Talking conspiracies and Black Hollywood with the creatives behind They Cloned Tyrone
Episode 62Play
The Netflix original film They Cloned Tyrone came out swinging, delivering a unique Black story that combined sci-fi, comedy, and impressive cast chemistry. Dear Culture welcomes the film’s director and co-writer, Juel Taylor, and producers, Mark Wright and Stephen “Dr” Love to discuss the behind-the-scenes movie magic that included Jamie Foxx and the struggles to release a film during a tense Hollywood strike.
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Panama Jackson [00:00:00] You are now listening to theGrio’s Black Podcast Network. Black Culture Amplified. What’s going on, everybody? Welcome to Dear Culture, the podcast for, by and about the culture here on theGrio Black Podcast Network. I’m your host, Panama Jackson. And today we are joined by three individuals responsible for one of the Blackest movies I’ve ever seen in my entire life. I’m going to talk more about this film, which is They Cloned Tyrone and we’re going to talk to them about it. But let me just say, in watching this movie, for those who have not seen it, it is a movie genuinely good for the conspiracy theorist in your heart and soul or the one uncle you have that believes that we are all being watched by everybody or that you are not really who you think you are because they have cloned you.
They Cloned Tyrone [00:00:42] I don’t know what that was, but that wasn’t me. Somebody is conducting experiments on us.
Panama Jackson [00:00:48] Ladies and gentlemen, I’m joined today by Juel Taylor, who is a co-writer and director of the film Stephen “Dr” Love and Mark Wright, who are also producers on the film. How you all doing? And thank you for being here.
Mark Wright [00:01:01] Thank you for having us.
Panama Jackson [00:01:02] I got to start here. Are you all conspiracy theorists? And I mean that– I mean that genuinely as a Black man in America. Right? Because when I watched this film, like this film is, it’s like conspiracy theorists porn. Like, it’s like you got people. It’s a whole underground, like system of white people or ambiguously light skinned tapioca flavor, colored people, like myself apparentely, who are running experiments and put cocaine like powder in chicken to control the Black people in Black cities. And only a true conspiracy theorist can write something along those lines. So, Juel, are you a conspiracy theorist?
Juel Taylor [00:01:41] I mean, it depend on the conspiracy, you know? I’m a college football conspiracy theorist. That’s what I’m claiming.
Panama Jackson [00:01:52] What is it? You got to explain that one. What’s the college football conspiracy theorist?
Juel Taylor [00:01:55] You know, the swindle in the swamp. You know, it’s just things that happened, you know, in the history of Florida football. I don’t believe it’s on the up and up. I believe this is part of a skull duggery and shinanigry going on.
Panama Jackson [00:02:12] Not skull duggery.
Juel Taylor [00:02:12] In the NIL right now.
Panama Jackson [00:02:14] Not not the name of a no limit album that we have thrown out here, too. Okay.
Juel Taylor [00:02:19] I’m just saying after like there’s some things going on in the NIL game. It ain’t all the way up. It’s some folks cheating out there. But that’s a different thing.
Panama Jackson [00:02:29] Alright, Stephen. What about you? My Morehouse brother, you a conspiracy theorist?
Stephen “Dr” Love [00:02:33] I mean, you a black man in America, you got to have at least an ounce of conspiracy in you. You know what I mean? Like how can all this possible that we, you know, are where we are at times. So I think I got a healthy dose of it.
Panama Jackson [00:02:47] Yeah. What about you, Mark?
Mark Wright [00:02:48] I’m a recovering conspiracy theorist. Part of the reason when Juel was first in talking, we’re telling you about the things they wanted to touch on the movie out. The first thing I went to with Juel was– what was that movie? The documentary about 911?
Juel Taylor [00:03:08] Oh, which one? I mean, you have Alex Jones. The O.G., the triple O.G. conspiracy theorist, Alex Jones.
Panama Jackson [00:03:18] Well, that’s kind of where I want to go with talking about this film, because, look, I’m a Black man in America, so conspiracy theory is my breakfast typically. But I am also probably recovering. I’ve got a little older, you know, some of the stuff seems a little too far fetched. But the truth of the matter is, you never really know. And every now and then again, you get some kind of vindication or something that demonstrates to you that maybe you not trippin or maybe that person in your family you think is nuts actually ain’t crazy. Like, maybe, maybe they were right about that one thing. And, you know, we’re we’re coming out of well, we’re kind of coming out of COVID, which was like ground zero for conspiracy theories all over the place and everything. And, you know, so while I’m watching this film, which is, you know, it’s a satire, it’s drama, it’s it’s a comedy, you know, it’s got all these different elements. It’s very it’s a very ambitious film. You know, the one thing that I took out of this when I’m watching it is like, alright, like I want to say this is crazy, but I mean, if we were to find out that beneath ground, there were people being– certain people in the community being cloned to keep the community down or to keep it in check, sort of speak. Would I be surprised? I don’t know. So tell me about writing this and how you all came together to bring this film together? And we’ll start with you, Juel.
