and associate professor of political science at Fordham University. In this podcast, we ask our guest five of the Blackest questions so we can learn a little bit more about them and have some fun while we’re doing it. We’re also going to learn a lot about Black history past and present. So here’s how this works. We have five rounds of questions about us Black history, the entire diaspora, current events, you name it. And with each round, the questions get a little tougher and the guest has 10 seconds to get it right. If they answered the question correctly, they’ll receive one symbolic Black fist and they’ll hear this. And if they get it wrong, they’ll hear this. But we still have them anyway. Our guest for this episode has been one of the most constant voices in music journalism for the past 30 years. Touré was part of MTV News. He’s written for Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Vibe, Ebony. The list goes on and on. And he’s interviewed everyone from Tupac and Jay-Z to Lady Gaga.
Tourê [00:01:04] Thank you so much for coming out. Nice to meet you.
Lady Gaga [00:01:07] How are you?
Dr. Christina Greer [00:01:07] Dre is also an author, a professor of podcaster and cultural critic. But most importantly, he’s my Grio sibling. He’s also got a new podcast called Being Black: The 80s. Touré, thank you so much for the special edition of The Blackest Questions. Thank you.
Tourê [00:01:24] I’m also somebody who’s been to your party, so I’ve seen where this whole sort of Chrissy asking question thing comes from.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:01:31] Yes. And I’ve got to let my listeners know this episode is jam packed, so they better buckle up. Touré, are you ready to play the Blackest Questions?
Tourê [00:01:38] Yes, I am. I was born ready.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:01:40] Okay. Question number one. Wu-Tang Clan was formed in 1992 in Staten Island, New York City. The group is considered one of the most influential groups in hip hop. Can you name every member of the Wu-Tang Clan.
Tourê [00:01:55] The RZA, The GZA, Ghostface Killah, Method Man, Raekwon the Chef, Inspectah Deck, U-God. Is that it?
Dr. Christina Greer [00:02:08] You got two more to go and you’re missing my favorite.
Tourê [00:02:12] I know. I said, Method Man.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:02:15] He’s not my favorite?
Tourê [00:02:16] He’s not your favorite? Uh. I said, Raekwon, I said Inspectah Deck. Who did I leave out?
Dr. Christina Greer [00:02:23] I’m giving you a clue.
Tourê [00:02:29] Ol’ Dirty, dirty, dirty.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:02:31] Bastard. One more. Who joined the group in 1995.
Tourê [00:02:35] Oh, the later the later one. Jesus, Lord, I want to say Shaolin Monk or. Who was the other one? Oh, my God. He never even really made it that big. Jesus Christ.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:02:50] Cappadonna.
Tourê [00:02:51] Oh.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:02:52] Last and final member. And I hope our listeners understand, you know, if you know Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s album he has that whole thing where he does that that voice, which I love. I think he’s a genius. That’s my favorite. Yes. Okay. So the group’s debut album, Enter the Wu-Tang 36 Chambers, which featured songs like Protect Your Neck and C.R.E.A.M, is considered one of the greatest Hip-Hop albums of all time.
Tourê [00:03:12] Cash Moves Everything Around Me. C.R.E.A.M Get the Money. Dollar Dollar Bill.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:03:17] The album also got a five mike rating from the source, which at the time was the highest rating an album could receive. Wu-Tang Tracks frequently made the Billboard charts, and the group was nominated for a Grammy back in 1998 for Best Rap Album. The collective picked up its name from a martial arts film shot in Hong Kong called Shaolin Wu-Tang. So you actually wrote a review of Enter the Wu-Tang for Rolling Stone. Tell us about that.
Tourê [00:03:41] Tell you about that. I’ll tell you about that. We did I get the question or not? Because I got eight out of nine. Is that is that did they get it or not?
Dr. Christina Greer [00:03:47] I’m going to let my producers decide whether or not you get it.
Tourê [00:03:50] Well, they worked with me, so that’s one. Right? So they’re not going to say no to me. Yeah. You know, the Wu-Tang review was one of the things that I missed. Right. Like the record sounded dirty. It sounded like under mixed. Under, mastered. So it sounded like nothing and the sound had been very crisp and clean, Dr. Dre. So they’re totally changing the direction. I didn’t get it right away. It took time for me, and I think for a lot of people to really get into the Wu-Tang sound and to understand who they were, because I’m like, There’s a million guys here.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:04:27] I mean, I’m a member of the Wu-Tang Clan, if you think about it, it’s so many people.
Tourê [00:04:33] I mean, I didn’t get it. I gave the review was more like medium rather than what I would give it. Now is probably a probably a five because it is genius that I think that they did subsequent things that were far more genius as far as Ghostface albums, absolutely Raekwon albums. You know, with some of the work Method Man did on and on Decks work, you know, GZA. But the first the first one was extraordinary and I didn’t recognize it right away.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:05:04] Yeah, and that, that gritty sound is something that, you know, we weren’t accustomed to hearing. It sounded unfinished, unpolish. It sounded like someone’s basement. But in retrospect, I think the album holds. Obviously. My favorite Wu-Tang Clan member is Ol’ Dirty Bastard. I think that his solo album is just a work of art. It’s a masterpiece. I can listen.
Tourê [00:05:22] To it all the time. Hold because they weren’t in line with the way things were supposed to sound then. So it doesn’t sound dated because they were doing the contemporary things. So they exist out of time as far as the timelessness of those records now.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:05:39] Are there any other artists who you’ve changed your opinion about over the years where either you were, you were really in love with them at the time and then you’re like wack in retrospect, or you were a little lukewarm and now you realize, okay, they should be on someone’s Mount Rushmore.
Tourê [00:05:53] I mean, you know, that’s interesting. I’m not really sure I’m thinking of nobody’s coming to mind right now where I downgraded them. Like, I think once you understand somebody and you connect with them as musician and fan or critic, you know, like, that’s going to stay right? Like it may end up that was dated, but I’m not going to. Ten years later that album was actually wack. But I loved it like but somebody who I didn’t get. I don’t know. I don’t know. I’m not sure I can not sure. I can say, well, not sure what I would think of that.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:06:27] I got to say, like every Outkast album that’s ever come out, the first few listens, I’m like, I don’t get it. It’s sort of I have to like earn the listening pleasure of an Outkast album.
