In this episode 'Billboard Unfiltered,' Billboard staffers Kyle Denis, Trevor Anderson & Damien Scott recap J. Cole’s ‘Inevitable’ Episode 1 and the fan reactions, what to expect from Beyonce’s Christmas halftime show, debate if celebrities were paid for their endorsements, monitor celebrity movement from X to Bluesky and more!
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00:00For someone like Jermaine who's so guarded, this is a great thing to have because you don't really
00:04get anything from him like that. You know, he doesn't really do interviews that much.
00:08We don't, you know, not know too much ourselves, but first off...
00:11We don't know anything.
00:12Well, we know what's gonna happen.
00:14Like if Beyonce lost the election to Amber Rose and win Donald Trump the election? No.
00:22The announcements have not slowed down, particularly these past couple days,
00:25a lot of big superstars revealed a couple things. We'll get into two
00:29of the biggest ones. We'll start with something that dropped earlier this week.
00:32J. Cole and the Inevitable series kind of came out of nowhere
00:37to really blow up on sort of a podcast, an audio streaming kind of thing.
00:42People are still not quite sure what the right word is, but an audio streaming series
00:47that recaps his journey from Fayetteville all the way to becoming,
00:50you know, the world-conquering superstar that we know.
00:52Episode one dropped on Monday night.
00:55Cats pretty much got a lot from the intro. It was over two hours.
00:59So it's him and Ebe basically recounting, you know, their journey and how they met.
01:04A lot of chatter about the series, of course, because we're going to walk through 10 episodes.
01:08And it seems like we're not only going to get, you know, just the story behind things,
01:11but we're also getting some new music for the first time on big DSPs.
01:16A few episodes of the series have already dropped,
01:18and his debut mixtape to come up hit streaming services earlier this week.
01:21Initial reaction, I mean, from episode one, a couple of things that were going around,
01:25in particular, Kanye's influence, mentioning how big,
01:28when Through the Wire came through, that gave J. Cole a sense of, you know,
01:31that he could really be himself and not have to sort of put on this air about,
01:35you know, whether he was a gangster rapper or sort of live in this life that his heroes live
01:38that he couldn't relate to. Also, Dollar Dream, we got a little backstory about that.
01:43But what stood out to you all as some of the big moments or big takeaways
01:46that you heard from episode one?
01:47Yeah, I think that's basically, I mean, the bigger thing is just Jermaine doing this at all
01:53is like a big surprise and big takeaway. You know, I think a lot of people are wondering
01:58how he's going to move forward, what his plans are going to be.
02:02Everyone's waiting for the fall off. No one quite knows how we're going to get there.
02:09It seems to have some start stops. This seems like a good way to get back on track.
02:15The rollout seems like, you know, it could really lead to that.
02:18Yeah. So, yeah, I think this is a good way to get that back on track, get people
02:22to remember why they liked him in the first place. People who may be questioning now,
02:29you know, the validity of his spot in rap can now look back and be like, oh, yeah, I remember why
02:36I think he's so great. And I think that's awesome. It's a good product for day one fans.
02:41Kyle, I mean, I was just kind of taken aback by how lengthy the entire thing seems to be over
02:47two hours for the first episode. Yeah, it's a lot. And it's a lot in one format of content.
02:53Obviously, it's kind of hard to think about inevitable outside of the context of 100 gigs
02:57that came out, you know, just a couple of months prior. But with that, we got footage,
03:02we got music, we got we were able to download it for offline listening.
03:06You didn't have to put up $10 to access it. So logistically, there were some differences
03:12that I found pretty interesting. Overall, it's been a cool listen. It's nice to always walk
03:18down memory lane with these artists and get back to the points in their lives and careers in which
03:23they were the hungriest and the grittiest. And it's cool to hear that in relation to,
03:28I guess, his verses from this year and how much he's grown since then. But I agree with
03:33Damon in the sense that him doing this at all is pretty interesting. I'm not sure if I'm sold on
03:39this being a way to course correct going into the fall off. I probably would have just taken a couple
03:44months silent and come back with a single next year. Because I really don't want any of this
03:50extra stuff right now. I kind of just want no one does it. Like, I think we've had our moments where
03:56we were like, you know, iffy uncle for a bit, but we're all gonna tune in when the album drops. So
04:01let's just get to the album. Especially if we're gonna have to get through this very not
04:09succinctly edited audio series podcast situation before we get to the album. Like that's a
04:16that's a lot to work through before we get to what we really want. But hey, maybe we'll get
04:20some Easter eggs throughout the way that'll properly set up the album for us. So I will be
04:24tuning in, in case that is the case. I'm sure there's gonna be more things that pertain more to
04:30like present day what he has lined up and what he's going to be doing in the future. I feel like
04:36anything he does within the next few months or so is going to be met with Oh, well, why didn't
04:44you do this? Like, why aren't you doing that? You know, all vis a vis the beef. And so I kind of
04:49feel like as the more he puts between the album, and that is good. Like get it out of people's
04:58systems, as opposed to just be like, Oh, here's this thing people are like, Wait a minute.
05:04Don't you? So we have to jump off from essentially, this was recorded in 2022. So you do hear some
05:10Yeah, some references to that. So it's been in the works for a minute. I mean, obviously,
05:14when you recorded it, things were a lot different versus when you release it. And I mean, we've
05:18already mentioned say with 100 kids, everyone was like, Oh, he did this because of Kendrick. And
05:22it's like, as people who make content for a living, it's fucking impossible to produce all
05:28of that in the time that people believe he made it. And the same with this, you know, this is a
05:33two hour first episode. This has taken him at least half a year to a year to put together.