Juel Taylor [00:04:33] We knew we wanted to have, you know, these unlikely detectives, you know, these adhoc detectives, like on Scooby Doo kinda of mystery. And once we kind of got in to the writing of it, you know, I think once we kind of knew, you know, that question of blame versus possibility. That idea and like, Fontaine’s character is someone who is, you know, having a literal identity crisis, you know, on a you know, on a quest of kind of self-fulfillment in a lot of ways. And the mystery that he is looking to find is like, who am I? Then once you start, like kind of reverse engineer from there, that’s where like we started having fun and like, the conspiracy, you know, started really kind of leaning into the worldbuilding and not even just the conspiracies, but like the real world stuff that’s, you know, not conspiratorial at all. You know, I think that all was kind of a byproduct of like, you know, where would this guy go at the end? You know, he if was on a yellow brick road, like who is the wizard? You know what I’m saying? Once you kind of settle on who the wizard is, and it’s like, okay, why is, I’m trying to not spoil things, you know what I am saying? But like why is.
Panama Jackson [00:05:51] Oh, you can spoil this movie.
Juel Taylor [00:05:53] Well, when he gets to OG and and you’re like that to unpack it like two sides of like your psyche. You know what would lead someone down that road, you know, to that point? And what kind of things would you be involved in?
Stephen “Dr” Love [00:06:07] I was just thinking about the irony that, Joel and Tony wrote that script, at least a full year before the Popeye’s fiasco. I think some people think that they might have say the Popeye’s thing and got inspired, like they literally wrote that script like a year before or had that idea a year before the Popeye thing happened. Way before, you know, obviously way before COVID, so even the medical stuff in there had nothing to do with that. You know, it’s just truly was from there own inspiration in that way.
Panama Jackson [00:06:38] Yeah. You know, I find it interesting because, you know, look, we’re in an era where you compare and contrast things, when I’m watching this, you know, like I remember in Undercover Brother, they use the chicken to try to take down a presidential candidate or turn somebody into a presidential candidate that was effectively going to ruin the country at the control of The Man or whatever. Sorry to Bother You.
Juel Taylor [00:07:02] Black Dynamite.
Panama Jackson [00:07:03] Yeah, right, right. Like, you know, there’s all these films that have played around with some of these ideas in different ways. The way this film brought all these pieces together was was kind of brilliant. I like I really, you know, it’s funny, but it also does make you think. Talk to me a bit about working with Jamie Foxx, John Boyega, Teyonah Parris because they’re amazing in this film. Like their performance is– like Jamie Foxx’s. I don’t know if like– if you like– if you were like, yo, amp yourself up to like 150% of whatever you think you would ever you think you could be. Because Teyonah Parris and Jamie Foxx specifically who are Slick Charles and Yo-Yo like they are like amazing like in this film together.
They Cloned Tyrone [00:07:48] I work in the spirit of the pimp game. You know, you girl got to know what’s going on in these streets.
Panama Jackson [00:07:56] The three of them as a trio. And it’s funny you mention the Juel, like the kind of the Scooby Doo like the mystery thing of it, because once you said that, I kind of thought about like, yeah, like they are trying to solve a mystery at the end and they do find like, you know, unmasking kind of who’s at fault here kind of thing. It’s it’s there’s a bit of that. Whatever. What was it like working with those three on set who their chemistry was so good? Like, was it as fun? Was it as fun as it looked like watching this film at home?
Juel Taylor [00:08:24] Oh. Oh, no. I mean, filming it was super fun. I mean, we shot it like during COVID. We was in a bubble. It was like the conditions were miserable. You know, just in terms of like we shot in the winter, like, you know.
Panama Jackson [00:08:40] That’s the winter?