Outkast [00:06:41] cousin too. Rolling down the strip on vogues. Coming up, slamming Caddilac doors.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:06:48] The first time I heard ATLiens, I was like, What in the deuce is this nonsense? And then I think, you know, in times like, you know, after a few listens, I’m like, This is brilliant. Same with Aquemini. I mean, all of their albums, for me, I sort of have to, like, sit with them for a short spell before I can really understand.
Tourê [00:07:08] Some artists, some albums we need multiple listens to understand and and sort of just put everything into order in our mind. And some, you know, hit you right away. Sometimes the more profound musical relationship will come from the thing that you didn’t first understand, right? And that you had to just put in a little bit lap time. Look, the first time I put on a Nina Simone song for myself, I was 22. I heard the sound of her voice. It it freaked me out. I was not emotionally prepared as a 22 year old to deal with Nina Simone. And I turned it off right. And I came back to it a year later and was like, okay, now I can better appreciate, understand and deal with this. It’s funny because the first time I listened to De La Soul’s album Three Feet High and Rising, their first album, I put it in. I had a little car, I put it in the car and like the first couple of songs, I was like, okay, or whatever, whatever. And then they get to the song about frogs, or the frogs were rapping back and forth to each other, and I was like, Oh, this is wack. And I threw it in the back. And then like a couple of months later, potholes in my lawn came out. I was like, Yo, that record’s incredible. I got Let me give this another chance. Went on the back and dug it out, and then I was like, Oh my God. And then I became a huge, gigantic De la Soul fan.
Tourê [00:08:37] Potholes in my lawn. Everybody’s saying what to do when sucka lunatic start digging and chewing.
Tourê [00:08:45] But, you know, at first I was not ready. It’s not them. It’s whether or not we are ready.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:08:51] Exactly. Exactly. Okay. This record company was based in Englewood, New Jersey, and is credited with being the first label to release rap music. What is the name of this label?
Tourê [00:09:02] Sugar Hill.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:09:03] Okay, so Sugar Hill Records, the recording studio was first opened in the 1960s by married couple Sylvia and Joe Robinson and was originally called all platinum, but changed its name to Sugarhill Records in 1979 when it began focusing on rap music. Soon after, the label released Rapper’s Delight by the Sugarhill Gang and the song became rap music. The first Top 40 hit.
Tourê [00:09:25] Now what you hear is not a test. I’m rapping to the beat. And me, the groove and my friends are going to try to move your feet.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:09:33] Grandmaster Flash and Furious Five and Treacherous three were just some of the acts that recorded with Sugar Hill. The label was eventually sold in 1986 and in 2002 the Sugar Hill building burned down, taking with it master tapes of hit songs like The Message and Rapper’s Delight. So do you remember where you were the first time you heard Rapper’s Delight?
Tourê [00:09:56] Oh, absolutely. I was in my mom’s car. It came on the radio. It was so pop that it made it on, because my mom was not into Black, urban contemporary radio. She was a mom. Right. But she listened to a station that had a softer. So they might play Lionel Richie and Paul Simon and Wings. Right. Paul McCartney’s group, Lighter stuff. Right. But Rapper’s Delight had a light feel to it that it could pop up on pop radio. I heard it on the radio in my mom’s car. And I was immediately like, what is that? And we had heard songs before where there was a little rap part, right? Dizzy Gillespie, Jimi Hendrix. Other people gave you a short rap part, Maybe a four, maybe a six, right? Not. But this was like, Yo, they’re still there. They’re still they’re still going. They’re still like, This is amazing. The form of rapping blew me away the first time I heard it.
Tourê [00:11:07] It’s funny in relation to your previous question because at the time I thought Rapper’s Delight was amazing. Right now, the innovations that quickly came thereafter, it was like, Oh, that song is bubblegum. We’re going much deeper because I also remember being out in the park with my dad and one of his grown friends saying to me, Have you heard the message? And I was like, No, I know nothing about the song. And so I had to go find it and played it and was like, Oh my God, this song is mind blowing. Like, if this is what rap is and can be called rap, then like I’m told.
Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five [00:11:44] Don’t push me cause I’m close to the edge. I’m trying not to lose my head.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:11:53] And when did you know that it was that sort of hip hop was going to be a staying force?
Tourê [00:11:58] I never looked at it that way of. I never thought about, Will it be a staying force? I remember my parents saying it wouldn’t be. And then when Quincy Jones came out with Back on the Block where he worked with Big Daddy Kane and a lot of other contemporary rappers, then the older folks were like, Oh, this is a real thing and not a fad.
Quincy Jones – Back on the Block [00:12:21] Because I remember reading of My people Believe in Slavery and Killed for Bravery. We should have got our freedom much sooner. You never seen a Black man on The Honeymooners.
Tourê [00:12:29] But it never occurred to me that it wouldn’t beat, that it was a fad, that it would just go away. Like there was a culture that was clear to us in the early eighties, even though it was small, but it seemed very powerful. And, you know, you just wanted to be a part of it. I mean, I remember buying L.L. Cool J’s radio just on the strength of the way the cover looked. I didn’t know any of the songs, but I’m like, Boombox?
Dr. Christina Greer [00:13:00] That’s that’s all. That’s all it is. So we thought, this is a perfect time to talk about your new podcast, though, Being Black: The 80s, because all the episodes dropped at once and it’s a docu style podcast. So tell us a little bit more about that.
Tourê [00:13:13] Yeah, I’ve been want to do something like this for a long time and I’m really thrilled that theGrio gave me this chance. We’re talking about Black political issues in the eighties, but also mixing in the lens of the songs of the eighties that speak to those issues. So you get a song like N.W.A. Was Dopeman, and you can talk about the crack epidemic or a song like Public Enemy’s Black Steel in The Hour of Chaos. I mean, you could talk about mass incarceration. So we talk about the songs and we talk about the issues that they bring up. One of the episodes goes in to De La Soul’s My Brother’s a bass Head.
De La Soul [00:13:51] Yo, bro, got another rock for your hiking boots. Gonna make you scream and loop three loop. Gonna take you far on the freeway.