05:41And I mean, if every episode is two hours, that's like, it's a lot. It's like a day of talking like
05:47that's almost like and then like mixing out the old demos and work through all of those and stuff
05:52like that. Like it definitely was a massive endeavor. Yeah, that's so you know, I don't think
05:56he did this because of where his career might be right now because of that beef. But you know,
06:03I think it's a it's a good it's a good card to put down to say like, look at this like I I've
06:09done all this this is because there's people out there who are like this guy is no longer one of
06:15the best rappers out right now, which I find ridiculous, but him wrapping his way out of that
06:21is not going to work. He's like put out songs people are like, Well, that doesn't answer our
06:25questions, even though he's like directly answering questions. People are like, Well,
06:28why did you do that? And he's like, Well, here's why I did this. And people are like, fuck you.
06:32So I think like, that's not gonna work, you know, but maybe this will, you know, get him some more
06:39goodwill. I do think it's it's it's a for someone like Jermaine who's so guarded and is he's like,
06:47in between the if Drake and Kendrick are spectrum, he's like in the middle of it.
06:51And so this is a great thing to have because you don't really get anything from him like that. You
06:58know, he doesn't really do interviews that much. He doesn't go out in public that much. He doesn't
07:03do much of anything outside of like playing basketball and rapping in the public eye. So
07:08I'll take it. I also think the staggered release will benefit him better than just dumping it all
07:13like the way 100 gigs was it was almost too much content for one. Yeah. And we weren't even
07:19really discussing it in earnest after the two week mark. But with this being, you know,
07:23fresh releases every week with, you know, a focused set of new content, I think this will
07:29pan out better in the long run for Cole, which is interesting to watch 100 gigs was like,
07:34everybody reads a different chapter of a book. And we all come together to talk about
07:38this book club. And what happened? He but he died. It's like a Netflix show versus like an HBO show.
07:47I don't mean that qualitatively. I mean that I mean that I mean that more so I mean that more so
07:55they drop everything in one batch. So people, you know, have to consume it really quickly.
08:00Because the conversation that's happening on social, you know, assumes that you've digested
08:05all of it already. Whereas like an HBO show, it's week by week. And like everyone lines up
08:11for that appointment to talk about it and to and to see it. So I think that does help him in this
08:17in this regard. Of course, we've mentioned the name Kendrick a lot. It feels like everything
08:21that happens. Everything that happens between Drake and Cole has this Kendrick shadow on it.
08:25Are we doing too much by by people already trying to read in? Obviously, Elliot had a comment that
08:29was going around saying that Kendrick's got these light skinned niggas reminiscing because, you know,
08:34here we are. I mean, it's November. The beef really was at its high point in like April,
08:40May. We're six months out. This is recorded before the beef. And yet you still can't escape that
08:45shadow. Are we doing too much to try to put? No, bro. This is everything. No, this is the biggest
08:51beef we've had in a long time. People forget like the Jay and Nas beef that everyone like compares
08:55this to took years. It took like multiple albums. Like they were beefing over like two or three
09:02albums. Blueprint 2 came out and he was still going at this motherfucker. God, you know, God's
09:07Son comes out. He has Last Real Nigga Alive. He's basically telling Jay-Z like you're not one of us.
09:12Like you're, you're not a part of this thing. You're not like us. That was the original.
09:17That was really the original. Know your history. But no, I don't think you know, it's think about
09:23how monstrous this beef was and how crazy it was for Kendrick to the point where he has no album,
09:31nothing. He has no album. He hasn't promoted anything really has barely promoted these,
09:37these fucking diss tracks. And he's headlining the Super Bowl. Like, no, we're not overstating
09:42this. This is like a huge, it's a huge thing. It's unfortunate for Drake and, and, and, and Cole,
09:49because they're the ones who, you know, who are like collateral damage in that way. But
09:55no collateral. I mean, I'm gonna say like, why make everything?
10:02That nigga was straight in the fire. Like, you know, it sucks to, it sucks to not be the victor
10:07because this was such a huge moment that of course it's gonna, the blast radius is so,
10:13so wide that it's impossible to not like still talk about it when anything happens regarding
10:19those guys. Yeah. I don't, I don't think we're doing too much at all. I think this,
10:24this is really a bitch is how the power of these songs and like, and Kendrick musically this year,
10:29even when you saw mustard spinning, like, not like us. I'm like that. I can't flog it. I listen
10:34to those crowd reactions. Those songs still move people in really incredible ways. I stopped
10:40listening to it for a while just because I was like, I'm going to get sick of this and I don't
10:43want to hate this song. And I heard it. I was like, like, and if people think of it, we got
10:51your end season coming up, the Grammys haven't happened yet. Like we are, we are still several
10:55months out from this stage of this all being done. I think this is really more people's
11:03attention spans being shot because the social media in this current era, then this being
11:07anyone doing too much on either side, because it's not even been a calendar year yet. Like
11:12this feels like this year, like this was earlier this year, March and April,
11:20that long ago, not like us, like still number one. I know people on Twitter are like, still,
11:24still, still like we haven't got the point. We good. Okay. Last thing I want to do. I want to
11:28ask about the cold thing. Cause I saw a lot is popping off on, on J Cole's Reddit, $10.
11:34It costs $10 to listen. I was going through Reddit. I was on ours, you know,
11:40our slash J Cole to see what was going on. And it's crazy how much the topic was like,
11:45are y'all going to pay for this? Are we going to pay for this? And everyone's like looking
11:48at the autograph lyric. These were people like in his subreddit. Yeah. A lot of them were like,
11:55if they don't pay for who is going to see the Swifties would have been put down the money.