Juel Taylor [00:08:42] I’m just saying we shot it December. We shot in December and then we got shut down. The crew was sequester. We shot in 2020. We started shooting December 2020, though, like I say all that to say that like, it could have been a miserable state, but it was the conditions were miserable because you got like all this PPE on. You know, mask and you can’t breathe, you can’t see. Cold. But because, you know, the crew and the cast was so, you know, lively and like there was like definitely like a movie summer camp vibe because, you know, the crew was like, sequestered together. I think had John, Jamie and Teyonah not been so down to earth, I don’t think none of that would have been possible. You know what I’m saying? Because at the end of the day, Jamie is the biggest, brightest star in the room. Naturally. You know what I’m saying? Like anybody. I tell you that, though, like if Jamie’s disposition isn’t, you know, always some like, buoyant, you say and I, everybody is going to feed off that. And so it’s like just even like day one, him showing up like he had like a book bag with speakers in it playing music. Oh, okay. Like. This might be because, you know, you really don’t know what to expect. You know what I’m saying? Because this is Jamie Foxx. So, the fact that they were so open to be, you know, just in the middle of like very uncomfortable shooting conditions, you know what I’m saying? Just the they would they never complained about it. They was always cracking jokes and just it was super fun, you know, saying like it really was like. It felt like you were in film school making, the scale was bigger, but it was like– felt like you just making stuff with your friends.
Panama Jackson [00:10:41] Yes. What is it like having that film come out? Like when everybody’s worried about Jamie Fox and concerned about his– whether he’s okay. And the movie comes out and, you know, like it was the timing– like, I’m not one of the people is like this some like, you know, you saw the publicity stunt. I wasn’t one of those people. I was genuinely worried. Genuinely worried about Jamie Fox Right. I’m over here reading everything, trying to concern. But, you know, what is it like dropping a film while that is going on, while we’re still kind of partially in that a little bit, You know, what’s it like dropping a film that stars him in such a such a fun role while that is going on?
Juel Taylor [00:11:15] It’s it’s a little stray, you know, I’m saying because like, it is definitely tempered by, you know. That would be like when it first happened. Like everybody’s life. You’re not even thinking about the movie, right? You like. So worried, I guess. You know I’m saying?
Panama Jackson [00:11:32] Right.
Juel Taylor [00:11:32] I didn’t know nothing more to anybody else and hopefully, you know what I’m saying? So it’s hard, you know, it’s hard to like, fully, like lean into like the promotion when, like, something real is going on with Jamie, you know what I’m saying? It was strange, you know what I’m saying? It was good to see that he was recovering, you know what I am saying?
Jamie Foxx [00:11:54] Somebody was talking about I’m cloned. Well, check this out. Just kidding. Not cloned, man, but I’m here on Earth because of some great people up here on Earth. Because of God, man. So I love all y’all. I just want to jump on here and let you know that I’m on my way back.
Juel Taylor [00:12:15] Just seeing that he’s been getting back out there and like kind of being back in the world, definitely like, comforting, I guess, you know.
Stephen “Dr” Love [00:12:26] Yeah. It just makes you more grateful, you know what I mean? For the legendary that he is. Really. Because we got to see it firsthand, obviously, every day. To Juel’s point, he’s a legend, but he was so, so chill and down to earth and just ready to work. But and that permeated the crew. And then and so you realize that your legend is also like a good dude. And that happens to him, you know? So it it was everywhere. But I think, you know, but of course, there were plenty of people who thought that was part of conspiracy, too, and all of this stuff and which which was crazy. But but, you know, this grateful way would never able bounce back.
Mark Wright [00:13:01] Yeah. I also say, like on top of just, you know, any health issues. Releasing the film during two strikes happening in our industry was a challenge that it was up against. I say that despite that seeing audiences really received the film in such a beautiful way and, you know, recognize and celebrate those performances. There are incredible casts put forth across the board is is really encouraging and really, you know, I think took me back at least to those days when we were shooting on set in challenging conditions, you know, kind of making the most of it. Doing everything we could to keep our spirits high, even though it’s freezing outside and we’re shooting a scene with 200 extras. Getting a range of different attire. Just like Juel said, it was like summer camp and like to see all of those performances and moments celebrated by audiences is really exciting. And, you know, the best gift that you could putting a movie out like this.
Panama Jackson [00:14:03] We’re going to take a quick break. We’re going to come back. I want to I want to zero back in on what you just started talking about, which is the reception of the film. And I do want to kind of make a low beeline towards the strikes and everything, too. So stay tuned right here on Dear Culture, where we’re talking with you Juel Taylor, Stepehn “Dr” Love and Mark Wright about They Cloned Tyrone.
