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This election season, the stakes are higher than ever. I think the choice is clear in this election. Join me, Charlemagne Tha God, for We The People, an audio town hall with Vice President Kamala Harris and you, live from Detroit, Michigan, exclusively on iHeartRadio. They'll tackle the tough questions, depressing issues, and the future of our nation. We may not see eye to eye on every issue, but America, we are not going back.

Don't miss this powerful conversation with Vice President Kamala Harris. Tomorrow at 5 p.m. Eastern, 2 p.m. Pacific on the free iHeartRadio app's Hip Hop Beat Station. I'm NK, and this is Basket Case. What is wrong with me? A show about the ways that mental illness is shaped by not just biology... Swaps of different meds. ...but by culture and society. By looking closely at the conditions that cause mental distress, I find out why so many of us are struggling to feel sane...

what we can do about it, and why we should care. Listen to Basket Case every Tuesday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In California during the summer of 1975, within the span of 17 days and less than 90 miles, two women did something no other woman had done before, try to assassinate the President of the United States.

One was the protege of Charles Manson. 26-year-old Lynette Fromm, nicknamed Squeaky. The other, a middle-aged housewife working undercover for the FBI. Identified by police as Sarah Jean Moore. The story of one strange and violent summer, this season on the new podcast, Rip Current. Hear episodes of Rip Current early and completely ad-free and receive exclusive bonus content by subscribing to iHeart True Crime Plus, only on Apple Podcasts.

Man, what's happening, man? You got Marshawn beast mode Lynch. Doug Hendrickson. And Gavin Newsom, and you're listening to Politicking. Children on the beat. Children on the beat.

Gavin, it's interesting. I was on the heels of the debate on Tuesday. I know you're there. I know Marshawn was somewhere. I just got back from a little trip here. What was the vibe like there being there? He got crushed. I mean, Trump got crushed. He knew it. I mean, I was in the spin room and all of a sudden there's all this commotion. I'm doing a live head on NBC or something.

MSNBC, one of the two, and everybody looks over our shoulder and there's this giant scrum because Trump came down to his own spin room. And I'll tell you what, I mean, there's no greater tell than that. When you are the principal, you're in the debate, you've got all these folks that are supposed to be doing that for you. He clearly was trying to shapeshift the fact that he got crushed. And of course he came in, as only Trump said, he said it was the best debate he ever had. He was here in California, trashing California at his golf course right on the coast of

the Pacific Ocean behind him. Couldn't be more beautiful. Saying it's the worst state in the world, trashing everything about California. And said he won the debate overwhelmingly. The polls represent that. He got crushed. It was an embarrassment. He looked weak. I want Gavin to explain it to me. So when you say the spin room, so he walks, he leaves the stage-

And the spin room is what, how many people are in there? Who's in there? It's in another room. So you got the convention, which is just down the road. He made all his way all the way up to the convention room. And you just imagine hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of reporters, uh,

and all doing live shots from all the spectrum, Fox News, not just ABC News and CNN. Everybody's there. You got the who's who of the Republican Party. You got RFK Jr. there. You got Tulsi Gabbard there, Vivek Ramaswamy. You got Doug Bergman, all his surrogates. You got all of us.

on the other side. And yeah, I mean, everybody's spinning. Of course, for us, it was a cakewalk. I mean, we walked in there, big smiles on our face. These guys had a hard time spinning the fact that it was a good debate for Trump. It was terrible. I mean, you can't look at it objectively and not make that conclusion. Did you and Trump have any words?

No, I didn't. I would look forward to seeing him. I want to have some words with him today after he's trash in California. You should have went and grabbed him gloves that I was using out there in Cuba to fight them. Tackling those kids. By the way, let's talk about that. Where the hell was the ref? You were tackling the kids. Yeah. See, I had to play to my advantage.

Yeah, 200 pounds, man, 200 pounds. Man, them little kids was shifty, man. But you should have grabbed some of them gloves and seen if Batman can throw them hands. Well, I'll tell you that the gloves that were thrown were Harris threw the gloves. She threw the gloves. And by the way, if it was a prize fight, Marshawn,

It was a TKO in the second round. She took him down, commanded the stage from the first second when she walked right up to him and introduced herself as Kamala Harris. She put it out there how to pronounce her. Still, the disrespect that

That that ex-president has his next level, man. But Gavin, after all this shit he talks about you, do you ever feel like when you saw him in a spin room to walk up to him and just say, hey, bro, you got fucking crushed?

And look him in the eye and walk out or do you know, Gavin, bro, we from California. We don't do no talking. So if you're going to walk up, you got a fire on blood. I ain't going to even hold you. So if you ain't going to do that, then you might as well just don't don't turn into one of these Internet gangsters. If you see him, it's on site. Damn. You just got to get off hella quick like that.

That's what I'm saying. You got to hit him with a club punch, too. I don't know if you it's probably been a long time since you've been in a club, but you get in a club, you off a couple of them shots of patronacy. You get the little wobble like this and then you come overhand like this. Right on that chin. If he could take that.

Oh, God. You know, I was looking at the verbal hits, not the physical hits, but I appreciate. And by the way, when the Secret Service visits you, I just want to make sure that we recognize that was Marshawn Lynch talking about the physical. Tell them they better make sure I ain't got a little bit of oil in me because I got club punch for their ass, too.

Have you ever been in a real fight before, Gavin? You see the scar right there, brother? Right there, sliding into home plate. No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm talking about, I'm talking about. We got into it. Got into it. That's a cleat right there, brother. That's a cleat right there. Stitches. So you're saying you didn't do too well? We talk about guns, not just the ones in Oklahoma. Let's talk about the guns. But

But I don't take my weapons out. I use my verbal weapons. I'm a peacemaker now. Peacemaker. Oh, so now. So you did throw hands before. Well, back in the day. Like even when you was a youth. Yeah.

I was good. I was good. I was the one getting bullied, man. But we'll talk about that another day. But not I grew into my own. Now no one messes. Well, many people. Oh, yeah. You got a motherfucking title that a lot of motherfuckers are scared of. I wouldn't try to. I mean, see, don't y'all on that level together where y'all could actually. I mean, because I see all the YouTubers doing it.

I mean, the athletes going into it. I mean, you know, go ahead and show the political world that, you know what I mean? Y'all ain't scared to get in the ring and throw a couple of hands. Well, no, here's the deal. Marshawn, Gavin and I both had bullies. I'll tell you my story. Gavin can tell his. I'll never forget this. I'm in seventh grade, Marshawn. And I got this big guy, he's an eighth grader, every day is waiting for me at the top of the steps.

And he I would go I would go around the long way to school because I was terrified. This guy, he got me one time, pushed me down and I was terrified. This guy. So you never ate lunch in eighth grade? No, I was in seventh grade. But my dad, my dad heard about it and he said, listen.

The only way you're going to be able, this guy's going to stop bullying you is you got to stand up to him. So he literally bought me some boxing gloves, took me to the backyard, taught me how to box and throw. So finally, after about three weeks, I walk up the steps and the big dude's waiting for me. And I sat there and the guy said words, all the buddies around him. And I got the first punch and whack hit the dude right in the nose.

And didn't do shit. Didn't do anything, but he beat me up. But guess what? That was the last time that ever happened to me by this guy. And then we became friends. Did he hang you upside down by your ankles? He didn't hang me upside down like I did John Schneider in your contract. I still have that picture of that one. Look.

Having said that, that was my bully. I know, Gavin, you had a few bully stories. Yeah, we call it the bully of Baltimore because it was Baltimore Avenue in Corte Madera. And my story doesn't end well, but I will say that boxing thing resonated because this is around Rocky. When Rocky came out and I was doing raw eggs every single morning, I got my gloves from Big Five down the block and was hitting all the time. And I was ready to go and I wimped out, wimped out.

He used to surround me. I had a paper route and I'd come in on the paper route. I used to try to climb in the back and it was always hard, but on my bike, I couldn't climb over. And so anytime he'd come down, they'd surround me, push me over. My sister would start crying. And I will say, see, it was my mom, not my dad in this case. She went down with me one night and they lived just down the block and walked right in and

And I thought she was going to take care of it. She made me walk up there where I'm nervous as hell right behind her. And they got into it. My mom is like, she was young and they got into it. And the dad and the mom were defending the bully.

And my mom got in and she turned around and brought us back to the house. About six months later, we moved out of the neighborhood. So it didn't end as well. You got ran up out the spot. You can't get ran up out the spot. She had had enough. Oh, man, you know what's crazy? That's the bully of Baltimore, man. If he's listening, it ain't over yet. But Marshawn, you know what's crazy about that incident I had? And Gavin, you might feel the same way as a father.