11:59They need to lock in. I was putting, they would have put, they'd have, they'd have put $10 and
12:03a hundred dollars tip. But a lot of cats were really thinking like, you know, cause you know,
12:07we're so obviously with streaming it's, you know, free and everything. A lot of people were like,
12:10really turned off by the idea that, you know, you like, you really go like, we, we really
12:17initially, but then I just took literally two minutes to think about how much content is,
12:22I get it for $10. I get it. This is the dollar in a dream guy. You know, this is the guy who had
12:27concerts for literally a dollar to get in. He's the guy who raps about, you know, not knowing what
12:34it's like to not have and to go without. And you know, his main, uh, uh, fan base, like the,
12:42the main contingent people he spoke to for a long time were college kids who are usually broke.
12:47Yeah. Um, and so, yeah, I can see them being like, what is this? But I don't know, man,
12:53like Jermaine's been rapping for what? Like a decade now. Oh yeah. Like 15. Y'all should be
13:00able to afford a $10 subscription by now. I hope. Well, Hey, I know 10 bucks means different things
13:09to different people, but I know what you mean is, you know, if you were in college, when,
13:14when he came out and you're like, this is too much. It's like, I don't know, man, maybe,
13:22maybe your money management skills suck. Yeah. All right. Jay Cole, not the only one with a
13:28big announcement coming up this week. A few days ago, Beyonce dropped this bombshell really that
13:33she will be performing at the halftime show on Netflix's Christmas day, NFL game Ravens versus
13:40Texans. So it'll be in my hometown and her hometown, Houston, Texas. Uh, the press release
13:47in particular highlighted, it's going to be the first live performance of songs from her genre
13:51bending and record breaking cowboy Carter album. So I know a lot of people have been like,
13:56Hey, it is, you know, the Texas hold them dropped in February. The album dropped in April. We ain't
14:00heard a word. Here we go. It's going to happen on Christmas day. Um, some of the special guests on
14:05the album supposed to come out. I love how Netflix would have teased it like as if they don't know,
14:09even like they were like, don't, uh, although the details are under wraps, you will get some of the
14:14stars out there. So, um, of course, obviously, you know, everyone looking forward to seeing what
14:18Beyonce is going to bring for cowboy Carter season. We don't, you know, not know too much ourselves,
14:23but first off, we don't know anything. Well, we know it's going to happen. We know it's going to
14:26happen. We know it's going to happen. That's one thing I know. God damn it. It's going to happen.
14:31We do know it's going to be cowboy. It'll be cowboy. See, we got, we got a couple of
14:34contacts to work with. Y'all will hear Texas. Yeah. 16 carriages with a meme and all that. Um,
14:41so, you know, wishlist, no one is going to be a cowboy Carter centric Christmas, Houston,
14:47all those kinds of things. Grammy lead up. What are some of the things y'all are hoping to see
14:51from Beyonce's live cowboy Carter debut? God, I mean, I hope she brings up, I think you'd had
14:58six months to think about this. I know, I know you got some ideas. I don't really particularly
15:01care about cowboy Carter that much. I mean, I hope I'm glad she's doing it, but she's going,
15:07she's going back home. Then like, come on, bring, bring DC. I mean, we even got a billion DC
15:16reunions from the past. I'm like, there's no alert to that anymore. For me, there is. I mean,
15:22look for me, it would be like, unless y'all are singing like eight days of Christmas,
15:25I don't want to hear it. Like, wow. Wow. And I love Destiny's child, but like, we do, we,
15:32we have seen, they came back at Vichella. We came back at the first Superbowl. Like,
15:37are there any other songs that can't come for two songs that can't come for in their hometown?
15:41When's the last time they performed in their hometown? First of all, it's only Kelly's
15:43hometown. I knew it was coming. Oh my God. Yo, Michelle, look. That's where the group was made.
15:47Yeah, but Michelle wasn't there. Michelle was up in the Midwest doing her thing. She,
15:52on honorary Texan, you know, not Texan by birth. That's okay. But I mean, yeah, it would be,
15:58it would be, be kind of like retreading old ground in a way that she doesn't normally do.
16:03Like on these major performances twice already, she's staged a DC reunion. I don't see that
16:09happening a third time at another NFL event. Wait, Superbowl, what was the other? Vichella
16:14was the second time. So like, I don't know. I'm trying to think if there's anything even
16:20country adjacent in their Discog that they might do. Anything that she would do. I guess
16:26the DC version of it would be like the Blackbird girls bring them out for something.
16:32I don't see her not bringing out some of the Black collaborators on the album. I'd be incredibly
16:38shocked if like, we got Miley in post and didn't get any of like, Willie Jones or Shaboosie or
16:44anybody like that instead. I feel like she will probably wrap in Shaboosie in some way,
16:51or at least attempt to. The song is massive. At this point, it'll either. At this point,
16:56it's what a week away from matching it. Yeah, I mean, yeah. The Old Town Hot 100 record is
17:01right there in sight. So we'll have an answer about that by the time. Yeah, by Christmas. So
17:07regardless, it's kind of the premiere moment for both of them to do something with their massive
17:12country songs this year. Yeah, I mean, that would be a huge jump off if, you know,
17:15like knowing where the whole saga started. And now, you know, just months later, you have the
17:22longest, potentially longest running number one ever on the Hot 100, like that birds out of this
17:26black country wave. That would be. That would be. I mean, that would be a moment like on Christmas,
17:30on Netflix. During the last couple of days of Grammy voting, I should note that's when this
17:34concert is going to be airing. So this is also clearly, you know, a ploy for her Grammy campaign
17:39as well. She picked up 11 nominations for Cowboy Carter across like four or five different genres
17:45in same stack there. I hope she does Texas Hold'em. I hope she does Yaya. And I hope she does
17:51some collaborations. I'd like a Christmas song, though. I feel I feel like it'd be kind of sad
17:56if we didn't get a Christmas song on the Christmas Day. I mean, that'd be cute. Let's not forget it.
