The Blackest Questions: Which Legendary Artist Got His Stage Name From Baseball?
Episode 3Play
Join Virginia native and proud North Carolina A&T alum Justin Tinsley as he answers this and more. He slides through and drops some gems on his hometown and hip-hop legend, Notorious B.I.G. Will he make the 757 proud?Â
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Promo [00:00:00] You are now listening to theGrio’s Black Podcast Network, Black Culture Amplified.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:00:05] 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 guests five of the Blackest questions so we can learn a little bit more about them and have fun while we’re doing it. We’re also going to learn a lot about Black history, past and present. So the way this works, we have five rounds of questions about us Black history, the whole diaspora, current events, everything. With each round, the questions will get a little tougher and the guest has 10 seconds to get it right. So if they answer the question correctly, they’ll see the symbolic Black fist. And hear this… If they get wrong, they’ll hear this, but we’ll still love them anyway. After the five questions, there’ll be a Black bonus round at the end just for fun.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:00:53] Our guest this episode is Justin Tinsley. He’s an accomplished writer hailing from Virginia and a proud alum, in his words, of the real H. U, Hampton University. He’s currently a senior culture writer for Inscape, formerly The Undefeated, and even makes appearances on ESPN’s Around the Horn. His new book, which I love, It Was All a Dream: Biggie and The World That Made Him is out now. Hi, Justin. Thank you so much for joining the Blackest Questions.
Justin Tinsley [00:01:19] Yeah, first and foremost, thank you for having me on. Secondly, I am nervous as hell because like I’ve been telling myself, like alright, it’s five questions. You got to at least get two right. You know, you got to at least get two right. You got to bat 40%, 400 or something like that.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:01:35] So that’s great, huh?
Justin Tinsley [00:01:37] I am nervous.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:01:39] But here’s the thing, Mr. Tinsley. Mm-hmm. This show is for us to celebrate Black people. And I think there’s so many people in this country that don’t know Black history, which means they don’t know American history. So, as a professor, I want to educate not just myself, but also my guests and my listeners. So there is no expectation that you’ll get five for five. If you do, that’ll be fantastic. But I just want to have a conversation with you and go on a little intellectual journey. How about that?
Justin Tinsley [00:02:08] Let’s do it. I love games like this. I’m also very nervous. But let’s do it.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:02:14] No need to be nervous. You’re with me? You’re with me.
Justin Tinsley [00:02:16] Yeah. Look, I. Look, I know. I look. I know I’m with good people, but I don’t… Like like you said. You said on camera that you won’t be embarrassed if I royally screw this up. But I know you as a friend and as somebody who has helped me so much within my journey. Like, I can’t disappoint Dr. Greer, off camera.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:02:35] Absolutely not. We don’t revoke Black cards on this show. It’s all love. It’s all celebration. I think you’re ready.
Justin Tinsley [00:02:42] Let’s do it. Let’s do it.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:02:43] Okay, first question. On April 16th, 2018, he became the first rapper to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize. Who was it and for what album?
Justin Tinsley [00:02:54] I do know this one. Kendrick Lamar. Damn.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:02:55] Right. See you’re killing it already.
Justin Tinsley [00:02:58] I got one. I got one.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:03:01] So Kendrick Lamar, it was the first time the award had gone to a musical work outside of the genres of classical music and jazz music. Kendrick was born and raised in Compton, California, as many of you may know, and he was discovered by Dr. Dre and signed to Top Dog Entertainment. And the Pulitzer Committee called Damn, “virtuosic, unified by its vernacular, authenticity and rhythmic dynamism that offers affecting vignettes, capturing the complexity of modern African-American life.” That’s a mouthful to say. The album … and he talks about a lot of societal issues that affect Black people and society at large.
Justin Tinsley [00:03:35] Exactly.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:03:36] Having written this amazing book and I’m going to keep talking about it, It Was All A Dream: Biggie and The World That Made Him. How big is this for rap? For Kendrick Lamar to have a Pulitzer Prize, because you did some extensive research on Biggie and like just also the origins of hip hop in Brooklyn and some regional conversations that are important to have. To have a Pulitzer, which as also a writer, you know, is the creme de la creme. What does that mean for this this confluence of rap and writers and journalism and this award in the Pulitzer?