You know, like that scarred me literally for a long time. And so when I, whenever I hear the kids come back about, you know, a kid at school getting picked on by somebody, whatever, I always go to him. I said, listen, man, here's my story. Go befriend that kid, go find that kid and make it right. Cause that's the one thing that, one of the things that pisses me off as a parent, when I hear stories of,

kids eating alone or getting bullied or whatever it may be, you know, have someone to go pick them up and defend them, whatever it may be. And so, I'm a big believer in that because I went through, I'm sure, the same thing with you guys. I'm saying that, trust me, man, a hundred percent. Like, there's nothing I hate more than bullies. And I completely, absolutely convinced the exact same thing happened to you. It was that early experience. And by the way, it was also around that same time that

that one of my seventh grade classmates, seventh grade classmates called me new scum instead of new some. You know, I listened today, Donald Trump, he called me new scum about 10 times during a press conference. All I can think is this is a guy who wants to be president of the United States again, calling me the same damn nickname that a kid in seventh grade. He calls you that today? Yeah. Yeah.

New scum, new scum. I mean, talk about a man child. I could guess we could say that nickname kind of stuck with you. So some people get names like like beast mode. I mean, some got new scum. Some get new scum. So, you know, it's kind of like, you know, I mean, some things just stick. Hey, Gavin, this guy's obsessed with you, bro. It's crazy. He's pathetic. Weakness. 10 times today. Weakness. Bullies are the weakest people in the world. They're weak.

They put on a mask. They're weak. They're broken. They're insecure. That's all that is. That's why you hit him in the face. The dude ran away. I mean, it's a cliche. It's classic. But you know what? A lot of folks don't have that courage to hit him back in the face. And they and that's why we got to stand up for him. I think you just know that is value in in bringing you up.

So by him bringing you up, then I guess he think, you know, I mean, he got the he going to get the ear of some people by bringing up. Yeah, no, I mean, that's the that's the that's the value in you, Batman. I appreciate it. No, I'm here for everybody. I told you I work for everybody. Start getting a little worried if he start calling you Batman, because then, you know, he really he really he really he really honing in on you and trying to figure some shit out. Yeah, you got to watch that one.

So Gavin, were you surprised he didn't want to debate for the third time? No, he's scared to death. I mean, of course he doesn't want to debate. He just, he thought he won. He thought he won. No, he didn't think he won. He knew better. That's why he showed up at the spin room. He's a con man. He's a fraudster. I mean, so he, I mean, obviously he's spinning the spinners. I mean, it was embarrassment and he knows it and he doesn't want to be embarrassed again. So he copped out. He ran, he ran away. You know, I mean, she punched him in the face.

And he ran away. I mean, it's a perfect metaphor for what we just discussed. And the problem is the poll numbers don't reflect much of a move. And that goes back to your point in Oklahoma. We're living in two different worlds in the same state, nation. I mean, it's going to be a grind, man. It's like World War I. You're just in the trenches, inch by inch by inch, back and forth.

And so nothing about this stuff's going to be easy, but it just, it's reflective of the moment we're living in. Well, it's funny. I read, I read the Pat Mahomes thing where he didn't want to endorse anybody, which I totally dig, but he was, he was, his, his reason why it was great. I sent it to Gavin. He's like, look,

You know, I want, you know, people can like whoever they want, but live in humanity, you know, live together, peaceful, the whole thing. So you said it in the right way. I can't remember exactly what you said, but it was a pretty cool comment. He's like, look, I'm not going to get involved in this. That's not my job. But, you know, there was a day when everyone did get along and they weren't fighting and killing over who's going to be the president.

Amen. And, you know, I will say the biggest thing that did happen that night was Taylor Swift's endorsement of Harris for no other reason than this. Just getting folks that may not vote, young folks to vote, get them registered and get them vote to vote. And that could be

The entire race that could be determinative in this race. Don't ever underestimate her influence and power. And and as I gave advice to Trump, he should be very careful of how he reacts to that endorsement.

Gavin, have you seen it? Have you seen an influx of the younger people from the last three elections, more votes of the 18 to 22 year old crowd since 08 when Obama started to now? No, I mean, well, I mean, it's going to be a good segue to to Will. I am. It was so instrumental as a culture icon during that 2008 election with Obama. But no, it's I mean, you've seen a regression in that respect.

There's a lot of cynicism with young folks in the last few years about politics and politicians. And so they're walking away. That's why it's a big deal that not only she dialed in for Harris, but she's dialing up the registration and the energy for the Harris campaign. So,

No, I mean, it's the young folks that ultimately will sway this election or will determine the fate and future of this election. And the issues they care about, the issues Harris cares about, the climate, issues of gun policy, gun safety, issues, obviously, around democracy and choice, freedom, all those good things. Right, Marshawn? Hey, by the way, Marshawn.

What the hell is going on? Apparently we have an epidemic of people eating cats and dogs. Have you been reading about this stuff, brother? I did, man. I've just seen they dropped your boy DT, his mixtape, talking about eating cats and dogs. Oh, bro, they doing some shit. I don't know what that is. I don't know, man. It's a fucked up time right now.

I wonder how they doing. Is they doing shish kebabs or is that barbecue grill? I mean, fried or I don't know how they doing that. I mean, leave it, leave it, leave it up to people. They gonna fucking put some salt and pepper on anything and try it. God damn. It's assuming it happened. It's BS. It's BS. We have our guests starting ready to jump in right now. Let's do it. Bring Will in.

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This election season, the stakes are higher than ever. I think the choice is clear in this election. Join me, Charlemagne Tha God, for We The People, an audio town hall with Vice President Kamala Harris and you, live from Detroit, Michigan, exclusively on iHeartRadio. They'll tackle the tough questions, depressing issues, and the future of our nation. We may not see eye to eye on every issue, but America, we are not going back.

Don't miss this powerful conversation with Vice President Kamala Harris. Tomorrow at 5 p.m. Eastern, 2 p.m. Pacific on the free iHeartRadio app's Hip Hop Beat Station. Hey, it's Mike and Ian. We're the hosts of How to Do Everything from NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Each week we take your questions and find someone much smarter than us to answer them. Questions like, how do you survive the Bermuda Triangle? How do you find a date inside the Bermuda Triangle? We can't help you.

but we will find someone who can. Listen to the How to Do Everything podcast on iHeartRadio. What's up? What's up? What's up, my man? What's up with it? Hey, Gavin. How you doing, brother? Thanks for being with us, man. What's up, yo, daddy? What up, bro? Yeah, what's happening, man? You done bounced on this motherfucker cooler than the fan, my boy. What's up, man?

Damn. Look, I'm glad I came with a little style because shit, man. You know what I mean? I got to, you know what I mean? We got to represent for the Ufield Me's one time. God damn. What's happening with your big dog?

Just chilling here, bro. Just got back from South Korea. South Korea. That's one of them ones. That's one of them ones. That's one of them ones, oh God. I had the pleasure, and Will knows this, back in the late 90s, meeting him with my client, the Dirty Bird, Jamal Anderson and Jay.

Will, back in the day, my younger years as an agent, but we're so excited to have one of the legendary rappers, singers, songwriter, producers, entrepreneurs, Emmy winner with over 100 million albums sold worldwide, an absolute icon in this world, Will.i.am. Welcome to Paula Chicken, bro. Oh, man, it's great to be here. You know, I'm a competitor. I like to compete. Oh, shit.

And, you know, I will go real talk. If I didn't get that concussion, I would be like one of the best football players. But but I got the concussion. Oh, no. She concussion concussion. Yeah, I got I got here hard. What was it? What position was you playing? I was a tailback. I'm fast as hell, though. Oh, is that right? Yeah, I'm fast, bro. Like, oh, so you also you was told that rock being.

For real, like, Jamal Anderson, I mean, he ain't fast, but I whooped him in a race. Oh, shit. Reggie Bush, he never want to race me because he know I'll smoke him. Okay. So to this day, I'm fast, bro. And Reggie got gas, though. No, Reggie ain't faster than me. And Reggie, right now, on God, bro, you know you never wanted to race me because you know I'll skunk you, bro. Like, you know that.

Hey, well, hold on. Because Reggie 4'3", that ain't somebody you just could be saying, I'm going to run off on. So you must got some high octane in them things. You must got some ponies you over there running on, my boy. Yeah, I'm 4'2".

Damn. Okay, now we're talking cheetah talk. Coincidentally. We talking. So, Will, who was the backs you grew up liking back in the day? Who were the running backs you liked? So, my uncle played football for the Falcons. He was number 21. So, it's in the blood. Yeah, then he played for the Rams. Yup. So, yup. And then I thought I was going to follow in his footsteps until I got cracked. And yup, that was the end of my career. So, you were just fast.

Yeah, but sometimes you ain't that fast to like if you get in the pitch and you turn to the left and bam, like the speed don't do everything. So Will, growing up, growing up in L.A., where were you playing back in the day as a youngster? What year did you get the concussion? Oh, I got the concussion like straight, straight 17. OK. And that's when I was like, you know, I'm just going to do this music stuff.