Tourê [00:14:00] This is probably the greatest song about saying this is how crack affected my family. But I am not a user, right? Because some people are users and talking about what it feels like for them to use. But this is like having a crackhead brother and it’s true story hurt me and my family. So we have producer Prince Paul talking about the making of the record.
[00:14:21] I remember him just really being bothered. And this was I mean, and and recording the record and really. Expressing a lot of emotion by this. This wasn’t just, you know, the song sounds kind of light hearted and it might poke a little fun here in there as it sounds, but it was something that bothered him.
Tourê [00:14:40] And then you’re going into the feeling of using crack and the impact of crack. And so it’s very digressive and discursive and there’s a lot of sound design and you can really sort of trace this mental journey through from one song, through these social issues to sort of political history for Black people in the eighties to the destination of another song that it’s very it’s very interesting and it sort of moves in all sorts of different ways that podcasts don’t usually move. So I’m really excited about this.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:15:12] I’m super excited about it because there’s so many issues that I think that you tackle not just from the traditional head on, but you change this prism and you have a look at it from a different angle. You know, there’s so many rap albums, obviously, that talk about selling drugs, but I love this, this new conversation that you’re starting. Shout out to Byron Allen and all the team, theGrio for making sure my Grio sibling has an amazing new podcast called Being Black: The 80s. So be sure to check it out wherever you get your podcast. Okay, so you’re doing well. You ready for question number three?
Tourê [00:15:44] Yes. I’m perfect so far, so let’s keep going.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:15:47] No competition, right? Okay. Question number three. This next question is the two parter. So here’s the first part. Who is the best selling female rapper of all time?
Tourê [00:16:01] Um. Lauryn.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:16:08] No, the answer is Nicki Minaj. Now, since arriving on the music scene in 2010, Nicki Minaj has sold more than 100 million records. She grew up in Jamaica, Queens, in New York City, and released several mixtapes between 2007 and 2009 before her debut album Pink Friday. And earlier this year, she beat out Missy Elliott, my absolute favorite for the longest consecutive run on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Nicki now has now had a single on the chart for 14 consecutive years. Missy’s record was lucky number 13 years. And so while we’re talking about Billboard, let’s chat about their controversial list that ranked the top rappers of all time. Nicki was the only female who made the top ten.
Nicki Minaj [00:16:48] I will retire with the ring. And I will retire with the crown. Yes.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:16:53] She was given the number ten spot. Jay-Z took the top spot, which I highly disagree with. Followed by Kendrick Lamar, Nas, Tupac and Eminem rounding out the top five. So, you know, I had perguntas perguntas programed it. So do you think Nicki was in the right spot on the list and were there any other women missing from that top ten list that you would have liked to see?
Tourê [00:17:12] I’ll answer the first part of the question. I’m not answering the second part. Well, no, no. Nicki is way too high. She’s not top ten. That’s ridiculous. That it’s completely ridiculous. No, she’s not top ten. She’s because she can flow. But there’s not anywhere near enough substance in the rhymes for her to be top ten. That’s a joke. Lauryn. I could make an argument for Lauryn being top ten. I mean, I could see that. But, I mean, some purists would say there’s not there’s not necessarily enough.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:17:48] Yeah, where’s the body of work?
Tourê [00:17:49] Material to be top ten as opposed to, you know, people who are ranked higher? I mean, you know, look.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:17:58] What about Queen Latifah?
Tourê [00:18:00] Is that a joke? I mean.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:18:01] No, it’s not a joke.
Tourê [00:18:02] Is that a joke? That’s a joke, right? That’s not a serious. Top ten. You said top ten.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:18:07] Fight you.
Tourê [00:18:08] You said, top ten.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:18:09] Okay. All right, all right, all right, all right.
Tourê [00:18:11] She’s a great emcee, you said top ten.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:18:14] I did say top ten.
Tourê [00:18:14] That’s a joke. I mean, you know, look, I let’s. Let’s pause here to say that. Misogyny in many forms that exists throughout the music industry in all genres has limited the impact that a lot of women could have. To say nothing of misogyny throughout society. But I know of female artists who are saying, you know, I’m in my sessions that I’m paying for and men are talking down to me about my music, right? And some of that grinds women to say nothing of what Kesha and other women have been through, like Harvey Weinstein type situations. So I am, you know, to say nothing of, you know, the the overt masculinity of hip hop when a lot of people are like, I’m not even going to take a woman rapper seriously. Right. No matter how well. So, you know, I think that that misogyny has been a huge barrier. Right. So that so that, you know, and but that’s been an issue in in many genres. So I don’t think that that’s very specific to hip hop.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:19:27] And I know that you’re not a big fan of ranking artists based on album sales or streaming numbers. So tell our audience a little bit more about that.
Tourê [00:19:36] Here’s the problem with talking about sales rate is that that gives too many votes to white people. Right. It’s not saying Black people don’t buy or stream music, but there is.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:19:49] There’s a disproportion that skews the data.
Tourê [00:19:51] There is yes. There is a, let’s say, finite number. There’s a certain number of people who are serious hip hop fans who will buy something. Let’s say it’s two, 3 million, right? Like that’s pretty much the size that a big, truly hip hop album can get you. Well, when you get to, let’s say Drake, to name a name, you get six, seven, 8 million. That’s four, five, 6 million white people. And the race is not really the issue, but they are pop fans. They are not true hip hop fans who are buying that, who will say, I love Taylor Swift.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:20:28] I love and I like Drake’s singy song music.
Tourê [00:20:31] And I like Drake. There’s nothing wrong with that. But if we’re talking about the greatest emcees of all time, adding in sales means people who aren’t hip hop fans are getting too large of a vote because we only use sales to talk about the guys like Drake, right, who are doing six, seven, 8 million. Right? It it’s not going to differentiate somebody who’s going gold from double platinum real double platinum guy is better than the gold guy. Not necessarily.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:20:57] Not necessarily. Okay, let’s go let’s go to the second part of the question. Right. I told you this was two parter. So here’s the second part. Do you know the best selling album by a female hip hop artist?
Tourê [00:21:11] Why are you doing this?
Dr. Christina Greer [00:21:13] I wanna see how misogynistic you are.