Justin Tinsley [00:04:09] It’s wow. Because, you know, he won a Pulitzer for this, but he didn’t get like album of the year, at the Grammy’s. Like, he’s been robbed of that award so many times. So I think when Kendrick was awarded this, it was proof that hip hop, not just Kendrick, but hip hop as a whole in its best and its most optimal form is arguably the most honest form of like societal critique that we have. And what Kendrick was talking about and that album he obviously he was doing and previous albums with To Pimp a Butterfly, which a lot of people feel is his best project. My, me, personally…Okay. And completely understand that. That’s one of those albums that I have to like really. You know, how like can we … you were like go to church for like your grandparents, like when you were younger. And they would. They would read the lyrics to the song that the choir was actually singing.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:05:04] Yes.
Justin Tinsley [00:05:05] That’s what I have to do with To Pimp a Butterfly. Like I have to actually read the lyrics while he’s rapping to me.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:05:10] Right. He makes you earn it. He makes you his appreciation.
Justin Tinsley [00:05:13] That is a perfect way to describe it.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:05:16] I feel like Outkast does that. You can’t just, like, just turn on an Outkast album and be like I love it. So you have to listen to it and try and, like, decode it.
Justin Tinsley [00:05:22] Decode is a great word. So when Kendrick was awarded this Pulitzer for Damn, it was really like he could have got it for a To Pimp A Butterfly. He could have got it for which is my personal favorite Kendrick album, Good Kid Maad City. It was more of a career award than it was just actually with this album, which is a phenomenal album. For the record, I look back on moments like that and then I think about like what people were saying about hip hop, especially in his early stages, that this was a musical genre that eventually was going to fade away like disco. It was a trend wouldn’t last. And now we see hip hop winning Pulitzer Prizes and we see hip hop as a when you look at Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, are these music streaming platforms right now, hip hop is the most streamed art form, not just in America, but in the world. They account for almost 32% of all music streams.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:06:12] Where does Kendrick rank in your pantheon of hip-hop artists.
Justin Tinsley [00:06:16] Ooo.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:06:17] Like is he, top five, top ten, top 15?
Justin Tinsley [00:06:20] At the very, very least, top five. Because when people say he’s the greatest rapper of this generation, how long do you consider a generation? Because Kendrick Kendrick has been relevant on the hip hop scene where there’s underground, where there’s mainstream. Since at least 2008, 2009, over the decade it was 2010. So if you take from 2010 to the present day, which is right now, that’s 12 years. So if he’s been the best rapper of the last 12 years in hip hop as a whole.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:06:49] Right.
Justin Tinsley [00:06:49] That is only 50 years old.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:06:51] Right.
Justin Tinsley [00:06:52] You know.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:06:53] He’s on Mount Rushmore in.
Justin Tinsley [00:06:54] Something for me. For me, he is. And I think his body of work justifies that. So I would I honestly would put him on that Mount Rushmore for me.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:07:03] Okay. All right. Well, listen, you’re killing it. You ready for number two?
Justin Tinsley [00:07:08] No. Let’s stop the game right now, because I’m afraid.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:07:11] Let’s leave on top, Grier.
Justin Tinsley [00:07:11] Yeah, exactly. But let’s go. Number two.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:07:13] Okay, let’s go. This school was founded on February 25th, 1837. And to this day, they’re the oldest HBCU still in operation. What school is it?
Justin Tinsley [00:07:24] Okay. What? You said February 1837.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:07:29] Uh huh.
Justin Tinsley [00:07:33] All right, I got 10 seconds. You know, I must say Wilberforce University.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:07:40] Oh, that is close. And that’s a solid, solid guess. It’s actually Cheyney University.
Justin Tinsley [00:07:44] You’re right. You’re right. You’re right. You’re right.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:07:47] First known as the African Institute, it was renamed the Institute for Colored Youth. It provided training in trades in agriculture. And then in 1902, the school relocated to George Cheyney’s 275-acre property, 25 miles west of Philadelphia, which is my city. The name Cheyney became associated with it since 1913 and had several name changes. But in 1983, Cheyney, State College became Cheyney State University of Pennsylvania. Some notable alumni are Ed Bradley, longtime 60 Minutes journalist. Jim Barnes, a longtime D.C. TV anchor, and Andre Waters, a 12-year NFL veteran. As an HBCU alum, I know that you are a proud Hampton University alum. How do you go about supporting other HBCUs?