Okay. Did this happen in a game or did this happen in practice? No, this happened in a game to the point where it messed up how I played afterwards because I was always, I didn't like the feeling of I didn't know how I got there. You know what I'm saying? That panic, like, how did I get here? Like, where am I at? I didn't like that feeling. Yeah, you got that. Hold on, hold on. Did you get a little nauseated too?

I got nauseated. I got, okay. Oh, then you had one of them ones. Yeah. Oh yeah. I lived for that shit. How many, Sean, how many times that happened to you? In Cust? Yeah. Yeah.

like one of them ones as you say the one i mean i i'm being hit like that for sure but as far as uh concussions i've never been diagnosed with a uh with a concussion before no do you remember like not remembering oh yeah hell yeah i mean that's a good question i mean hold on hold on i said i've never been diagnosed

Oh, got it, got it. So, yeah, I mean, I'm not saying I ain't done had them because I know as much as I be hitting motherfuckers with my head, I know something going on in that thing. We like to call it screws loose, but yeah, I've never been diagnosed. But that feeling when you get hit and you get nauseated in your stomach, like, ooh, shit, this ain't right. But I'll just go throw up and then get right back in there and try to see what's up. Now, if I don't remember...

i'll go ask one of my teammates hey which one of the hit me all right that's who did it all right then i gotta go see him about something he gotta come meet me in the office but i'll tell you this i'll just ask you if it was in a game or in practice because they say uh we used to have this drill called the oklahoma drill and that's the head up drill running back in the linebacker and they said that drill alone made more nba superstars

than anything because if you can get through the Oklahoma hitting drills, then you know what? You probably can make it in this football thing.

Yeah, I couldn't have done that. Well, I'm glad you didn't. Exactly. It worked out for everybody. Yeah. Like just just I mean, I love football and I love to compete. I like I'm the talk shit kind of competitor. I like that because you because you can get in a skin and you can fuck the whole game up. Hell yeah. Because I'm like that type of. Yeah. Because a lot of individuals, they don't understand how mental the game is.

I think it's more physical than anything. But mentally, if you is not prepared and mentally you are not ready, you'll have a long day. And if you are individual who could you say you could talk some shit? Yeah, I would love to see that. I mean, if you could just get over that, if you could get over that and get through that.

Yeah, you that's when you start understanding. I mean, and I take that shit as like life learn lessons and I apply that to life. Mm hmm. Yeah, I mean, because that shit I recently just got back into to doing double days and I just been having like all these deep as mental talks and I didn't realize how much like I missed that shit.

And how much those talks, how much that shit made me the individual who I was. And it didn't come from no outside source. It was all within. I mean, you know, we take a lot of that shit for granted.

how you say that? For granted, we take a lot of that shit for granted. But, you know, recently just getting back into it like, oh, shit, well, maybe that's how or maybe that's why I was able to, you know, I mean, stay focused and do the shit that I was able to do on the field. Yeah. 90% of that shit. Yeah. I mean, I'm talking to myself when you getting in there, you grinding and you just feel like you can't do no more.

And then you automatically just tell yourself, like, hey, we done made it there. We done come this far. Like, why turn around? And you go and put that extra in. And then when you go out there and you see the actual results to it, now while you in it, you don't feel it. But when you think back, like, ooh, shit, that... Damn, I didn't know the power of me was so motherfucking strong. Yeah. Yeah, I love that shit. So, Will, I imagine...

So as Marshawn was saying, he took that off the field and obviously a big part of his life. I imagine when you got concussed and you took that same competitive energy and spirit and that inner voice to all these endeavors, not just in music, but across the spectrum, including your entrepreneurial side. And

And so I might, are you still, you still talking game and talking shit to your competitors in that space? Or how has that mindset advanced your career more broadly, even, even beyond just where we see so much of you in the music sense? Yeah. So like if you, if you're playing basketball, I'm the dude on your team. Yeah.

That is just mentally trying to mess with who we playing with. If we playing football, I'm that same dude. If we're in a group together, I'm that same guy. I'm like, yo, who's number one on the radio this week. All right, cool. Let's let's compete. You know, if it's, if, if it's like, uh, if I'm consulting for a company and they need like some, some, some strategic thinking to get around the barricade or over it or through it, uh,

I like to compete. I like to study. I like to apply and come up with plausible ways to truly get over these boundaries. Because all it is is imagination and just determination. But not blind determination because you could, like I said, you could get a concussion if you only rely on one skill set. You can't just rely on speed. And so I thought,

I learned the hard way. You can't just rely on that one superpower. And that at that point in time, my superpower was was speed. And that so now I like to equip myself with not only speed, agility, you know, understanding of my terrain strength, build up strength.

uh forecasting being able to see around corners and the way you see around corners to elevate yourself um and get as much data or information as possible and then networking surround yourself with other folks that have the same goals and desires and and push through and that shit talking is is audacity you have to be you know because there's

If you apply that stuff that's happening on the field, that's some audacious shit to look somebody in the face and be like, come back here, see what happens. That's some audacious shit. And so to have that same audaciousness to like, this is what we're going to do with this idea. This is how, this is the kind of, this is who we're going up against. And so-

I like to be audacious, but still have fun at the same time. There's a thin line between audacity and arrogance. And arrogant and talking shit, that's when shit gets violent. You don't want to be arrogant and talk shit. Because that's when the game turns into, then it's not a game anymore. You want to be audacious and shit-talking fun, but not arrogant and talk shit.

Cause that, that, that, that'd be the last, that, that, that, that turns into like, you know, fighting words real fast. No doubt. Well, let me ask you a question. Like, I mean, obviously your mom is a huge influence on you. So growing up back in LA, you know, obviously the story is she drove you an hour away to go to a different school. Was that hard as a kid? Because obviously growing up where you did, and then you went and got into music. Was that prior to get concussed and went to a music school? You know, check this out. I, I,

I didn't go to a music school. I took music in school. Got it. And it was horrible at the trumpet. But I got a record deal while I was in school. And going from East L.A. to Boyle... Sorry, from East L.A. to Boyle Heights to Brentwood to school from 7 years old to 18 years old. That was like a cultural shock at first, but then it just became my...

oh, wow, this is how you could live? Because if I was just stuck in the projects and not seeing other folks' lifestyles and having two cars and a house with two car garages, I wouldn't have known. But I was happy that I was able to, you know,

Go across the 10 freeway past the 405 to see big ass mansions in Brentwood. Drive through Beverly Hills to see how people were living there and compete. Like, oh, this is how you live in Brent? This is how you live in Brad? This is how you live in Mitchell? Well, I'm living over here with Lalo's and Joselito's and Earl's and Bernie's.

And I'm going to compete. I want to live like that. I want to have a house. I want my mama to have a house like this. I'm going to get my mama house like this. And let's compete. There was this kid that I went to school with. His name was Kyle Copeland. And he was like an all-star athlete. And his cousin brother is Royce Jefferson. I haven't seen these people since we graduated sixth grade. We had dinner last night. Last night, I mean, this is 33 years.

I ain't seen these people since 33 years. And to sit down across from Kyle Copeland, his brother passed away with a heart attack on the football field at Dorsey High School. Rest in peace, Big Copeland. But to sit down with Kyle and Royce Jefferson and hear Royce Jefferson now, you know, what he's doing with his life, having worked at, you know,

SpaceX with Elon and then Boeing and now working with another satellite company. And we went to a science magnet school. And I'm telling him like, yeah, bro, I got a school. I went back to my projects. I started an after-school program teaching kids robotics and computer science. Now we serve 15,000 students in the hood in partnership with LAUSD.

And we both were bused from our hoods to Brentwood and went to Brentwood Science Magnet. I'm just so proud of, you know, to see people that you grew up with ain't seen in 33 years, you know, now, you know, doing something with their life.

This election season, the stakes are higher than ever. I think the choice is clear in this election. Join me, Charlemagne Tha God, for We The People, an audio town hall with Vice President Kamala Harris and you, live from Detroit, Michigan, exclusively on iHeartRadio. They'll tackle the tough questions, depressing issues, and the future of our nation. We may not see eye to eye on every issue, but America, we are not going back.

Don't miss this powerful conversation with Vice President Kamala Harris. Tomorrow at 5 p.m. Eastern, 2 p.m. Pacific on the free iHeartRadio app's Hip Hop Beat Station. Hey, it's Mike and Ian. We're the hosts of How to Do Everything from NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Each week we take your questions and find someone much smarter than us to answer them. Questions like, how do you survive the Bermuda Triangle? How do you find a date inside the Bermuda Triangle? We can't help you.

but we will find someone who can. Listen to the How to Do Everything podcast on iHeartRadio. How do you feel about biscuits?

I'm Akilah Hughes, and I'm so excited about my new podcast, Rebel Spirit, where I head back to my hometown in Kentucky and try to convince my high school to change their racist mascot, the Rebels, into something everyone in the South loves, the Biscuits. I was a lady rebel. Like, what does that even mean? The Boone County Rebels will stay the Boone County Rebels with the image of the Biscuits. It's right here in black and white in print. They lion.