Star Stories Podcast [00:14:27] I’m Touré. Join us for crazy true stories about stars who I really hung out with like Snoop, Jay-Z, Prince, Kanye, and the time I got kidnaped by Suge Knight. Don’t miss my animated series Star Stories with Touré from theGrio Black Podcast Network.
Panama Jackson [00:14:54] All right. We’re back here on Dear Culture, talking about the film. They cloned Tyrone with co-writer and director Juel Taylor and producers Mark Wright and Stephen Dr. Love. And this is a film that everybody I know was like Panama. You need to see this movie. This is a movie made specifically for people like you. It Is super Black. It’s got the shenanigans. It’s pimps and hos. It’s all the things that you love in life. So which sounds worse when I just said that out loud than I actually meant it. So I but I’m going to run with it. I said it. If I said it, I meant to bite my tongue for no one. So. The reception. Everybody was telling me, I need to check this film out. I watched it. I was like I get it. This was awesome. What has been the reception like for you all who are in the thick of it, who were paying attention to this? Like, what are the streets saying?
Mark Wright [00:15:43] It just has been overwhelming positive. I think the biggest compliment coming from Black audiences has been is like, this is what they’ve been waiting for, been looking for, the kind of thing they want more of. And to me, it just demonstrates that you are genuinely tapped into their sensibilities and their creativity. They made a movie that they wanted to see, and thankfully, a lot of people wanted to see you too, because it just really has felt like it resonated with people and not because of who– pimps and hos and drug dealers, etc. not because of what they do it, because of who they are, because the humanity that the actors brought to the characters really made them lovable and really reflected attributes, qualities, quirks that we see in everyday life.
Stephen “Dr” Love [00:16:26] Yeah, I mean, the whole point of streets love it, from what I hear. You know, which is great and honestly, one of the more important things for us is that the culture really wrapped our arms around it. But it is a blessing though, that the critics at the same time really also are embracing it, you know, because that’s something that Juel and Tony, and the whole team, all of us really, you know, worked hard to make sure that the movie was of craft, you know, too. So, yeah, I mean, so far so good.
Panama Jackson [00:16:54] I can say that watching this film, like, I genuinely enjoyed the experience of watching it, right? Like, I kind of, you know, some point I’m like, I see where this is going. Once we got to the to the clones, I was like, okay, I see what we’re going with this. But there’s so many little Easter eggs and things like that, like the little things, like even the license plates, that say “A swell place,” right? Like, like as the, as the state or whatever. Like little stuff like that are things that I enjoy when I’m watching a movie. And this movie had so much of that kind of stuff. Which brings me to a question I have like how much improving were they doing? Like when they’re in the elevator going down and they start making up a version of I’m Going Down. Was that in the script or did they just– did Jamie Foxx just start singing the song? And then Teyonah Parris just hopped in and was like, You know what? I’m gonna keep this going. Like,.
They Cloned Tyrone [00:17:40] Hope niggas don’t dream now. Get fucked up. Right now. Let a motherfucker try me. Oh, he gonna die beside me.
Panama Jackson [00:17:58] There is so much of that little stuff where they just like we going for it. Like, how did that happen?
Juel Taylor [00:18:04] Nah, that’s in the script. I mean, like, it’s like two ways of a page in the script, right. So it’s Teyonah’s improvising, right? Jamie’s, basically just making a few words in the script like it had the lyrics.
Panama Jackson [00:18:20] Okay.
Juel Taylor [00:18:21] And that’s it, you know, and Jamie turned it into, like, beat boxing and Teyonah jumps in like, that was improvised, right? Like, you know, but in terms of just the juxtaposition of John, you know, Fontaine, the street base and like the two of them singing, that’s in the script. But like, what usually happens is like, it’s in the script and it’s like kinda of nondescript and then they get their hands on it and then it becomes like ten times better than it was in the script or they fill in lines in between. So there’s a whole lot of improv.
Panama Jackson [00:18:59] So I got to ask I got to ask big questions, too. You know, we’ve got to have as big questions. So, you know, we’re Black people. So when we do Black things that are, you know, become seen by lots of people and you’re a part of the thing, the teams that bring these things together, we always have to ask questions about Hollywood or representation. And, you know, I do feel to a degree, there are so many filmmakers that we’re getting away from having to always address the representation in Hollywood type of question. But I do think it’s an important one to talk about. Right. So, like, you know, a film like this in your ability to make it and be, you know, the creative teams that are part of these things, like what do you– how do you feel like that impacts representation, the ability to make future films in the Hollywood space? Or is the landscape even changing in such a way where that’s not as essential the old school way?