18:04You know, it is an NFL halftime show, so she's only got about 15 minutes at the most. Probably
18:09what, like how long her set is. I heard that it wasn't playing like during like the halftime in
18:16the game because there's like two games happening that day. It's like going to be in between when
18:20those two games. Yeah, we don't know how. So it might be longer than 15 minutes. I don't know
18:26what they're going to do for this. I also I think we were talking about this before this taping.
18:31I think Netflix needs this to be something that is, you know, ultra incredible.
18:39They're coming off a pretty successful but down event in terms of the way that they were able to
18:45handle a live event. A lot of people are really worried that they're not going to be able to
18:50carry live football in a way that matches cable. So I think they need people to
18:56come there and say, like, all right, not only does this work, but I don't even care about football
19:01and I'm going to come and watch this in the way that a lot of like holiday football works on
19:04cable. It's a lot to turn on Netflix just like regularly. And it's like doubly hard to turn on
19:11Netflix to watch a football game on Christmas. Well, you say it's hard to turn on Netflix like
19:16like to like load the stream. I think it's harder for people to turn on Netflix on like Christmas
19:23day to watch something like intensely as opposed to turn it on like and like letting it run while
19:28families in the house and like, you know, just paying attention to it. So Netflix needs people
19:33to like tune in and like really, really pay attention to this, which would lead me to think
19:36that they might do something even bigger than a Super Bowl or like they have, to Kyle's point,
19:41like a Beyonce mini concert that is separate from the game altogether would be my guess.
19:49Yeah, I mean, I know they're saying that like the concert is also, of course, part of the game,
19:55the game will be airing on broadcast TV, like in the in the regions, like, so it'll be airing
19:59in Houston, it'll be airing in Baltimore, for sure. So like, it feels like it all needs to
20:03come together for everybody, because I can't think that you need a reason to turn on Netflix.
20:06Yeah, so I'm also like just going if you're in those regions,
20:10right. So but so I mean, I can't imagine they're gonna like strip that out as a whole separate
20:15entity.
20:15That's why I want to know what does live mean in this context? Like, is it going to be live in the
20:21way that the pandemic performances were live, where everyone had like their own sets, and it
20:26was like filmed and stuff. And it was like, we're live performing, but I'm not like on the field
20:31performing in the stadium. Like, what does live mean? And how does that play with like, I don't
20:42know, a Christmas Day football game that people are already buying tickets to the stadium,
20:47with the expectation to see her. And we still don't have confirmation for sure that she's
20:52dead as gonna be in the stadium performing on the turf.
20:56Yo, if we have to do this again, I mean, because obviously, you know, people felt the same way
20:59about the Kamala Harris rally a few weeks ago that Beyonce is gonna be there. And of course,
21:04they didn't say anything about a performance. But everyone assumed, you know, Texas, hold on,
21:09yo, if this happens again, I mean, again, you didn't say what happens again, like if people
21:14feel like they're buying tickets to the football game. And Beyonce is not, you know, on the field
21:19at the 50 yard line at halftime. Because I mean, you know, the ticket prices are skyrocketing,
21:23like, really, like, that's like, we don't look just paying a dunce cap on all of us. If we,
21:29you know, this all happens again.
21:30A part of me feels that people who are buying tickets to a Christmas Day football game in
21:36Houston, Texas, don't really care if Beyonce is there.
21:40But yo, that's it. No, like, you can look at the like, they have show.
21:43I'm sure now they've shot up because people who are like, Oh, I can go see Beyonce. This
21:48regularly people will be like, Yeah, sure, this is fine. Like the people who go to Christmas Day
21:55football games are not like pop music fans. They're football fans.
22:02Yeah, but that's a big, it's a big setup, a big stadium, a big expectation.
22:07And it's just gonna really suck if you get there. And the marching band comes out
22:12and does, you know, their little rendition of sticky or something, which I would love, but,
22:17you know, but not gonna be like, not gonna be the same. Not gonna be the same thing. I'm just
22:22saying. I'm just saying. Okay, hopefully, you know, it's gonna be, I think overall,
22:27it's interesting, because this is going to be her first televised ish performance in quite
22:33some time. The last time was 2022 Oscars for be alive. And that was another one of those like,
22:39I'm on a different set. And we're like, it's live beamed in. Yeah, it's not. Yeah. And before that,
22:44you kind of have to go to Kobe's memorial service in 2020. For like a straight up
22:49Beyonce live performance that you can just turn on the TV and watch. So with that being the case,
22:55and it being so long since we've seen her on TV in this capacity, I can't imagine that she doesn't
23:00use this to launch something. She's known to use a Super Bowl to launch tours and stuff like that.
23:06There's been hints of a been country world tour and the license plate on the car and the
23:10promo video has been country on it. So I'd be shocked if there wasn't any kind of announcement,
23:16whether it's like, tour visuals, I don't know, act three lead single something coming after this
23:23because a music video, this is a lot of eyeballs on her for her music in a way that like, she has
23:31expressly avoided in recent years outside of her own tours. And it was sort of follow the
23:35sort of renaissance trailer, you know, came out and came out in June, towards announcement
23:40February. So you know, you give it about nine month break. It's been about nine months or so
23:44for Cowboy Carter. So you know, you do the album one year, the tour, whatever visual project the
23:48next year, so that would follow that kind of timeline. There was also that report that came
23:52out a couple years ago that she had signed like a three project deal with Netflix, the first of
23:58which was homecoming Netflix, and this would be the second one. Yeah, that's the thing. It's like,
24:03will we get this renaissance movie on streaming? Do we get a whole different project for this?