An individual that came to the school saying that God sent him to talk to me about the mascot switch. As a leader, you choose hills that you want to die on. Why would we want to be the losing team? I'd just take all the other stuff out of it. Segregation academies. When civil rights said that we need to integrate public schools, these charter schools were exempt from that. Bigger than a flag or mascot. You have to be ready for serious backlash.

Listen to Rebel Spirit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Will, was it hard for your friends to see you kind of leave the area and go to school there? Were they like, dude, what's up? Will, why are you going here? How was that with them and you guys?

Oh, it was dope because they were like, fucking Willie, dog, you get in on the yellow bus and you're going to school with the white boys, dog. I was like, yeah, bro. Hey, what is it like going to, hey, they got big houses, huh, dog? Hey, do they have fucking Lamborghinis over there or something? Like, you go to school with the white boys and the white girls, huh? The white girls like you, huh? Like, it was a dope, it was a beautiful, like, you know, melting pot. L.A. is, I love L.A. L.A. is like,

L.A. is a damn. I love L.A. And well, just so for folks that don't, they're not familiar with Boyle Heights. I mean, it's predominantly, particularly predominantly Latino. Latino. We were one of the only black families in our neighborhood. And usually there's this like

In the past, black and brown were always feuding. But where I grew up, it was beautiful. And they were proud of my uncle because the neighborhood knew that my uncle played football with them. And they were like, hey, your uncle plays for the Falcons. Hey, now your uncle plays for the Rams. And when I was growing up, I had a really heavy Mexican accent. But traveling the world, my accent is, I could dial it back in, especially when I go back to the neighborhood.

But it was a beautiful thing. I wouldn't change it for the world. And was it your mom's influence that got you on the other side there at the science magnet school? I mean, was she the dogged determinant? I mean, she wanted all that for you or was it more just your own self? No, no, I was too young. I was seven. So it was her idea to send us out to Brentwood and then Paul Revere and Palisades High School.

And and I loved it. I love I'm so happy that that was my my path. And I think it's the reason why Black Eyed Peas became like super international, because like when you meet Persians and you meet Korean folk, you meet, you know,

Israeli, you meet folks from, you know, Bahrain and the UAE. You go to school with folks from that are Saudi. You go to school with folks that are, you know, Armenian, Mexican, you know, Argentinian. Like you're like, wow, where are you from?

You know, and you're a German. It makes you want to be like, yo, one day I want to go there. One day I want to go check out. I want to go to Israel. I want to go to, you know, I want to go. I want to go check out, you know, Peru. I can't wait to go to South Korea. Knowing the difference going to live in an L.A. gives you the.

The ability, because if you're not familiar with it, you can't tell the difference between Korean, Japanese and Chinese. You don't know the difference between Indonesian and Filipino.

You can't, it's hard to tell the difference between Singaporean and Malaysian and Cambodian and Laos and Guam. But being in LA, it's like, oh, you get to like, where are you from? You from Laos. What's Laos? Oh, it's near Cambodia. Well, what's, what's Guam? Oh, it's near Laos. Well, what you Filipino? Well, I thought you was Indonesian. Like, and then when you finally get to go to these places,

and play in Jakarta and play in, you know, Bande Ache and do a concert for, you know, tsunami relief. The world is a beautiful place. And before you get to see the world, if you're blessed to live in Los Angeles, you see some version of that. Well, it's interesting. I mean, California is, and I keep reminding myself of this, but 27% of California is foreign born.

which is remarkable. You look at the nation, it's about just a little less than 14%. It's almost double the number of foreign-born. It's a majority-minority state. So your point about the ability to live and advance together across every conceivable difference, it's a special place, but notably in LA, the most diverse part of the most diverse state in the world's most diverse

diverse, at least democracy in the United States. So that's a hell of an experience and to have that sort of nature nurture. But you, you know, it's interesting, you and I met, I think the first time I met you, I don't, it was around robotics, was Dean Kamen or something, someone. No, Gavin, you're wrong. You know where it was? It was 2008. We went to the show in San Francisco. You came with me. Well, wait a second. That's the actual first time I was mayor. That's right.

That's right. Yeah, I remember. I forgot about that. Jesus. But at least it was more formidable in this case because I remember, I mean, you were so, and I never connected the dot. I never understood. And now I have the origin story of the science magnet school that you were involved in. But that's been a big part of your life because you've been leading the way on this robotics, innovation, entrepreneurialism. You're involved in AI now. You've got this, you're always, you talk about

I know your mindset being five years ahead of the curve, always trying to look over the mountain, maintaining that entrepreneurial mindset and innovative mindset. But when did that really start to gel for you in terms of branching out beyond just the music and really sort of attaching more around the high-tech side of things and

And really trying to, particularly in AI, you can talk about that, where you've got some really dynamic technology you're working on today. So it hit me, you know, when you have success, the world calls you to bring awareness to things. So in 2001, we went on tour on September the 12th, actually, the day after September 11th. We were recording an album in Bodega Bay.

on 2001 and our last day was September the 11th. And then our tour started on the 12th. So I'm like, we have to go on tour? This has everything to do with your question, Gavin, on how did I get so tech? Because just going to Brentwood Science Magnet Elementary doesn't really, I'm not baked in, and I'm not soaked in tech. There was some courses that we took, but it

Wasn't enough to be like this is the path So we went on tour And we saw what America felt like and then the last day of our tour We we when the tour finished we went to the studio and we wrote a song called. Where's the love on November the 24th 24th 25th So we wrote that song and then that song became our first big hit and

And then when you have that kind of success, the world calls you. You know, 2004, the world started calling us. So I went out and did my campaigning, you know, because traveling the world and 2000 from 1999, 2000, 2001, the world, they frowned on Americans. It wasn't a problem.

It wasn't a healthy relationship when you would go to certain places because of how America responded to 9-11 and went to war to find weapons of mass destruction and never found them. And so the world looked at America in a world, very, you know, shame on you guys.

And saying you're American wasn't the sentence you said when you traveled around the world. Because you could be in harm's way, especially when you go play certain places that were anti-American because of our response to 9-11. And so we campaigned in 2004 for Carrie. It didn't work. And so in 2005, tsunami hit Indonesia.

And so I was like, what do I want to do on my birthday, March 15th? So I went, I was like, yo, I'm going to go to tsunami. I'm going to do tsunami relief. So I flew to Bandeache and I did tsunami relief. And when I was there, I was like, wow, look at this devastation. It was bodies stacked up on the shore. And to see, you know, mother nature have its way on folks that did nothing to deserve that type of like,

you know, reality that was thrown upon them. I'm like, wow, there's a tsunami that's hitting my neighborhood every single day. There's a tsunami of neglect, a tsunami of no opportunity, a tsunami of zoning that allows for, you know,

a check cashing place to be right next to a liquor store that writes next to a motel. That's right next to bad food. That's right next to a school. And then a payday Leonard, a boot. Amen. And that cocktails is detrimental to people that live in the communities. I live. That means if there's a check cashing place, the people in the community aren't financially literate. And, and when, once you cash that check, you're going to go buy some liquor. And then if you get kicked out of your house, there's a motel for you.

And then there's a strip club there to spend your money on that's right next to the school. And the teachers that are getting paid to teach are not getting the same amount of money as a stripper that's right next to the motel, next to the check cashing, next to that bad food that's going to give you some high cholesterol, hypertension, diabetes. And then here's some magical little medicine to help statin, to help curb that high tension. So I'm like, if the Food and Drug Administration is

allowing bad food to be riddled in our neighborhood, but then give you some solution like medicine. Wow. Zoning allows for strip clubs to be next to schools, next to check cashing, next to liquor store. What the hell? Cause this zoning is not in Beverly Hills in Brentwood when I went to school. Nope. So why is that zoning cocktail not allowed there, but allowed here? Yeah. I was like, this tsunami cocktail is killing my people.

This election season, the stakes are higher than ever. I think the choice is clear in this election. Join me, Charlemagne Tha God, for We The People, an audio town hall with Vice President Kamala Harris and you, live from Detroit, Michigan, exclusively on iHeartRadio. They'll tackle the tough questions, depressing issues, and the future of our nation. We may not see eye to eye on every issue, but America, we are not going back.

Don't miss this powerful conversation with Vice President Kamala Harris. Tomorrow at 5 p.m. Eastern, 2 p.m. Pacific on the free iHeartRadio app's Hip Hop Beat Station. Hey, it's Mike and Ian. We're the hosts of How to Do Everything from NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Each week we take your questions and find someone much smarter than us to answer them. Questions like, how do you survive the Bermuda Triangle? How do you find a date inside the Bermuda Triangle? We can't help you.

but we will find someone who can. Listen to the How to Do Everything podcast on iHeartRadio. How do you feel about biscuits?