Tourê [00:21:14] Album by a female. Ah, let’s see. I mean, like. I mean, logically, you would guess it’s something from Nicki. I could not name her albums. Um, yeah, but Miseducation did, like, 10 million. That’s something.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:21:33] You’re correct.
Tourê [00:21:35] Okay. Yeah.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:21:35] Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. That album has sold over 20 million copies and was certified Diamond in 2021, making Lauryn Hill the first female rapper to achieve the milestone. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill is her only studio album. She does also have the live album and she’s released more than 20 singles. Lauryn Hill, of course, is part of the group Fugees, which is often called one influential group of the 1990.
Fugees [00:21:58] Strumming my pain with his finger. Singing my life with his words.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:22:08] So would you agree that they are one of the most influential groups of the 1990?
Tourê [00:22:13] Are the Fugees what are the most influential? I mean, I guess I mean, I, I guess they’re very influential. I mean, like, there was definitely there was a period when there was a lot of energy around how can we mix the R&B sound and the hip hop sound? Right. And that’s Mary J. Blige. That’s the whole sort of Puffy idea of things that expanded way beyond them. And there was all. And so the Fugees are giving you that. You know, I mean, I would love for the music to for hip hop to have more of a diaspora sound, more of the Caribbean sound that Wyclef put in. No mean like nobody sings like Lauryn.
Lauryn Hill [00:22:56] And when I try to walk away, you hurt yourself to make me stay.
Tourê [00:23:03] I struggling to think of somebody who brings the intellectual, political, spiritual, you know, and you know, the great music like Lauryn does. I mean, Jay Electronica in that vibe. But I mean, like, you know, to me, when you say influential, I want to think about who are the people who came after that person. It doesn’t mean they’re big. It means we were right. Like we were talking about. Tina Turner is Beyonce’s cultural mother. And as soon as you say that, you’re like, Oh my God, look at Tina. The energy, the flashy, the blond and look at Beyonce. And that takes nothing away from Beyonce. I love Beyoncé, but like, this is very much, you know, just as when somebody pointed out like, no, Prince is not from Jimi Hendrix, James Brown, and Sly Stone. He’s from Little Richard. Like, Oh, my God, he’s Little Richard’s son. He’s doing an impression of Little Richard half the time. It’s amazing. So do I see other groups that tried or succeeded at doing with the. I’m not sure I see that, but that does not mean the foodies are one of the most important groups of their era.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:24:10] Right. Okay. We’re going to take a quick commercial break. I have so many thoughts on that, but we can’t get into it. I have thoughts on a two or three person group, but we’re going to take a commercial break. Don’t have me on your podcast. We’ll discuss the foods used at a later date. We’ll be right back. I’m talking to Touré, host of a new podcast called Being Black: The 80s. We’ll be right back.
Being Black: The 80s [00:24:31] The eighties gave us unforgettable songs from Bob Marley, De La Soul and Public Enemy. Being Black: The 80s is a podcast docu series hosted by me Touré, looking at the most important issues of the eighties through the songs of the decade. A decade when crack kingpins controlled the streets, but lost their humanity. You couldn’t be like no soft, smiling, happy go lucky drug dealer. You had to suppress that. It was a time when disco was part of gay liberation. It provided the information to counter narratives that were given to gay people by the straight world. This is the funkiest history class you’ll ever take. Join me, Touré for Being Black: The 80s on theGrio Black Podcast Network, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:25:33] Again. We’re back. You’re listening to the Black Questions. I’m with my Grio sibling, Turay. We’re talking about his new podcast, Being Black: The 80s. Okay.
Tourê [00:25:43] Three questions. Three questions. Three points. I’m winning. What’s the average?
Dr. Christina Greer [00:25:48] Except for that last question. I don’t know. I’ll have my producers run the numbers.
Tourê [00:25:52] I got the second part of the question, so I got three points.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:25:56] You got the Miseducation of Lauryn Hill? Oh, you did. You sure did. You sure did. Okay, I’ll give you that. We’ve had people who’ve had 0 out 5 and they had a blast. And, you know, they know it.
Tourê [00:26:05] It’s fun. But I do. I want to get five out of five.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:26:08] You want your credit. All right, well, let’s see how you do a number four, because as we know, as our listeners know, the questions get progressively more difficult.
Tourê [00:26:16] I like that we’re getting more progressive as we go on.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:26:20] You’ve been in the game for a minute. I want to know your thoughts and opinions on these things. Okay. This hip hop group was based in Los Angeles and released only one album in 1988. The group consisted of three brothers, one who went on to join Cypress Hill. What is the name of this group?
Tourê [00:26:36] Are we allowed to curse.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:26:38] We try not to. Just, you know.
Tourê [00:26:40] I really did not like. I did not like L.A. rap at that time. And I think that there were definitely New Yorkers who were like, we don’t we’re so we’re not paying attention, especially if you’re not getting big like Cypress. We’re really not paying attention because we’re New York. We look down on the West Coast.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:27:05] I got it. Hey, listen, the podcast can only be so long. I got to go. You ready? Here’s the anser 7A3.
Tourê [00:27:11] I don’t even know if that’s a fair question.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:27:14] DJ Muggs. Pre Cypress Hills Day.
Tourê [00:27:14] DJ Muggs?.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:27:19] Pre Cypress Hill days.
Tourê [00:27:19] Oh, my God. That’s not even a fair question.
7A3 [00:27:22] S.E.A. Double N.IE. Last name is Bouldin, and so will you be.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:27:28] Sean Bouldin and Brett Bouldin made up the hip hop trio that released just one album entitled Coolin in Cali. They were dubbed a West Coast group, yet the brothers were from New York City. The album included tracks you may know like Drums of Steel and Hit Them Again.
Tourê [00:27:41] Nobody knows these tracks, Chrissy. Did the album go wood? Oh my God. Who would even know this?
Dr. Christina Greer [00:27:47] It’s a good lead into your podcast questions on New York and L.A. and various influences. So, hey, what other hip hop groups are out there that might not be considered some of the greats, but you think still have catalogs that are worth a listen and we should tell our audience about them?