Justin Tinsley [00:08:29] I try to support HBCU’s in every walk that I can, obviously, you know, with the Hampton University and I love my school and but I’m not one of those Hampton grads that will fight to the death about Hampton, Howard. It’s not to me, it’s not that deep. Like I got my love for Howard. I have a lot of friends who went to Howard, but I grew up in a household that that cherished HBCUs from as long as I can remember. My mother is a third-generation alum, alumna of South Carolina State University down in Orangeburg, South Carolina. And my grandfather, he my grandfather and my grandmother both went to HBCU and my grandfather, he was inducted into the City Hall of Fame posthumously in 2009. So and I grew up down the street from Virginia State University. So all I knew in terms of the college experience when I was growing up was the HBCU lifestyle. And I saw the camaraderie, I saw the sense of community, I saw the sense of family just going to these type of campuses and football games or basketball games or whatever the case may be. That’s what I wanted. I try to represent for HBCUs whenever I can. I know in recent years HBCUs have been given more of a light and more and more coverage, which I think is incredible. But I think there’s still a long way to go.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:09:48] Well, I think, you know, whenever I think about HBCU, my grandparents and great grandparents went to Tennessee State and FAM, you know, then we got the Atlanta crowds, my cousin’s house and Spelman and my mom went to Florida Memorial, actually.
Justin Tinsley [00:09:59] Oh, really?
Dr. Christina Greer [00:10:00] Okay. So, you know, we’re deep on the HBCU even though I went to an HWCU. You know, I see. I think it’s really important for us to remember that so many of these HBCUs don’t have the same resources because of the wealth gap of Black people in this country, because of white supremacy and anti-Black racism. So even when you have successful HBCU grads that go into a society where they don’t make as much. Black women making $0.67 on the dollar or Black men making $0.87 on the dollar. So even to give that money back to an institution is not the same as white alums from HWCUs. So both of us share a mad love for HBCUs, and we both come from a long legacy of HBCUs. Sure. So you ready for the third question? You’re killing the game out here.
Justin Tinsley [00:10:48] All right. All right. I’m on a one-question wrong streak. So let me try to get back on the proper footing and let’s do it.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:10:56] Question three: The NBA has been around for 75 years, but in 1950, three men helped break the color barrier and are considered the league’s first African-American pioneers. Do you know who they are and what their contributions were?
Justin Tinsley [00:11:12] Ohhh. You know, like, this is going to make me look bad. I definitely know who the three men are, but for whatever reason, I can not call their names.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:11:21] I mean, listen, this is why we have the show. Because all of us, it’s probably on the tip of the tongue of so many listeners. Yup. So Chuck Cooper was the first African-American to be drafted by an NBA team. Nathaniel “Sweetwater” Clifton was the first to sign an NBA contract, and Earl Lloyd was the first to play in an NBA game. And their debuts were just days apart from one another. And so Chuck Cooper was drafted by the Boston Celtics. Nathaniel Clifton was a Harlem Globetrotter and played for the New York Knicks. And on October 31st, 1950. Earl Lloyd made his debut for the Washington Capitals, scoring six points. And in 1955, he helped the Syracuse Nationals win an NBA title.
Justin Tinsley [00:12:01] That’s wild. Because Earl, Earl Lloyd’s name, that was the one I knew, but I couldn’t remember the other two. As soon as you said it, I was like, of course that’s what it is. And, you know, what’s wild. Chuck Chuck Cooper, you said he was drafted by the Boston Celtics. Which is wild because there’s this juxtaposition with obviously we know the history of the city of Boston and I know a lot of Black people from the city of Boston.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:12:28] I spent time there. My dad went to college there. Half his frat brothers still live there.
Justin Tinsley [00:12:32] See, and when you talk to people who spent a lot of time in Boston or either who are from Boston, like Black folks in particular, they’ll give you a different side or they’ll give you a different, you know, experience of what we know about Boston from a racial standpoint. The Boston Celtics were in the NBA finals this year, and we know about the history of the city of Boston. But this current Boston Celtics team is pretty Black.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:12:58] When you think of Boston, yeah, I don’t really think about tattoo-wearing brothers who represent the Celtics in 2022.
