15. Halftime

Halfway through 2026. Let's check-in.

• R.I.P. Nolan Wells
• LeBron watch
• Movie Talk
• I'm too old for the XXL Freshman List smh
• Hold Ya Head
• Shoutout to the Homies

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_00 0:48

Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Today is July 9th, 2026. I'm your host, Jordan BDJ Taylor. I am the host, the producer, the creator, the owner, the operator, the finesse, the all that of the Big Dream Show. And we got another motherfucking episode. Let's go! I'm turnt. I'm turnt right now. I'm I'm geeked up about it. I'm geeked up like Fabo. How y'all feeling? How y'all doing? So another another day, another week, another month, another year. We back in this mod doing the damn thing. I'm grateful. I'm grateful for every every time I get to come in this studio. Every time I get to talk to you good people. It's really smack dab in the middle of the summer right now. It's July 9th. That is the most middleest of the middle of the summer. Dog days of the dog days. And July is a is a special month, because it's halftime. You know what I'm saying? It's halftime. January, December. We always like, here are my resolutions. This is what this is how it's new year, new me. This is how I'm gonna show up. I'm gonna show out and make 2026 the best year. All that good shit. And you had six months so far. And you either step towards that, you either, you know, put your foot down and handle that. Or you might have left some you might have left some food on the plate. You might have left some money on the table. I'm not judging either way. All I did this year was start a massively successful podcast. But we all got our own journeys and our own paths and whatnot. I'm not hating. Hopefully I'm motivating, encouraging, all that type of shit. I joke. I play too much, but it's halftime, so now is the time to really sit down, really figure out like what you need to do in these next six months to secure them wins. To have you been on your shit, you've been you've been crushing it, you've been, I don't know, whatever your goals and ambitions are. You've been outside of your comfort zone, you've been steady striking, steady trying to advance, steady trying to change your momentum and change your circumstances. Keep that shit going. Figure out what you need to do for the next six months. It took me a while, right? Figure out what you need to do for the next six months in order to bring that reality, bring that future that you want to see forth. And if you're not, then you feel like the the first half they had you, you getting your ass kicked on some, I don't know. Let's say Tom Brady against the Falcons. Sorry to all my Atlanta fans who listening. Let's say, shit, next versus the versus the Spurs with the 27-point comeback. All I'm saying is like, it's been done. It's been done. And I don't know where you at in life. I don't know what your circumstances look like, what your pockets look like, what your prospects look like. But just understand. And it brings me silence and it brings me hope that if you're not at zero, then you are better than points when you were at zero. You get what I'm saying? Yeah, so just keep building, just keep working, keep grinding. You got this shit. And you need to make the comeback, make the comeback so you're chilling by December. And you feel like you got the lead in the bag, you feel good going in the halftime, you put points on the board, you you having a hell of a year making it happen. Keep that shit going. Keep that shit going, because we need it. We need it for sure. I would implore you if you're someone that has trouble starting goals or creating goals, making goals, I would implore you to start some smart goals. And those are specific, measured, actionable, relevant, and time-bound. I use them both when I was with Black Eat Institute as well as when I was with AmeriCorps to guide like both the plans that we have for ourselves with Black Yo, as well as the plans that we set for the youth on the case load when I was with AmeriCorps. And yeah, just be intentional about the shit. I think a lot of times we get so caught up in under planning and under-preparing that when we don't prepare and we don't plan, and then we get the results that we get, we get extra hard on ourselves instead of thinking about how shit would have been different if we would have taken some time on the front end to prepare, took some time on the front end to anticipate. I really like the practice of second-order thinking or higher order thinking. So with that is a lot of times we think of like cause and effect, but higher order thinking thinks about well, if I have this cause and then this effect, what will then result from that effect? You get what I'm saying? So for example, um, cause and effect, I want to lose weight, I want to go to the gym. So the cause is I'm fat as shit. The effect is I go to the gym and I exercise, but then what grounds it is that second level of thought of, well, if I go to the gym and I exercise, then I'm gonna be more inclined to eat healthy because I don't want to mess up my progress at the gym. I don't want to be a fat ass. And I'm not saying this in a derogatory way towards fat asses, you feel me? BD got love for everybody. We all we all built different, tall, skinny, fat, short, we all built different. But yeah, just want to get that half-time speech out there. And I'm off the I'm off the Sally this week. I put the Sally in the they got a blue raspberry type of lemonade at Dunkin' Donuts. So I I spiked the I spiked the blue raspberry lemonade with the Selly. So that's why I came through with the with the Bobby Brown jumping out the helicopter, spend kicking energy. Because it's that kind of it's that kind of show this week. So yeah, halftime speech. I hope y'all are riled up, hope y'all are feeling good, hope you're motivated in the words of my brother Books. Take this opportunity, make this yours. All you guys are there, you got this 24. We all got the same 24, you feel me? So make that shit count. Let's get into these ground rules before we get too too deep into the episode. A little bit of housekeeping before I get into the ground rules. If you're listening to this before Saturday, July 11th, me and the good brothers of the July 10th collective are throwing a July 11th cookout. It's really a July 10th cookout, but nobody wants to have a K party on a Friday when everybody gotta work. So if you're free, this Saturday pull up on us. We're gonna be at Carroll Park. Excuse me. You can hit me up for more information. Hit up Warren, hit up Keys, hit up Stokes, Books. Well, books not gonna be here, but the whole collective. We are we all are gonna be there. It's gonna be a good time. Gonna be some World Cup, maybe, on TV, if not on TV, or phones. Yeah, shout out to my brother Warren, man. Shout out to my brother Warren. He he used to throw big ass cookouts back in the day. Like 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 people deep, like on Green Mount. And he kind of got a reputation for throwing these big ass cookouts. And it was all good vibes. There's