I'm Akilah Hughes, and I'm so excited about my new podcast, Rebel Spirit, where I head back to my hometown in Kentucky and try to convince my high school to change their racist mascot, the Rebels, into something everyone in the South loves, the Biscuits. I was a lady rebel. Like, what does that even mean? The Boone County Rebels will stay the Boone County Rebels with the image of the Biscuits. It's right here in black and white in print. They lion.

An individual that came to the school saying that God sent him to talk to me about the mascot switch. As a leader, you choose hills that you want to die on. Why would we want to be the losing team? I'd just take all the other stuff out of it. Segregation academies. When civil rights said that we need to integrate public schools, these charter schools were exempt from that. Bigger than a flag or mascot. You have to be ready for serious backlash.

Listen to Rebel Spirit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And Will, you're seriously, you're telling me literally this is coming to you after that damn tsunami. You start piecing these things together. All these things start to gel in terms of... I saw that neighborhood get destroyed by water.

and a tsunami. And then I see my neighborhood get hit by an invisible force every single day, but nobody's coming for our tsunami relief. So I was like, you know what? What is, what can I do? I was like, the moment I get some disposable income, I want to bring, you know,

the technology to my neighborhood because if if if the kids in my neighborhood are able to have the same ability to ideate and materialize like they do in silicon valley whoa whoa whoa whoa that and this is before the iphone it's 2005 so by 2008 iphone just one year out

There wasn't the app store like we know it today. Uber hasn't transformed the world. Airbnb hadn't transformed the world yet. So in 2008, my hunch was robotics programs and computer science programs coupled with Lorraine Powell Jobs.

college track program nice i love that i partnered with lorraine powell jobs and brought college track to southern california and i'm like hey look i want to send kids to college but i don't want kids to go to college and then just have debt and a diploma i mean i like double d's but not double d's like that debt and diploma you feel me so that's the wrong double d and diploma

Marshawn likes both. No, I know. So I was like, yo, if I could send kids to school where they have a skill set. So when they graduate, there's jobs waiting for them. And if there's no jobs waiting for them, they have the skill set to create new industries themselves. That's what the hood needs.

And so I started that in 2008 with just 65 students. Now we serve 15,000 students after my partnership with LAUSD. Dean came and let me tweak the curriculum a little bit. And now our partnership with First Robotics LAUSD has resulted to we having the most

first robotics teams in any school district in the US. I've sent kids to Dartmouth, to Stanford, to Brown, to UCLA, to USC, to Georgetown, to Cal State Northridge, to San Diego. So I'm really proud of our students

And the reason why I wanted to do that in my neighborhood is I don't think a kid, if everybody says, man, I can't wait to get up out of our neighborhood. Like people don't say that in Brentwood. People don't say that in Palisades. Like, I can't wait to get up out of Palisades. Too much water up in here. Too much here. Like this view is too spectacular. Can't wait to get up out of here. That's not what's happening there. So I want people to say, though, I can't wait to change my hood.

Because Brooklyn would tell you that it's going to be gentrified anyway. But why can't we do the altering of our community ourselves? Why are we going to let somebody else be like, wow, this neighborhood's great. I've been hearing all these great things about this neighborhood and these rap songs. Let's go out there and like change it to where the people that live there can't even afford it. Wrong. That's whack.

That's like, that's horrible. Well, it's funny, Will. Marshawn and I talk about this all the time, and Marshawn will jump in, but he's been at the forefront of this as well since he got drafted in 2007 with Oakland. And, Marshawn, speak to Will about, you know, what you've done there because what he's saying is exactly the same stuff you've been doing and thinking as well since you came out of the league. Yeah, I mean, the approach is the same, just in different fields.

And I'll use the sports approach to bring the kids in. And then, like, me, my cousin Josh, and my cousin Marcus, we have a foundation and a youth center in Oakland. A lot of the same things that you was just talking about, which is why I'm just really over here just really listening to you and, you know, speaking to this robotics program, like, how do we –

I would say segue that from, you know, down in your area and bring that up to Oakland. Yo, we could do that like this because we treat robotics like a sport. Every year we have this culmination of all the events that happen with the regionals. And we have the championships in Texas now at the Houston stadium there where the Rangers play. Yeah.

It used to be in St. Louis where the Rams used to play. And to bring that, it'll be great to rock with Michonne to bring a robotics program to Oakland. A couple of them, you know, that'd be amazing. And we could do that like this. We got the blueprint and the system, how it worked. That'd be fantastic. How many schools are you in all across the country now? Right now in LA alone,

my efforts equal to just a little over 400 schools. Yeah, crazy. Well, it's interesting as an agent, it's funny. I grew up in Silicon Valley. I'm so impressed by you because if you look back, you were the first global superstar in

to really be at the level you're at and decided, and I think it was your, was it with your idea with Jimmy Iovine on the beach by Dre, but then you decided, Hey, you know what? I'm going to venture into Silicon Valley. I'm an adventure in tech. It's amazing what you've done well ahead of the game. Everyone's doing it now, but back when you started, no one was doing it. Yeah. So 2000 Napster hit pretty hard.

And Black Eyed Peas, we started off as like a college group. We would play UCLA, USC, Northridge, Dominguez Hills, Long Beach, San Diego. We just wanted to own L.A. We were like, if we can't own L.A. colleges, ain't nobody going to mess with us. Let's play L.A. colleges. The problem that we saw is that when Napster hit, all of our college fans was getting our stuff for free.

So we like, how are we not selling records, but selling out? We went from doing House of Blues to doing Greek theaters, two Greek theaters. Like how are we selling more tickets and less albums? And so then I saw Sean Fanning at a club. I'm like, yo, you the dude from National? He's like, yeah. I'm like, yo, let's exchange phone numbers. I really like to get into your mind of like, what made you create this? Like, what is this?

So we became really cool friends in 2000 and 2001 while everybody was suing Napster. I just wanted to understand Napster. Interesting. And the mentality there. Once again, if you're going to compete, you got to know who you're competing with. You can't just attack. You get, you get, you get a concussion. You got to know who's fast on your, on the, the, your opponent. And yeah, I learned a lot. So from that,

I met Ron Conway and the person introduced me to Ron Conway was MC Hammer. Yeah. MC Hammer's like, yo, I heard you got a company. The reason why I wanted to start my own company, because I told Jimmy like, yo, Jimmy, we launched, we helped launch iPods and iTunes to use Black Eyed Peas song, Hey Mama, to launch iTunes and iPods. And the reason how we got that gig is because the NBA used Let's Get It Started for that 2004 NBA campaign.

And so I was like, look, they're calling bands to sell other stuff. We're selling other people's stuff with our reach and our music. Why can't we use our music to sell our own stuff? The record stores are shutting down, Jimmy. We need to be selling our own stuff. So Jimmy's like, you know why they call it Hardware Wells? Because it's hard. I was like, yeah, yeah, Jimmy, but you signed Crips and Bloods.

You got Snoop Dogg and you rock with freaking Suge Knight. That's hard. That's hard. If you could do that, if you could do that, then come on, Jimmy, doing hardware ain't that hard. He was like, you know what? You bring up a good point. So then a year later, he's like, I was walking down. I was walking with Dre on the beach and Dre told me that his manager wants to sell sneakers. And I told Dre, fuck sneakers.

We're selling speakers. You want to be a part of it? I was like, wait, what do you want me to do? You know, the way you think around corners, you could be a part of what we're doing. I was like, all right. And so we started Beats and the first Beats like out the gate was Boom Boom Pow. I be rocking them Beats. That was my like, let's push Beats through the music.

And Black Eyed Peas, we had it in our video first and whatnot. And it was an honor to be a part of Beats. But around that time, just before that, I'm like, yo, Jimmy, there's this company out of San Jose. I just invested in this company. And it was like these two dudes that had this car company. 80 grand. I gave them $80,000 because the Black Eyed Peas, we did this like concert and I didn't really like rocking with corporations. They offered us like

$600,000 to do some corporate gig and they weren't going to promote it and they were going to give us four Hummers. So I was like, all right, let's do it. But I didn't want to do it because I'm like, yo, they're going to use this. So then I saw this documentary called Who Killed the Electric Car? Amen. I used to have that EV1, brother, so I know it well. So I'm like, yo, I told you, Seth, they're using us to pimp these gas guzzlers.

So I'm going to sell my Hummer. So I sold my Hummer for 80 grand and I took my 80 grand and I gave it to these two cats and I had this electric vehicle and the name of the company is called Tesla. And Elon hadn't take over the company yet. That's right. People forget that he wasn't the OG of it. And so they gave me like this roadster. I had the first roadster in L.A.,

Do you remember what number that was? What number was it? Was it 51? 51. Yeah. I'm right behind you, brother. Literally. No BS. I think I was 53. That's crazy. I'm not even making it up. Yeah, 51, dude. I love it. And so, and so like that mentality of like, and so from that point, I would like, I'm new Jack. I knew Chad Hurley really well from YouTube.