Mark Wright [00:19:52] I feel like the industry goes through waves where there is an influx of Black projects and then there’s not. And I think that that’s just going to continue to be a cycle until there is more ownership in the distribution model. But just for the sake of talking about our movie, I believe that like a movie like this opens up opportunity for people. It shows, you know, a film that’s made at a very high level that I believe is successful and loved by audiences. It shows that you have a talented young director who’s making his debut in, you know, with this big of a splash. And it shows the possibility of what he can continue to do. It shows, you know, Teyonah and John to, you know, young, talented actors next to a legend like Fox and what they’re able to, you know, the range of they’re able to display and, you know, digging deeper to the comedy and the drama. And I think it shows that there are different ways to tell our stories. And they don’t always have to be very serious, you know, straight forward. Don’t have to always be, you know, slap at slap, you know, slapstick humor, a comedy that I think, you know, people outside of the culture might think that that’s the easiest way to get to audiences. But you can have this very mixed genre, mixed tone, funny movie that does have something on his mind, but ultimately is also very interested in just having a good time.
Stephen “Dr” Love [00:21:26] Yeah, for sure. I agree with that, Mark. I mean, you know, They Cloned Tyrone is unapologetically very Black and very sci-fi comedy and mystery and all of the things. Right. And its kind of a genre on to itself in that way. But it was important that even talking about the business angle of getting the movie made, the budget that’s required to do it, etc., you know, frankly, don’t give us the Black budget. Give us the sci-fi budget, you know, because unfortunately, you know, Black films have been relegated to a certain level. And this story just happens to be centered on Black people and it is for us, by us. But it is very firmly hopefully going to be in the canon of sci-fi films. Right. So and in the canon of films, that is, you know, Juel’s own brand of filmmaking the same way that a tarantino, etc has his. So for us, there was a constant, you know, push and pull of like, yes, first time filmmaker. But this is a film that is much bigger than a typical first time filmmaker, right? As far as the scope, as far as the level of talent it has attracted, as far as the support that has gotten from the industry, etc., So, you know, it warranted a certain level of resources and, you know, you could always use more. But I think ultimately we we had what we needed to achieve, what we achieved.
Juel Taylor [00:22:48] Well, just creatively, you know, you just trying to put one extra little piece of evidence to it, you know, to the jury, you know, obviously, there’s, you know, Black directors who have done the same thing from Pooh, to Jordan Peele, you know, Boots Riley. You know, there are several directors who, you know, come around in the last decade and clearly shown that they can make awesome stuff. I just hope that it gives us just a little bit more– crack the door, just a little bit more open, you know, do our part. Jeymes Samuel with the Harder They Fall, you know, I mean, it’s like there are so many directors who are, you know, selflessly pushing the door out to the point where like they’re swinging back closed, you know, this time, you know, like it is one Black hole after Spike in John Singleton. Like, you know, if Gary Gray got up to push the door open. So you’re hoping that that you know, you you can’t count them all on one hand going forward, you know and any success at all hopefully will make and add to that.
Panama Jackson [00:24:02] So yeah and I I’d be remiss if I did not ask about this. What has been the impact of the strikes going on on your ability to promote the film or to, like, fully celebrate the release of it in this time? I mean, has that has that made it more difficult? Has it impacted it negatively? Has it stunted in any way, shape or form the ability to fully get this film out there, acknowledge, to recognize the way that you would want it to?
Stephen “Dr” Love [00:24:35] In celebrating, you know, because because at the end of the day, we fought really hard to get this film made, you know? And so it definitely makes it difficult to bring other people into the celebration, right. So so many of our friends, to your point, are actors or writers, etc., that would love to publicly support the movie, but they can’t, you know, because of the strikes and rightfully so. The strikes are definitely necessary, but change won’t happen if we don’t have people sitting on the front lines, you know, saying, I won’t lift a pin or go shoot another scene until the deal is right. That’s important. But it certainly makes it difficult in trying to raise awareness about the movie. And thankfully, again, to the culture, the culture really embraced the film and critics embraced the film so that it still had legs in a real way. But I definitely believe that it would have been, you know, even more astronomical if if we had everybody, the whole community really able to support.