never no problems. There's a hundred people outside in the summertime. You feel me? Never no problems, never no shooting, never no fighting, never no stealing. At least to my knowledge. So yeah, he wanted to restore that feeling. It's been a minute since he threw one of those. And me and NFJR, the sixth-minute man, you know, we we dabble from time to time. We threw a cookout in June. We threw a couple last year. We may or may not be throwing one in August or September. But he came, Juan came to our cookout and was like, bro, I think I want to get back in the cookout game just one last time. So we got the Wan G invitational cookout. I'm gonna honor my brother, his legacy of throwing big ass cookouts, as well as me and the gang's legacy of pulling up and being turned at cookouts. So real good time, real good time. So ground rules before we move any further into this motherfucking episode. This episode Dime Plus a nickel. Number one. These thoughts are strictly my own and do not reflect the views of any family, friends, partners, affiliates, or associates, as well as guests, past, present, or future. We use vulgar language. I think I already cussed already, but if I didn't, fuck, you know, get it out the way. Yeah, this is a not suitable for work podcast. This is the type of podcast if you was in elementary school or middle school and your mother caught you listening to it, she make you turn it off, delete all the shit off your off your phone, and then scrub your ears and your mouth out with soap. We keep it real. I don't know what the fuck can tell you. We keep it real. Number three, follow me. Not literally in the sense of social media or YouTube or whatever the fuck it may be, but from the literal sense, follow me. I'm talking fast today. This is an era, there's a time where you can get away with half-listening, you can get away with half-assing, you can get away with not putting your full attention into things. So all I ask is that if you're listening to this show and you took the time out your day to press play on this motherfucker, all I ask is that you give me your fair attention. I know it ain't gonna be undivided, you probably want to treadmill or some shit, or I don't know, cooking dinner, walking a dog. I don't I don't know what you got going on in your life, but I do know that if you don't listen to me, or if you don't follow me, if you don't listen intently, you'll zone out and you'll look back and be like, what the fuck is this nigga talking about? So yeah, follow me. On that same token, tell me if I'm tripping. Yeah, I was supposed to do corrections from the jump. Shout out to Shark, shout out to Ev. Every week he sends me a little bit like, alright, bro, you messed up on this or you messed up on that. I got a name wrong last week. Actually, let's go to the let's go to the corrections right now. I'll just pull up the thread. I'll pull up that that thread between me and the good brother. This is what's called uh keeping the show alive, not dead radio. You gotta balance it. Okay. So corrections from last week. Tell me if I'm tripping. Maybe I'll just put if I'm never gonna pre-record this shit like I say I am, maybe I'll just start putting corrections somewhere under number four. So tell me if I'm tripping. Alright. So last week I said the DC Guardians was the XFL team. I was talking about I don't remember what the fuck I was talking about. But regardless, I said the DC Guardians is actually the DC Defenders. Also, I was talking about ALS in terms of Chris Johnson last week, and I said that it was Steve Atwater who had ALS, but it was Steve Gleason. So shout out to the shark holding me accountable. Shout out to everyone that sends in corrections and thoughts. Tell me if I'm tripping, that's all. Number five, help this thing grow. If you like what I'm doing, you enjoy this podcast, there are some actionable ways that you can help me. Number one is by liking it on Apple or wherever you listen to it at, give it a like. Number two is by subscribing, and this is no in no order, by the way. You can do all of these things. Subscribe so that you know when new episodes drop. Typically they drop by 7 a.m. on Fridays. Now I'm going school starts back up at the end of next month for me. So my recording schedule may shift as I return to school, but at least through the end of the summer, for the most part, I can commit to Fridays top of the morning. It's 7 top in the morning, regardless. But you like, rate, subscribe, leave a review, share, tell a friend, like literally tell a friend if you you got a homie that you think would listen to this show, or you got a homie that know me and don't listen to my shit, and you you feel me? Like, that's crazy. But yeah, help this help this thing grow. Spread the word in any way that you can. Yeah, it's really it's really a labor of love. I'd be lying if I said that it wasn't. But at the same time, there's a lot of room for growth. There's a lot of room for maximizing this thing in a different kind of way. So please help this podcast to grow. Yeah, a lot of ums this episode. Sorry about that. It's not the best listening experience, but I shoot from the hip. I really talk from my heart. There's an episode I want to do, kind of a series I want to do in the next couple weeks. I'm still writing it. I thought I was gonna have it written by Sade and be able to put it into motion, but that's okay. Shit happens. But there's a a series I want to do around media literacy. That's gonna be uh more me reading off a script, me reading some pre-prepared stuff, a lot of facts, maybe some clips, some shit like that. So that's gonna look and sound and feel a little bit different. But yeah, for the most part, if you hear a um or a pause or a it's because I'm really I'm really out here freestyling. I'm really, really out here going off the off the top of the dome. Only thing I'm missing is a lighter flick. Alright. Number six, last but not least, do your research. I know a lot about a lot of shit, but I am in no way an expert on most of these subject matters. All I ask is don't let me or any other thing you see, read here be your end-all, be all of your scope of information and knowledge on the subject. Yeah, simple as that. Do your research. Make sure you know what you're talking about, know your source, all that good shit. And again, we the media literacy piece also comes back because we're talking about doing research and shit like that. So we'll get into it. But now that that is out of the way, let's get into this episode. Let's let's get into the into the meat and potatoes. First and foremost, I want to send a rest in paradise to Nolan Wells. He was the young man in Mississippi who was on a boat trip with some classmates. I think that they were described as friends, but they left him on they left him on the island, from my understanding of the story. They were on a they were on a boat trip. They took a trip to an island. The white classmates took the boat back, and Nolan was left, and then his body was found in the river, like in Mississippi, in the river or in the ocean, whatever the body of water was. So very