Justin Tinsley [00:13:03] You don’t. The whole starting five is all Black, the coach is Black. This was his first year. Looking at the Boston Celtics as a team in comparison to what we know about Boston and its history with race relations, is one of the more fascinating things I think I’ve ever researched it just in my time as a journalist who covers sports quite often.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:13:30] I’m also just fascinated by how certain leagues just are and feel more Black. Right. I mean, we know that the Major League Baseball teams have gone more to like the Caribbean and like the Dominican Republic and Cuba. I’ve got a question. Who was your favorite player growing up and who’s your favorite player playing right now?
Justin Tinsley [00:13:49] Oh, that’s a loaded question because that can get very hard. When I was younger, I told myself I wanted to be 6’6”, like Michael Jordan. I wanted to go to the University of North Carolina. I tried to give myself a bald head when I was younger. My mom told me, I look nothing like Michael Jordan. She said, I look more like a light bulb than Michael Jordan. As you can tell, Michael Jordan are two completely different skin complexions. But I worshiped the ground Michael Jordan walked on. So of course him. I had a deep, deep love and a deep, deep passion in my heart for Allen Iverson. And it goes far beyond just us being Virginia natives, my favorite player currently and it’s been like this for quite a while would be LeBron. He’s had a career and he’s had time in the public spotlight and he’s handled it better than I believe anybody.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:14:36] He’s he’s now been in the league longer than he was out of the league. Yeah. Yeah. Literally raised in the league. You give an 18-year-old a few hundred million dollars and this is what he’s been able to do with it as far as uplifting his community, uplifting Akron, uplifting his boys. I mean, it’s pretty impressive. I would put him as my favorite modern-day player. But Dominique Wilkins growing up that the… I had his trading card.
Justin Tinsley [00:14:59] I love Dominique. Dominique has one of the coldest throwback jerseys. I still don’t have it. I’m still trying to get it in my collection. Dominique Wilkins. I got a lot of love in my heart for, but a human highlight reel. Such an incredible player.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:15:11] You ready for number four?
Justin Tinsley [00:15:14] Yes, I am.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:15:15] So from 1973 to 1980, this person served as batboy and later vice president for what team? And while on the job, he later got his stage name from what athlete?
Justin Tinsley [00:15:31] Wow. You stumped me again.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:15:33] Stanley Burrell was batboy for the Oakland A’s and while he was Batboy, people called him Hammer because of how much he resembled Hammer and Hank Aaron. He later became known as M.C. Hammer.
Justin Tinsley [00:15:45] Yo! No! I never knew that. Are you serious?!
Dr. Christina Greer [00:15:47] So M.C Hammer was discovered by the A’s owner, Charlie Finley, doing James Brown splits in the Oakland Coliseum parking lot. Hammer was a bat boy, then later, jokingly given the title of executive VP, he sat in the owner’s box and earned $7.50 a game. And while the owner was away, he would relay game action to the owner over the phone. And then Hank Aaron went on to become the first ballot Major League Baseball Hall of Famer in 1982, hitting for 305 batting average, 755 home runs with 3771 hits. And he passed away on January 22nd, 2021. So that is the link between M.C. Hammer and Hank Aaron.
Justin Tinsley [00:16:28] That is … I never knew where. I could have probably easily Googled this.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:16:33] This is why you come on this show, Justin, to learn things.
Justin Tinsley [00:16:36] Hammer was named Hank Aaron.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:16:38] Â Wow. Right. But I think, you know, this is what’s so important between for what I see from your work, not just your book about Biggie, but the work that you do on ESPN, because there is this intersection of sports and rap that you, I think, balance so beautifully. There’s so many hip-hop artists that really, truly, intrinsically love sports. I mean, I’m thinking about J. Cole, where it’s like he’s playing basketball to his own music. Wow.
Justin Tinsley [00:17:08] Like, I never. Yeah, that. That is. Wow. I’m actually right on that. That’s phenomenal. I never knew M.C. Hammer got his name from Hank Aaron.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:17:19] When we think about Oakland and, like, the role it plays in the West Coast collective Blackness, we can’t forget about M.C. Hammer, but then we think about hip hop going mainstream, you know, so that Kendrick Lamar can get a Pulitzer. We got to think about all that M.C Hammer did. He had cartoons. He had cereal. I mean, he was one of the I would say one of the biggest crossover rap stars ever.