Tourê [00:28:01] Well, I mean, you know, Jay Electronica is probably the name that comes to mind right away, who I think is vastly underrated in terms of a lot of hip hop heads. Know him and love him. But they. Oh, he hasn’t produced enough music, too. And I think people who are not like, Dig in the crates type hip hop heads may not have dug into him.
Jay Electronica [00:28:21] Children of the corn. Oh, I must be dreamin. The lady in the nightgown puff kush screaming. Signal me over. You with the waves. I seen you from the Catholic Church.
Tourê [00:28:30] Deeply digging graves. This is one of the extraordinary emcees of the modern era, a guy who talks about religion and spirituality, who’s extremely deep in the way he approaches music. And I love his music. I loved his albums. Before his album, which we were all waiting for, for like seven or ten years or something. I had more of his music in my iTunes than a lot of rappers who had albums out. So I was like, Yeah, he’s produced a lot of stuff. Who else?
Dr. Christina Greer [00:29:09] Let’s shift gears for a second because I want to talk about the West Coast sound of the nineties for a moment. So we know that Death Row Records was founded in 1981, Los Angeles, and they released several iconic hip hop albums. I remember blasting the tapes in my 1981 Diesel Car in high school, and they were part of a lot of significant pop culture moments. You know, we remember the Source awards, with Suge Knight, for example. Obviously, the beef between Biggie in Tupac. Did you ever interview Suge Knight or anybody from the Death Row camp and spend a little time in Los Angeles?
Tourê [00:29:39] Oh, look who does not pay attention to my work. Did I ever interview Suge Knight? Are you kidding?
Dr. Christina Greer [00:29:45] I know this.
Tourê [00:29:46] Ask if I ever interviewed R. Kelly. Yes, I interviewed Suge Knight.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:29:50] I asked for the audience.
Tourê [00:29:52] No, you didn’t. You didn’t know. You didn’t know. This is a very dramatic story.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:29:56] I disagree.
Tourê [00:29:58] I have an emergency call my therapist just to bring this story up out of the vault. It’s so painful, but I’ll do it for you.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:30:05] I need to make sure our audience knows. Tell us about your iconic interview.
Tourê [00:30:08] So I was doing a story for The New Yorker on a record executive from the seventies named Dick Griffey, who in some ways was like Suge before Suge. He was a he was huge. He was a real gangster, and he was determined to make money, the music business. He had mentored Suge. So when I’m hanging out with Dick for. You know, many days I kept saying, like, let’s go see Suge, because he was doing sugar all because he said that he owned 5% of Death Row from having given him seed money from the at the beginning. So he’s like, no, no, no. Then finally he sets it up. We go over to see Suge. It’s like midnight or something. I say, I want to talk to sugar. I’m trying to do the story quick. I say, I want to talk to sugar alone. I’m interviewing him in dark leaves. I don’t know where he is. I’m in Suge’s office at death row at midnight. It’s as ominous as you could imagine. And he’s. And I’m interviewing him, asking basic questions about Dick Griffey. And then finally, I’m like, So what’s up with the lawsuit? And he’s like, What are you talking about? And I pressed the question because that’s what you’re supposed to do. Although if you are sitting in the enemy’s lair, you perhaps should not do that. He. Long story short, he kind of grabbed me around the shoulders and kind of pulled me around the room a little bit. You kind of felt like a rag doll. There was a period of time where I was trapped in the room and there was a clearly a young gangbanger who looked like 5 minutes out of county or 5 minutes off the street who was just standing there, who is like Suge was like talking to him. And I’m like, this guy’s going to rush me. And I don’t know what I’m going to do. Right? And if I break only one bone tonight, then I’m ahead of the game. And then finally, we kind of wrap that up, partly with Shuge showing me this incredible, he remembered hour 45 minute interview in detail. Like everything that I asked and everything that he said, he repeated our 45 minute conversation because we were like going to redo the interview, but now I’m too scared to talk. And he just redid the interview all by himself. And then he’s like, All right, you got your interview. Get out of here. And I, like, ran out. It was horrible. It’s very scary. But it’s actually going to be part of another show that we’re doing for theGrio called Star Stories. That’s going to come out later this year.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:32:42] Oh, I love it.
Tourê [00:32:43] Very traumatized now, Chrissy. I’m very traumatized.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:32:47] And that’s what we like here in the Blackest Questions. I kid, I kid. But really quickly, before we go into question number five, do you think that some of the violence that we’re experiencing in hip hop and in the lyrics and the music and the rhetoric is just a part of hip hop culture that’s here to stay? Or do you think that there could be a cultural shift because there’s so much other stuff going on that we might the sort of a return back to.
Tourê [00:33:14] I mean.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:33:17] Conscious rappers.
Tourê [00:33:17] You partly fall back on like Yasin Bey talking about hip hop is, you know, an avatar for the community. It is a representative of the community. It’s not like things are happening that are not tied to what’s going on in the community. There is death and an over prevalence of guns.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:33:36] And drugs.
Tourê [00:33:36] And drugs.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:33:38] And drug usage.
Tourê [00:33:39] Yeah, in our community. And so you see that in hip hop now a lot. We are seeing gun deaths in hip hop, but we’re also seeing natural deaths in hip hop. You know, So, I mean, some folks perhaps are not able to take care of themselves or maybe are unwilling to see the doctor or have hereditary health problems, all these sort of medical racism issues that we have heard about that that, you know, don’t escape just because you escape to another class. So, you know, there’s there’s a lot going on. But I don’t think that it is divorced from what’s going on in the community. And like, these are issues that we are dealing with in the community at large. I don’t think that there’s a specific problem that is endemic to hip hop that like we you know, like that. I don’t subscribe to that notion.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:34:32] All right. Well, good to know. I can’t wait to hear more about your thoughts on this on your new show, Being Black: The 80s. Okay. Question number five, Are you ready to rock and roll?
Tourê [00:34:44] Is that the question? Yes.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:34:46] So this group has been described as Southern rap pioneers, and they had a highly successful album release in 1989. But radio stations and MTV refused to play any of the songs because of their quote unquote, violent lyrics. What is the name of this group?
Tourê [00:35:02] Wait, wait. Because of the violent lyrics or because of the sexual lyrics?
Dr. Christina Greer [00:35:07] Violent lyric.