disappointing, very disheartening, heartbreaking to hear some shit like that. Yeah, man. Yeah, man. Just a constant reminder of what it means to be black in this country. You always gotta watch it back. You always gotta watch the people you keep around you. And there's a lot of just in media and popular culture, and and when I say media, I'm not just talking about the news, but I'm talking about media in general, like the general term of it of like a movie, a song, a music video, a video game, whatever the fuck. There's a lot of demonization of our young black men. There's a lot of thuggery or perceived thuggery that comes with us. Like we ain't shit, we just some some thugs that that don't know no better and don't know shit. But in a lot of these cases I'm seeing, it'd be when we are in situations like a Carmelo acne, situations like a Nolan Wells, situations with people of other race where we're the ones on the on the other side of the dehumanization. And I know the Carmelo acne case is a bit more polarizing because he was the one that he was the one that used the weapon. But yeah, that's just a lack of a lack of empathy. The Karen Hunter show, they did a real good job speaking about speaking about both of these subjects, if you don't listen to Karen Hunter, I would recommend you get a serious XM subscription and turn to herbivu, one of the best, one of the best journalists, one of the best people out here doing it when it comes to speaking about our culture in a way that is both palatable as well as informed. You can tell research is done, you can tell that her qualifications precede her, but she also not gonna cook cookie-cut it. Cookie cut, is that a word? She's not gonna sugarcoat it. So yeah, man, this Nolan Wells situation is just another another reminder that this is why we say shit like Black Lives Matter. This is why we go so hard just asking for empathy, asking to be asking for humanity, asking to be sane, because shit like this be happening. And it's not the first, this is not even the first time we heard a story of uh African American or a black kid going out with a group of folks from a different ethnicity, and they're the one that doesn't make it home. And then when they ask the folks who was with them, nobody knows nothing. Nobody seen nothing, nobody heard nothing, they turn to old maritime, they turn to that code of silence like the mafia got. So yeah, man, watch the company you keep, me around places, faces, meet around spaces and faces. That's what I was trying to say. Spaces and faces that affirm you, that make sure you're safe, that make sure you survive. I've been in those situations more times than I can count. Between high school, I went to a very well-known around here, a very well-known Catholic college, preparatory, all-boys' school for high school. And there's a lot of situations where the microaggressions and shit that you might not even realize is racist. But then when you sit back and peel back the current, it's like, oh, that shit was racist. I remember in middle school, I went to a predominantly black middle school, but I was in kind of the accelerated classes. I had a more intelligent workload. More intelligent, not the word, a more rigorous workload, I guess would be the right way to say that shit. But even there, I remember now as I'm thinking back out of it, some some microaggressions, like one of my classmates wearing a print out Obama cutout face mask type shit. Like, nah, I voted for Romney, I got this Obama shit on. Like, but you know, sh shit that you wouldn't, shit that you wouldn't do. You know what I mean? Shit that you wouldn't do if you had a a modicum of respect. And this back in the day, this is the the mid to late 2000s, back when we did respect authority and we did respect the respect the office of the presidency, and we believe we were moving towards a post-racial America and all that good shit. So yeah, you you see it, but you gotta be mindful of the other company you keep. Especially when they don't look like you, when they don't got the same kind of context as you you just gotta be careful, man. You just gotta be careful. Um so prayers up, RP to Nolan Wells, tragic 19 years old, is is no time to lose a life, especially over some bullshit like that. And yeah, we gonna we gonna pivot. We're gonna talk about something a little more lighthearted. Have y'all seen this beef between Charlemagne and DJ Academics? That's brewing. And brewing, that's another one of them words that be that be getting me. But have y'all seen this? So Charlemagne, DJ Academics, Academics TV, who's like the big Twitter profile associated with academics, but not run directly by academics. There was a lawsuit saying that Academics TV was run and funded by Drake and what's the other one? Oh, DJ Academics, duh. And I I've been thinking about that a lot, because I see a lot of, and maybe this is my algorithm, but I've been seeing a lot of a lot of pro-Drake content, a lot of anti-Kendric comments, a lot of anti-J-Z sentiments, some pro-Nicki Minaj shit too. So I'm wondering Is this algorithm, is this algorithm just feeding me? Is it feeding me shit individualized or is this like a bigger thing where the shit is being manipulated? Cause like I said, I see a lot of a lot of pro-Drake and a lot of anti-kendric content. And I ain't necessarily like the content I engage upon. I engage with it all. I look at at music like sports. I think I said this shit a while back, but I look at it like sports of these niggas is like teams, they like franchises. So it ain't necessarily that I'm ride or die for any one rapper or any one artist. It's more like I enjoy the sport, I enjoy what you drive, I enjoy what you drop, I enjoy when y'all go at each other, I enjoy when y'all collab, all that type of shit. But yeah, back to the topic of the Charlemagne and DJ Academics beef. Now it's come out that Charlemagne was involved in taking money for the project that Jay-Z was trying to get of putting a casino in Times Square. Academics, Academics TV are using that to add feel to the fire of their beef that a nigga use a paid Jay-Z informant type of shit. So it's interesting. And like I said, I don't know, I don't know how widespread this story is. There's also allegations that that Drake and Academics and one of my motherfuckers, maybe Neon. I don't know. All of them start to all of them start to blend together in my head because I'm wash now. But yeah, there were allegations that all that gambling shit they be doing on kick. Is it kick? Steak. All the shit they be doing on steak is like fake and staged and all that shit. So Ponzi skin type of type of armor. It's a whole lot. It's a whole lot going on. So I'm interested to see what really comes out on the in the wash versus what is swept under the rug. I'm interested to see how big of a story all this goes into. Yeah, also the clipper shit. The clipper shit is real interesting too. If y'all didn't know, the way a lot of these streams and things, and I'm learning this now. The way a lot of these streams and things go viral is they got what are called clip farms. So y'all may have heard of stream