Justin Tinsley [00:17:40] Oh, he was he was a bona fide superstar. Like my mother will tell you, like the first rap song that I ever remember memorizing was Can’t Touch This! Like she would have to play it over. You know how kids these days like like to listen to baby shark, you know whatever. My baby shark was can’t touch despite him see him and my mom would tell you it was that song. And Looking for a New Love by Jody Watley. Like, I would want to hear those two songs back to back to the point where my mom probably can’t listen to those songs to this day because she’s like, no … we listen to it enough. When you were in the backseat of the car, when I was taking you to school, as you said, you can’t really talk about the Black experience in this country without talking about Oakland, California, on so many levels, from one hip hop to the Black Panthers, of course, and three, like Oakland, is where if you do your research on Richard Pryor, Richard Pryor spent a lot of time in Oakland. He spent a lot of time with people like Huey Newton and Bobby Seale and people like that and Angela Davis. And so when you listen to Richard Pryor’s work in the seventies and it takes on like this political type tone, he got a lot of that from his time in Oakland. And speaking to people like that. So Oakland is vital and critical to the history of this country and critical to Black history, which, as you said early on, is American history. So.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:19:12] Right. Okay. So the last one, I think we can make it. All right.
Justin Tinsley [00:19:15] I got to go out on a good note here. I got to go out on a good note.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:19:17] Who was the first Black person ever elected governor? And from what state did they preside over?
Justin Tinsley [00:19:24] Ooh.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:19:25] And here’s a hint. Or commonwealth.
Justin Tinsley [00:19:27] Oh, yeah. Now, see, I was going to obviously my answer is L. Douglas Wilder in Virginia.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:19:32] You are correct. So Laurence Douglas Wilder, we just know him as Doug Wilder of Virginia. He was elected in 1990 and held office until 1994 because as a political scientist, some people don’t know this. In Virginia, you’re only elected for one term. That’s it. He received his undergrad degree from Virginia Union. He received his law degree from Howard, and he started his political career in the seventies and went on to become a senator, lieutenant governor and most recently, mayor of Richmond from 2005 to 2009. He’s also a published author. So growing up sort of in and around Virginia. Do you have any memories of Governor Wilder?
Justin Tinsley [00:20:05] So you’re familiar with the Jack and Jill program, right?
Dr. Christina Greer [00:20:08] Oh, I was in Jack and Jill. Okay, and mind you now, I was also kicked out of Jack and Jill, the Philadelphia chapter. That’s for. That’s for a different podcast.
Justin Tinsley [00:20:14] That is for a different podcast for sure.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:20:17] I was a little rapscallion, if we should say.
Justin Tinsley [00:20:20] This guy who he lived in my neighborhood and, you know, rest in peace that Mr. Bell. He lived on the other side of the block in my neighborhood. And he came over to my mom and grandma’s house one day, and he was like, I think Justin should be part of like Project Manhood, just like young Black men and, you know, trying to, like, you know, influence them to make positive decisions. And I was like, man, this sounds corny. I don’t want to do it, but I ended up doing it. And they took us to like a lot of different events and I ended up, you know, gaining like a big appreciation for it. And one of the events we went to was like this formal dinner where, you know, Governor Wilder was there and like so myself and like couple of my homeboys, we got a chance to take a picture with, you know, Governor Wilder. And we couldn’t have been any more than like 12 or 13 at the time. And it was cool..
Dr. Christina Greer [00:21:06] But you still remember it right? Meeting an elected official is huge …
Justin Tinsley [00:21:10] Yeah! I see the picture on Facebook like at least once a year when my boy, who’s actually in the Navy now he’s over in Germany, he re-posted every year my man I remember that. A fun fact about L. Douglas Wilder is, you know, I mentioned that Allen Iverson is one of my favorite basketball players of all time. You can’t talk about Allen Iverson and his impact without talking about L. Douglas Wilder.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:21:33] Have you ever written about that?
Dr. Christina Greer [00:21:35] Yeah. Yeah. I’d love for you to write about that.
Justin Tinsley [00:21:36] You know, I’m hoping.. I would love to write a book. I would love to do Allen Iverson’s autobiography one day. You know, that’s the goal of mine.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:21:42] Let’s name it and claim brother. Let’s name it and claim it. Ask and receive.