Tourê [00:35:10] Oh, that would be the Geto Boys.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:35:11] You are correct. The Ghetto boys were a trio from Houston, Texas, that eventually consisted of Scarface, Bushwick, Bill, my favorite, and Willie Dee. The group started out with completely different members and went through a couple of switch ups before they became the trio that stayed together for decades. The group’s hit Mind playing Tricks on Me and Damn It feels good to Be a gangster are hip hop classic.
Tourê [00:35:31] Damn, it feels good to be a gangster. A real gangster ass nigga knows.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:35:36] So who do you think? You know, I like hot takes on this show. And, you know, I like putting you in the hot seat. Who do you think are some of the most influential rappers or rap groups from the South?
Tourê [00:35:47] Oh, see, that’s funny, because you brought up Geto Boys. I thought you were going to put me on the hot seat by saying, Can you talk about disabled rappers? I’m like, No, I cannot. Bushwick Bill is the only one I could think of. The question is about Southern emcees?
Dr. Christina Greer [00:36:03] Mm hmm.
Tourê [00:36:04] Well, I mean, you know, we talked to we touched on Andre 3000, I think, you know, who’s one of the greats. Definitely a top ten all time. I think Lil Wayne is one of the top ten emcees of all time. His talent is extraordinary the way that he does. I mean, the flow is ridiculous.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:36:23] But use of the English language and the way he thinks about society and his lens, I’m just it’s like a kaleidoscope and I’m totally into it.
Tourê [00:36:32] Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the way that he uses metaphor, there’s a horrific trend that I hate where people do sort of I almost look at it like a perpendicular, homonym relationship. I’m going to hang your career up like a flat screen. I’m like that. No.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:36:52] That the Rick Ross style of rapping, even though he likes to rhyme words with.
Tourê [00:36:57] Nicki loves that. .
Dr. Christina Greer [00:37:00] Because I’m a boss and it’s like, You’re rhyming boss with boss.
Tourê [00:37:03] But Wayne does metaphors brilliantly.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:37:07] You know what I would love Touré? Yeah, I would love a sit down conversation between Langston Hughes and Lil Wayne. Okay. And the use of poetry and metaphor and simile and puns. And I just think that the two of them would have had one of the most interesting conversations about expression of Black life vis a vis poetry.
Tourê [00:37:31] Sure.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:37:32] Biggie. He’s up there too, with me.
Tourê [00:37:35] TI is extraordinary. Interesting because.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:37:40] I don’t have TI on my list at all.
Tourê [00:37:42] No, no. TI is one of the great rappers from the South, I think. Without a doubt. But Rick Ross I want to throw in, he’s fine as a rapper. This is not a great fellow or a great writer, but he is the greatest music slash and beat picker.
Rick Ross [00:38:02] I think I’m Big Meech. Larry Hoover. Whippin. Hallelujah.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:38:08] Yeah, I enjoy his bangers.
Tourê [00:38:11] And I always been like, yo if we made Rick Ross and A&R and let him pick beats for somebody else. You know, for example, Nas, who is the greatest emcee who doesn’t pick great beats quite often, but he told me he does that on purpose because he wants to challenge himself. And he’s like, I picked the illest beat. It would be too easy. So he wants to go in a harder.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:38:35] Does he want us to also focus in on his voice because we’re not just absorbed by the beat?
Tourê [00:38:39] He didn’t say that, but I mean, I’m sure that becomes part of it. But he just said it’s a harder challenge.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:38:45] Yeah, you can hide behind a great beat. I mean, we see it all the time, Jay-Z. So I’m also going to say I didn’t hear you explicitly say Big Boi. You said Outkast, but is he up there for you?
Tourê [00:38:56] Big boy’s a great emcee. I think Andre is just deeper and just more philosophical and a little smarter, but I think Big Boi great. Cee-Lo is an extraordinary emcee. Who else do I love from the south. I mean, Jay Electronica is from the South. Is from New Orleans. Um, well.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:39:19] I mean this is from the South. Would you put her in that category?
Tourê [00:39:21] Well, is Virginia the south?
Dr. Christina Greer [00:39:23] Yeah. Listen, I believe in the 17 states south. If you had U.S. chattel slavery, you are the South.
Tourê [00:39:29] If Virginia is the South, then sure. Yes.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:39:32] Are you doing like Three 6 Mafia? Are they anywhere for you?
Tourê [00:39:36] What?
Dr. Christina Greer [00:39:37] I’m asking questions that the listeners might want to know. Don’t sas me.
Tourê [00:39:41] I don’t think the listeners want to know about Three 6. What?
Dr. Christina Greer [00:39:45] I’m trying to be.
Tourê [00:39:47] We’re doing serious stuff.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:39:48] Disaspora as I can.
Tourê [00:39:49] You’re all jokes again. There’s somebody. Forgetting.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:39:55] Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia.
Tourê [00:39:58] You know, the you know, the big I think the you know, Atlanta is is so hot in hip hop and in music in general. But I do find it interesting that that D.C. is the only city where there’s a ton of Black people and they don’t have a significant hip hop community as far as artists.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:40:20] Because they’re so busy into their pots and pans music. Yes, I bet it. D.C. like third party bands like that band. And listen, I’m a Baltimore club music aficionado. That is my that’s my bass. I think it’s a thousand times better than Go-Go music. I know. We’re going to get a lot more hate mail. I’m sorry, D.C., but your music sounds like the bands from the kitchen and someone yelling.
Tourê [00:40:42] You know, I just think that there’s there’s a D.C. mindset that could be really interesting on records, and we haven’t had that. And it’s kind of like.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:40:52] It’s like going to a restaurant and seeing an amazing salad, meal, whatever. And then when you get it like. Huh? All right, fine. It’s all right. It’s fine. All right. Okay. You get to move on, because before we get to Black Lightning, before I have to change my address with all the DC people coming to New York trying to jump me. We got to chat about a couple more things because. Because you’ve just had such personal moments with so many icons. I want to just pick your brain really briefly. Okay. So first, if you had to choose, give us your top three interviews you’ve ever done.
Tourê [00:41:24] It’s so hard. I’ve been blessed to be part of a lot of amazing situations when Jay-Z and Nas reunited after their beef. They talked to Sway for MTV, and then they drove up the street and they came to BET and talked to me. And that was an extraordinary moment.