farms, which is like a hundred, a thousand. Couple thousand phones hooked up in some second or third. I don't even know second words of term, but hooked up in some some place. And they are just running albums and running algorithms all day to get streaming numbers up, bots, and and in conjunction with bots and shit like that. So interesting to see how all this kind of kind of plays out in the wash. Because it's it's real messy. It's real messy. Also, and got your boy thinking a little bit, right? And this is between me and you, it's me and you here. This is this is a podcast, but it's also my journal a little bit, a little bit of expression and conjecture, all that type of shit. But um if y'all know any of them any of them them stream farm motherfuckers, right? We can run this big dream shit up, right? You feel me? I ain't I'm just saying. I'm just saying. BD BD with 50k. 50k downloads, 100k downloads, a million downloads, it don't it don't sound like the worst shit in the world, you feel me? Get out you live. Everybody play the game in their own kind of way. I play it on a straight and narrow for now, but hey man, if you if you got the plug, you got the bots, you got plug, you got box, we need them, you feel me? Like, hey, y'all let me know something. Y'all let me know something. Speaking of uh illegal dealings and insider trading and number manipulation, have y'all heard that that Trump has made 21,000 trades, like 2100 trades in the stock market, totaling between 600 million and 1.86 billion since he's been back in office. Just for reference, I think that the combined number of trades that Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Biden made during their administrations. I think that the combined number of trades on the stock market they made was zero. I think Trump's first administration, his first term was 50 in four years, and now he's doing he's done 21,000 since you feel me, since January of last year. Crazy, bro. Professional traders don't even trade that much. And if you don't really, if I'm saying trading and it's going one ear and out the other, think of it like this, right? Take out, and every everywhere I'm saying trading, put the word gambling in there. Because then it's not that there's a one-for-one parallel, but it kind of is because trading is assuming like even betting on a price going up or a price going down before or after a certain point, more or less. That's the most basic way to put it. I'm not a trader, I'm not a trader or a trader, but I'm not a trader. I'm I'm more of a long-term investor. My lady, shout out to Wifey. She's getting into the trading herself. So we talking, and I'm like, this shit just sounds like gambling. She's like, it is gambling. Also, Jeffrey spoke about it on the episode that we did together, Money Matters. I think that was episode seven. Let's see. Ah, damn, episode nine. I was close though. I was close. But hey, that ain't bad for your boy. That that recall was not that bad. But yeah, so 21,000. Let's say he took 21,000 gambles. 21,000, 2100,000. And this from ABC News. I don't remember if I said that already, but this is from ABC News. This is not just me. I heard it somewhere or pulling it out. Like this is literally ABC News. So yeah, just a level of corruption that we're gonna talk about for long after we're long after we're going, they're gonna talk about the level of corruption. It hasn't been that long. 21,000 trades, billions of dollars. They made fucking Jimmy Carter. Just to put in reference, because I think about this shit a lot. Jimmy Carter had a fruit tree. I want to say it was a cherry tree, but I don't remember what fuck, an apple tree, some shit like that. But Jimmy Carter cut down his tree, because he was a farmer. He cut down his tree before he became president because he didn't want any conflicts of interest. Donald Trump has made 21,000 trades, totaling between 600 million and 1.86 billion dollars since he's been president. That's money that he and his family has made. So I think the math was it worked out to 85 a day. So again, switch out trading for gambling, if that's a metaphor that works that you understand better. Imagine a motherfucker making 85, putting in 85 bets, 85 straights, parlays, whatever it may be, a day. That's crazy. And it's also physically impossible for one man to do that. It's physically impossible. And I don't know, y'all might know some niggas. The way I see it, putting in 85 gambles a day, 85 parlays a day, is crazy work. Especially when you got a full-time job as the president of the biggest company that's ever existed in the history of humankind. Crazy shit, bro. Crazy shit. But moving on. I wrote Love Island on here. I just wanted to say I wish I watched Love Island, because y'all seem to really be entertained about that, and I probably could get a cool 20-30 minutes of conversation out of just talking about Love Island every week. But maybe next season. Y'all, the propaganda is strong. I'm not gonna lie to y'all there. I have been finding myself more and more intrigued, more and more engaged as I see the discourse and I see my friends sending out polls every week and talking about this person and this person and the villa and bombshells and all this shit. I'm I'm old school. That was the most watched shit I say today. But I used to like the real world and the challenge and fear factor and biggest loser. Like all that type of shit. And of course, you know that that trashy VH1 shit like flavor of love and I love New York for the love of Ray J, Real Chance of Love. I used to like all that shit. But yeah, no, the Love Island. I never I never got with the Love Island wave. So we we might be a seasonal way. I don't know. I might stay strong and be able to be able to duck it for another year, but the hype, the hype is definitely getting to me. I'm not gonna lie to y'all. I will not lie to you all about that shit. Alright, let's talk. Um because I I just been feeling like a I'm feeling like I'm getting old. I know I'm literally not getting old, but I just been feeling it. Uh why you say that, BD, outside of you just mentioning the fucking flavor of love, which was on TV 20 something years ago. Because, man, the XXL freshman list dropped, and I legit only know Trap Dicky. I know Grandhard E, but I ain't never really bumped them like that. Hurricane Wisdom is a name that my friends knew. I didn't know. Yeah, when you when you don't know the freshman list, that's like the marker, at least for me. In doing what I do, dabbling, how I how I dabble. I don't know if you know, but I used to be real real essential to highly successful blog during the blog era called the demo tape, as well as a podcast called the Working Time Podcast. So music and new artists, when these freshman lists used to come out, we used to be debating, like, okay, these are the 10 that made it. We know these 10, but here go 10, 20 more that we feel like could have made it, should have made it. Here's our freshman list. And now, bro, I don't know none of these motherfuckers, dog. I don't know none of them. And I think when I was younger, when it first started to