Mark Wright [00:25:35] You know, I mean, sometimes to lose in advertising is like half the cost of any film that they’re using to help get it out there. And when you don’t have those same mechanisms that you would prior to a work stoppage and strike, you’re going to be impacted. But like Stephen said we just have been very fortunate that the culture have embrace the movie. We were able to kind of like you know, do advanced projects with John and Teyonah beforehand. So we were able to to bank some assets that that helped us during the rollout. And Netflix was really flexible and smart about how they plan that out and using you know Juel as our director and from the producing team, for them to be out there on the front lines talking about the movie and making sure people understood what it was. I understood when it was available to be seen and keep the conversation going after it’s release.
Panama Jackson [00:26:32] Again, everybody I know, we’re still talking about this movie. I was just down in Birmingham for the National Association of Black Journalists Conference and we got to this huge argument and debate about some of the plot points of the movie at a table that included several celebrity Black luminaries and celebrities, all who had seen the movie. And we loudly argued about this in the restaurant. It had all kind of people jumping into the conversation. Which pointed out one important thing, everybody had seen it. Like people who had huge names, whose names I didn’t know, who just happened to hear us arguing, like all of us from various places have all managed to see the film enough to have an argument and conversation about it. So that’s probably good enough to have done something right.
Mark Wright [00:27:14] That’s all we really wanted, people to argue about it.
Panama Jackson [00:27:16] It’s an argument type film. We’re going to come back and we’re going to do some Blackfessions and Blackmendations. Two of my favorite segments here on Dear Culture. Stay tuned. And we’re back. What we like to do here at Dear Culture is Blackfessions, which is where we ask our guests to share a confession about their Blackness, something people will be surprised to know about them because they’re Black. Could be– it could be anything. Food that you don’t eat, songs you love, things you like to do. I don’t know. Some people like to go spelunking and stuff like that. I don’t even know exactly what that is, but which I think that was mentioned in the film. No, I think somebody actually said the Jamie Foxx mentioned we’re spelunking in They Cloned Tyrone, now that I think about it.
Juel Taylor [00:27:59] That that was a improvised line.
Panama Jackson [00:28:02] See. Look. That’s probably why I thought of it just now because I watched it again last night. Boom. All right, so do you all have a Blackfession?
Juel Taylor [00:28:09] I like the TRL era of pop music. The TRL, like a Carson Daily.
Panama Jackson [00:28:17] Like Blink 182, and in the Third Eyed Blind era.
Juel Taylor [00:28:21] Yeah, it’s like I can, you know, like pop songs from, like, the last 15 years. I feel like I tell you all of them from like that. Exactly. Like, you know, like, like, hey, now, you all star. Like, the you and me, baby ain’t nothing but mammals. Like that whole era and, like, Freak on a Leash with, like, Korn , like, Blue Monday like that– I was about to cuss.
Panama Jackson [00:28:45] I’m with you.
Juel Taylor [00:28:47] It jam. Maybe, like, you know, Last Resort. You know. That was my. I don’t know if ya’ll was rocking with that. “This is my last resort.” Are these even Blackfessions? You know what I’m saying?
Panama Jackson [00:29:00] I mean, you know, it could be for you. This is personal. You know, you your sharing. It’s just sharing.
Juel Taylor [00:29:06] Genie in a Bottle, Genie in a Bottle. Christina Agu– that TRL. When Pete came, when Pete came out with the most girls or the man with the thing.
Panama Jackson [00:29:18] I mean, there’s no Black person alive that does not know Vanessa Carlton’s A Thousand Miles. That piano riff starts. And, you know, we all we everybody knows what’s about to happen, right?
Juel Taylor [00:29:28] Like that TRL era, they had it going on.
Panama Jackson [00:29:32] They did. They did. Okay. All right. What about you, Stephen?
Stephen “Dr” Love [00:29:35] My my Blackfession is that It is probably because I’m from, like, the sticks in South Carolina. But one of my favorite guilty pleasure reality shows, it is not like Housewives or any VH1 stuff, it is Moonshiners. So I will binge that show for ours. I love it. Probably because I grew up a lot people who talk like that. So.
Moonshiners [00:29:59] Will have a duh when you hear what family this is.
Stephen “Dr” Love [00:30:04] But that’s my Blackfessions.
Panama Jackson [00:30:07] Okay, fair enough. I understand completely. I completely get it. All right. Mark, what about you?
Mark Wright [00:30:14] I prefer the Wizard of Oz to The Wiz.
Panama Jackson [00:30:18] Now, that’s a Blackfession.
Juel Taylor [00:30:22] Ohh.