Tourê [00:41:42] You think you won?
Nas [00:41:44] I’m always thinking I won.
Tourê [00:41:47] You think you won?
Jay Z [00:41:48] Of course. I mean, you supposed to say.
Tourê [00:41:54] I did an amazing hour and a half with Zadie Smith on my podcast, Touré Show. Where it was just an amazing conversation about writing. And hopefully and I think, you know, in 20, 30 years when there’s like Zadie Smith studies at Harvard or Yale or whatever, like they’ll look at this as like, here’s an important source of information about what she was thinking about as a writer. You know, I mean, I think about, you know, the first time I had Jay-Z on at Fuze and I had already done five or six Jay-Z interviews from Rolling Stone and MTV and other things. There was one interview that really wasn’t an interview, right? Because you can learn a lot by not asking questions where we played poker all night in the Trump penthouse up in Columbus Circle. So we’re you know, we’re just together and I’m like, learning about him and vibing him in, like, singing like who he really is. No questions asked that night. But like, you know, you learn more than you could of asking a question, right? That was for the cover of Rolling Stone. So we already had this deep relationship. So he comes to Fuze. He’s supposed to talk to me for 10 minutes. We get vibing and we go for 40 minutes and they make it a show. And then every artist in the game wants the same treatment. And that’s part of how he got to me and Lady Gaga, who I talked to twice. Those were extraordinary conversations. I mean, you know, there’s been a lot I mean, one thing I would say to folks who want to sit in the chair, interview other people when you’re talking to somebody. Make them feel heard. Like when they talk to me, they will feel more heard in that moment than they will all day. And that sense of feeling super heard will make people want to share their deepest secrets with you.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:43:46] Gotcha. Okay.
Tourê [00:43:49] See and she was just waiting to talk.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:43:51] You know what?
Tourê [00:43:53] Just waiting for her talk. That’s not what you do. You make them feel like I’m listening to you
Dr. Christina Greer [00:44:00] Low key talking to my producer about something else because you talk too much. Like, Yeah, I am listening to you. You know, I’m not a fan of Jay-Z, you know that.
Tourê [00:44:13] That sounds crazy because.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:44:15] No, I’m not.
Tourê [00:44:16] Do not love hip hop? Do you also kick puppies? Do you put the toilet paper on the backside instead of on the front side?
Dr. Christina Greer [00:44:22] I do love hip hop. I just I don’t like him for a host of reasons. And, you know, I look at Barclays every time and I like, curse his name every time I pass it.
Tourê [00:44:31] He doesn’t own the Barclays anymore.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:44:32] No, he doesn’t. But he sold out Brooklyn for his like little 0.21% nickels that he got.
Tourê [00:44:39] Look, look, we can have a very reasonable and real critique of Jay-Z in his political era of life. Yeah, right. And the NFL stuff bothers me immensely. He basically became the counterbalance to Kaepernick and basically told, he didn’t tell Kaepernick to shut up. He told us.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:45:03] We’re beyond that. Like, I can settle.
Tourê [00:45:07] He told us we are beyond that. Right. Which made us kind of stand down. We thought Jay-Z’s on the case. He was definitely not.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:45:17] He’s a capitalist. And that’s fine. You know, don’t try to drag the Black community.
Tourê [00:45:22] But we’re talking about emcees. We’re talking about what he did on records and on stages. Right. This is part of my issue with people putting Tupac in the top five, which is insane because you’re only thinking about all the stuff he did outside of the studio. If you just listen to the music, he can’t be top five. It’s impossible.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:45:44] This brings me to a much larger conversation. We unfortunately don’t have time to do the podcast, but I do want to actually get into this because there is this tension that Black people have between who you are as the entertainer and who you are in life. Right? We have this debate about The Cosby Show. Do we still watch it? Do you watch a different world?
Tourê [00:46:01] Sammy Davis Jr. Sure.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:46:02] And yes, I mean, James Brown, Jim Brown, like the list goes on and on. So while we’re talking about it, what about your 2008 interview with Ray Kelly?
R. Kelly [00:46:12] When you say teenage, how old are we talking?
Tourê [00:46:16] Girls who are teenagers?
Dr. Christina Greer [00:46:18] But, you know, 15 years later R. Kelly’s now convicted felon. He’s likely never going to get out of prison. We’ve heard these rumblings. You know, I went to high school in Illinois. I heard the rumblings all through high school. You were the first person in the media to put out a copy of R. Kelly and Aaliyah marriage certificate when she was 15 and he was 27. Why do you think it took so long for the legal system to catch up with what a lot of people knew for a long time? And how do you feel about the people who separate R. Kelly, the man from R. Kelly, the artist?
Tourê [00:46:48] I mean that I don’t know how you can do. I don’t know how you can’t be triggered. Listening to R. Kelly R. Kelly’s music is still available. I don’t understand how you can listen to an R. Kelly and not feel triggered. I don’t understand how you could listen to Kanye and not feel triggered. I don’t understand how you could listen to Michael Jackson and not be triggered and not feel like this is jamming up the signal of my mind of being able to enjoy this music. But I mean, on the way to studio, I saw somebody wearing Balenciaga and Kanye shoes. So, you know who who knows?
Tourê [00:47:27] Right.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:47:28] Huh? I mean, I’m an anti R. Kelly like his music is not allowed in my home. I don’t listen to it. Then someone asked me, you know, well, then do you listen to Kelly Price or Aaliyah? And I do. I listen to both of them.
Tourê [00:47:45] What’s wrong with that?
Dr. Christina Greer [00:47:46] Right. I mean, but they you know, they’re like, well, he created, you know, a lot of their music and their sounds if your’re anit-R. Kelly, then you should be anti.
Tourê [00:47:53] That’s a stretch.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:47:55] Okay. All right. Well, I mean.
Tourê [00:47:58] They sang the music I mean that’s a stretch. I don’t have.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:48:01] Where do you fall on, say, Michael Jackson, then?