slip, it first started to slip around 2022. I that was when I was really confused. I ain't gonna lie to you. I really so I didn't really know a lot of these motherfuckers at the time. Nardo Wick, hell no, I ain't no Nardo Wick. Babyface Sofago, hell no, babyface Ray. I knew Ray. I don't know if I knew Ray in 2022, but I'm a I'm a big babyface Ray fan. Big Scar, Big 30. Yikes. Cali. Oh shit, I didn't even realize Cali was a was an XXL freshman. See? And that's what I'm saying. Keneman, I don't know what that is. Cold Chies, cold cheese, KC, I don't know what the fuck that is. Doce, of course the niggas know Dochie. Saucy Santana. I know Saucy Santana, but I I don't know a single Saucy Santana song. Baby Tron. Niggas know Baby Tron. I know he had a group called The Shitty Boys. That's pretty funny. But yeah, 2022. These are the names for 2022. That's where it got. That's where it first started to get a little like. I know. Alright now, old fella. You might you feel me? Ball up top. You might gotta, you might gotta check out, so you might gotta cash out. But yeah, after that, just even more and more people that confused me. You know? I would get one here and there, like a Glorilla, a Central C, Big Extra Plug, Boss Man D'Lo. Like it was a couple, a couple niggas I would know. But yeah, this year, I'll read it for this year, because this year it's ugly for me. Chris Patrick. I don't know who the fuck that is. Belly Gang Cushington. I've heard of the name, but I I can't say I know a belly gang Cushington. So I'm a big fan of the name though. I like the the Cushington. Real real established, real Paddington the Bear. Slayer. Philly, that's cool. Larizy. Trim. Trap Diggy. Trap Diggy fan. I fuck with Trap Diggy. I like he got a song called uh Sonny, like Sonny Colleon, whatever the fuck. I'm a big fan of that one. Baby Phase E. I mean I know the name, but can't tell you why I know a baby phase E song. Hurricane Wisdom. YK Nees. That's not for her. Her single Wim Wammy. I couldn't be thinking about the code anyway, so so so camo. So so camo. Right, so it's rough. It's rough. It's also interesting. I've seen a list here. This is the Wikipedia page of people that declined the XXL freshman list. And this might actually, and you took this group and compared it against the actual XXL freshman. This is a pretty impressive list. You got 2010, you got Drake and you got Nikki. You got Tyler the Creator, you got ASAP Rocky. I'm sorry, 2010 was Drake and Nicki Minaj. I'm saying this wrong. 2011 was Tyler the Creator and Vado. 2012 was ASAP. 2014 was Young Thug. 2015 was Makona and Party Next Door. 2016 was Tori Lanez and Post Malone. 2017, Young MA, Lucci, Cardi B, Famous Dex. I mean, famous. Alright, so the reason I'm doing that shit is because it's descriptions next to him, and it say famous deck. It says people who decline, but then for famous Dex description, it says that he wasn't added because there's evidence that he beat up his girlfriend. So we're not gonna count. I actually didn't know that happened, or I don't remember that happening, but we're not gonna I wonder if that's why he fell off too. But regardless, we're not gonna we're gonna count famous decks and that. And even if we were, I don't know, I don't know how much of a of a real real change in the game he's making. Um Lil Skies, who I was a fan of Lil Skys, I ain't gonna lie. Lil Skys has some shit. I don't know if he still makes music, I'm sure he does and he from Merritt Well, guess not. Says he's from Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, so I lied. I thought Lil Skys from like Frederick or some shit like that. Rich the Kid. Juice World declined. Bang the Butcher declined. Pop Smoke. Pop Smoke didn't decline, but he got killed before they can before they can do his XXL freshman joint. Don Tolliver. Oh, Don Tolliver's shit is hilarious. Don Tolliver only wanted to be on the cover and did not want to take part in the other aspects of the list, such as the freestyles of the cyphers. That's fucking hilarious. That's really funny. He said, nigga, just put me on a on the cover and write that shit about me. I'm not doing none of that freestyle or cipher shit. But it's crazy though, because he probably would have smoked it more than I don't. That's another thing, bro. And Ice Spice for 2023, just to rap put a bow on that part of the conversation. But them freestyles have not been banging in a long time. And you used to get something that was hard as shit, and then something that was ass, but they was so ass that they was actually hard because they was ass. Like uh OJ the juice man, freshman freestyle comes to mind immediately. Freshman of the year, like a basketball player. That shit is legendary. It's not legendary for no no wear player, no bars. You also don't expect that from OJ the Juice Man, but shit like that. I really like Kirk O'Bang's. I know Shocker. I really like Kirk Go Bang's freshman freestyle too. I feel like that shit was that shit was tough. So yeah, XXL freshman list. The harbinger of whether you are still involved in youth culture or not. Hold on. Let me check one last thing real quick while I'm on his YouTube page. Was Youngboy ever XXL freshman? NBA Youngboy. Youngboy never broke again. I guess not. Yeah, damn, that's interesting. It seems like he would have at least got the car. But that's interesting. That youngboy never. He not in the decline list or the none of these freshman lists. Maybe he's too big of a star or had too much of a juicer impact. But even then, fucking kid kid was a XXL freshman. So yeah. Whatever. We'll look one day and we'll go through real nerdy type shit of which XXL freshman class. We'll put a I don't know. We'll put some kind of parameter on it, but we'll see which one was like the strongest class. I think that'd be some fun summertime I don't got shit to talk about, or wintertime I don't got shit to talk about. I think that'd be some good fodder. Which XXL freshman class ended up. Not even the best, because fuck that. Fuck what's the best at this point. Music is so subjective. You like what you like. I like some real trash. So I ain't judging nobody on their music taste, but we'll go through one day and we'll see. We'll rank them. There it is. We'll rank them. So we got 2027, 2007 through 2026 so far. So that's like 20 years, give or take. Yeah, let's do that. I think that would be fine. Also, why don't they got freshman class for more shit? You feel me? Like I want to go in, I want to go in Wegmans, I want to go in Harris Teeter, I want to go in John, and I want to see like who are your top three freshmen? Like who your freshmen in the produce department? Nigga really, really coming through, putting in that pain, spraying, spraying, spraying down the letter, making sure the cabbage is fresh. Like, I want to know who putting in that pain. Like in everyday walks of life, like who you who the freshmen on the on the fucking mail route? You feel me? Like who the up-and-coming niggas that's getting you your mail eight hours before the text comes that say it's a route? Like, who are the people that are really excellent? I'm joking, it's