Panama Jackson [00:30:22] That is.
Juel Taylor [00:30:24] I mean, that is.
Mark Wright [00:30:28] Just to explain a little bit further. I love the music of The Wiz and I cherish it. But as cinema, I think that The Wizard of Oz was as a better movie.
Juel Taylor [00:30:40] And I’ll be honest, it is. I mean, that’s that’s just.
Panama Jackson [00:30:47] I was going to take it a step further. I going to be honest. I don’t think the Wiz is that good. So, I’m one of them people. I don’t even think it’s that good.
Juel Taylor [00:30:56] I mean, you talk about The Wizard of Oz. One of the greatest movies ever made goes like that, ain’t saying that much that is, you know,.
Mark Wright [00:31:04] But Black people do not care.
Juel Taylor [00:31:07] Of course, I grew up watching The Wiz.
Mark Wright [00:31:09] I’m always in the minority. I’m like look ya’ll, I don’t care. This is my truth.
Panama Jackson [00:31:15] It’s hard watching The Wiz as an adult when you have adult opinions about things like, Guys, I don’t think this is that good, ya’ll. I think this movie is not jamming the way that we think is jamming, ya’ll. This ain’t it. And that’s when you start arguing with people and next thing you.
Juel Taylor [00:31:29] You got an argument on your hands.
Panama Jackson [00:31:30] Now you got an arguement on your hands. Exactly. You know. You know, and I’ve this has happened several times in my life. Okay. All right. So we’ve got some Blackfessions out the way. But what we like to do here on the other side is since we usually drop them Blackfessions, we like to come up with Blackmendations, which are recommendations for people, for, by and about the culture, something that you all are doing, reading, participating in whatever, something you’re engaging with that you think other Black folks should be up on for whatever reason. So let’s start let’s start with you, Mark. Do you have a Blackmendation?
Mark Wright [00:32:07] Yeah, I have a Blackmendation. It’s actually one that I am working on that comes out this November on Netflix called Rustin. It’s a film about Bayard Rustin and the March on Washington that he helped spearhead the organization. He is a very influential civil rights leader and figure, but isn’t so recognized and remembered in history because he was an openly gay Black man in the 1960s. And the story tells this story and his involvement in this and this work and that movement starring Colman Domingo and directed by George C. Wolfe.
Panama Jackson [00:32:45] Okay, Looking forward to that. I will say I agree. I don’t think Bayard Rustin was well known. His profile has definitely been rising over the past few years, like in terms of people’s recognition of him. So I’m very much looking forward to this. I saw that it’s something you’re working on, looking forward to it, because I love when our heroes, the ones the unsung heroes, get an opportunity to shine. I get to get a real, you know, a real opportunity to be seen. So kudos to you on that one. Stephen. What you got? What’s your Blackmendation.
Stephen “Dr” Love [00:33:17] My Blackmendation is for everybody, if you’re not already, tap into the Earn Your Leisure podcast platform, shouts out to Troy and Rashad. It’s basically all about financial literacy and business and how to build, etc., whether it’s on a personal basis or or a company basis, if you’re trying to create that, but really, really, really, really down to earth kind of approach to how to communicate those, those lessons. So Earn Your Leisure podcast platform will be my Blackmendation. For sure.
Panama Jackson [00:33:51] Yeah, that’s a good one. They’re very popular. Very– I saw their live show at the Roots Picnic last year. Highly entertaining but also very informative. They figured it out. They figured out the formula of what works well for them and getting that information to the public. So I genuinely appreciate what they’re doing. All right. Juel?
Juel Taylor [00:34:13] So yeah, I think I’ll plug something as well. Woody McClain, he got a comic coming out called Brotherhood, you know. You know, from Black publisher. Godhood Comics. Yeah. I mean, go ahead and give him a shot out. Give him a plug. Woody McClain. It’s called called the Brotherhood. From the issue that I saw, it was like super dope. So, you know, just one of the guys, you know. Plug to like, Black writers, Black creators, you know, making other things in different spaces.
Panama Jackson [00:34:53] Now, is this the same Woody McClane from like, the Power Universe like that? Woody McClain.
Juel Taylor [00:34:57] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Panama Jackson [00:34:58] Okay. So, yeah, the homie. The Kane and Bobby Brown.
Juel Taylor [00:35:02] You know, he got a he got a comic coming out. Yeah. I was like, you know, I mean, give him a little plug, you know.