Justin Tinsley [00:21:44] Put it in the universe.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:21:47] What I love about your book, It Was All A Dream: Biggie & The World That Made him. What I love about it is that you do weave in a political narrative and a narrative that is so much larger than Christopher Wallace, for sure. And so to think about Allen Iverson, to think about how he was essentially targeted, as targeted as a young Black man, to think that how he was looking down the barrel of incarceration for many, many years, how, you know, his prospects just disappeared, how he was a two-sport athlete. The stories we’ve heard about Iverson and the reputation he got that was so ill, deserved. I mean, you know, it was just so many things taken out of context and been misunderstood.
Justin Tinsley [00:22:27] I think there’s a very, very powerful story to be told about Allen Iverson weaving in these contexts. And I think it’s a very powerful story to be told by him, which is why I think an autobiography of Allen Iverson would be phenomenal. And of course, you know, when when I do write the book, because like you said, we got to speak it into the universe, you know. I have no problem helping him if he needs it, of course, connecting those dots, because those are very true. Like the same bowling alley where, you know, that fight took place in February of 1993 was the same bowling alley I used to go to when I was a student at Hampton. And I think that’s important. It’s the same reason why I did it in the Biggie book, because I think for so long when we talk about Biggie, we talk about the music and how great it is and how great it always will be. But I also think, you know, we don’t talk about Biggie in a political type stature as well. We talk about Tupac in a political stature because, you know, he came from that type of family, right? He was the son of a panther, which, of course, is going to connect him to the political discourse in this country almost seamlessly. But I think Biggie as well, he’s a first-generation American. His mother moved here from Jamaica dealing with the seventies and the legislation that was passed and that wasn’t passed in the seventies. Having to deal with that and then having come of age in the eighties when it’s just, you know, all hell basically broke loose and eighties. So.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:23:50] Right, Disinvestment in our communities that he so beautifully articulates and paints us the clearest picture ever. Of what disinvestment in young Black youth looks like.
Justin Tinsley [00:23:59] Yeah. And all of that is within the book. And I thought like obviously you tell Biggie story from life to death and then the legacy of course in a lot of which so many of us already know because we know Biggie Story. But I think when you weave that in with the socio-economic, the socio political, the socio-cultural elements of the world around him, hence the title of the book. It paints his life in a more prolific and profound type of light than I would like to think that has been done previously in the past.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:24:30] Right? I think the book is brilliant. It Was All A Dream: Biggie & the World That Made Him, and it’s really providing so much more context for who these individuals are. Okay. So listen, listeners, you are already here first. Justin Tinsley is going to name it and claim. It will be out there with Allen Iverson’s autobiography. And you will have that nice assisted by Justin Tinsley. Okay. So before I let you go and thank you so much for joining us.
Justin Tinsley [00:24:54] Thank you for having me.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:24:55] We’re going to have just a few Black bonus questions. Okay. Ready?
Justin Tinsley [00:24:57] Let’s do it. Let’s do it.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:24:59] Okay. These are just quick fire!
Justin Tinsley [00:25:00] Rapid fire
Dr. Christina Greer [00:25:01] Timbaland or Pharrell?
Justin Tinsley [00:25:03] Pharrell.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:25:06] Oooo wasn’t expecting that. A Different World or Martin?
Justin Tinsley [00:25:09] Oh, Martin.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:25:11] I think I know the answer to this one. Michael Vick or Allen Iverson?
Justin Tinsley [00:25:14] I love Vic. Gotta go AI.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:25:17] Okay. Cookout or Bojangles?
Justin Tinsley [00:25:20] oooo Cookout.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:25:23] Kendrick’s Control versus Tupac’s Hit ’em up.
Justin Tinsley [00:25:27] Uh, Hit em up.
Dr. Christina Greer [00:25:30] Okay. And bias aside, who has the best homecoming?
Justin Tinsley [00:25:37] Bias aside. A&T
Dr. Christina Greer [00:25:38] Oh. Oh, solid. Oh, my goodness. Justin Tinsley, I can’t thank you enough for joining us. For those who haven’t done so already, please go and get his book. It Was All A Dream: Biggie And The World That Made Him. Thank you all for listening to the Blackest Questions. This show was produced by Cameron Blackwell and Richard White. If you like what you heard, please give us a review and subscribe to our show where we listen to your podcast and share it when you know and also download the Grio podcast wherever you get yours.
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