a little tongue-in-cheek what I'm saying, but there's nothing wrong with celebrating excellence. There's nothing wrong with acknowledging people who that are doing their thing and they feel. So I I feel like more of that would be cool. If I should give you an incentive, I can't talk, bro. I start getting frustrated and shit. It gives you an incentive. It gives you something to work to work towards. Freshman list, who's up next, up and coming list, hall of fame. You feel me? Not to brag, not to tip my own arm, but I'm in the I'm in the Black Yield inaugural Hall of Fame. It's called the Hall of Flame because we we keep the flame of our ancestors who who do the work. So I'm a I'm an inaugural Hall of Flamer. You was wondering about my credentials. But they had a freshman list. I ain't gonna lie to y'all. If in like 2020, 2021, they had a freshman list for young niggas banging in the nonprofit and banging on the media side at the same time. I I would need a cover. I need a freestyle. I might pop out the freshman tour. Fucking with me. But we move on. We move on. World Cup. Ah. World Cup, World Cup, World Cup. I guess I'm going for France now. USA is knocked out of it. Kate Verde is knocked out of it. For a while I was just I was just voting or uh rooting with the best interests of my wallet in terms of who was gonna give me the best return on FanDuel, who was gonna make sure that I didn't didn't waste my money, my free bets, my free gambles, but I'm leaning towards France right now. I know they got Mbappé, they black as shit, they got a black ass team. Sucks that that's coming to the end because we're getting to that real, real dead spot in the summer where the only thing popping off is baseball. I don't know golf schedule. I'm sure golf is popping in the summer, but really just mainly baseball. And wrestling, if you're a wrestling fan, we got SummerSlam coming up. We about to eat good. Shout up. Shout out CM Punk, shout out to Kenny Omega, all in coming up too. So we eat with wrestling, but it's really that dead zone of the summer. And the World Cup kind of distracted us from it. As well as like a very entertaining NBA playoffs this year, as well as an entertaining free agency. It kind of distracted us. The old metaphor that they use for Rome was we can keep the we can keep the peasants we can keep the peasants attention by giving them bread and circuses. And the circus has been circusing. The bread ain't coming through. A lot of motherfuckers is hungry. I ain't gonna lie to you about that one, Jack. But the circus is circusing. So we'll see. I'm I'm real interested on on a more serious note. I'm real interested to see if moving into the summer with less distractions and people kind of how people kind of react. Yeah, what does it what does it look like? No football, no, no soccer, no world cup. Like what what what are we gonna do with our time? When you know it's the time I'm curious about that kind of shit for sure. Yeah, so we'll see. We'll see. What else we got? We got scary movie six, went to see that the other day. Shout out to mom, we went to see that. Good old scary movie six. I think it was good. I think it was good. That's my my review of it. It's enjoyable. Some shit, I'm not gonna say you gotta turn your brain off for it, but you gotta make your expectations reasonable. It felt real, it felt more like scary movie one, two, and three, and it felt like scary movie four and five, and that's always a good thing. I'm a big fan of I love comedy, bro. I love comedy, I love parody movies. Shout out to the Wayne's brothers for the work that they did in that genre over the decades. Also a movie like Airplane, shit like that. It's hella parodies, but I miss that, bro. I miss that genre. I'm excited to see. I know Drewski got a star role in a movie. I can't think of what the fuck else is in it, but I know he got a role as a bodyguard in a big time movie. But I would really like to see Skits and Shit is cool. That's not just Drusky, but Skits and Shit is cool, TikToks is cool, Instagram reels and YouTube shorts are cool, but real parody movies, bro, there is a lane there. There's a lane because there's so much shit. I guess it's kind of the double-edged sword, a kind of the Black Mirror thing of the creators of Black Mirror, where like we didn't we took a break in making episodes because real life was way more insane than any episode we could have written, and that's fair. And I think that the parody game is kind of experiencing a similar a similar kind of thing where the shit that you're parroting it, the shit that you're parodying is already so insane a lot of the time or so crazy that it's like, well, this shit is a parody of itself already, so how do I even poke fun of it? Um I think about the onion a lot. I don't know if y'all know about the onion, but the onion was like uh it's like the biggest satire website. So they'll make headlines of shit that's going on in real life, or playing on shit that's going on in real life, but changing a factor or changing an aspect of it to make it funny. And at one point they was like, Yeah, we got nothing. Like all this shit is so insane. So happy to see the Wayne's Brothers back. Also happy to see it. What's my girl name? Anna Ferris? That's her name. I think her name is Anna Ferris. Shout out to Anna Ferris, shout out to Wayne's brothers, shout out to Regina Hall, all the original cast members that came back, as well as new folks who was in the few in the fold. Scary movie Good For it, good over the scenes. Shout out to Tiana Taylor, good parody. I I just like that shit, bro. I I like the world, it's so serious and the world is so so crazy that I be needing just the stupid shit just to give me an equilibrium. Like when I'm in the crib, a lot of times, if I'm not listening to something, I'm usually watching something comedy, like a sitcom or a parody movie or a comedy movie, because again, like I I take shit in. I feel like the world be tripping. You feel me? I opened the podcast, or this section of the podcast talking about Nolan Wells and his untimely demise. So when all that shit and shit like that is sitting on you, as well as the president making a billion dollars, and meanwhile, niggas like us out of BGE Bill going up every month. I mean needing that comedy, I be needing that escape to keep me grinding and keep me focused. So shout out to Scary Movie 3. Also, Rahlo Rodriguez album is good as as good as shit. Are you listening looking for something to listen to? I I think this is a segment that we gonna do. Watch, listen, read, I don't know. Some I'm gonna come up with some marketing spell for it by next week. Don't worry about that part. But yeah, man, Rahlo's skate, real good. Real good, definitely a banger. Alright, real quick, let's get some NBA talk, man. Real order ceremony. We're gonna do some real quick NBA talk and hold your head. A new edition to Hold Your Head. Where I shoot somebody some bell, actually, and then we're gonna shout the homies and we we're gonna bring it home. But I came in here prepared to talk about Jalen Brown. I came in here prepared to break down that whole