Panama Jackson [00:35:09] Sneakily become in my favorite actor. I really enjoy him and everything that he does. I love that dude.
Stephen “Dr” Love [00:35:16] He’s talented.
Panama Jackson [00:35:18] Okay. Absolutely. Absolutely. All right. Well, we want to thank you all for being here on dear culture. Appreciate the work you’re doing. Love the film. I’ve watched it several times. I recommend it to other people because I think everybody needs to check it out. At the very least, they could be up on the conversation that I’m trying to have about this movie. And because I think Jamie Foxx is just especially Jamie and Teyonah together, like their chemistry was insane in this movie. So I love I love everything that ya’ll did with it. You know, I love the writing, the directing. I didn’t mention the music at all, but the music, my goodness, I was over here trying to shazam the score.
Juel Taylor [00:35:57] Oh, I’m gonna give another Blackmendation. Anothe Blackmendation. One bonus one. The score is on Spotify. Desmond Murray, you know what I’m saying? My boy. Grow up with him. You know Pierre Charles. You know definitely the score is on Spotify now. So I mean like I wouldn’t want to plug like the movie. But I will plug Des because, you know, that’s my brother and, you know, I think he deserves everything that comes– that’s coming his way. First movie he’s ever composed. First time composer. Pierre Charles, super dope composer who came in really, you know, in a pinch that’s a different story. And I really like helped us get over the finish line. So, you know, they just released you know, they just released score like last week on Spotify, you know, Apple Music, etc., etc.. So if you look for a score to score is on there. So definitely want to plug Des. Fo sho, fo sho plug Pierre.
Panama Jackson [00:36:56] Well, thank you for sharing that because I did not know that I was looking for the score to see if it was online when I first watched this.
Juel Taylor [00:37:03] It didn’t drop at first.
Panama Jackson [00:37:05] Man, you just changed my life.
Juel Taylor [00:37:06] Yeah. They had to wait for the soundtrack.
Panama Jackson [00:37:07] You have saved my life.
Juel Taylor [00:37:08] So the soundtrack. The soundtrack, they had to wait like, three weeks, you know, they couldn’t put it out till, like, three, four weeks after the soundtrack came out. So once the four weeks or whatever went by. It just. It just dropped on all the platforms. And so definitely had to plug that.
Panama Jackson [00:37:26] That brother has a future in film scoring.
Juel Taylor [00:37:30] Oh, no. Yeah
Panama Jackson [00:37:32] A future in film scoring. Absolutely. Well, look, I appreciate you all for being here. Mark, Stephen, Juel. Thank you for being here. Thank you for making the movie. For the culture. We appreciate that. As somebody who genuinely engages with all things Black, you really like loves, like when people put their heart and soul into something. I could tell that was done here is ambitious, but it’s enjoyable and like it’s good work. And thank you to everybody for listening to Dear Culture, which is an original podcast of theGrio Black Podcast Network. It is produced by Sasha Armstrong, edited by Geoff Trudeau, and Regina Griffin is our director of podcasts. Again, my name is Panama Jackson. Thank you for listening. Have a Black one.
Maiysha kai [00:38:30] We started this podcast to talk about not just what Black writers write about, but how.
Ayana Gray [00:38:35] Well, personally, it’s on my bucket list to have one of my books banned. I know that’s probably bad, but I think.
Maiysha kai [00:38:41] Oh, spicy.
Charlayne Hunter-Gault [00:38:42] They were yelling N-word, go home. And I was looking around for the N-word because I knew it couldn’t be me because I was the queen.
Keith Boykin [00:38:50] I am telling \people to quit this mentality of identifying ourselves by our work. To start to live our lives and to redefine the whole concept of how we work and where we work and why we work in the first place.
Misty Copeland [00:39:05] My biggest strength throughout, throughout my career has been having incredible mentors and specifically Black women.
Omar Epps [00:39:12] I’ve been writing poetry since I was like eight. I’ve been reading Langston Hughes and James Baldwin and Maya Angelou and so forth and so on, since I was like a little kid.
Rhiannon Giddens [00:39:20] Like the banjo was Blackity Black, right? For many, many, many years, everybody knew.
Sam Jay [00:39:27] Because sometimes I’m just doing some Sam– that because I just want to do it.
J Ivy [00:39:33] Honored to be here. Thank you for doing the work that you’re doing. Keep shining bright. And like you said, we going to keep Writing Black.
Maiysha kai [00:39:40] As always, you can find us on theGrio app or wherever you find your podcasts.