Tourê [00:48:04] I don’t listen to Michael Jackson’s music any more. It turns my stomach. I saw the documentary. And I cannot take I cannot treat him in my life, in my mind, the same way that I did before. I am completely grossed out. And I’m also disappointed in myself because when he was doing his thing and I’m not sure that I could have figured it out, but I was a major music journalist at the time and there were whispers of There’s a serious problem here. And I never took it seriously to say, Let me go see, let me knock on some doors, let me call some people and see. And I think in general, the music journalist community heard the rumors and never did anything. And, you know, I and I, chief among them, and Diane Dimond, was running around saying this for years, and we were like, she’s a kook. And it was like, you know.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:49:05] Who was Diane Dimond?
Tourê [00:49:06] She was it was the first person who who I remember on a big scale writing book saying Michael Jackson is doing these things. And we were like, she’s crazy. And it was like, No, she wasn’t. She called it. Now, I don’t know what her sources were early, but she she had the story. I didn’t I didn’t look into the story. And I am regretful of that, even though I don’t know that I could. I think that story is so behind closed doors that, you know, you have to be much bigger to be able to get at it.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:49:38] Right. Well, hopefully in one of your shows we’ll continue to delve deeper in it, because I think that, you know, there’s a lot in the Black community that we collectively just need to sit down. I mean, between, you know, so many icons that we grew up with and loved, genuinely loved Bill Cosby, Michael Jackson, R. Kelly And they were such fixtures in our community.
Tourê [00:49:57] And I mean, Marvin Gaye didn’t he married someone who was 17.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:50:02] Listen the list goes, James Brown. I mean, like we think about rape when we think about, you know, how men abuse women and children. I mean, there are a lot of people that don’t hold up the test of time. Okay. So we got to take a quick commercial break. Obviously, Christina and Touré could talk and argue and fuss and fight like Grio sibling sall day long. But we’ll be right back. Okay. You are listening to the Blackest Questions. I’m your host, Dr. Christine Greer. I’m here with my Grio sibling, Touré, host of the new podcast Being Black: The 80s. It is now time for the Black Lightning Round. Are you ready to Touré? This is the round where there are no right or wrong answers. You just say the first thing that comes to your mind in your heart, and that’s where we go. Okay.
Tourê [00:50:43] All right.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:50:44] Favorite thing to do in New York City?
Tourê [00:50:46] Play tennis.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:50:48] What’s the best way to listen to music? Vinyl record? CD? Streaming? Tape? 8-Track?
Tourê [00:50:54] Vinyl sounds best.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:50:55] Okay. One catalog has to go. A Tribe Called Quest. Lil Wayne. Public Enemy.
Tourê [00:51:05] No, no. The correct answer is no. What are you talking about?
Dr. Christina Greer [00:51:09] One has to go.
Tourê [00:51:10] No, they don’t have to go. I have to I have to speak to the manager. To see why one of them has to go because I can’t I can’t get rid of any of them.
Tourê [00:51:18] Okay, well, I’m going to get rid of Public Enemy.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:51:21] Yeah, I’ve done it. Okay. Best track by De La Soul. Who I know you say is one of the greatest hip hop groups of all time.
Tourê [00:51:27] I mean, it’s between Biddies in the B K Lounge and probably Afro connections and high five.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:51:35] Okay, What’s one album you couldn’t live without?
Tourê [00:51:39] De La Soul is Dead.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:51:40] Okay. And the last thing since we’ve got a new podcast coming up, Touré, Being Black: The 80s. What’s one thing our viewers would be surprised to know about you?
Tourê [00:51:50] Um.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:51:53] He doesn’t like to argue. Really he doesn’t.
Tourê [00:51:56] I don’t. I you know, it’s funny, you know? I don’t know. I don’t know what I don’t know what y’all don’t know about me, right? Like, I’m not I mean, like, if you only interact with me as far as my media, you may not know that. You know that I play tennis all the time and that, you know, I think about that all the time. That’s a big part of my life. Like, you may not know that may come out of left field for you. But like, you know, I this the tennis Scituate community I grew up in was super Black. Right. And it’s one of the Blackest tennis clubs in the country. Right. And it was this extraordinary situation. If I made a movie about it, you wouldn’t believe it. Right. But it was it was it was an amazing place to grow up. And so it wasn’t just about the game. It was about that the culture was there. Right. And so I loved that place.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:52:50] All right. I want to thank you for coming on the Blackest Questions. And you I adore you. I really you know, I know we fuss and fight on tape and off, but I do want to just, you know, for our listeners. So it’s on record in perpetuity. I so appreciate your writing and the way you think about Black people and not just Black music, but Black culture. You know, really, I don’t always agree with you, but that’s that’s the beauty of your writing. I really it makes me think it makes me think about what my opinions are. And I really appreciate the fact that you’ve been doing this for a minute and you can tell that you really love Black people. And it just it introduces me to new music that I may have missed, but I really I’m excited for your new podcast, Being Black: The 80s and having a deep dive.
Tourê [00:53:38] I do love Black culture immensely and that is at the root of so much of the work.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:53:46] And I think that’s honestly, I think the root of all of your work. Everything you touch has like a true love of Black people. So I want to thank you for joining us on the Blackest Questions, Touré and know that you can come back anytime, even though you drive me crazy.
Tourê [00:53:58] I got four, right?
Dr. Christina Greer [00:54:00] You got four.
Tourê [00:54:01] It was crazy.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:54:04] So I want to thank you for listening to the Blackest Questions. This show is produced by Sasha Armstrong and Geoffrey Trudeau, and Regina Griffin is our director of podcast. If you like what you heard, subscribe to this podcast. So you never miss an episode. You can find more from theGrio Black Podcast Network on theGrio at the website and YouTube.
Being Black: The 80s [00:54:51] The eighties gave us unforgettable songs from Bob Marley, De La Soul and Public Enemy. Being Black: The 80s is a podcast docu series hosted by me Touré, looking at the most important issues of the eighties through the songs of the decade. A decade when crack kingpins controlled the streets but lost their humanity. You couldn’t be like no soft, smiling, happy go lucky drug dealer. You had to suppress that. It was a time when disco was part of gay liberation. It provided information to counter-narratives that were given to gay people by the straight world. This is the. Funkiest history class you’ll ever take. Join me, Touré for Being Black: The 80s on theGrio Black Podcast Network, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