situation from both a media literacy perspective and a niggas is crazy betraying Jalen Brown and the prime of his career as a finals MVP perspective. But I just saw this report Kawhi Leonard trade to the Raptors will not be completed until the investigation into the Clippers is completed. So Kawhi Leonard is under investigation with the by the NBA. Right? Am I reading this right? Yeah, I think Kawhi Leonard is under investigation by the NBA, stemming for from if y'all know Paulo Torrey, he dropped a story about Kawhi receiving some money possibly off the books or in the name of a business for services rendered. Him and Steve Bomber, basically, long story short, Steve Steve Balmer and Kawhi Leonard allegedly were had like an under-the-table deal for Kawhi to re-sign to stay with the Clippers. Money that wasn't stipulated in his contract, money that wasn't traced directly to him. Also, it's alleged that if you know Kawhi Leonard, the biggest knock in his game has been that he's a great player when he's healthy, but he's not always healthy. So there were also allegations that some of those signs where he wasn't quote unquote healthy, he really was just waiting for the paychecks to clear. So that's a that's a major shocker because it was expected that the Clippers and Kawhi would go their separate ways. Kawhi would go back to Toronto where he had no burning bridges, he'd be a good basketball fit. He'd go to the only organization that he was a part of that still had warm feelings for him, probably retire his number, all that shit. And now it's looking like it might not happen. We'll see. We'll see. It's looking like it's looking like that shit might not happen though. So we'll can you post it here on uh BDSPN, B D B D S PN. B D B D S PN or B D E S P N I think I think we'll go B D S PN. Well can you post it here on BDSPN? We also got LeBron watch continuing. Yeah, LeBron Wow, LeBron Wow Boy, he probably know where you're going at. I heard the Miami rumors. Yes, Jules. If you don't know why I'm saying that name, it's it's okay. But yes, Jules posted a LeBron asked meme. I had the internet speculating that he would be returning to Miami. Folks have been saying him to the Clippers is a done deal. Him to the Clippers, I'm still thinking about Kawaii. Him to the Cavaliers, excuse me, is a done deal for him to go home and finish up his career there at the scene that drafted him. I also heard he was in Philly last week, so I don't know what the fuck is going on. You know the Golden State rumors persist. I don't know. I don't know how I feel about this. I get the perspective of LeBron James is doing a lot, doing a lot more than most people do in free agencies, but I also get the perspective of it's fucking LeBron James, like he going, he's going through the most. Yeah, I don't know. I'm interested to see where he goes. I'm interested to see how and when this whole story wraps up because as I said earlier, we're in the the sports dead zone. But and there's one man in one story that can keep Sports Center rolling, keep first take paid all the way through the 5 o'clock, 5.30 hour with partner interruptions, 6 o'clock Sports Center. It's LeBron James, the speculation about his future. Just real quick on a Jalen Brown point, though. I don't like the media coming out and saying shit like he thinks he's the smartest person in every room, and he's the seventh best player on the Celtics. All this shit that, in my opinion, and this is is BD the media and communications professional, BD the journalism student, the lover of journalism. I felt like a sm I felt like a smear campaign. Um there was talk that they got back what they got back from the Clippers. Damn, I keep saying the fucking Clippers. And got back what he got back from the 76ers for the trade regarding the draft assets and Paul George because his value is depressed around the league. I don't know, man. I don't know. I don't know. I think that we have leaned too far in certain aspects into analytics, and this is what the numbers say, and it says do this or it says do that. Like, some niggas just get buckets, some niggas is just hoopers. Some niggas is just hoopers, bro. Like, you don't gotta overthink it. You don't gotta say, oh well, he can't do this or he can't do that, or these is or his deficiencies, or this guy has a better plus minus and better splits. Like, yeah, all that shit is true. But if you look at that at that shit with your two eyes and like watching, instead of looking at what the numbers say, what the analytics say, and trying to I think too too often in sports, especially in this this day and age, I think too often in sports, people go in with narratives about things that they want to happen or they want to see happen, and then they watch in order to confirm that narrative, instead of genuinely watching and then building their thoughts after what they've watched has happened. You get what I'm saying? So once into a game, if you got this perception of Jalen Brown and he, this and that, whatever he does, you're gonna use it to affirm and shape the narrative instead of being like, nah, that motherfucker came out there, game something, was putting up, he putting up shots, he put up some bricks too, but at the same time, bro, you talking about you talking about a motherfucker that wants to finals MVP. I feel like we can't we can't discover that. So I don't like it, but on the flip side, from the media literacy point, what did Jalen Brown do? Immediately he went on his kickstream directly to his audience and his supporters. He made his response like, yo, the Celtics, they just they just clipped your boy, they just got me out of here. They just they just banged on me. Called up his teammates, he called up VJ, called up Maxie, or something like God, I can't wait to get to work. Show love to the city. And also the shit you'll see a lot of athletes do, sports figures, you'll see them take out, if they get traded from one city to another, you'll see them take out a full-page ad in the city that they leave in as like a show of respect, a show of love to the fans and the people that supported them throughout the years, as well as a lot of times you'll see if they have some kind of charitable endeavor, you'll see that endeavor continue even after they left the city. Shout out to Torrey Smith, the Torrey Smith Foundation. After Torrey Smith was long gone from Baltimore as a player, the Torrey Smith Foundation was still putting in work and to this day, still putting in work in the city of Baltimore, so yeah. Jalen Brown, I wish you the best. I don't Yeah, I don't I don't know, bro. It just feels like I'm saying this seven players on the Celtics better than Jalen Brown feels a lot like Kendrick Lamar saying, what do you say? I mean fucking Kendrick Lamar. Luke Bay Fiasco saying last week that there are a hundred people who rap better than Kendrick Lamar. Like it just That don't pass the sniff test to me, bro. That feels yeah, that feels poignant. That feels like it's it's something else in there. So we'll see. We'll see. We'll see if LeBron ends up in in Philly. I want to say it'll be Minnesota at this