24:10You know, and Beyonce is like, but do Netflix, they wanted to be big. That's my point is this
24:17is not the Super Bowl. Like, getting Beyonce to perform somewhere is a is a fucking huge
24:23endeavor. That check was hefty. So if you're going to have her perform at a regular season game is
24:29going to be something different than just a halftime performance. I just can't imagine it's
24:33like, and now Beyonce and she does like a 15 minute set and like, all right, thank you.
24:38Something else is coming has to be something more because they're gonna I'm sure they're
24:42paying her stupid amounts of money. And she don't leave her house unless you get crazy. And
24:49again, this is like, this is a regular season. And there's not a special game. It's just on
24:54Christmas. Yeah. So it's just on Christmas. Christmas gift from be what do you guys hope it
25:03is? A tour? I don't. Yeah. But it feels like a tour is to I'm not trying to fight for similar
25:10like, I mean, I know there's reports that your residency or something. I think I think act three
25:16is good. I don't think I don't know if act three is going to come before act two even closes.
25:19That's yeah, I feel like we have to wait for that to close at the Grammys. Is that to not closed?
25:24Well, like, you know, I think at least with the Grammy she got snubbed, it might have been closed,
25:28but she got 11 fucking nominations. I don't think she can close if she wanted to. Speaking of
25:34Grammys. I saw interesting thought that somebody put out about now if they're going to Super Bowl
25:39doing all these big stages, is Beyonce done with anything that's not on this level? Like,
25:44are we ever going to see Beyonce do a Grammy performance? You know, show up at any of these
25:48because I mean, she didn't do anything for Renaissance, you know, at that time. It's like
25:52all the last things have been. Are we done with seeing Beyonce on like, not, you know,
25:56world conquering, like stop the moment stages? Yeah, because you kind of can't go back down
26:02unless you are taking that conscious step down across the board. And this has kind of been her
26:06M.O. since the surprise drop in 2013. Like, literally go big or go home. Like, my name needs
26:11to be aligned with Disney, Netflix, HBO. Like, this is not she doesn't want to, you know,
26:18she'll show up to the music awards to get a legend award, but she won't show up to just
26:21like in the audience anymore. That hasn't been her thing for a decade now. I doubt it.
26:27Damn, Beyonce to God. Like, we're probably going to see her at like the Olympics and World Cup.
26:31And like, that's it. You get to maximize your reach and then stay home with your kids for the
26:35rest of the year. Yeah, it's kind of her thing now. Like, while I perform at the Grammys, I don't even
26:39give her any awards. Well, they do. Yeah, they'll shower her and then they'll give her best R&B song
26:45and be like, OK, smile for us to be like, go to the carpet, you know, add them up. Well, OK.
26:51The only thing I can see her doing is like maybe like on some like I'll throw you I'll do something
26:58nice for the community is like maybe an anniversary BET award performance or something.
27:05But that's about it. I can't say anything else. I think award show performances are gone. Yeah.
27:11Damn. I mean, in general, like award show performances haven't been moving the needle
27:17in a way that someone like Beyonce needs them like they clearly need her and her
27:22practice more than they when she needs them. So it's like, why would I do that just to get my
27:27face played in time and time again? So I get it. All right. Well, of course, we'll keep tuned to
27:34see. I mean, if there's anything else that drops about B, of course, I'm sure it's all going to be
27:39under wraps, but tune in to Netflix on Christmas. I know. Hopefully, yeah, that stream is going to
27:44be working. I know I'll be there. Hopefully it better work. I mean, I'll be a lot of people
27:47were mad. Yo, the hive is going to like hack, hack. They're going to pull up to Netflix HQ.
27:53Promise. All right. Watch out. Yeah, I wonder if anybody wants to hook a brother up with some
28:01tickets. Let me know. I wonder if she has like a contingency plan in place. If like the live
28:06elements of this go awry, which they really might, because the numbers of this are probably
28:11going to be a long like the like their kids tied up in the basement or something.
28:16Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. She got it. Yo, I was wondering if she's going to launch something else at another
28:22event. She could do that, too. Yeah. OK, well, speaking of other Beyonce celebrity power moves,
28:31she was one of a few celebrities sort of caught in this this firestorm that really came out of nowhere
28:38about the election, some of the rallies. The last time we saw Beyonce in Houston,
28:44a stumping for Kamala Harris. It was I just I just said the facts.
28:51Beyonce was in Houston supporting Kamala Harris's rally last time.
28:56A lot of talking points come out of that sort of the post election that
29:00the celebrities in particular, Beyonce, Oprah Winfrey, Cardi B, questions about whether they
29:06were paid for their for their appearances, how much they were paid, if that's a waste of campaign
29:10funds. Now, Cardi B came out directly to Candace Owen said that she was not paid a cent. Oprah came
29:16back on social media, refuted those allegations that she herself was paid, just saying her
29:20production staff was paid because people need to eat and Mama Tina out there on Beyonce's behalf,
29:28saying that she was also not paid. So a lot of this sort of in this post election, you know,
29:35sort of doldrums as people are trying to analyze what went wrong, how it went wrong.