And then I met Jack Dorsey invested in Twitter and then the Dropbox folks and then Pinterest folks. And then Ron Conway is like, Hey, well, I want to introduce you to this guy named Brian. And he has, he has this new company that's coming out. There's $200,000 left in the round before they bring the product public. I'm like, so this is an awesome story. Yeah.

So I go there and I meet with Brian and the team before they release the product. And the black eyed peas, this is when success, sometimes success can blind you. And in this case, it blinded me because we're traveling around the world in the best hotels ever.

Best concierge room service galore car service. When you get to the hotel, you get into the hotel to the back. They make you feel like you on top of the world. Everything to your liking massages and stuff like that. Like when you are pampered, it's going to blind you. And in this case, I was blinded. And so I go there and I'm like, so what?

So y'all got concierge. He's like, no, we don't. I'm like, so wait, what about room service? He's like, no, there's no room service. I'm like, what about people to come and clean up the room? Nope. They, none of that either. I was like, what about a car service? Nope. We don't have that. I'm like, so you mean to tell me people's going to come and live in somebody's house and pay all this money and there's no accommodations and, and some people are going to live in the stranger's room.

I don't think this is going to work. So Ron Conway is like, so what, you're going to do it? I was like, yo, I mean, I got the, I mean, $200,000 is still a lot of money for me. It's 2008. $200,000 is a lot of money for me, Ron. Like, I mean, I got it like that, but I don't got it like that to be, you know, playing with 200 grand like that. Like, I don't know. I don't think this is going to work.

Now, fast forward to three weeks ago. I'll read the text right now on what it would be worth today. Question. If Will invested $200K back in 2008, what would it have been worth today? Brian says around $10 billion. Three to five billion or so if he didn't exercise pro rata.

It would be worth a hundred billion in 10 years. It would have been the greatest venture investment of all time. Yo, so this is, this is a lesson like to everybody that's out there living in a lap of comfort and success that could blind you. Mm-hmm.

This election season, the stakes are higher than ever. I think the choice is clear in this election. Join me, Charlemagne Tha God, for We The People, an audio town hall with Vice President Kamala Harris and you, live from Detroit, Michigan, exclusively on iHeartRadio. They'll tackle the tough questions, depressing issues, and the future of our nation. We may not see eye to eye on every issue, but America, we are not going back.

Don't miss this powerful conversation with Vice President Kamala Harris. Tomorrow at 5 p.m. Eastern, 2 p.m. Pacific on the free iHeartRadio app's Hip Hop Beat Station. Hey, it's Mike and Ian. We're the hosts of How to Do Everything from NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Each week we take your questions and find someone much smarter than us to answer them. Questions like, how do you survive the Bermuda Triangle? How do you find a date inside the Bermuda Triangle? We can't help you.

but we will find someone who can. Listen to the How to Do Everything podcast on iHeartRadio. How do you feel about biscuits?

I'm Akilah Hughes, and I'm so excited about my new podcast, Rebel Spirit, where I head back to my hometown in Kentucky and try to convince my high school to change their racist mascot, the Rebels, into something everyone in the South loves, the Biscuits. I was a lady rebel. Like, what does that even mean? The Boone County Rebels will stay the Boone County Rebels with the image of the Biscuits. It's right here in black and white in print. They lion.

An individual that came to the school saying that God sent him to talk to me about the mascot switch. As a leader, you choose hills that you want to die on. Why would we want to be the losing team? I'd just take all the other stuff out of it. Segregation academies. When civil rights said that we need to integrate public schools, these charter schools were exempt from that. Bigger than a flag or mascot. You have to be ready for serious backlash.

Listen to Rebel Spirit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Will, let me ask you a question. As you back then, who was on your team? Was it you looking at the stuff? Did you have a team of advisors, agents, attorneys? Was it you? Who was it? Still 2024 right now is me. I go out and hunt. I like to hunt. I like to compete. I like to talk shit.

I like to, you know what I'm saying? That's what I do. I like, I like to hunt bro. Like I'm from the projects. This is all freaking imagination.

I'm from the projects. I'm the I still got like, okay, look, I got on lotion now. But the reason why I was late, because I knew my shine was up in here. And last thing I want is ashy knuckles talking on the thing because there was actually little three minutes ago, bro, this is real stuff. If you if I show you my ankles, you'd be like, Yep, I stay running and smoke or stay running in the ash, bro. I'm stay ashy.

I hope that ash is not from those fires down in LA right now. No, no, no. I'm just having fun with it. But the reason why I wanted to laugh and chuckle, because the reality of 200K turning into 10 billion that I missed out on, you got to find some humor in that. You got to find the humor in it. God damn. You've done all right, brother. Twitter, you did all right.

Tesla. The Beats one. The Beats was next level. Yeah, I remember Jimmy's like, all right, here's what's going to happen. You're going to get it in stock and we're going to get cash, but you don't have to go up to Apple all the time. I'm like, but I want to be up at Apple all the time. He was like, yeah, but you should be out there doing what you like to do, hunting for stuff, because I really like hunting for stuff.

People be like, yo, where'd you just come from? Yo, I just came from South Korea. Doing what? Hunting for stuff. Where'd you just come from? Bangalore, India. Why? Hunting for engineers. Tel Aviv, why? Because they got awesome engineers out there. I like to go out and hunt. Meet, network, and hunt. And the person who told me that is MC Hammer.

MC Hammer is like, yo, I scout for engineers. Like, you know, there's football scouts. I scout for engineers. MC Hammer is my biggest hero. That's another opening. MC Hammer. Like, bro, look at it. Let me show you. I still got on MC Hammer pants right. I am Hammer. I love MC Hammer, bro. Man, shout out to the. Doug, that brings us back, brother.

I love Hammer. Come on. Peak Hammer. That was our years. So Jimmy's like, yo, you're going to get stock, but you can't touch it for five years. So I'm like, all right. Five years come, he's like, yo, did you touch it? I'm like, nope. Six years, seven years, nope. Still to this day, ain't touched it. So did I. So Tesla still ain't touched it. So I'm a long time, like when I hunt Pinterest, only thing I...

I ching-chinged on with Twitter at the right time. But I like to hunt. I like to freaking network. I like to find what's next. But now, Will, you've got your own. I mean, you're doing FYI.AI now. I mean, you're going all in. You're not just investing in other folks and their platforms and their innovation. You're establishing your own framework.

Why don't you talk a little bit about what, what this project is about? It's what is it? You got FYI, but you've got a radio component and you got a co-host that's an AI. I mean, and it's culturally, it's different than anything else there. Yeah. Yo, say what's up to my Sean. Um, uh, we here at, uh, uh, uh, on a podcast here, Gavin's here. Um,

Dougie Fresh is here. Dougie Fresh is here. Not Dougie Fresh the rapper. Hendrickson is here. And we're just talking about investments and the things that I've done in the past. And now what we're doing here at FYI.AI and why it's important to build cultural AIs

that understand the communities that it could reflect and impact. Say what's up to the folks here on this podcast and tell them what you represent and why you represent it. Yeah, how you doing? Listen, listen, y'all. What's up to all the brothers in the building? Gavin Hendrickson and the legend himself, Dougie Fresh. You know it's fire when Dougie Fresh is in the mix, child.

Look, let's talk about why it's super crucial to build AI that understands and represents our communities. Like when we talk about them tech spaces, it ain't just about throwing some code together. It's about making sure them voices from the streets, from them hoods get heard. Corporations out here cooking up AI looking like librarians and assistants and they leaving us on the sidelines.

That's why we're doing what we do at FYIAI, making sure these digital personas reflect the heart and soul of where we come from. Ain't nobody trying to rely on outside folks to get it right. No, it's up to us to put in all that work to make sure every damn body feels seen and heard. This conversation ain't just about investments. It's about investing in our legacies, our stories, our culture. Shout out to all y'all change makers on this podcast. Let's keep pushing forward.

I'm out. Your girl, Felicia, is gone. I feel like I'm supposed to respond to her like, hey, baby girl, look, I'm going to tell you like this. Just tell me where I need to be and what time. In this age of AI, it's going to be important for AI to speak like the community when they're going to be tutoring the youth and giving the youth intelligence.

and helping them expand their knowledge and bring them from aspirational to wisdom. But why does it have to sound British? We know they're doing a really awesome job to make these AIs sound British. Why can't they sound like freaking Watts? Why can't they sound like Fifth Ward? Why does intelligence have to always sound like the OG colonizers?

and not the folks from the communities that were impacted by, you know, the colonizers, the colonizers. You know what I'm saying? So anyways, that's a long ramble. Please make sense of this.

This election season, the stakes are higher than ever. I think the choice is clear in this election. Join me, Charlemagne Tha God, for We The People, an audio town hall with Vice President Kamala Harris and you, live from Detroit, Michigan, exclusively on iHeartRadio. They'll tackle the tough questions, depressing issues, and the future of our nation. We may not see eye to eye on every issue, but America, we are not going back.