point. He niggas not going to Minnesota. Like I'm I'm very clear. I'll be shocked. I'll be fucking shocked. But him and uh LaMelo, that'll be some entertaining shit. Lamello throwing a live to LeBron, that'd be some funny shit to see. It's just like their locker romantics and LeBron being the old man, like all these niggas is tripping. Like it would be a lot of fun. Alright, let's move into our bread and butter, our old reliables. Hold your head, hold your head, hold your head this week. Not to make light of a tragic story, but to the young man who was recording Big Tigger trying to snatch the phone back from who I believe was his wife, that yelled out passionately, Mr. Tigger, hold your head, bruh. Hope the situation works out for you. Again, not trying to make light of any kind of domestic abuse or property theft or a situation like that. But I would be lying if I said that the young man holding the phone who yelled out Mr. Tigger was not hilarious. For first time ever, also, I'm gonna shoot somebody some bail. Shoot you some bail the first or maybe the last ever goes to Lil Wayne. Last week Lil Wayne got a hold your head because he missed the show in Maine, but was at the Michael Rubin White Party. Lil Wayne has since come out and said he felt like he was on the verge of some medical problems that would reactivate his epilepsy. So he said he was having migraines. Migraines are also often a symptom of him that he's gonna go into an episode of epilepsy or seizure type episode. So want to be fair. I don't know if I believe it. I should have kept that part in my head. But want to be fair, no one wanna slander you if you really had a medical emergency and that's why you couldn't make your show. Like, we human. What the fuck can you do about that? I know I'd be pissed if I was a fan, but hopefully that is what it is, and it was just a coincidence that he had he happened to be at that white party. Last but not least, on a shout-out to the homies tip. If you are going to be in the DC area this weekend, cash, friend of the show, alumni. I fucked this up too. Bro, did I say Jason? I meant Jeffrey, but yeah. Euphoriacon this Saturday, July 11th and 12th in DC. She's gonna be venting there with Girls from Venus, as well as the homie Michelangelo, future, future guest on the podcast, friend of the program. He is gonna be at DreamCon doing Pokemon shit. I no disrespect, bro. I don't I I know you like a real life Pokemon master, but I'd be lying if I said I knew what your what your 24 hours look like. But hey, have you seen a homie down there? Probably dressed like Ass Catch him or some kind of cool anime nigga from a show that I ain't seen because I ain't got Crunchyroll no more. Say what's up, tell him you know BD, man. So say travel to everybody, much success to everybody episode 1-5 in the books. This time next week, I will be what four? Four months in? Four months back? Yeah, I'll I shaking up the rut shaking off the rust, I'll be a quarter in. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. It's so much I can say, so many thoughts on my mind, so many things. It's always gratitude, always love, but also thinking about, so if we had episode 15, episode 25, that's kind of a milestone. And from 25 to 50, and then 75, 100, and live shows, and live streams, and merchandise, and spinoffs, and all this shit. It's a whole, it's really a whole Big Dreams universe inside my head. But the easiest step for me, the most, the most tangible and realistic step for me was getting this podcast up and running. Cause this is the this is the bread and butter. This is this is what I love. This is what I would do if all else failed. If I ain't if I was making money off of it, if I'm not making money off of it, free paid. This is I love just being able to express myself, articulate, work out my thoughts on different shit that's going on here from y'all talk to y'all mill communities. It's a blessing for sure, and I don't I don't take it for granted. So as I reflect on 15 episodes in the kind, think about doing something special for episode 16, a real, instead of like doing topics and shit doing a real media literacy focused episode. Yeah, I'm just I'm just elated, bro. So he my words. Remember what I said at the top of the show? It's halftime, you got another half of the year to make it right, make some shit shake. I believe in you, you can make it happen. All this big dreams shit that I talk and I speak, it really is about proof of concept. Like, yeah, it's cool for me to be the man, it's cool for me to be Big Dreams, Jordan, BDJ, out in front of shit, willing to take the risk, willing to go to the place, willing to have my face out there, smile, laugh, be on stage, play the back, whatever it may be. But my effort really with doing as many things as I have done and as I do and will continue to do, is to work as the blueprint, to work as the as the proof of concept that whatever you want to do, like go do that shit. Go try it. You might be ass at it, you might be good at it, but fuck it. You only get one life. And at least for me, I don't want to look up in my final days, God willing that it I'm aware of my final days and that I have a cognizant memory, and hopefully it's it's a long, long time from here. But I don't want to look up and say, I wish I took that shot on this, or I wish I tried my head at that. I'm the type of person I'd rather do it, win or lose, see how I feel about it. Is something I want to pursue and get better at it if I lost, if I won at it, is something I want to keep trying to win at and move in that way instead of just having a whole bunch of stuff floating and a whole bunch of stuff I want to bring through and I want to see. And the same goes for the people I associate with. I'd rather put money into my man's pocket if he got a brand or a shirt instead of being, oh, I hope that your your brand blows up. Well, nah, let me talk about your brand on the podcast. That I can do. Let me repost this shit on Instagram, I can do that. Let me purchase some shit and you got a pop-up or a show or a store or you vending, whatever the fuck. Let me pop up with it, let me post myself wearing your shit like. Yeah, that whole thing. That whole thing. The beautiful thing about taking the risk and about taking a chance is both that you got the potential to inspire someone to take a chance, also, as well as you never know how when you put something out into the world, put something out in the universe, how other people will receive it and how that energy will come back to you. So yeah. Until next week, hope y'all have a safe and happy weekend. If you're not listening to this in the weekend, I hope you have a great week. Hope you make some shit happy. Hope some blessings come your way. And until next time, I'll holla at you.

SPEAKER_01 58:21

What really happened on that Thursday here at Augusta High School that led to Chris Wood's death?

SPEAKER_02 58:26

The fuck is that? Yeah! I'm dying this fucking country ass fucked up town. Shit slide in my mouth. The fuck? I can't see poly. Let's get the fuck out of this country, motherfucker. I can't even see what