29:39I guess two points off that one. One of the talking points about
29:43the celebrities is do celebrities do we feel like they hurt? Do they help? There's a lot of
29:47handwriting about whether the Democratic Party sort of going overboard. You had not only the
29:52ones we listed, but you got Katie, you got Lady Gaga out there and a lot of folks feeling like
29:56that might be that that sort of Obama playbook might be something that needs to be on the way
30:01out. I feel like a lot of us have forgotten what rallies are and what their purpose is.
30:07It's not like, OK, a celebrity endorses Gamelin by because they endorse Gamelin,
30:12you now have to vote for them if you're a fan of them. It's more so I'm appearing or I'm
30:17performing in this venue. I'm the draw. Now stick around and hear X, Y, Z stump for what their
30:24platform is. We have lost our minds. And it's like I also think we have completely overestimated
30:32how effective celebrities are in any capacity when it comes to the election. I really do not
30:38think many people went into the voting booth on that Tuesday and were like, well, you know,
30:44this side has Beyonce and this side has Kid Rock. So I'm going to go with Kid Rock. I just know
30:50like if you can find me a couple of people who did that, then like sure. But I really do think
30:57this entire conversation is a massive distraction from actually trying to figure out where the two
31:03parties could have done better or done worse or whatever you want to say about the outcome of the
31:07election. Like, I don't think celebrities are an important part of that discussion at all. I feel
31:13like the focus should be elsewhere. And even with the whole like whether or not they were paid or
31:17not, I just feel like if Gamelin was actually using campaign funds to personally pay these
31:23celebrities, that would be a much bigger story. She would have been investigated like crazy. It's
31:28against campaign finance laws. Because she lost, they would have been on a witch hunt to get her
31:32for that, which they're not doing because it didn't happen. Because Harper Productions is not
31:37the same thing as Oprah Winfrey, the individual person. But like I said, everyone's lost their
31:42fucking minds and does not know like what is what. Like, yes, Harper Productions got paid
31:47because someone had to build that stage. Someone had to rig those lights. Someone had to set up the
31:51cameras and they needed to eat. It wasn't, oh, let me go give billionaire Oprah $1 million. What the
31:57hell is Oprah going to do with a million dollars? She's already got a billion. Oprah left it on the
32:01couch by accident. Like, it didn't even make any sense. Like, the fact that they even had to like
32:06be like, no, I wasn't paid. Like, we should really be discussing how to build a better voting
32:12coalition or stronger voter coalition going into the next election than whether or not Cardi B or
32:18Jennifer Lopez or Bad Bunny really moved the needle or not. Because, I mean, I'm sorry. Look
32:23at the amount of records like any given album sells in a week given in relation to the U.S.
32:29population. Like, come on. The influence is definitely there. It's not as outsized as we
32:37would like it to be or that we had thought it could have been. But I don't think it needs to
32:41continue to be a discussion going into December. Like, wrap this shit up for real. Yeah. It's where
32:46I stand on it. I agree. There's no there's nothing a celebrity can do to hurt unless it's what
32:55happened at MSG with Trump. Right. When they like just actively go out and denigrate an entire
33:02population of people. Beyonce cannot hurt your cause. It's Beyonce. If anything, to Kyle's point,
33:11more people probably watched that than like any other of Kamala's. They did. Yeah. Like that's
33:18the only reason you have her there. And I think people are conflating a loss with, you know,
33:25by Trump going on like Joe Rogan and all these podcasts with Kamala having Beyonce and Cardi B.
33:33It's just not the same thing like the Joe Rogan. I can't even talk about Joe Rogan. The only reason
33:42that the Joe Rogan thing works is because people listen to him for all his weird conspiracy
33:49theories and POVs on the world. He has people come on his show and talk. That's completely
33:56different to what Beyonce does. It's a completely different profession than what Beyonce has.
34:02And so to believe that the two of them are equal is just insane to me.
34:06Also, if you look at the exit poll data, no one, absolutely no one, zero people,
34:12zero people came out and said, man, if only Jay-Z was there. Like if Beyonce lost Kamala
34:20the election, did Amber Rose win Donald Trump the election? No, it's stupid across the board.
34:26Like the idea that we're even having a conversation about like celebrities places
34:30as like campaign surrogates, even like, bro, the guy who won was slash is a celebrity.
34:38What are we even talking about here? It's ridiculous.
34:42Look, like I said, there's a lot of hand wringing, a lot of questions, a lot of finger pointing.
34:45So I think in regards to like the payment, the payment thing, like that was a legitimate
34:51bullshit rumor. That was a rumor that got started in a fake newspaper,
34:55newspaper that got propagated on X, which is a social media platform that is now controlled by
35:06a right wing lunatic and which has an algorithm that unfairly surfaces right wing talking points
35:15and posts. So of course it took off. And like no one for a second thought to themselves,
35:20where did this come from? You know, like, why are we seeing this all of a sudden?
35:25Why is this the thing that's popping up in my feed time and time again?
35:28It was crazy how, how far it got from the source that it just sort of became.
35:35Watching it move in real time. I saw it. Like I saw when the first link got circulated. I saw
35:39when they hit like the Slack rooms, I saw when I hit my regular iMessage group chats and I was like,
35:45wait, I know the name of this website. This is not a trustworthy site at all.
35:50But people didn't think about that until they were like, damn, Oprah got paid. That's crazy.