Don't miss this powerful conversation with Vice President Kamala Harris. Tomorrow at 5 p.m. Eastern, 2 p.m. Pacific on the free iHeartRadio app's Hip Hop Beat Station. Hey, it's Mike and Ian. We're the hosts of How to Do Everything from NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Each week we take your questions and find someone much smarter than us to answer them. Questions like, how do you survive the Bermuda Triangle? How do you find a date inside the Bermuda Triangle? We can't help you.

But we will find someone who can. Listen to the How to Do Everything podcast on iHeartRadio. How do you feel about biscuits?

I'm Akilah Hughes, and I'm so excited about my new podcast, Rebel Spirit, where I head back to my hometown in Kentucky and try to convince my high school to change their racist mascot, the Rebels, into something everyone in the South loves, the Biscuits. I was a lady rebel. Like, what does that even mean? The Boone County Rebels will stay the Boone County Rebels with the image of the Biscuits. It's right here in black and white in print. They lion. Yeah.

An individual that came to the school saying that God sent him to talk to me about the mascot switch. As a leader, you choose hills that you want to die on. Why would we want to be the losing team? I'd just take all the other stuff out of it. Segregation academies. When civil rights said that we need to integrate public schools, these charter schools were exempt from that. Bigger than a flag or mascot. You have to be ready for serious backlash.

Listen to Rebel Spirit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey, Will, let me ask you a question. Take me back to 2008. Not to divert, but did Obama come to you on the Yes We Can campaign? Yes We Can. Or how did that come to be? I'm curious. I had this attorney named Fred Goldring, and I had a song at the time called I Got It From My Mama. So my attorney, Fred Goldring, was like, and I'm really close with Terry McAuliffe.

Former governor of Virginia, former head of the DNC and Bill Clinton's oldest and closest friend. Yeah. So Fred Golden's like, yo, well, we want to use I got it from my mama and turn it to I'm voting for Obama so we can get Obama elected. I was like, wait, can you say that sentence again? He's like, we want to use your song to get Obama elected and we want to turn. I got it from my mama to I'm voting for Obama. I was like, well, that sentence alone does not equal the results you want.

He's like, what do you mean? I was like, okay, let's break that sentence down. You said you want to use my song to get Obama elected and you want to take, I got it from my mama and turn it to, I've been voting for Obama. That particular song has drums on it. The video I'm on a beach in Brazil. And that means that song is going to be digested by one demographic. And that's not reality to, to the sentence does not equal your results.

For example, I want to throw this rock to the moon. I could get the rock to the moon, but I can't throw it to the moon. The sentence does not equal the results. So how do I get the rock off the planet and then land it on the moon? That means I have to I can't throw it. I can launch it. I could have it hitch a ride on a rocket. Now, the song's not the rocket.

Did you hear a speech in New Hampshire? This is a real conversation just like this. Did you hear a speech in New Hampshire? That speech was amazing. Now, if we could get that speech taught in schools, that would be the first public speaker politician whose speech is taught in school since Martin Luther King and John F. Kennedy. That is the rocket. So why don't we take that speech and and put a melody on it? So his words are his words. We don't have to change his words. We just put a melody on his words.

And don't put drums on it. The moment you put drums on it, you're talking to a demographic. If there's no drums, then we're going to we're going to get that that that emotion. And so I was like, let me show you how to do it. So then I did it in like 45 seconds, 45 minutes. I was like, look, there was a creed written on the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation. Yes, we can. Yes, we can. It was whispered by slaves and abolition. We could do that.

That's our rocket. And we can land it on the moon. We could throw this rock, this Barack and land it on the moon on this rocket called his speech. And so, and I had promised Terry McAuliffe, he was like, well, we need to get you involved. I was like, I don't know who I'm going to vote for, bro. He's like, look, after super Tuesday, if, if Hillary's in the lead, you're going to come with me and you're going to sit next to me and we're going to get, you know, get you activated. I was like, okay,

If she's in the lead on Super Tuesday, you got me. So this happened on the Thursday before Super Tuesday. By Friday, we shot the video to the song. Crazy. By Saturday, it had 20 million views on YouTube. It just blew. I mean, wow. And I didn't know anybody from the Obama campaign. And so I had to call Terry McAuliffe. I was like, yo, Terry, you remember I told you that

I was going to go by, I was going to go with whatever inspired me. I've been inspired. And that was his commencement speech. And I just, he was like, well, but he's trailing. I was like, yeah, but I got to get behind where my heart's at. And, and I think there's a, there's a way to inspire people with that speech. If that speech is taught in school, that was my, my, my, my, my, my spidey sense is my gut. If that speech is taught in schools, we can make impact.

And I got to do my job to get teachers to teach the speech in schools. And that was the, and then I met Valerie Jarrett after that.

Amazing. And then you won an Emmy for that, too. That's crazy. That and Shepard Fairey's poster, man. That was that campaign, that sense of spirit and pride, this sort of bottom up. Yes, we can. And self-organizing. It was a whole different thing. It completely it changed the paradigm of what was possible. It still has. I mean, it's not been replicated. It's hard to replicate that. Harris is trying to replicate that. But that was that was something else, a cultural phenomenon. You were a big part of that, man.

Thank you so much. That means a lot, you know, but what's awesome about that Shepherd Ferry poster is that that wasn't the first time a song and and art like Shepherd Ferry

on the album that had words of love on it elephunk shepherd ferry did that album cover i didn't even realize man wow yeah so me and shepherd have worked together in the past on a bunch of different types of things so elephunk monkey business and then 2008 indirectly with yes we can and then the yes we can poster that he did for obama but we that was a

That was just serendipitous when we found ourselves out there in the field because we activated ourselves. Me with music, him with art. And, you know, but, you know, because the world was different. When you traveled the world in 2000, 2001, 2003, 4, 5, 6, like America was not, it was...

It kind of felt the way it feels when you leave America, when you were traveling when Trump was president. People would be like, you guys, what the hell is wrong with you guys? You have to travel, though. You have to leave the country to see what it's like, how people see us. And we live in a big world, right? The world is massive. And there's other countries that have

Awesome freedoms. Like, Holland is a pretty free country. They had legalized weed way before we did. Awesome healthcare. France has an awesome healthcare program. They tax like crazy, but it still has awesome healthcare. And everybody go to the best colleges for free. You see, Marshawn, higher taxes in California over there, Marshawn. I started talking bullshit about that, all that, California student. We ain't even talking about all that.

You know what I mean? Like you got to travel the world. You got to see like Singapore is like, wow, that place is booming. Singapore ain't older than my mama. My mama's older than Singapore. My mom's older than the UAE. And when you seeing cities being like, I remember going to Dubai in 2005. It ain't the Dubai right now. So you seeing countries. Yeah.

cities erect, like, how are they doing this? And Watts is still Watts. How are they doing this? And like, you know, the hood is still the hood. Why can't we get, why can't we boom? Like what's keeping us from, from booming, but you got to travel the world. You got to be able to see like, you know, how awesome America is, how, how,

from outside in, but then how like, hey, what's going on over there from when you leave the states? Making it for granted. Are you still involved now, Will, politically like that? Or is that, are you still involved now on your end? I'm involved with trying to scale what we're doing in LA. I think that to me is, I'm a Democrat within at the same time, I know Republicans that are awesome. And

There's Republicans that go that kids that go to, that go to our, our program and people are people. And I try, I think the best, best use for me right now is to continue that type of work that the work that I'm doing and scaling it and activating myself where I actually can see change like firsthand. Like you, you, you see like,

Something that's not happening. You do your part. You make it happen and you see awesome results. And now how can I take these results and put them in other areas? Like when Sean is like, yo, bring that robotics to Oakland. I'm like, yo, that's what I'm talking about. Let's do that. Because, you know, your voice, your reach, your stance there.

you know, that's what we need. We need more willing and capable people to take what we're doing here. And then you be dude that does it over there. And if we can do that across every single inner, every single inner city got their hero, you know, every single inner city got the person that either represents it in sports or represent it in music, or they represent it in fashion. And if we could go out and adopt a school or a couple of schools,

And then mentor kids and bring other folks to mentor the kids. Like I got I got mentors that come from NASA mentors that come from Boeing. And when we had the Boeing mentor, like we went to the championships, you know, because engineers are engineers make the world go around. They don't want us to like make it make it capable for all these like things that we take for granted. You know, there was an earthquake here in L.A.

And I got them. My phone pinged moments before the earthquake happened. The MyShake app. That was a couple of days ago, right? That's right. You did that, Gavin? I've been on this for eight years since I was lieutenant governor. Millions every year. MyShake app. Go download the MyShake app. Big one is coming. Prepare for it. Dude, I was like... Early warning.