35:54And she still lost what people already had their decisions made up, had their minds made up,
36:00saw this and use it as confirmation and kept going. And it was like,
36:04no, everyone is wrong. No, stupid. I think it's, it's nuts, man. I think, but that's,
36:10if you look at like the way that people use X now, it's, I think, completely different now to
36:18what it was the first time he ran, uh, when, when Obama was running, it's just a completely
36:25different place now. And I don't think it's like a, a, a, a place where I want to say,
36:30I'm trying not to be offensive to people. Uh, I don't think it's a place. I'm not,
36:35I'm not doing that. I don't think it's a place where consumers who are really looking for
36:41information, unbiased opinion can go and find that anymore. It's just not possible.
36:50Well, there is a place where people are hoping that, that, uh, that, that sort of sentiment
36:55will live again. A lot of folks, of course, moving over to blue sky, leaving X completely
36:59after the election. Um, you know, a lot of them are citing distrust of Elon Musk in particular,
37:04of course, and sort of the, the changes that he's made and what they see as a,
37:08you know, a real shift in content and tone and, and all those things are getting warped.
37:13Uh, we've seen a lot of celebrities in the past couple of weeks, you know, really not even,
37:17not even just move over, but make these sort of these declarations, these, these,
37:22these like PR statements, you know, my statement on leaving Twitter and deactivate. Yeah. We see,
37:28like Lizzo, these are people who have left the site. Lizzo, Gabrielle Union, uh, Don Lemon,
37:33Quinta Brunson, Joy Reed, uh, I mean, plenty of other celebrities in the past couple of weeks
37:38moving on. What's the viability of, you know, moving, not only moving over to blue sky, but
37:44is there enough momentum energy behind it? Like, what's it going to take for blue sky to really
37:48become, uh, particularly a cultural rival to what we've already known and built off X.
37:56I think you're going to have to bring over the, what remains of black Twitter over there. It's
38:01like, remember when club house started and it was only, it was like invite only Silicon Valley,
38:07like sort of that culture. It was like only tech bros. And it was like, everyone was like, Oh,
38:11I got to get in there. I got to get in there. And then you would get in there. I remember getting
38:15in there and being like, this is pretty boring. Like, I don't really want to hear about like
38:19getting in there finally was a crazy experience. Fucking crypto scam.
38:23Yeah. I was like, this is, this is completely boring. Uh, and then they completely opened the
38:29door and let black people in. And it just went nuts. And that was some of the most entertaining,
38:38well, like four months. That was the most entertaining four months.
38:45Yo, those, those unhinged, like it felt like what Twitter used to be because you would go
38:50on clubhouse and you would hear like, you would hear rappers just talking about whatever. And
38:55they would be talking to like random people having arguments about the dumbest shit with
39:02random people. And that's what Twitter used to be. You should be able to go on Twitter
39:05and see Rihanna like clapping back at like a normal person who probably was a fan and just
39:11like called her out on something. And Rihanna was like, yo, fuck you. But clubhouse, uh, was like
39:16that. It was crazy. And I don't know how you recreate that somewhere else. Like, I don't know
39:22what clubhouse did to like, like, I don't know what alchemy they, they, they, they had that
39:28allowed for that, but that's what blue sky needs. Like, it's all fine and well to be like, Oh,
39:32there's, there's no right wing propaganda. You know, everyone's really respectful. And you know,
39:38it's not owned by a billionaire autocrat and it's like, that's all great. But is it entertaining?
39:44And is it a place where I can like find community and feel like I'm a part of a larger story when
39:49it's happening? Uh, that's the thing that they need to figure out how to capture. And I don't
39:53know how you do that. I think the another feature, I think them being touted as like a complete one
40:00to one replacement for Twitter with like nothing else is hard. Cause it's like, we're talking about
40:08a site that's been entrenched in our global culture for a decade and a half plus. So it's like
40:13that doesn't get taken away in two years. I remember the first time making these connections
40:20and like I've been on Twitter since I don't know, 2013, like that's 10 plus years that I now have
40:27to like rebuild on another app. That's essentially the same thing, but my fingers are already trained
40:33to open up that specific app on my phone. Like when I open, I have blue sky downloaded. I have
40:39an account set up. I have not opened up the apple once in the past week because my routine is to
40:44open up Twitter instead. And until they can get past that, I don't, I don't know how you, I don't
40:50know how you do that. And I think clubhouse being audio only or audio dominant was a big get for it.
40:57And I saw a lot of that similar energy in spaces on Twitter also. So I think if they can harness
41:02that for boost guide, that could work. But yeah, maybe the answer is get back to physical media
41:08and books and real news. Get the fuck off of social media. I think people are tired of
41:17social media, like new apps, new products, fatigue setting in. We've had like, you know,
41:23if you think of it on some like web 2.0 shit, like we've had this for a while. And you know,
41:28when the blockchain came about, everyone's like, Oh, this is going to be the new thing. We're going
41:32to have like these new, these new products and these new ideas. And that never happened. I think
41:37people are just exhausted of this paradigm and they're waiting for the next one. Yeah.