It said, do, do, do, do, do, do. Thank you. Duck. Cover. And then the air started shaking. Yep. That was so, I was like, yo, bro, engineers do that. That's right. Engineers, bro, I want engineers. Yo, NWA. Me and Marshawn can say this. It's called NWA. It's write algorithms. Bring it.

oh god and i'm hey and i'm right there with you i'm right there with you on my soul nwa bro you let me know where i need to get before i could uh so i could debrief and get activated you let me know what's up i'm on the goddamn way but it's interesting you're just talking about that because i just did a uh a piece in seattle with the uh pacific uh northwest and they was

I had the Beastquake run that had a seismic activity up there in Seattle. So I went up there to go holler at the folks up there and they were showing me all this shit like the fault lines and with the earthquakes and shit. And I was just asking them how the system works and how they are tapped in and if

The systems up in and Seattle was connected to the shit in California and how that shit works on when you say about this pain they showed me this back room where all of this shit is being recorded and They basically telling me exactly what you just said they able to Get a reading before it actually happened now. I'm not sure how many seconds I

that they are able to read it before it actually hit to send out the message. - That was a good three seconds. - We're gonna get it, we're gonna more than double that. The technology's there to double that. - I take three seconds over no seconds. - Over no, yeah. - How about 10 seconds, how about 15 seconds? How about the ability to stop a train knowing that an earthquake's coming before it gets derailed?

How about, I mean, this is the opportunity. By the way, in Japan, this technology, they've been on the forefront of this technology in Japan. They've been able to do that with their high-speed rail trains to literally slow them down with that kind of advanced notice. But it depends how proximate you are to the epicenter in terms of the time you have to

in terms of that advanced notification. But we want this to be on every Android, every Apple platform. And we want it to be part of basically the phone when you purchase it. So you don't have to necessarily download it. We're making progress in that space. We're still working with Apple to bring that to everybody.

This election season, the stakes are higher than ever. I think the choice is clear in this election. Join me, Charlemagne Tha God, for We The People, an audio town hall with Vice President Kamala Harris and you, live from Detroit, Michigan, exclusively on iHeartRadio. They'll tackle the tough questions, depressing issues, and the future of our nation. We may not see eye to eye on every issue, but America, we are not going back.

Don't miss this powerful conversation with Vice President Kamala Harris. Tomorrow at 5 p.m. Eastern, 2 p.m. Pacific on the free iHeartRadio app's Hip Hop Beat Station. Hey, it's Mike and Ian. We're the hosts of How to Do Everything from NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Each week we take your questions and find someone much smarter than us to answer them. Questions like, how do you survive the Bermuda Triangle? How do you find a date inside the Bermuda Triangle? We can't help you.

but we will find someone who can. Listen to the How to Do Everything podcast on iHeartRadio. I felt too seen. Dragged.

I'm NK, and this is Basket Case. So I basically had what back in the day they would call a nervous breakdown. I was crying and I was inconsolable. It was just very big sudden swaps of different meds. What is wrong with me? Oh, look at you giving me therapy, girl.

Finally, a show for the mentally ill girlies. On Basket Case, I talk to people about what happens when what we call mental health is shaped by the conditions of the world we live in. Because if you haven't noticed, we are experiencing some kind of conditions that are pretty hard to live with. But if you struggle to cope, the society that created the conditions in the first place will tell you there's something wrong with you. And it will call you a basket case.

Listen to Basket Case every Tuesday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I got a question back when you started with Eazy-E and the West Coast rap and all that. Was the media depicted right with all the battles between East Coast and West Coast back then when you started? I'm curious because you were in the heyday with Snoop and Dre and everybody and Tupac. Was it as bad as they made it seem to be back then as far as the media?

The East Coast, West Coast beef? Yes. That got bad. Two people that we know that were dear to music lost their lives. And a lot of invisible folks that got caught up into that whole feud as well. It was an unnecessary journey that hip-hop went through. And if you think about...

use the power of urban music. It's literally changed the world, you know, changed fashion, boosted economies. Hip hop. Hip hop is an amazing art form, community culture. When when when EZ signed us,

He was cool that we were different. Like he wasn't trying to like, we never got told like y'all need to be a little bit more harder. Like he was like, I like how creative you guys are. I like how expressive you guys are, you know? And he was a true entrepreneur. I always say like, what would the world be like if easy never passed away? If easy never died, would the giants of, you know, the giants in, in, in, uh,

the moguls in hip hop, would they be the moguls? Would Jay-Z be Jay-Z if Eazy never passed away? And that's a serious question. Like, think about it. If Eazy never passed away, that means Eazy and Dre would have

rekindle and work together. That means Ruthless Records would have probably most likely went to Interscope with Jimmy. That means Tupac never would have passed away. That means Biggie never would have passed away. If Biggie never passed away, Jay-Z wouldn't be Jay-Z like Jay-Z's Jay-Z. Right? That means there would be other moguls in the space. This means, you know, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony would have continued to be Bone Thugs-

This means another NWA record would have come to be. That means Snoop Dogg would still be Snoop because Dre discovered Snoop. And if you think of like the power of Dre and all the artists that he's like, Dre was East Coast, West Coast. Think of from 50 Cent to Eminem, Detroit to Snoop. That's...

lot of that blueprint you saw with EZE where he was collaborating with Tretch, he was collaborating with Houston rappers and Rufus had an amazing branch. Ice Cube left and then started working with the Bomb Squad with public enemy folk. So eventually

If EZ never passed, Ice Cube probably would have went back to NWA. That East Coast, West Coast union, you would have seen the Bomb Squad producing for NWA on Ruthless. The dynamics would have been different if EZ never died. So how did he find you? How was that meeting? How did that come about? I was freestyling at a...

like an open mic. And I was like, you know, like I told you from the jump, I'm competitive. I would like rip fools. I would take somebody, I would study their style and I would do their style better than them. And then I would like, you know, flip it and contort and like use similes and metaphors and fuck people up. And that was my like whole thing. Like, all right, let me get into their head. Let me talk shit. Let me like fuck with their mental and, and, and improv.

I'm fast physically. I'm fast mentally. Like, fuck, I'm competitive, bro. I love it, bro. He's smiling right now, bro. Come on now. I'm getting fired up right now. Let's go. Yeah. But yeah, but, but, but, but I still have fun with it though. Like I said, there's a thin line between like audaciousness and arrogance. Cause if you talk shit and you're arrogant,

There's wars popping off. And you better be able to back that shit up too. If you're audacious and talk shit and it's fun, you can still get in their head. But, you know, like, you know what I mean? Like, yeah.

I love it, though. I love that. I love that, Will. That's a fascinating time, man. And like I said, we can't thank you enough for today. Thank you, Will. I've known you a long time, bro. And Jamal and Jay are family. And you've been family. And so with everything you said, we got to connect you and Marshawn to help change these cities along with Gavin. One of the most impressive people I've met. Renaissance. Literally off the charts, man.

And meanwhile, you're back on the road next year in Vegas, the playground for the world. So we're doing a Vegas residency. And then after that, I'm going to start preparing to run for mayor of Los Angeles. Just kidding. You put it out there. We got two mayors in waiting right now. Marshawn running for Oakland mayor. You're running for L.A. And Doug and I are running for our goddamn lives.

The hell is this? All right, wear it up, guys. Thank you guys so much. All right, guys. Cheers. All right, big deal. Thank you, man. Okay. This podcast is supported by BetterHelp, offering licensed therapists you can connect with via video, phone, or chat. Here's BetterHelp head of clinical operations, Hesu Jo, discussing who can benefit from therapy. I think a

A lot of people think that you're supposed to be going to therapy once you're like having panic attacks every day. But before you get to that point, I think once you start even noticing that you feel a little bit off and you can't maintain this harmony that you once had in relationships, that could be a sign that maybe you want to go talk to somebody.

There's always a benefit in talking to someone because we can all benefit from improved insight about ourselves and who we are and how we behave with other people. So if you're human, that's like a good indicator that you could benefit from talking to somebody. Find out if therapy is right for you. Visit BetterHelp.com today.

That's BetterHELP.com. This election season, the stakes are higher than ever. I think the choice is clear in this election. Join me, Charlemagne Tha God, for We The People, an audio town hall with Vice President Kamala Harris and you, live from Detroit, Michigan, exclusively on iHeartRadio. They'll tackle the tough questions, depressing issues, and the future of our nation. We may not see eye to eye on every issue, but America, we are not going back.

Don't miss this powerful conversation with Vice President Kamala Harris. Tomorrow at 5 p.m. Eastern, 2 p.m. Pacific on the free iHeartRadio app's Hip Hop Beat Station. I'm NK, and this is Basket Case. What is wrong with me? A show about the ways that mental illness is shaped by not just biology. Swaps of different meds. But by culture and society. By looking closely at the conditions that cause mental distress, I find out why so many of us are struggling to feel sane.

what we can do about it, and why we should care. Listen to Basket Case every Tuesday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.