41:43I'm not a user. We're not really into like text-based micro blogging anymore. Like now
41:49it's kind of just like daily vlogs and get ready with me and like on tech talks and stuff like
41:53that. Like, I don't, I remember the first time people try to do a blue sky, like switch. I
41:58remember when people tried to switch over to spill like the black owned version of Twitter and that
42:04didn't really take off all the way. I mean, even threads. People have had alternatives
42:11and they haven't worked. They've tried, but I don't know. I don't know. Maybe we just don't
42:16need to let it slide. Die a slow death and leave it be. Well, yeah. To that point, we haven't seen
42:23too many hip hop artists make the switch at least publicly. It seems like, man, we mentioned Lizzo,
42:27I've seen Flava Flava over there, but you know, few and far between in terms of, you know, a lot
42:32of the current crop of superstars make that switch. So, you know, maybe we need some more
42:37powerhouses to get over there and black sky can be formed. So look, look, I like, look,
42:45I like that. Before we get out of here, of course, got to give our lightning round quick picks of
42:52some of the things we've been listening to in the past couple of weeks. And we'll start with you,
42:55Dane. Word. Mine is Ruthless by Freddie Gibbs. It's off his new surprise album. You only die
43:01once. He dropped out on Halloween. I think the album's great. It's just him rapping for like 12
43:08tracks or so. And I like Freddie Gibbs because he won. I think he's an incredible rapper. But too,
43:13I think he has like an emotional clarity that a lot of rappers lack, even rappers who purport
43:19to that being their whole thing. And the way he raps about on this song, Ruthless is him rapping
43:24about the way that he constantly falls in love with the wrong people. And this is like something
43:29that like, you know, someone like Drake raps about a lot. But like, just like the depth that
43:34and like the honesty that Freddie's able to bring to a song like this is really startling. And he's
43:39done it multiple times on multiple albums. I just love when he does it. The production is great.
43:44It's over Tony Tony tone sample. Oh, yeah, it's great. And he did the thing that everyone, you
43:51know, once rappers to do where he had like a really preposterous, crazy few weeks or month,
44:00I think on social media where he was like, beefing with Benny. His ex girlfriend like,
44:05yeah, called him out and exposed him. Won't get into what she exposed chaotic time. Very chaotic.
44:13And he was just like, all right. He just disappeared. He like stopped tweeting for a
44:17while. You didn't see him pop up. I think the only time he popped up was I got a Kanye show in
44:21Miami. And then that was it. And then he came back with this album. And I think now he's going
44:26to like actually get back into being a rapper. So I mean, look, shout out Freddie Gibbs. Like
44:34Freddie is just one of the artists who the consistency is always there. So, you know,
44:38anytime he puts out something like it's going to hit. You know, I think I'll go I'll go next
44:45and take the seat. I want to give a shout out to Cordae in particular.
44:50Really, he dropped the entire project, The Crossroads, which I think is really probably
44:54his strongest album, in my opinion. Definitely a step up from Bird's Eye View. He's really just
44:58sort of got back to. I know it sort of sounds cliche to say finding himself, but I think he
45:04really took his time with this one. It seems very methodical, deliberate in particular. A couple
45:08tracks that are worth shouting out, but in particular, I want to give a shout out to the
45:12one with Jordan Ward and Raven Lanay, which is Don't Walk Away. In particular, I think that one
45:19is good because I mean, I love the beat on it and I like I like the use of the features. Jordan Ward,
45:24I know, is somebody who a lot of R&B cats have been watching is hopefully somebody who can
45:28break through and continue to lead the genre. He's been out for a couple of years and the
45:32tastemakers definitely know who he is and he's building that profile. Put out a project with
45:35Juni not too long ago. And I feel like when Jordan's on any track, he just kind of floats
45:40in this way that like I'm not going to call it Sunday morning because I think that gives a little
45:45more like churchy vibe to it. But he's like a Saturday morning, like which is sort of ironic
45:50because I know there's a track called Saturday Morning on the record with Wayne, but there's a
45:54nice sort of like haziness, like an easy like, you know, you just get up. You ain't got nothing to do.
45:59Like, you know, the sun is shining. We're not in the black sky. We got we got a lot of just like,
46:04you know, ease and vibe to it. So I think that really helps. And of course, Raven Lanay sort of
46:08in that same position. People are really looking out for her and hoping that she can, you know,
46:12break through and continue to be one of the four front stars of the genre. And the fact that all
46:16three of them are playing on this little three minute song keeps it from being too stale. Obviously,
46:20Cordae holds it down with his verse in the middle. So I just think it's a really good collaboration.
46:25But I mean, check out the real really the whole record. I mean, the track with Joey Badass,
46:30Syrup Sandwiches is really good. Wayne's on a couple of tracks, both of those. You know, he
46:34really knocks out his feature verse. So, yeah, I mean, really Cordae, I think, put together something
46:39that's really solid. Yeah, it was good. Yeah. Bring us off, K, what's up? Yeah, I mean, I'm
46:47gonna put on for R&B. My track is Bending My Rules by Flo. Flo is the R&B girl group from the UK
46:56that's been trying to establish themselves on both sides of the pond for the past couple of years.
47:01And they finally put out their debut album last week. Very, very strong record. I prefer the back
47:06half to the front half of it. But this is a track that's just nice, straight up R&B. Kemper produced
47:11it. He's one of my favorite R&B producers right now. It's about, you know, you have rules for
47:16yourself and your love life, and then you come across that special somebody who makes you want
47:20to break all of those rules. And they harmonize beautifully. It's kind of just like this legitimate
47:25wall of sound with them because all of their voices are so individually dynamic. And when they
47:30come together on a track, it really is gorgeous. Excited to see what this album does for them. I
47:35know they just announced their tour. So maybe we will eventually get another R&B girl group at the
47:41forefront. But we'll see. At least they have material that warrants it. Yeah, I mean, Flo has
47:47been one of the ones in the ether for a minute. People thinking they were going to open for the
47:51Renaissance Tour. I wrote about them for our artists to watch this year. Yeah, there's been a
47:56lot of interest in them. So I mean, yeah, just glad that they're able to put that album out and
48:00really deliver on that promise. Because I know a lot of cats for a couple of years have been really
48:03excited to see what they can bring to the table. I appreciate y'all rocking with us. We will be out
48:09next week celebrating Thanksgiving. So we'll see you on the other side of the holiday. As always,
48:14thanks for keeping it here with Billboard Unfiltered.